haven't had one of these in a while....(mini-rant)

[cmcjr99]

maybe some of you still recall the 2-3 rants i posted here two years back over really poor shipping/packing by ebay sellers....

i dare say that roughly 30% or more of the items i've bought in the past 5 years have arrived damaged , though MOST OFTEN , it's clear the damage was there before the item was ever sold , so that's an entirely different situation ( or , in my native southern-speak...that's a whoooole nuther ball o wax)

well , today i just opened another package that has me fuming so now it's time for another mini-rant....

the item : 2 different serially numbered 2005 pristine jerseys for one of my primary player collections

the seller : wont name the name here , but he has ebay "top-rated seller" status with 100% feedback (slightly over 1300)....edit to add : will provide seller ID via PM for anyone who wants to add him to their blocked lists as i just did)

the good : the bid was very low and the shipping was free

the bad : this ...this...umm...well , i can't even think of an appropriate family-friendly term to use for him at the moment.....anyway , this seller thought it would be ok to ship TWO JERSEY cards in a SINGLE PWE .....

the ugly : did i mention he also felt it was ok to ship two jersey cards in a PWE with NO PROTECTION other than a sheet of paper ? no sleeves , no top loaders , no cardboard , NOTHING.....

needless to say i have two pristine jerseys here with extremely heavy through-and-through creases that make them 100% worthless to me....

ebay wont let me leave neutral or negative feedback....the buyer doesnt accept returns and honestly i wouldnt return them anyway because as ost of us know , to be covered under the protection plan , any returned item must be sent back with proof of delivery which means it would cost me more to return them than my refund would be anyway.....



ok....that's it...rant over...time to go bowl....

 

[dan5]

That's why I always question auctions with Free Shipping!

 

[barnsz]

...pm sent...

 

[Loyalty32]

I must be missing something. Why can't you leave a negative feedback for this clown?

Thanks
Craig

 

[bongo870]

I must be missing something. Why can't you leave a negative feedback for this clown?

Thanks
Craig

second that

 

[David K.]

Unless he meant ....he could not leave a negative for the way it was shipped.....free shipping takes that rating away. But he could leave negative feedback on the other ratings. Best regards, David

 

[majdic2136]

that's why I always ask the seller how they are going to ship whenever I see free shipping to make sure it is even worth it...I'm sorry you received bad items...I'd be fuming and want to rant myself if it happened to me so I understand your pain

 

[cmcjr99]

I must be missing something. Why can't you leave a negative feedback for this clown?

Thanks
Craig

ebay's new seller protection.....you are no longer allowed to leave any neutral or negative feedback within the first 7 days of paying for the item....fwiw , i tried to leave NEUTRAL with the comment noting the 2 GU in a PWE with no protection.....instant ebay pop-up saying i can't leave that yet and urging me to "contact the seller" to work things out....

also , in the name of full disclosure , while i was gone to my bowling league tonight , he did issue me a refund - BUT i'm still a bit miffed because he also sent a rather snippy email excusing his poor packaging by saying it's my fault for not buying enough items to allow him to use a box and that he's sure i would not have been willing to pay $2 to have the two jersey cards shipped (fwiw , he is wrong - i'd have gladly paid $2-3 shipping to have them arrive safely)

 

[bear0555]

I've had the same thing happen with two sellers. Both said return for a refund and lied about never receiving it back. The first time, with baorioles, I let it go since it was only $6. A friend of mine also noticed he shilled his items, though I've never bothered to verify. So after it happened again with fruityfoot (top rated seller), I fought for my $5 back because I wasn't going to keep letting these aholes get away with negligence and ripping me off. Paypal, being the idiots that they are, want a DC number so I ship something else. Fruityfoot thinks it's an empty envelope and leaves it sealed and Paypal tells him to file a police report. I leave him a negative and he offers to not do the report if I remove the neg. I was able to verify with Paypal that they told him to file a police report but I chose to ignore fruityfoot and leave the negative as is. I'd think the police would think you are silly if you bothered filing a report for $5. But if he loses his top rated seller status, he'd lose a lot more than five bucks. Just part of the ebay game nowadays. I also try to stay away from buying low dollar items because of the hassle involved.

 

[metsman1986]

I think these people just don't care......................Probably stuff scored out of a storage unit and sold to unexpected hobbyists.......................Could care less how it gets to you and in what condition......................."The cheaper the better" I'm sure...............................

 

[Copeskey45]

ebay's new seller protection.....you are no longer allowed to leave any neutral or negative feedback within the first 7 days of paying for the item....fwiw , i tried to leave NEUTRAL with the comment noting the 2 GU in a PWE with no protection.....instant ebay pop-up saying i can't leave that yet and urging me to "contact the seller" to work things out....

also , in the name of full disclosure , while i was gone to my bowling league tonight , he did issue me a refund - BUT i'm still a bit miffed because he also sent a rather snippy email excusing his poor packaging by saying it's my fault for not buying enough items to allow him to use a box and that he's sure i would not have been willing to pay $2 to have the two jersey cards shipped (fwiw , he is wrong - i'd have gladly paid $2-3 shipping to have them arrive safely)

How in the world is it your fault? I sold a gu card on ebay for .99 and shipped it in a bubble mailer (total cost of shipping was like $2.50 including DC) I only charged $3 for shipping. So all in all I made about $1.49 for a card that booked WAY above that. At lease I got a positive feedback lol. It's guys like this that make Ebay so dangerous to buy from!

 

[cmcjr99]

How in the world is it your fault? I sold a gu card on ebay for .99 and shipped it in a bubble mailer (total cost of shipping was like $2.50 including DC) I only charged $3 for shipping. So all in all I made about $1.49 for a card that booked WAY above that. At lease I got a positive feedback lol. It's guys like this that make Ebay so dangerous to buy from!

agreed....

this was the primary text of his mail to me :

I am ALWAYS OPEN for suggestion on how to make more money at sell cards, but I doubt THAT you would have spent 2-3$ in S&H Charges for 2 cards that cost you .75 each.???I am correct?!?!? IF you would have purchased more items and I could have put all of them in a BOX and it NOT cost me MONEY, I would have greatly done that,but alas this was not the case.THE way I sent said cards I was only making roughly about .05 per card, Hmmmm I think THAT got eatin up by the paypal cost,



i gave him what i considered a polite reply :

honestly , yes , i would have still placed my bid even if shipping charge had been $2-3 because i really needed both of those cards for my troy williamson collection....i always take those costs into account when bidding because as one who has been selling online for nearly 13 years , i know there are costs involved in getting the cards delivered safely....that's exactly why no matter how much ebay recommends it on all items , i ONLY offer free shipping on items that will sell for a high enough amount to cover the shipping ....i personally ship EVERYTHING in at LEAST a bubble mailer with delivery confirmation.... larger items usually go via priority mail in flat rate boxes .....i charge 2.25 for a single card , $2.50 for 2-6 card lots , $2.75 for 7-13 cards , and $3.00 for 13-20 cards...with the cost of postage at $1.75 for up to 3 ounces plus the cost of my supplies , i LOSE roughly 25 cents on every package already....

finally , i can see a single regular low-end card (ie , not a thick card or an auto or expensive item) being shipped in a PWE , but even then it really needs to be sandwiched between two top-loaders or pieces of cardboard cut slightly larger than the cards....also , to avoid problems like this one , you can pay 20 cents extra and mark the envelope as NON-MACHINABLE...that will prevent the envelope from going through the mail-sorting machine where they tend to bind and damage the cards.....

i'm not trying to criticize you , but i hope you'll take my comments in this message as just friendly advice from one hobbyist to another....


i really hope he does see what i wrote and takes it to heart as constructive criticism ...learn from this mistake....do a better job packaging his items....and learns when free shipping is viable and when it isnt.....

 

[Copeskey45]

agreed....

this was the primary text of his mail to me :

I am ALWAYS OPEN for suggestion on how to make more money at sell cards, but I doubt THAT you would have spent 2-3$ in S&H Charges for 2 cards that cost you .75 each.???I am correct?!?!? IF you would have purchased more items and I could have put all of them in a BOX and it NOT cost me MONEY, I would have greatly done that,but alas this was not the case.THE way I sent said cards I was only making roughly about .05 per card, Hmmmm I think THAT got eatin up by the paypal cost,



i gave him what i considered a polite reply :

honestly , yes , i would have still placed my bid even if shipping charge had been $2-3 because i really needed both of those cards for my troy williamson collection....i always take those costs into account when bidding because as one who has been selling online for nearly 13 years , i know there are costs involved in getting the cards delivered safely....that's exactly why no matter how much ebay recommends it on all items , i ONLY offer free shipping on items that will sell for a high enough amount to cover the shipping ....i personally ship EVERYTHING in at LEAST a bubble mailer with delivery confirmation.... larger items usually go via priority mail in flat rate boxes .....i charge 2.25 for a single card , $2.50 for 2-6 card lots , $2.75 for 7-13 cards , and $3.00 for 13-20 cards...with the cost of postage at $1.75 for up to 3 ounces plus the cost of my supplies , i LOSE roughly 25 cents on every package already....

finally , i can see a single regular low-end card (ie , not a thick card or an auto or expensive item) being shipped in a PWE , but even then it really needs to be sandwiched between two top-loaders or pieces of cardboard cut slightly larger than the cards....also , to avoid problems like this one , you can pay 20 cents extra and mark the envelope as NON-MACHINABLE...that will prevent the envelope from going through the mail-sorting machine where they tend to bind and damage the cards.....

i'm not trying to criticize you , but i hope you'll take my comments in this message as just friendly advice from one hobbyist to another....


i really hope he does see what i wrote and takes it to heart as constructive criticism ...learn from this mistake....do a better job packaging his items....and learns when free shipping is viable and when it isnt.....

Well I would have at least filed a dispute with Ebay on this matter. That's what I would do. But I think you handled this situation VERY well!

 

[David K.]

Glad to hear you got your refund and about the new ebay rule. Best regards, David

 

[bsatttu]

If it were me, since he did give you a refund, I would still give the positive feedback, but ding his stars. You probably won't be able to ding his shipping time or cost, but you can give him a one or two star rating on his communication or item as described. Since he is a top-rated seller, the stars will actually hurt him worse than the feedback. For the amount of feedback he has, it probably will only take 2-3 people giving him a 1 or 2 star rating in a three month period to make him loose his top-rated status, which gives him a 20% discount on his Ebay fees.

 

[Loyalty32]

No way in the world would I leave this cat a positive feedback. You might be able to convince me I shouldn't leave him a negative because I received a refund, but a positive? Why? Nothing this cat did shows he deserves a positive. Just my .02...

Thanks
Craig

 

[mintman2]

Since they sent in a pwe without dc I would have simply filed a "did not reveive" case with ebay/paypal. Technically a lie but the easiest way to achieve the desired result. I've done that several times and my conscience is clear as the seller was clearly in the wrong and I just used the system to make me whole without costing me any more expense or wasted time.

I would never leave someone like this a positive but they're response to the case determined if I left a neg or not. Tell me it's MY fault ??? And cry and whine about how you're not making any money ??? I wouldn't even waste my time responding. Sit back wait for my refund and YEAH, he'd get the well deserved neg !

 

[cmcjr99]

i did leave a positive (probably should have waited the 7 days and made it a neutral at best) , but i did also ding the available stars a bit - well , 2 of them....no fault in the SPEED of delivery and no option for on the COST of shipping since it was free....mostly on item as described though now that i think about it , the tone of his email should have made me go a notch lower....