posted on October 11, 2005 09:18:02 AM new
So my kid just had to have this item he found on Ebay. Great price, he could get it for 23 dollars including shipping and if he went to town to buy it it'd cost 45. I was reluctant, seller is a power seller with over 15,000 FB, but only a 98.2% positive. Personally, I won't order from anybody with less than 99% positive, and I won't sell to anyone with less either, but that's another thread.
Anyhow, paid with PayPal on Oct. 28th. Last Thursday, looking at this seller's AuctionWorks tracking page, I see that the item is still "awaiting shipping", so I emailed him. He responded on Friday morning:
"i apologize for the delay
we did receive your payment and item is beind processed
i will make sure it is shipped out 1st thing monday
thanks for your time and patience
tim"
Neither of us has left FB yet, I'm not willing to risk my 100% positive for 23 dollars, and it probably won't be any skin off this seller's nose to get another neg from me. So, deciding that "the item is beind processed" is a barely literate load of ca-ca, and owing to the fact that people who refuse to capitalize "I" really bug me, I opened a PayPal dispute.
Anything else I should do?
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
posted on October 11, 2005 09:29:54 AM new
"owing to the fact that people who refuse to capitalize 'I' really bug me...Anything else I should do?"
learn to be more tolerant? i, for one, type in lower case because i have mild arthritis in my left thumb and borderline carpal tunnel in the same hand, and my reknowned hand surgeon who removed a ganglion cyst from my left wrist said that - other than having to hit the space bar on a keyboard - the other biggest repetitive stress on the hands while keyboarding is the use of capitalization.
personally, i don't particularly enjoy reading spanish taglines but hey, i don't obsess over it
posted on October 11, 2005 09:38:11 AM new
There really isn't much else you can do Prof. By filing the dispute you at least lit a fire under their butt.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on October 11, 2005 09:39:35 AM new
That was an apparently unappreciated attempt at humor, sorry. The only thing I'm obsessing about is a lame seller, who has had my money and been "processing" a box of Warhammer figurines for two weeks.
I'd say waiting for a week and a half, after paying for an item minutes after it closed, before emailing the seller to find out why he hasn't shipped yet is pretty darned tolerant.
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
posted on October 11, 2005 09:46:23 AM new
Last friday when the seller advised you he'd send it out first thing of Monday, did you let him know that Monday was a USPS holiday (or was another shipper involved?)
If you were so relunctant, why did you bid on the item? "So my kid just had to have this item...." I think you should be venting or asking him what else you should do since he's so persuasive in getting you to act.
I have to concur with vintagepostcards on their response.
posted on October 11, 2005 09:52:00 AM new
it's okay about the humor. i've never mentioned to anyone before what the reason is for me typing in all lower case. your seller may type in lower case for the same reason.
i'd find that annoying, to learn that something i paid for minutes after an auction close was still languishing at the seller's location. you have a month at paypal to file a complaint. i might have given it another week or so, since you held all the cards that way anyway. http://stores.ebay.com/postcards-postcards?refid=store http://www.vintagepostcards.org
posted on October 11, 2005 09:58:29 AM new
I think you got your dates mixed up,its not Oct 28th yet.
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Two men sit behind bars,one sees mud the other sees stars.
posted on October 11, 2005 10:11:46 AM new
toybuyer, it's my son's money, and if it had been mine, I would not have bid. I'm generally unimpressed with the powersellers I've done business with in the past, as their communication tends to be late and infrequent, and their feedback is a long time coming if it ever arrives at all. I warned my son that he was taking an unacceptable IMO risk, but he said he'd take it and asked me to bid. Perhaps I made him sound like a manipulative child, he's not. Or maybe you just misread what I said. Ulitmately, he's the one who's going to be out 23 bucks, not me. Having said that, I'm not going to bend over and be diddled by someone who takes my money and "processes" a box of figurines for two weeks and then, only when prompted by my inquiry, makes promises he can't keep. This is a powerseller who has sold and shipped over 15 thousand items, if he doesn't know when the post office is open and when it's not, it's certainly not his buyers' problem.
MAH, I did mix up the dates. The auction ended 9/28...
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
That's the point, even it was your son's money, you have the experience and maybe you should have held your ground. (It may be his money but its still your account with feedback at stake) Regardless, he is learning a money/life experience lesson from this transaction. Its good that he's learned to shop for a better price.
I really hope it works out for him and he doesn't lose that money. I do agree the seller shouldn't have delayed shipping, but I don't think you should have bid on this auction. I think the saying "if you miss the bid, eBay will have on another one next week" is more true than not. You are correct, Prof, that powerseller is just a word in an eBay dictionary.
posted on October 11, 2005 10:49:41 AM new
I guess the PayPal complaint worked, I just rec'd an apologetic email and a separate one from UPS with a tracking number, although the item hasn't actually been picked up yet. I'll check thru the day, and when I see it's actually in UPS' hands, I'll log in to PayPal and drop it.
Looks like it's going to be a no FB transaction. Just one of many I've had from powersellers.
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
posted on October 11, 2005 10:51:54 AM new
and you're right toybuyer, I shouldn't have bid. I wasn't thinking about my FB rep until after the fact..shame on me
____________________________________________
Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
posted on October 11, 2005 10:52:34 AM new
I'm sorry, but your original threadhas me confused. You state that you paid with P/P on Oct. 28. Did you mean Sept 28 or was this a year ago? I think you are jumping the gun on this. With that number of +FB's they can't be all badAfter all it is only 15 days.
posted on October 11, 2005 10:55:58 AM new
powerseller with 15,000 feedback!!
most sellers dont have much help,so i would be more understanding and patient with them.i for one is humble enough not to type 'I'.
posted on October 11, 2005 11:09:25 AM new
As I said above, I messed up the dates in my post. It was Sept. 28th. As a very occasional seller, I wouldn't dream of waiting more than a day or two to ship, and I live 35 miles from the nearest PO, and 6 miles of dirt road from the nearest UPS drop off.
It seems to me, that a powerseller is someone who's selling full time, and should have the kinks in their business worked out to get items out fast. If they can't do that, they ought to make buyers aware in their TOS that they only ship on certain dates each month. If that's not a good idea because it will put bidders off, too bad. I could understand a week to ship, maybe, but two weeks is too long. All this guy's negs are due to slow shipping.
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
posted on October 11, 2005 11:18:28 AM new
I think 15 days is a long time to wait for something you pay instantly for...it could go coast to coast parcel post twice in that time if it was mailed the next day or even 2 days after payment.Even if the seller says in his/her auction that they only ship once a week it should have gotten there in 15 days.A Power seller is suppose to be the pillar of the eBay community , they should be the cream of the crop when it comes to service and product sadly they really drop the ball a lot.
posted on October 11, 2005 12:55:20 PM new
10 days isn't acceptable. I'll sometimes not notice that I'm running low on a particular box size (or even be completely out of them), or my packers might be back-ordered on some special-purpose packing materials (e.g., there's some special foam they use for glass & mirrors in frames), but even then it takes less than 10 days to get the product out the door. I know it is a somewhat lame excuse, and I should have a better inventory system for packing materials, but I don't.
Having said all that, I find that sending a proactive email explaining the situation, apologizing, and refunding some of the shipping cost goes a long way to keeping the buyer happy. The trick is to send the email before they email you; if you're responding, it sounds like BS, if you take the initiative, it is clearly a case of trying to do the right thing.
posted on October 11, 2005 01:14:45 PM new
Yes, he almost certainly is drop-shipping. That Warhammer stuff costs a small fortune and has only a small markup. I don't stock it either, but at least I make it clear that I do special orders from the catalog and ordering as necessary.
Do you want to REALLY make his day? Tell him you will turn him into the manufacturer [Games Workshop] for selling Warhammer on eBay. They specifically have a rule that their merchandise cannot be sold online except through their own website. Offenders will have their supply cut off, or even have the supply of their distributors cut off. They're a nasty bunch of people to work with!
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on October 11, 2005 01:38:10 PM new
toasted, I hate to disagree with you, but I sent a Graflex camera to LA which is 170 miles away. It took 17 days for delivery. My local Asst PM told me the PP takes back seat to every thing else, so if a truck is full, the pp waits for the next or next etc. to be delivered.
posted on October 11, 2005 02:14:23 PM new
Sanmar...The P.O. is doing the same thing the railroads did back in the 60's when they wanted to get out of the passenger service. They are making the service so bad, and the prices so high, that there will be no demand for it and they will have justification to dump the service. The money is in priority and express mail, not parcel post.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on October 11, 2005 02:56:29 PM new
Your post office must be way over worked then Sanmar on the California side because I have never had a Parcel Post package take more than 6 days to get from from Beaufort SC to anywhere in California...or that side of the map. They send every package out at the same time here. But we have 5 Post offices in about a 50 mile radius .Now I have had a Priority take 7 days to get from Beaufort SC to Tamapa Fla lol go figure ehh
posted on October 11, 2005 03:01:41 PM new
profe51 - I don't think it is right to say this person is a powerseller, and then make these assumptions that all powersellers are the same. I've purchased from non powersellers and powersellers, and in my experience (and I've had 8 1/2 years of it on ebay) my experience doesn't vary much - Both can be professional or unprofessional. If you paid with paypal, you've really got no worries because you can do what you did. Anyway, not all powersellers are the same, bad with communication, slow shipping, etc. I'm a powerseller closing in on 12,000 unique and have a 100% feedback rating...I agree waiting 10 days or more to ship is unacceptable, but slow shippers are pretty easy to tell from their feedback!
posted on October 11, 2005 06:27:49 PM new
Some of my customers have waited this long for shipments because I use eBay's Selling Manager for post-sales management and lately it hasn't been communicating well with its little brother PayPal. Some PayPal payments are marked Unpaid in Selling Manager and some multiple shipments paid by PayPal disappear from view completely. Look at the numerous threads on eBay discussion board Selling Manager Pro. Although eBay is aware of the problem, they have chosen to not post a System Announcement about it or inform their subscribers so I'm sure a number of sellers are unaware of the glitch and are holding back shipments!
posted on October 11, 2005 06:28:22 PM new
You took the words right out of my mouth Ebayvet - not a fair assumption about Powersellers. I am one, not that it means squat except I sell over $3,000 per month.
I don't run alot of sales - I try to do only 10-15 per week, so my customer service, feedback, communications, etc. are fairly personalized. Now my shipping turnaround time is much quicker, 1-3 days - anything longer than that and I usually contact the customer to tell them why.
I deal regularly with a 15,000+ powerseller with 96% positive feedback - I know the risks - but some of the deals are so good that I consider it to be worth it and am willing to take an extra step or two to make sure the transaction is completed satisfactorily. It sounds like you did too.
At least the seller apologized and didn't become indignent or defensive. It really sounds like a dropshipping or supplier problem to me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on October 11, 2005 07:40:44 PM new
Yes, I've seen powersellers that sell just one or two items per month. Since I'm just a part time seller, I'm not familair with the exact requirements for becoming a powerseller, but I think it's along the the lines of a certain dollar amount per month, so if someone sells one or two cars in a month, they can qualify. So can someone selling a few hundered smaller, low dollar items.
posted on October 12, 2005 07:53:27 AM new
The item is now in UPS' hands and on it's way, so I dropped the PayPal complaint. Interesting that the tracking order was sent to me two hours after I filed the complaint. I don't know how fast PP notifies sellers, as I've never been involved in that sort of thing before...maybe just coincidence.
I made no generalizations about Powersellers, I only spoke to MY experience with them. I've found, in purchases I have made, that powersellers could be counted on for: Poor communication, slow shipping and slow or no feedback. Several times I've had to email them to ASK for feedback after leaving positive for them. I'm sure there are plenty of good ones out there too, but I've yet to buy from one.
From now on I'm going to follow my own guidelines. I've told the boy, don't even tell me about an auction that you're interested in if the seller has less than 99% PFB.
Replay, the package is a box of Genestealers 40K. 12 figures. 23 dollars total including 7 shipping. I don't know how to contact you, but you could send your info to profe515151(removethis)@dodgeit.com if you want to. That's a throw away address and I'll only check it once.
Thanks for everyone's opinions!
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
posted on October 12, 2005 08:06:03 AM new
I often thought about the benefits of being a power seller. However, after a lot of what I read I'm glad I'm still small enough to give special attention to my buyers. I think I'll stay that way. It's worked so far. I only have one negative out of over 1300 feedbacks. That negative came from a non-paying bidder and was relatiatory for me turning her in to eBay.
posted on October 12, 2005 01:01:32 PM new
Good grief! Not all this ca-ca about power sellers again?? !!
There are good powersellers, there are bad powersellers, there are white powersellers, there are black powersellers, fat powersellers, skinny powersellers, powersellers who give personal service and ones that don't. Powersellers just get to be PS because they maintain a certain ($1000) sales level and decent (98%) feedback ratio. It is hardly an exclusive club.
If you are selling on ebay full time and not a powerseller (and the $1000 is gross sales not net of fees) then perhaps you had better find another line of work because you can do better as a Walmart greeter!!
It is unfair to label any group and PS are no exception. It is as silly to say you will only buy from PS as it is to say you never will buy from them.
The PS designation doesn't mean squat!! You can't tell the difference between a bronze ($1000) PS, a silver ($3000) PS and a platinum ($20,000) by the PS after their name.
The best way we have available to judge sellers, whether PS or not, is by the Feedback. It aint perfect but it will have to do.
Caroline 