Communication. Is it really so hard? (e-bay related)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So I won an auction that ended a little after midnight on Sunday (so technically Monday morning). I immediately paid with PayPal and got my confirmation that the payment was received on Monday. The auction listing said items are usually shipped within one business day of payment, so I expect it to be shipped either Monday or Tuesday. Now it is Friday and I have heard nothing. Item has not shipped, no tracking number, no info from seller despite my e-mailing him twice, (once yesterday and once just now) politely just asking when he is going to ship this.

He has a 100% feedback score of 86 so I am not sure what is going on here. He is not a newbie, and also not a huge mega store where my item could have gotten lost in the shuffle. Seriously though…even if there is a problem, or he is having some sort of personal crisis, or his dog just got run over and he had to take it to the emergency all night vet, or whatever…JUST TELL ME.

I am leaving on vacation tomorrow for a week and will have no internet access so this is especially frustrating.

Share your ebay horror stories to amuse me while I wait for a response…

2

I hate when that happens. That actually happened to me just last month with two different things at the same time. In both cases, I waited long enough to get worried about my package (hehe) and email the seller. And in both cases, I had to wait several days and email each one of them a couple of times just to get a response back.

One claimed that they were rearranging their packing department and that orders had gotten backed up. They shipped the item (a lot of graphic novels) like a week and a half after I paid, but they did at least upgrade the shipping method from Media Mail to First Class, so I got it 2 business days later.

In the other case, I got a rather snippy note from the seller saying that my item was in the mail and that he had no control over how long it took to get to me. This was also about a week and a half after I had bought and paid for the item (P90X workout). I messaged him back to ask for more specific information, like what day it was shipped on, and he said “last Sunday”. First off, WTF? Who ships on Sunday? Is that even possible? This would have been Sunday, July 12th he was referring to. I finally got it on the 24th (I paid on the 10th), and the package clearly said it was shipped on the 22nd. Whatever. I left positive feedback, but I mentioned the paid and shipped dates. The seller never left me positive feedback, the douche.

3

I’m wondering if these processes are getting more automated.

Over the last two months I had to buy two items off eBay, I won them both on Saturday, (different Saturdays). I got the notice saying I won, I paid with paypal. Didn’t hear anythign from the seller but on Tuesday (in both cases) the CD was in my mailbox.

Can’t argue with the promptness but a note of acknowledgement would be nice. I guess the seller feels the auto generated notice is enough.

As I said I have nothing to complain about but I’m thinking this seemed awfully automated so if others are doing similar things, the chances are going to increase for errors.

4

No response yet. You might be right about it becoming more automated, but geez. I have sold stuff on ebay before and it takes 5 seconds to check the shipped icon so that is shows up as shipped on my page. In fact, I always send a quick e-mail to the buyer just to acknowledge their payment and tell them the tracking number, or at least when the item will be shipped. I really don’t have sympathy for sellers that can’t be bothered to do this.

Also, I just bought another item last week. Came quickly, all was well, except he still hasn’t left me feedback. Grrr…pet peeve. I am the buyer, I am supporting you! I paid immediately and left you good feedback as soon as I got it, hello! Reciprocate please!

5

I’ve had a couple of slowpokes, and they always have 2 or 3 reasons why things didn’t ship on time. I think some people just get overwhelmed sometimes, but never want to admit it.

Fun Story:
I recently found a radio I wanted on an Amateur Radio forum, agreed on a price and shipping, and sent the guy a check. I typically wouldn’t do that, but with his call sign I know exactly who and where he is. Besides, a ham isn’t going to screw another ham, right? Everything matched, so I went ahead and did it. After not hearing from him for about 2 weeks, I started calling and emailing to no avail.

My final email and phone message informed him that unless I heard from him in 48 hours, I would be speaking with Sgt. xxx of the xxx County Sheriff’s Dept. I had contacted her previously, and she said she would be glad to help an old former deputy take out the appropriate warrants for his arrest, and I passed this tidbit along as well. Lo and behold, I got an email the next day with this excuse, and that excuse, blah, blah, blah, but with a tracking number. The radio showed up days later, and to this day I have no idea what his problem was.

Applicable Story:
I also recently got a laptop battery through Ebay that was DOA.
I simply utilized Paypal’s process to recover my funds, and was refunded my $$ very quickly. I suggest doing the same. When you open a dispute, Paypal will give you the sellers personal info, giving you the opportunity to make a phone call to the appropriate police jurisdiction should Paypal fail you and the loss is big enough for you.

Fun Story 2:
Mrs. bought a sheared beaver coat on Ebay. Upon inspection, the fur didn’t seem right, and the label stated it was “Seal-dyed Coney”. Just a pinch of Googling tells us that “coney” is really just rabbit fur. When confronted with the deception, the seller balked at first, saying her fur expert told her it was beaver. In the olden days of Ebay, one could look at a seller’s previous sales, and see what that person bought. Some research turned up 3 previous buyers of the exact same coat, each of whom had demanded and received a refund based on the fraud.
After speaking with each of them, there was no mistaking that this was no mistake on her part.

Mrs. Ducati got her refund, and we contacted her local DA only to find that they were familiar with complaints about this seller. We left things in his hands; hopefully she’s not allowed computer access in the slammer!

6

Sometimes my internet connection goes down. Sometimes it’s a problem with my personal connection to the house, sometimes it’s an area of the city, sometimes it’s city wide. Maybe the seller has lost his connection. However, I usually am able to go to the library and send a couple of emails (the library apparently has a different service). The seller should do the same thing, if it’s his connection that’s the problem.

Also, a lot of the little sellers have quit using eBay, and it’s the little sellers who would have one item for sale, and when they sold it, they shipped it right away. Nowadays, many of the sellers are not people just looking to clear out their homes, they are in business, and trying to process a lot of orders all the time.

7

OK, here’s one from the opposite side:

I sold something on ebay. Four days after the auction ended, I got a check in the mail from the buyer. The next day, I got a very nasty email complaining that they hadn’t received their item yet.

I’m usually pretty even-tempered, but I really let this doofus have it. I mean, what did he think - I could just teleport it to him?

He even apologized for being clueless after getting my response…

8

It’s not just eBay. A few months ago, I had a similar problem with someone on the Amazon Marketplace. Item was supposed to ship within 3 days, wound up being more like two weeks. After finally shipping it, he sends an email “oh sorry, I was on vacation”. Well, then don’t fucking put “ships in 3 days” in your damn listings, asshole. How the hell should I know your vacation schedule? I buy an item relying on the info in the listing, and if you say “ships in 3 days” you damn well need to either ship within 3 days or take down your listings if you’re not going to be around to ship on time, so I know to go buy it somewhere else so I’m not waiting around while you’re off having a good ol’ time.

On top of that, when he finally did get around to shipping, he sent a completely different item than the one that was in the listing, and was not very helpful when emailed about it. No, dickface, it wasn’t the right item in the wrong box, it was the wrong item in the wrong box.

Amazon was nice and fast in issuing a refund at least…

9

This is the reason I tend to avoid e-bay if at all possible; some douche that I paid 5 minutes after the auction ended can still smear me with bad feedback after I leave bad feedback because the item for which I paid (domestic) Priority Shipping took three weeks to get to me, with nary a response from the seller to any of my inquiries.

10

Wake up, Rip…
Sellers can’t leave negative feedback for Buyers anymore.

11

But they used to be able to, and did on me (until I retracted to “Neutral”) on a few occasions.

So I left e-bay for a goodly time.

And the name’s not Rip.