[78-L] First eBay problem

Mon Dec 27 15:46:07 PST 2010

Hey Taylor - Sorry that something like this happened to you! From a 
buyer/seller standpoint, I can see both sides. I ship in the neighborhood of 
2000 packages a year & almost always when I get this complaint the package 
was indeed delivered and either picked up by a spouse or relative, or 
misfiled by the buyer themselves. Granted, these are normally CDs, and not 
$100 records - but it does tend to make sellers wary of buyers saying they 
did not receive and item when in fact they did. Usually about a week later I 
get the - found it, email! Once though, I do remember the post office 
delivering only the top of a box to a customer in one of those damaged en 
route plastic baggie things. It was scanned as delivered though - ha!

On the other hand, when dealing with records and genuine collectors, I'd 
tend to side with the buyer. If it were me, I'd much rather eat the $140 and 
have a buyer continue bidding on my items - it just makes sense. When 
selling on Ebay, it always takes at least 2 serious bidders to make a decent 
sale price on a record & he could make that $140 back on one item! I never 
understood the short sightedness of some sellers, but never-the-less it's 
there. This seller has been selling some really nice records for a few years 
now, and it's not like there's an unlimited pool of buyers for the real 
rarities (and good prices). I still think that the anonymity of buying and 
selling on Ebay kind of drives this feeling of getting cheated at times & 
promotes folks to use poor judgment!

It works on the buyer side as well. On the last list I ran on the vmauctions 
site, there was a buyer who purchased 2 nice & high priced jazz/dance band 
records from a seller other than me. When he received them, he complained 
that one of the records was not graded correctly - which is not a problem as 
all items sold on the site are refund eligible for any reason. The seller 
than offered a $35 refund (half of the price) to keep the record which is 
pretty standard practice & the buyer refused and wanted a full refund - 
again, no problem. This particular buyer was in the Europe and on top of the 
money for the record he wanted the seller to pay $19 for the postage back 
(even though the seller only received $5 in postage costs as it was shipped 
to an address in the US). The seller then decided to refund the entire cost 
of the record and let the buyer keep it so as not to incur another payment 
for the shipment back. The buyer continued to insist that he not only 
received a refund for the record but also cover the postage back even though 
the seller told him to keep it! It is our published policy that any record 
can be returned for refund, but the buyer is responsible for postage back 
(unless the personal seller decides to cover the return expenses as well). 
Anyhow, after this, the buyer then said that he'll never buy another record 
on the site and cancelled everything! When the record did arrive safely back 
in the US, the seller sent me a message letting me know he did refund the 
postage cost personally through paypal. So really, it goes both ways!

And yes, the post office is rarely any help at all - especially if you live 
in a major metropolitan area.
Good Luck!
Malcolm in GA

Venerable Music - http://www.venerablemusic.com/
78rpm Auctions - http://www.vmauctions.com/
Venerable Radio - http://www.venerableradio.com
On Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/venerablemusic

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 5:56 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] First eBay problem

> Thanks to Greg and David...I went to the PO once about this and got no 
> help.
> And Greg is right,  so long as there is "confirmed delivery" no one seems
> inclined to just accept the fact that I didn't receive it.
>
> An expensive lesson...but as with most glitches in life...it could have 
> been
> worse.
>
> Taylor
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Lennick" <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 2:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] First eBay problem
>
>
>>I had a similar experience involving a prominent e-Bay seller, who refused
>>to
>> do anything about the problem. It was only a $4 item (plus shipping) so
>> the
>> only great loss was to the seller, who won't get another bid from me. 
>> Most
>> of
>> the eBay dealers willingly dealt with lost or damaged shipments in days
>> past.
>>
>> dl
>>
>> On 12/27/2010 5:45 PM, Greg Laxton wrote:
>>> I believe PayPal only requires Signature Confirmation on packages over
>>> $200...maybe $250.
>>>
>>> If it shows up as Delivered in the USPS system, sounds like the seller
>>> may
>>> have done all that's required of him - mailed it with Delivery
>>> Confirmation
>>> and it was delivered...somewhere in your zip.  Of course I understand
>>> you'd
>>> hope he'd have done more.
>>>
>>> Any chance you purchased insurance?  But I'd guess that's a moot point 
>>> if
>>> it
>>> shows up as being delivered.  Maybe with a statement from your postal
>>> carrier, you might be able to get some traction for a claim.
>>>
>>> Tried bending the ear of your local carrier?  Perhaps it was left at the
>>> wrong door step?  If that fails, I'd set up an appointment with the 
>>> local
>>> Postmaster.  Perhaps he or she can track down the person in the local
>>> post
>>> office who marked it "delivered."
>>>
>>> I've had packages not show up and when the buyer contacted the local PO,
>>> it's been found on a shelf somewhere.
>>>
>>> Good luck,
>>> Greg
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Taylor Bowie"<bowiebks at isomedia.com>
>>> To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>>> Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 5:12 PM
>>> Subject: [78-L] First eBay problem
>>>
>>>
>>>> I've always posted on here about all my good eBay experiences as a
>>>> buyer,
>>>> so thought I should alert all to a probelm I just had which resulted in
>>>> my
>>>> being out $140.
>>>>
>>>> A seller from whom I'd bought a number of nice records over the years
>>>> sent
>>>> me a package on Nov 4...I never received it.  Someone in the PO system
>>>> "confirmed" delivery and so neither eBay or Pay Pal will give me my
>>>> money
>>>> back.  All I could get from the PO was that it was "delievered" to my
>>>> zip
>>>> code...no address and no signature...not much of a confirmation,  as 
>>>> far
>>>> as
>>>> I can tell.
>>>>
>>>> The fellow at Pay Pal noted that you get better protection if you also
>>>> have
>>>> signature confirmation...a more rigorous form of making sure that the
>>>> package arrived where it was supposed to and that the right person got
>>>> it.
>>>>
>>>> I was disappointed that this seller would not give me my money back,
>>>> and
>>>> that he put the entire onus on me to "prove my case."  I had never run
>>>> into
>>>> this attitue in my years in the book business and always took
>>>> responsibility
>>>> as the seller...guess that doesn't always apply these days.
>>>>
>>>> The seller,  with whom I've always had a good relationship, goes by
>>>> luckydaddy.  He offers nice records in geat condition,  but after this 
>>>> I
>>>> won't be comfortable doing business with him any more.  He has always
>>>> been
>>>> a
>>>> good guy,  but if any of you do business with him I'd suggest that you
>>>> ask
>>>> for signature conformation if you make a purchase from him,  in order 
>>>> to
>>>> protect yourself in case the pacakge gets into the wrong hands but
>>>> delivery
>>>> is entered as "confrimed.'
>>>>
>>>> If anyone else has had any kind of similar experience with anyone,  and
>>>> was
>>>> ever able to get money refunded,  I'd like to hear about it.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks to all from
>>>>
>>>> Taylor
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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