OK, I have to admit I have never bought anything before on eBay (hangs head in shame). It seems that every time I would bid on something it would run up to within a few dollars of what I can buy it for locally, and homie isn’t going to save $5 to pay $15 in shipping.
But I needed a new Kitchen faucet. Found a beautiful high end one on display at the local Home Despot. Of course they are out of stock. So when I get home, I fire up my google-fu and find a running auction on eBay. The item is described as: “NEW PEGASUS KITCHEN FAUCET SPRING SPOUT 2 MODESPRAY” and "**CONDITION:
New: Opened Box
This item may have been opened, removed and repackaged prior to sale.**"
Note the use of the word new in the listings.
I am the first bidder, and at the end of the auction (1 week ago last Saturday) I have the highest bid at $152 + shipping for $15. I Paypal the money right then using my credit card.
On Monday I get notification that the item has shipped. Cool. Late Saturday afternoon FedEx stops by with my faucet.
Written on the box is a an RMA number (for those of you that have not dealt with wholesale merchandise, to return something wholesale the vendor will often require that you ask for and get a Return Material Authorization (RMA) before you can send something back. The presence of an RMA number tells me that this faucet is not new, and has been sold and returned ie it is used.
Now my spidey sense is tingling, so I unpack the faucet and carefully start inventorying the parts, and looking for signs to see if it has been installed or not. The faucet has not been installed, but it is missing the the threaded shaft that is used to secure the faucet to the sink. Without this part, the faucet is pretty much useless, as I cannot bolt it down.
So right away I send the following to the seller (who by the way is one of these sell your shit on eBay outfits):
As this was a business, and judging by the other items listed by this outfit, I expect they have a hook up with a local plumbing supplier, I did not expect an answer before Monday.
Monday morning comes no answer, Monday night comes no answer. Tuesday comes and all I have is a request for feedback from the seller! By last night still no answer. So I sent this last night:
As of right now, I still have no answer from them. (before anyone asks, I used the contact seller button on both emails, and I have been checking both my email, and eBay for messages)
I would like to keep this faucet if I can get the missing part, or if they want to lower the price, I can fabricate the part. But I cannot seem to get the seller to get off their ass and even acknowledge my existence.
So dopers, what do you suggest I do?
I recently had a similar situation to what you are going through.
My general rule of thumb is not to leave feedback until I have the item as described in working order, or my money back.
If I were you I would do the following:
1 - DO NOT leave any feed back at this point. You have 30 days to leave feedback so there is plenty of time, no matter what the seller says.
2 - Send a 3rd email to the seller requesting a resolution to this problem. Explain that if there is no response, you will go to PayPal for resolution.
3 - If they don’t respond to your 3rd email request, go to your PayPal account and use the PayPal “Resolution center”. This will force the seller to deal with this issue.
4 - Once the resolution center has been utilized, THEN leave your feedback on the auction. Remember that the seller will have a chance to respond to any negative feedback you leave, so stick to the facts and don’t resort to name calling or anything like that.
At this point I would suggest asking for an RMA of your own so you can send it back before it’s too late to get the money back from PayPal. Some sellers use delaying tactics to make it impossible to get the refund.
Otherwise, go back to the ‘About Me’ on the seller and get a phone number to contact them directly then look for the seller’s rules to see if you have any recourse. Otherwise, I’d check your local plumbing supply for the part you need.
(Can you tell I’ve had a few rounds with less-than stellar sellers and the rigidity of PayPal?)
Based on your responses I plan to wait until tomorrow night and send a demand email (resolve this or I go to Paypal + negative feedback)
If Paypal gives me any shit, I will dispute it with my CC company, IIRC I have 90 days to do that.
As far as them leaving me negative feedback, since I have never won an auction before, I am not what you would call a big eBay user. Threating me with a negative feedback is telling me I can’t shop at a store I don’t care for anyway. In other words BFD.
To add insult to injury, last night my existing kitchen faucet started to leak. A lot. So much I had to pony up $20 for a repair kit. :mad: if these a-holes had either sent me a complete faucet or responded to my emails, I would have saved that money, and had my new faucet in by now. :mad:
Don’t leave feedback until the transaction is over. Leaving feedback is a general rule of this, whether it be positive or negative. And you actually have 90 days to do it.
And seeing that the title and the description is misleading, you can contact ebay with it as well. (Go to the discussion boards, they are chock full of info.)
By using PayPal you do have options, and you need to alert them now. Sellers don’t like the prospect of a buyer doing a chargeback on their card.
-Labelless (Who buys and sells on eBay)
I’ll go along with “don’t leave feedback now”. More to the point, don’t threaten negative feedback - either do, or do not do. Threatening can be construed as feedback extortion. You need to file ‘SNAD’ (significantly not as described):
The seller may require return within 3 days, however Ebay says SNAD may be filed between 10-30 days of end of auction.
You were wise in using your credit card - you may very well need to resort to a dispute through the CC company.
By the way, I’ve long considered it a bad risk to bid on a seller who has a less than 99.7% feedback…and your seller’s feedback is 97.8%. If you read down through it, you see a lot of negative feedbacks saying things like ‘item arrived broken’; ‘seller didn’t ever return calls’ ‘could not get refund’. Also, you’ll see a lot of neutrals, and even positives that should have been negative if you read the text provided…and 24 ‘mutual removals’ (look him up at www.toolhaus.org) which do not count toward his negatives, and which hint strongly that the seller gives retaliatory negs and then presses for mutual feedback removal.
File SNAD. File now. If a nudge through the Ebay system won’t budge him, go to the CC company. That’s what I’d do. (seller chotii, 1132 feedback)
I have not left any feedback and won’t till it is all over. Based on your comments Chotii I just filed a SNAD complaint with PayPal. I went to do it at eBay and since I used PayPal the eBay page referred me to PayPal.
Here is the text of my complaint:
We will see what happens. if the seller continues to stonewall me, I will escalate it to a claim before the dispute runs out on 5/30.