So I bought a gift for someone off Ebay on December 12th with “Buy It Now” and promptly sent the Paypal payment. On the page for the item, there was a big banner ad, “Christmas Delivery Guaranteed if payment received by December 20th.”
Well, it turns out that there have been some packages stolen from porches in my neighborhood (*), so I write the seller an email on 12/20
His response
What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’ll get it before Xmas “if needed”? What are you going to do, call FedEx and ask them to speed it up?
I can see if we’re working out the shipping details and he says, “we can ship that to you by Christmas if needed.” What the hell does he mean by “it’s already shipped and you’ll have it by Xmas (if needed)”?
Besides, I’m trying to figure out if the thing has been stolen off my porch.
Excellent reading comprehension, dickwad.
So, anyway, it didn’t come in time. I have no idea if it was stolen. So, I don’t want to leave the guy negative feedback if it was stolen, even if he is a moron. I have no tracking number. Even if it was delivered on time, no one signed for it.
I’m not sure what to pit. The seller. Myself for going through Ebay? Maybe thieves. Maybe FedEx. I’m just pissed that we didn’t have a gift for someone for Xmas and I have no idea where the package is.
(*) Still, I’ve only heard strong rumors of things being stolen – FOAF stuff. I heard that 2 people found a bunch of torn up packages in the woods, but I didn’t hear it directly from those 2 people. It’s uncommon for my neighborhood. This is beside the point anyway.
I do a lot of ebay selling. Unless it was an expensive item or UPS shipping was specified, it’s quite possible that it’s coming USPS via US Post Office parcel post which is often, but not always, less expenisve than UPS, and there is no “tracking number” for it. If the seller does a lot of ebay selling this is probably their canned email response to initial “where is it” inquiries. A follow up question inquiring how it’s coming might answer the tracking question.
One thing is for certain - you need to leave negative feedback for him. His communcation sucks ass, and he has no regard for his customers if he’s just sending out form e-mail responses. He’s certainly not responsible for a possible theft, but he is for proper communication.
A few weeks ago, I had issues with my checking account (a paycheck hadn’t gone in via direct deposit like it was supposed to), and so I ended up having to wait a couple of days to make a payment to an eBay seller. I sent them an email twice apologizing for the delay, explaining the situation, asking them to check my feedback because I have 100% all positive feedback as a buyer, and that I would make the payment as soon as the situation was rectified with my direct deposit. I never heard back so I assumed all was good.
A day later, I received a threatening notice regarding my payment. Apparently, this jerk never even reads emails from his customers. So I forwarded the email I’d sent to him again, and waited for a response. Never got one.
My direct deposit was corrected the next day, so I went to eBay to make the payment. At the same time I checked my email, ANOTHER threatening reminder came through. I was so pissed I considered negative feedback, but I just paid for the item, waited for it to ship, waited until it was received, and then left neutral feedback. If we, as buyers, are expected to read communications with the sellers, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that they do the same. If they find themselves too busy with selling to take care of customer service, perhaps they’ve taken on a little too much.
Uh, I thought it was pretty obvious that it meant “you’ll have it by Christmas (assuming that’s why you bought it)” or “you’ll have it by Christmas (assuming you celebrate it).”
Anyway, the only thing worth pitting that I saw was that the seller should be pitted for not providing the tracking # upon request.
Before 30 days- (like right NOW!!!) file a chargeback with Paypal. Get your money back. Then file a “non-performing seller” complaint with eBay.
Do not be in a hurry to file that NEG.
Many eBay sellers don’t read their email. What is interesting is then to watch them whine and complain about buyers who “don’t email first with questions”. What is even more interesting is to read the sellers complain about “stupid buyer questions”. :rolleyes: In other words- if you don’t ask- you’re a moron; if you do ask you’re stupid…* and* they won’t answer anyway.
If you read the boards over at eBay, you’ll see there is a significant group of sellers that think all the buyers are just sheep to be shorn in any way possible. I think it is simply a disgruntled minority, but they are the majority of posters there. In fact, if someone posts a pro-seller question or answer, they will pile all over you, with flames and ridicule. They also often give outright illegal an immoral advice- such as when a seller said their customer complained that the package didn’t arrive -and that the seller forget to get 'delivery confirmation"- it was seriously suggested that the seller ship an empty boxnow with DC! :eek: For some reason eBay won’t keep these mad dogs on a short leash. :mad:
No, but you can do that also. Look for the term “Non-performing seller”. It’s there in the help boards.
The reply from Fedex would seem to normally mean that the seller has told Fedex he is going to use that number and has paid for the shipping, but Fedex hasn’t actually rcvd the package yet. In other words- your seller hasn’t shipped it, it appears.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! You’re fucking kidding, right? We bought something from an e-bay seller who took the money and did exactly nothing. No product, no replies to emails, no nothing. E-bay and their little syncopant PayPal were exactly zero help. They refused to do anything, even though we promptly jumped through every hoop they required, and we wound up eating the $40 we’d spent. Don’t waste your time.
Bingo. We use this at work. Your seller never shipped the item. My guess is that if you check it later today, after 5 or 6, you’ll see a pickup location and the status.
I don’t know what the idiot was trying to accomplish by giving you the FedEx number and shipping today, then telling you it should have arrived on Friday. Well, if you have a super-duper time machine, maybe it can still arrive on last Friday. Otherwise, it looks like it’s coming this Friday.
I’d file a complaint - AFTER you have the item - and request your shipping charges be refunded.
(Upon preview, I see that you’ve already filed a complaint - scratch the above advice…).
Oh – the FedEx site said that they received the package information on Dec 21st., at a time AFTER the guy originally told me the package had already been sent.
The mistake I made was that I just assumed the because the guy had like 4000 feedbacks and was one of these “eBay stores”, he was good.
Well, I checked the feedbacks, finally, and he’s had like 50 negatives and 50 neutrals in the past 6 months. If I’d seen that, I wouldn’t have ordered from him.
I think I got sloppy in my vigilance because I’ve been very lucky going through eBay for years. I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem.
Once everybody settles down and treats the Internet as the TOY it is clearly intended to be, we might be able to avoid annoyances like those in the OP.
Ah, I misunderstood. I thought the package had just gone out today.
I bought a lot from eBay for my wedding, and didn’t have any problems. But going back, I’m lucky in that respect, because a few people had very crappy feedback. And I wasn’t completely thrilled with one of the veils I bought - the company had gotten rave reviews from friends on a wedding board, but when I got it, it was a cheap-ass veil. Technically, that wasn’t their fault (although it seemed they were advertising a much higher quality veil than they actually provided), but if I’d read their feedback, I would have seen other complaints about that as well.
Definitely file the Paypal complaint. A few months ago a seller refused to respond to my e-mails asking if the item had been shipped. Three weeks after purchasing and still no item, I filed the Paypal complaint and got the cost charged back to my Paypal account (in essence, a refund). Paypal gives the seller 5 days to resolve the complaint and if it is not resolved, does a chargeback. I eventually got my item…
If you send the item via PayPal/USPS Priority Mail, you get a tracking number. Of course, it doesn’t seem to mean much. I mailed out three items on 12/20 and two of them got there just fine. Naturally, the one where the buyer **did **pay for insurance is the one that seems to have vanished into thin air. When I check the tracking number it says that the package was “expected” on 12/20, not that they actually took it. ARRRRGH!