- I bought a book to read, and it smells musty! I carefully read the seller's description just now, and the seller mentions absolutely everything except for the musty odor. This is a top-rated seller! The TRS badge means nothing when they don't describe the items properly! I am not going to ask to return the book, since I need it, but I'm going to have to try to find another one that does not smell. I am so annoyed!
I just microwaved it briefly, and I now have it propped up in an open window. It probably won't help. - I had a seller recently who couldn't get the books into one invoice, so I had to make two payments. Of course, the seller packaged the books together and made a profit on the postage paid.
- I bought some books, and I could tell that they had a bit of wear in the photos, but they were quite a bit worse than what the photos showed. They aren't worth what I paid!
- I bought some books with Buy It Now Immediate Payment Required. I bought several lots from the same seller. I had no choice but to pay the full postage amount for each transaction since eBay is stupid and does not have a shopping cart. Of course, the seller put them all in one box and made out like a bandit on the postage I paid.
I realize that I agreed to the postage amounts on each transaction, but a good seller would refund the extra postage. - A seller mailed me someone else's book in a package separate from the books I purchased. I had to look up the seller's completed auctions to verify that this was someone else's book. What followed infuriates me. Half of my messages were read by the husband and half by the wife, and they did not communicate with each other. Is that how to run an eBay business?
After my first message, the wife suggested that I mail the book to the buyer in Australia. This was a very heavy book, and I was not about to mess with $25 or more postage. I suggested returning the book to the seller, and I suggested that it would be best for me to use priority mail, since the buyer bought the book two weeks before!
The wife said to send the book back the next day and that my PayPal account would be credited. She did not tell me that priority was not acceptable. As a seller, I give buyers very specific directions for returns. Why would this seller give me no directions?
I generated a postage label and had PayPal send an email to the seller. I also sent a message stating that the book had been returned and what I had paid for postage. I also stated that I had PayPal print the postage on the label so the seller could see the amount.
I then received a $4.00 refund from the husband for the postage for returning the book. He asked if I had returned the book yet. I then received a message from the wife asking if I had returned the book.
???
Um, did neither of them see either message confirming the return? At this point, I was annoyed, and I stated that I would not have sent the book priority if I had known that I would only be refunded media. The husband replied that media would have been fine (how about talking to your wife?) and that he would refund the extra. I HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE EXTRA REFUND AND HAVE NOT HEARD BACK. Idiots. I should have kept the book and not mentioned it to them. But then, they would think the poor buyer in Australia was lying about not receiving the book. If this had not involved another buyer, I might have kept the book without saying anything. That sounds bad, but the old art book was worthless to me.
The buyer and seller are just lucky that the book was in a separate package, which set off a warning bell in my head that I needed to figure out what the deal was with the book. I have had sellers send me extra books in packages, and I have always assumed that they were free books. What if the sellers made a mistake?
This is why some buyers refuse to cooperate when they are accidentally shipped the wrong book. Years ago, I also took a loss when a seller had me mail a book to the correct buyer and then did not refund me. After a while, buyers get tired of having to pay for other people's mistakes.
Before some narrow-minded person thinks that all of my eBay transactions are bad and decides to flame me, these complaints represent around 30% of my transactions for the last month. That is quite high and probably the highest I dissatisfaction rate I have ever had in a single month, but 70% of my transactions were fine! Usually, 90% to 100% of my transactions are fine!
These are not situations that I could have avoided, except of course, if I had not purchased the books. These sellers all have good feedback. Anyone else need to vent? It helps every once in a while to air our complaints, and then we can move on.
4 comments:
I have had some dissappointing transactions, but the worst transaction I ever had involved a seller whom I had sent a request for an invoice to and asked for shipping insurance to be added into my total, since my purchase was well over $200. I received my invoice with a total shipping cost of $5.50. Nice cost, yes, however, I doubted that it included insurance. Again, I sent another message and requested insurance, waited, and never heard back. I paid my total, and enclosed yet another message with my payment asking to please insure the package and I would certainly pay via a seperate invoice through Paypal, but I really wanted insurance to avoid any problems should there happen to be. I checked again later that night, and the seller had posted the shipping information, and still not answered my THREE emails requesting insurance. By that point and time, I felt down right ignored, so I did send a snippy email, after, of course, I did send three perfectly polite messages and the message that I got back was the MOST hateful, rude message I have ever gotten in my life. I did receive the books, in the said condition, and the seller ended up picking up the insurance cost, but that was the absolute worst transaction ever. I have never had to fight with a seller to protect their money as well as mine! This person was a 'power seller' too. HA!
Oh, I did receive a negative from a buyer who paid $9.99 for a Clue in the Broken Locket 1st PC that had the spine pictured as the most obvious part of the picture, and which was the worst part of the book. When I asked the buyer why they chose to leave me a negative (with NO communication before hand), they said that the spine was in bad shape. I stated that that was the picture, and I'm sure future sellers would at least appreciate you contacting them to let them know that you are unhappy... you could have returned the book or we could have worked something out. Those are my two problems... other then that, I think the last two months or so have been ok. :) It is nice to vent about it though.
Your story concerning the communication between husband and wife takes the cake. It amazes me that they don't at least say something to each other concerning the transacation! Now you are out money and time for being an honest person!
A couple years ago, a new buyer of Nancy Drew books was leaving lots of negatives and neutrals to sellers because of the condition of the books. In one case, the jacket was clearly trashed in the photo. It was obvious that the jacket was badly torn and in poor condition, and the buyer left the seller a negative because the jacket was in poor condition. Here's a big clue: If the jacket looks bad in the photo, then it is bad!
I tend to look more carefully at the seller's photos than I do the description. Lots of times, the books are in much worse shape than stated, and the photo shows it. This is true for some of the sellers who describe books as pristine when they have lots of wear.
I have had a few rude responses from sellers over the years, usually when the seller used a priority box for media mail and it came postage due. I had one seller get angry with me! It was not my fault that the seller used a priority box, the USPS noticed, and the package arrived postage due.
I need to report that the seller of the book that I had to mail back just credited my PayPal account with another $6.00. I had given up on it. The seller (the husband) waited 11 days after stating that I would get a refund for the extra amount I paid. In the refund, the seller stated that the buyer received the book and is happy.
?
So the seller waited until he (or she) had shipped the book to the correct buyer and received verification of receipt before bothering to send me an additional refund? What did that have to do with me? I shipped the book back to the seller, not to the buyer. They received the book back one week ago on a Friday. It boggles the mind.
My musty book smells a little better after I had it in an open window and then outside most of the day. I have never been able to completely get rid of musty odor, which is why it bothers me so much. I also hate cigarette odor, but cigarette odor always fades completely with time.
The craziest thing to happen to me on eBay occurred about 10 years ago. Someone many of us know who, obviously, didn't like me, joined with the user name 'mikedebaptiste', my name, and would bid on my Hardy Boys listings. This was when the bidders' user names were listed with the bids, so everyone could see what looked like me bidding on my own books. A few people commented on it to me, but most people knew I wasn't that idiotic to bid on my own books with my own name. Most others figured out who was actually doing it. EBay would do nothing to stop it, no matter how much I complained, even though it was all quite obvious - a new user with a low feedback.
He'd bid some of the rarer books way up high, into the hundreds, then let somebody else win. In every case, I had to figure out what the high bid would've been without the false bidding, and only charge the winner that price. I did not make them pay what the jerkball had bid things up to.
Because of this experience, I figure eBay no longer lets you see the bidders' user names in order to facilitate shill bidding and false bidding. Who cares how those amounts get bid up high, just so they do!
Mike
viz the musty book--a bit of baking soda sprinkled into it while microwaving sometimes helps....
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