What a day.I just looked at my half.com FB and found a blistering negative left yesterday. The buyer says he or she bought the book 2 months ago and it never came. First I've heard of it. I can't figure out how to even locate what book it would have been. I fill my orders religiously but a mistake is always a small possibility.
Also, they say that half.com has ignored their requests for a refund. One time in the past I got a half.com email that a buyer said the book didn't arrive and they wanted to verify that I mailed it. This time I heard nothing. I would be steamed if I was the buyer, too!
I tried to email half.com customer service but the thing sat and sat and didn't load. I can't do anything to answer the FB either. I'm furious!
posted on January 8, 2001 04:14:53 PM
What a bummer! I'd be furious, too. Were you trying to email them from their Help page? I'd keep trying; if the customer did contact them, and they never replied, then I think if you keep after them they will remove that feedback. They apparently are willing to remove unfair feedback in some cases. That sort of makes up for the fact that we can't respond to the feedback.
posted on January 8, 2001 06:45:16 PM
Feedback comments on half.com are so infuriating. I gotten several non-5's and I just hate it. One because he hadn't gotten the confirmation notice (and that's *my* fault!!), another because the (kid's chess) book didn't 'come with the original chess set'. Heck, I didn't even know it originally came with a set (and there's no way to tell from half.com's descriptions). A couple of times (in the beginning) I sent paperbacks instead of hardcovers. Granted, I should look for that (and do now) but the ISBN I listed was correct.
But what I hate so much is that you can't *respond*. I want my buyer's to be pleased - I'd make it right with them. The two earlier ones I dug out their addresses and sent them a refund by snail mail. Never heard a thing (and feedback didn't get changed either). Heck with it.
I've now switched almost everything to Amazon Marketplace. Much better.
posted on January 8, 2001 07:15:02 PM
Because I can't respond to half.com feedback, I no longer read my feedback comments. I couldn't even tell you what my feedback looks like any more. I only put my cheapie stuff on half.com any more, and list the rest on Amazon's Marketplace. Sorry you got flamed, Keziak. Look on the bright side: how many half.com buyers know enough to actually read your feedback comments before purchasing something from you?
posted on January 8, 2001 07:42:02 PM
Keziak, call half.com customer service on the phone. In unusual cases they will actually remove the feedback if incorrect. Once a buyer left feedback claiming we hadn't shipped the book, we supplied proof to half.com of shipping not once but twice to the address the buyer supplied, and the feedback was removed. We shipped twice because we contacted half after the post office had returned the book, the buyer insisted to Half.com it was the correct address and this time the post office should deliver. Customer service had a record of all our contacts attempting to get the customer his book and were very nice about the whole thing, the feedback disappeared.
You could also try emailing [email protected] or [email protected] using your regular email instead of just completing the service request on the website.
posted on January 8, 2001 10:29:38 PM
Stupid question alert!!! Is the Amazon Marketplace the same as the zShops? I am thinking no, but I can't find anything about the Marketplace on the HUGE Amazon homepage! Does anybody know?
posted on January 9, 2001 02:40:31 AM
enchanted: thank you! I kept trying and finally it sent and I got a confirmation email. I will see if they get back to me "for real" today.
What bothers me is I thought they had a procedure in place for nondelivery, in which they contact the seller. I also thought there was a satisfaction guarantee for the buyer...they get a refund if the book doesn't show up? I don't know. I only know that I"ve never gotten a negative anywhere before and even though it's on half.com rather than ebay, it's a blot on my reputation. And I don't even know if I actually screwed anything up!
posted on January 9, 2001 05:47:51 AM
G'morning keziak! hope you are feeling a bit better today. The flaming negative has happened to the best of us sellers there so do not fret. I think most Half.com customers have learned the system and know that sometimes it's the buyer not the seller that was wacko... if the rest of your feedback was excellent I think most customers will understand. Also, my impression is that the majority of customers understand that there is only space for a few words of description for the book and no possibility of questions between buyer and seller, which could lead to strange feedback from time to time.
It could take Half.com a day or two to get back to you depending on how backed up their customer service queue is when you email, but you will hear from them eventually.
Do you have their phone number to call? if you don't get satisfaction from the email, definitely call them. If you need the number you can email me at [email protected], and I'll track down the number later today from my husband who has it filed away somewhere.
they do have a procedure on missing books and on refunds, quite frankly it doesn't sound like the customer followed their procedure!
I have a sense from your other posts here at AW that you're quite a good bookseller keziak and I would have no hesitation purchasing from you on Half.com. I wish you were still selling there and I knew your seller name LOL!
I do buy books there every month, the site serves a purpose for a certain kind of book sale, it's not specifically for collectors, much more for book readers. I try not to listen to some of the negative comments about it because even though it isn't perfect it has certain advantages over Ebay for me both as a buyer and seller, and it works for me for certain books. The site is not trying to be all things to all buyers and all sellers. I'm willing to bet a year from now the site is quite different that it is now in any case. Meg has made several statements about ebay's plan to expand fixed price selling. My own hunch is that they have big changes planned for half.com and some of the problems might get worked on at the time the site is changed for other purposes. It would be most cost effective to do that, perhaps that's why it's not changing or updating in response to complaints now.
kckckc, there are several threads in the Amazon Auction section about selling on Marketplace that you might want to read. If your questions aren't answered, post them there, there are sellers discussing it there. Marketplace appears to be a fixed price portion of Z-shops but it has its own entry sytem and its own pricing policy. There are listing fees for Marketplace, check out your options on that.
kckckc, do you have any idea how hard your id is to type for a speeling impaired semi-dyslexic person like me?
posted on January 9, 2001 06:05:35 AM
enchanted - thank you for your kind words! I hope to hear from them today, if not I will be in touch. I still have some stuff on half.com but my inventory in general is very low right now because I sold it off during the free listing promotion.
posted on January 9, 2001 07:21:33 PM
Half.com's feedback policy makes no sense whatsoever when compared to Ebay's. Especially since it's the same company and allegedly with the same 'online community philosphy'. Not allowing the seller to have a chance of going on record with a public response is just not democratic or fair.
Out of 16 FB's on over 40 items sold I deserved one 4.0 because I failed to mention that the brand-new never read books (3) shipped with a FREE upgrade to Priority Mail were Book Club Editions. The other two 4.0's I got were because the buyer just outright lied. One claimed that the book was 'priced higher than she usually pays" and that it "was not in like-new condition". The book not only was indeed brand-new but it was also out of print and not available anyplace else on the web and she got it for half cover price. 13 5/5 perfect glowing feedbacks and 3 4.0/5.0 from sour pusses and I don't get a chance to defend myself. That stinks. Funny coincidence...all of the 3 '4.0's were buyers of Christianity books.
Maybe only Jesus was perfect and no one else deserves a 5/5.
