Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The eBay Saga

This eBay issue really has me at wit's end, so I thought I'd share the full story here.

I bid on some hand-dyed fabbies, and after winning discovered that the same seller had Mira's "Scent of Old Roses" and a Baby Z frame clamp. I placed bids, and emailed the seller to let her know. She responded right away, saying it would be no problem to hold all the items and combine shipping once all the auctions had ended.
The last auction ended on June 5. I sent payment on June 6.
I hadn't received anything by June 12, so I emailed the seller again to ask if the payment had been received, yadda yadda yadda. She replied and said yes, everything should be on its way ASAP.
Another week passes, still no package. I email again. She replies on June 24 that her family has been sick, she's very sorry, everything will be shipped soon.
July 9 - still nothing. This time her apologetic reply blames her husband, saying he takes her packages to the post office and "he must have left yours sitting in the car." At this point I'm getting POed, but she is at least still maintaining communication and promising to make good on the transaction.
Her latest email, sent on Sunday, claims that she accidentally sent my fabrics to another buyer, and she is waiting for that person to return them to her. She SAYS that she will mail the other items - the pattern and stand - now, and send the fabrics as soon as she gets them back.

Now, I really want to leave her negative feedback and file a PayPal dispute (thank goodness I used my credit card!). BUT....she is still responding to me, and I'm worried that if I slam her for being a crummy seller, she'll just ignore me and NEVER send my stuff. What do you think I should do at this point????

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In other news, I got the little Shepherd's Bush "Father Yule" pattern yesterday - now THAT was an awesome seller. I paid Thursday, and the package arrived Monday! It helped renew my faith that there ARE some decent sellers out there.

Last night I stitched on the Woodland Sampler some more. Just the last line of the poem and the trees/skunks left to stitch, and it will be complete!!

6 comments:

jymisgurl said...

That's a tough situation. I would wait another couple weeks (give her time to get the fabrics back, and then put them in the mail), before leaving negative feedback or filing a dispute. Make sure you keep contact with her at least every week. When/if you get everything, I would leave neutral feedback, since she did keep contact and combine shipping for you. HTH! I hope you can get this is resolved soon!

Jenn L in Chicago said...

I wouldn't wait any longer. It's already been more than a month. Open a dispute on EBay for nondelivery and contact your credit card company to find out if you can reverse the authorization on that charge and get your money back. But don't actually put that part in place till you see what comes of the EBay dispute.

Oh, and most definitely leave her negative - not neutral - when this is over with, whether you get what you ordered or not. I'd have left neutral if it weren't for this latest "I sent it to the wrong person" line, which I completely do not believe.

Terri said...

I wouldn't wait any longer either. You have a deadline (I believe it's 45 days) from the time you pay to challenge through paypal. I never wait that long. I give them 30 days.

Kali said...

I agree. File the complaint with Pay Pal. Its my understanding they contact the seller to inform them of their action to give them a chance to contest it. The fact that you're taking action might be enough to get her to get your merchandise in the mail and if not you will alteast get your money back.

Singular Stitches said...

You've been more than understanding (it's been longer than a month since the end of the auctions). Having family issues is understandable, we all have hiccups that get in the way, but she put those items up on ebay and entered into an agreement with you when you won those items and made your payment.

You need to be firm and give her a an absolute drop-dead date that if you don't either receive a refund or the items you purchased, you're going to leave negative feedback and contact Ebay. Ebay is a place to conduct business.

I've run into this type of thing before and when you firmly (but nicely) give that ultimatum, they typically come around. And if not, should other buyers have to deal with this as well?

Terri said...

This is from the paypal site

"You can open a dispute in the Resolution Center within 45 calendar days of payment. By opening a dispute, you are able to communicate directly with your seller to work out a problem transaction.

If you and your seller are unable to agree on a solution, you must escalate the dispute a PayPal claim within 20 calendar days of the date the dispute was opened. By escalating to a claim, you would be asking PayPal to review the case and decide the outcome."

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