I was dumb. I bought clothing on ebay. A cheap pleather jacket, to use like a raincoat.
I order two sizes too big, so it will certainly fit. As too small can happen.
I order from a shit that ships from North America.
It arrives, & even at 2 sizes too big it is far too small.
I request a return/refund.
The address is in another country! In Israel!
And I only will get the US shipping fee to return!
I contact ebay.
“Oh, we will fix this right away.” they say.
The seller emails me.
FROM CHINA!
And offers a shipping label, if I agree to return it.
Days pass–no label.
No good shipping address
They told ebay I agreed–then did NOTHING! No label.
Ebay says that I agreed to return, and I will get no refund until I do–CASE CLOSED!
AND I CAN EVEN GET PAST THE GODDAM AI VOICEMAIL!
I’ve had the same thing happen with a shirt bought from a seller on Amazon. Either “3XL” means something different where they are or that shirt was actually for a child because it was more of an adult “M”. Shirt ended up going to Goodwill rather than attempting to return.
Years ago I ordered a plush toy for my daughter for her birthday. It was a character from a Korean cartoon she enjoyed watching (it was on Netflix). You can’t get that toy in the US, but I found it from someone on eBay who was selling it from Korea and the price was good.
It took a while to ship, then got hung up somewhere supposedly. I reached out to the seller and they replied to say that it was going to take a bit longer than usual, but it was still on its way, it was a customs issue. More time went by, and it was getting close to her birthday, and I reached out again, they assured me it was on its way. I said that it had taken so long already, that I had no faith it would arrive at all, let alone in time for her birthday, and I wanted a refund since clearly it was lost. No reply anymore.
I reached out to eBay and they said that there was nothing I could do because it was past 30 days from when it was supposed to be delivered (they had a ridiculously unrealistic delivery estimate), so I couldn’t get a refund or even give them a bad review. Fucking bullshit.
Of course it never appeared. The only consolation is that it didn’t cost all that much, but even still, they completely ripped me off and I couldn’t even leave bad feedback. (That probably explains why the seller somehow still had a good rating.)
Every purchase there is a gamble. If you can, never buy anything from outside the US (though as you found they might be lying about that).
Call your credit card company, explain th situation, and see if they’ll reverse the charge. I’ve had some luck with that with skeezy sellers (not on eBay).
This is why (from long painful experience) I only buy from US sellers particularly on etsy and ebay. It’s not that they are more reliable, just more easily reached.
Occasionally from Europe or Canada but never from Asia. I also only buy from sellers with good return policies. Contacting ebay is your first move – they tend to side with the buyer. Provide documentation.
Second, your credit card company,. I recently had good luck with that, buying something from PajamaGram, a reliable seller until they were (unknown to me) bought out by a private equity firm which is sucking the company dry before spitting out the skin. PajamaGram took my order, my money, and then … crickets, for six weeks. I contacted Visa and they reversed the charges while investigating. Within three days, my purchase was in the mail to me.
Well-known heavily-advertised companies like PajamaGram – check Yelp before ordering. If they are in a death spiral, buyers will be screaming. I did this afterward, and sure enough.
Retail on the internet is becoming more and more skeevy. Caveat emptor.
The shit of this is that they WERE listed as a US Seller.
It shipped from Illinois.
And the return address was Israel.
But the Seller messaged me from China!
FOCK!
Okay. Fock is damn right.
My recent eBay frustration was an aborted attempt to buy some “new” Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones at a ridiculously low price ($78, less than 1/4 list price).
Admittedly I knew there must have been something fishy about the listing, but the seller had decent feedback and the listing indicated 25 already sold. I figured if the item was genuine it was a great deal, if it was bogus I’d be able to get my money back from Paypal.
Well, 5 days after they took my money, the seller cancelled the order. Apparently their stock was from somewhere in the Middle East and they were not allowed to sell it on eBay. I wasn’t too surprised, and I did get my money back, but what pissed me off was the seller marked the order “buyer cancelled order”. This made it impossible for me to give them negative feedback on their eBay page.
CC card company notified.
Here.
Have a lolly.
I had the same thing happen with an order from Alieexpress. The seller kept saying “sorry, on the way” until it was too late to get a refund. Lesson learned, no matter what the seller says, if it is approaching the deadline, file for a refund. I think in the end Alieexpress did refund my $5 or whatever.
And read the reviews as most-recent first, not as most-useful first. On Amazon, Yelp, and many other places a store/product will have a 4+ star average, but then the last month of reviews are all 1 star. That means something is very wrong; pick someplace else to spend money.
Yeah, sometimes they lie, so even if you’re careful it’s a gamble.
Refund from the credit card achieved.
Good!
Good news! Thanks for the cautionary tales.
I was just about to order some clothing and travel accoutrements online… now I think I’ll hit some local brick&mortar stores (Target, Goodwill, TJ Maxx) to see if I can get what I need… directly into my grubby little hands.