eBay auction VENT: feel RIPPED OFF & FRUSTRATED!

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 12:57pm

So ... 1/17 I bid "buy it now" for an item on eBay ... $65 for a DRS Playbill signed by five of the cast, including Lithgow and Pryce. Thought it would be a nice collector's item to have, you know? Not here to debate whether paying that much was a bargain or stupid. I'm not even sure myself. As things stand currently, I'm feeling more in the latter category than the former.

I'm here to vent because although I PayPal'ed payment to the seller *immediately* and although I received an email from her the next day telling me that it would be mailed to me "in a couple of days" (it was to be mailed Priority Mail) ... here it is 2/10 and I don't have the item. (Well, in all fairness, the mail hasn't run here yet today.) I have tried contacting the seller via her email address several times, using direct email and also "contact seller" at eBay. I've finally told her that unless I hear from her this weekend, I'll be posting negative feedback for her Monday.

I've tried to be patient about this, but I think there's been plenty of time for the item to reach me (more than plenty!) ... and plenty of time for her to reply to my inquiries of the last several days. I can't help but feel like she's blowing me off, and I don't know why.

Thing is, I am sure that she's been online since I emailed her -- I found her myspace page, and once, in the last day or two, when I looked at it, it said she was online right then! I've even seen her post here on BWW within the last few days. So she's been online, which I would assume means she's received my emails (none have bounced back to me) but has just chosen to ignore them.

And yes, I've checked bulk mail folders just in case, and nope, no replies from her have landed there. She just plain has not replied at all as far as i can tell.

Also, from all I can tell she seems like an okay person ... if it wasn't for this whole auction thing and not receiving the item, I wouldn't have any negative opinion of her at all. I'm afraid though, that this experience hasn't helped.

I want what I paid for, or I want a refund (and if I don't get the item, I'm getting a refund one way or another, whether from her personally or via eBay and PayPal (the item does have PayPal Buyer Protection).

Not even sure if I'm asking for advice ... I just needed to vent ... and in the off-chance that she sees this and reads it, maybe it will prompt her to get in touch with me finally. If she recognizes herself in what I'm posting here, she'll know who it is.

I'm pretty disgusted ... and feeling like I've thrown $65 + postage away ...

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 12:59pm

Is 'her' name Matty_G?

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:01pm

No.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:22pm

You know, PayPal's got a pretty efficient policy on this sort of thing - you can send in a formal complaint against the user saying you'd already paid but haven't received the item. They'll try for a certain amount of time to contact the user and if he/she doesn't respond or PayPal's not satisfied with the response, it'll refund you for whatever you paid (I believe out of the seller's account - so do it soon before the money is taken out and the PayPal balance is $0).

I would do that ASAP if I were you.

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:28pm

I would also complain at Ebay. I would've left negative feedback for her by now.

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:32pm

Pop,

Have I told you lately that I love you?

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:34pm

Thanks, both of you.

I'm trying my best to give this person every chance to give me an explanation. I pretty much promised them this weekend/Monday deadline, so I'm going to stick by that and not post neg. feedback before noon Monday (eastern) ... (unless I hear a good excuse and solution from them before then).

[DAME]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:36pm

Sorry about your bad e bay experience. I have had luck.. especially with some Liza stuff. PM me if I can be of help.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:41pm

First order of business is to put in a formal complaint with e-bay. They will take it from there. I was reimbursed for a book that I won on e-bay.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:45pm

I hate when stuff like this happens. Definitely file a PayPal claim. You will get your money back :)

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 1:45pm

I did that on an item I got stiffed on. Five other people did that against the same seller. Bupkus!

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 2:14pm

Thanks for being so sweet, everybody!

I sort of come and go with buying things off eBay, and overall have had good experiences. I always look at the seller's feedback rating ... in this case, the seller has a 98.5% rating (I thought that was pretty good); no negatives in the past 12 months; 1 neutral. (There was 1 "mutually withdrawn" comment last year that was probably orig. a negative from the way it sounds.)

Now looking closer at their feedback -- looks like they've been a buyer more than a seller. Feedback from sellers looks good from what I've seen. Most of the feedback from buyers is good too, but there are several cases where I see people complain about slowness (yet most still give pos. feedback). One feedback in May of last year was mutually withdrawn, which I guess means it no longer factors into her rating, but the comment's still there, and it was a complaint about the item not being received.

So kinda sounds like this is something of a pattern -- guess in a way it's good to know .... maybe I'll get the item yet. Still posting that negative feedback Monday afternoon though because I think it's just ridiculous.

PayPal and eBay are owned by the same people now, right? If I have to go the complaint route, do I do it both places or do I choose one? Or does it matter that much?

x's and o's - Barb <-- ebay feedback: 100%, not to brag or anything... lol

[KelRel]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 4:19pm

You have to go through both I think.

[etoile]

Posted: 2/10/06 at 4:48pm

Do it with both PayPal and eBay. And don't just file negative feedback with ebay, but also file a complaint against the seller.

Poppy, will you be my Valentine?

Updated On: 2/10/06 at 04:48 PM

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 5:45pm

update: Just home from a movie and there was an email waiting from her. Nutshell: she's been out of town; an asst. mailed the package, she's not sure exactly when, 2nd package mailed to someone else confirmed delivered; once she's home in the next day or two, she'll let me know what she's found out; wants to resolve this.

Sole thing I can think of (assuming she's giving it to me straight, and I think she is actually) is IF my apt. # was left off the package mailing label, it very well may have been returned. It's been known to happen. However, in my defense about that, the # IS included in my mailing address on both eBay and PayPal, so ....

But ... assuming that's the case, I guess maybe I really should make a major point of telling people to be sure and put my apt. number on mail to me.

Anyway, won't be leaving neg. feedback since she has contacted me and sounds like she wants to resolve this as much as me. Hopefully either the package was returned for some reason and she can resend it ... or depending on when it was actually send out, it's just late getting to me.

Thanks to all of you who listened to my "vent" and offered advice and understanding.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:01pm

Just wanted to put a few cents in about ebay. I've been a big seller there in the past, and continue to be a buyer. I've had many of experiences like yours, but I just wanted to say that posting negative feedback does little more than assuring that you'll get one right back.

Whenever a seller is late in shipping, and also in replying to emails, I ALWAYS get the excuse "Oh, I was out of town" or "I was very ill" or "someone in the family passed", etc.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:09pm

That's true. I've never left bad feedback, even when I've been wronged, because I know they'll do the same to me. I'd probably leave neutral, or just not leave any at all.

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:14pm

Jane2 and T_a_T .... you both make a good point about negative feedback just bringing the same back. Maybe best in bad cases to not leave feedback at all, of any kind. So far I've actually never given anybody negative feedback at eBay. Early on I did leave a neutral feedback for someone, but that's been it. All positive otherwise.

For now, I'm going to give this person the benefit of the doubt and see if we can resolve this. I hope so.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:22pm

Here's what happened to me with the one neg. feedback I ever got. I was a seller, and the person who won my item never paid, never answered emails-nothing. I notified ebay also, but nothing. She never contacted me. I finally left negative feedback, saying she was a non-payer and a non-replyer to emails.

Then she goes and gives me negative feedback saying I was a nasty seller.

So you see what I mean, there's no sense in it.

(of course, if anyone wanted to check if I was a nasty seller, all they had to do was check my other 250 feedbacks which raved about how nice I was).

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:24pm

While the topic is eBay, here is another word of advice: Don't buy a musical instrument on eBay, no matter how good the description sounds. Just say no.

Updated On: 2/12/06 at 06:24 PM

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:26pm

Ouch, don't you hate that? I mean, the occasional negative feedback when you've got over a hundred ratings won't hinder you - but for someone like me, who has under 15, one negative feedback drops my percentage substantially and it just looks bad, ya know? So I see where you're coming from. I don't use eBay often enough to rack up a lot of ratings, but when I do use it, it's usually for things that I would need a perfect feedback rating for (i.e. selling concert tickets - NOT scalping, JFTR), and I don't want to risk that by leaving negative feedback.


ETA: Iflit, the S&H alone would be enough of a deterrence!

Updated On: 2/12/06 at 06:26 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:30pm

feedback , negative or positive , should be the very last step. Once you've got your payment and you've got your product. There are other ways to resolve conflicts other than feedback. Actually negative feedback might hinder the process of getting the issue resolved.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:45pm

that goes without saying