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Not recieving items.. what is going to be easiest for me..
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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:22 am 
 

Ok, here is the story..

I bought a large quantity of RPG books paid by paypal on my credit card and sent to a US address (ie not my confirmened address) The seller insisted on insurance which show up as "Postal Protection" on the paypal invoice. The post office has made notations on the box that it was "received in damaged condition," and "received without contents."  It looks like the guy didn't use enough tape to seal the box, and with all the weight of the books, it broke open during transit with most of it spilling out and most of them are MIA. I can provide pics of the box and probable statment rom the post office quite easily... I have emailed the seller twice and no reply, he was easy to deal with, I'm just hoping that he hasn't pocketed the $$ for the insurance as "extra" income and not actually insured the package..

Do I:

1) Open a dispute through Ebay for each item not recieved..

2) Open a dispute through Paypal...

3) Contact my credit card company and get them to charge it back and let them sort it out..


Brette:)


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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:29 am 
 

Does this not mean that the package is insured by the PO? And that the postal system is supposed to repay you?

I'd try going through the PO for refund, and in the meantime keep trying to contact the seller (possibly calling him). After a few days, if both attempts fail, open up a dispute with the seller (which at least will compel him to reply).

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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 8:38 am 
 

I'd say open a dispute with paypal that says you never received the items.  I'd try and leave any postal claims up to the seller to deal with if possible.  If that doesn't work out then call the credit card company.

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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:18 am 
 

I agree with Mars.  Since you have sent two emails to the seller trying to work this issue out with no response, then it is certainly time to escalate the claim.  I am not sure of Ebay's policy in these matters, but since you paid with Paypal that should be your next step.  With Paypal you can only open a dispute in the Paypal Resolution Center within 45 calendar days of payment.  After that, I'm not sure how much flexibility their customer service staff have in extending that dispute window.  Also since the articles were sent to an unconfirmed address, you may have difficulties.  If you are still within the 45 day window, I would attempt to open the dispute with Paypal first.  If they are unable to help with this issue, then go to your credit card company and have them sort it out.  Credit card companies don't mess around and should be able to recover your money.

Good luck.


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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:45 pm 
 

A similar incident happened to me about two years ago. At the time I was a heavy duty collector as some here might confirm.

Anyway I had responding to a Classified Add (placed on this forum) posted by a long time member here. After several E-Mails with pictures and nice long discussions over the PHONE with the sellar, I sent him a large sum of money in the form of two Money Orders. (I had to use two of them since they could not exceed a specific amount).

Long story shortened, I never got all the stuff I thought I was going to get.

He stated in an E-Mail to me later on that all three of the large boxes had been packed and sent off by his brother, who is (apparently) an idiot.

Anyway, two of the three boxes eventually arrived. BOTH of them were demolished almost totally. There were NO packing materials in either box, he had simply tossed everything into the cardboard boxes and then closed them and taped the top shut (NO TAPE at all anywhere else) There was NO packing list for either of those two boxes but it was obvious that some of the items in those two boxes had been lost. The two boxes were marked 1 of 3 and 3 of 3.

There were about 10-12 boxed sets all completely crushed, a lot of common and a few uncommon modules, several hardback books and one semi rare module (An Aussie Giants Series module). Thankfully someone had placed it in one of the crushed boxed sets. Somehow the Aussie survived the ordeal, and seemed to be in the same condition as the pics he had sent to me. It is the ONLY item I ended up with that is worth more than  a few bucks.......

The third box (2 of 3) never arrived at all. Of course it was the one with the really expensive stuff inside. Or so I was later told.

THE MEMBER/SELLER WOULD NOT REFUND ANY FUNDS and though I had paid for insurance I was never refunded through that either. He refused to return my E-Mails or answer my phone calls after I told him of the mailed boxes situation.

Basically I bought two partially empty demolished cardboard boxes of cheap crap for a lot of money.

IMO I was being scamed and ripped off from the beginning. :oops:   :evil:

I truly hope your story ends on a much better note than mine.


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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:05 pm 
 

THE MEMBER/SELLER WOULD NOT REFUND ANY FUNDS and though I had paid for insurance I was never refunded through that either. He refused to return my E-Mails or answer my phone calls after I told him of the mailed boxes situation.


Is this person still a member? And what was the point of getting insurance if they wouldn't pay it out? Did you talk to a lawyer or something?

Sounds like a bad dream.

  


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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:06 pm 
 

I'd say open a dispute with paypal that says you never received the items.  I'd try and leave any postal claims up to the seller to deal with if possible.  If that doesn't work out then call the credit card company.


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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:22 pm 
 

Sea-to-sky-games wrote:
Is this person still a member? And what was the point of getting insurance if they wouldn't pay it out? Did you talk to a lawyer or something?

Sounds like a bad dream.


Yes, I did talk to a lawer friend of mine, but a Lawyer would have cost me more than the money lost.
Especially considering the long distance from me to the sellars supposed physical address.

The likelyhood that he actually obtained real live Insurance with the funds I sent seem remote in the extream.
He never responded to my inquiries about postal tracking or insurance.

I have no idea if he is still a member here. It no longer matters to me whether or not he is, I certainly wont be doing any further deals with the scumbag. He knows who he is and may recall the situation I have listed here. And if by chance he reads this...... pissoff azzhole!!!!!!!
I hope you have some sort of accident (NOT involving ANYONE else) such as shooting yourself in the leg with a nail gun and cutting through a major blood vessel, and are seriously injured. Or perhaps you have ripped off someone who is close enough to make you pay a VERY heavy price in person.

Not that I am bitter or anything.........  8)

I learned some valuable though expensive lessons through that screwed up situation.

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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:48 pm 
 

The likelyhood that he actually obtained real live Insurance with the funds I sent seem remote in the extream.
He never responded to my inquiries about postal tracking or insurance.


Okay, for some reason I thought you personally took out insurance or used some escrow service or something. It didn't really add up.

  

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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:12 pm 
 

Sea-to-sky-games wrote:
Okay, for some reason I thought you personally took out insurance or used some escrow service or something. It didn't really add up.


eh?  :?

i didnt read it like that at all. why would someone do that.


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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:20 pm 
 

Aneoth wrote:I have no idea if he is still a member here. It no longer matters to me whether or not he is, I certainly wont be doing any further deals with the scumbag.

You could use the "memberlist" function at the top of the page and then sort by "last visit date" (down at the bottom of the page) to see if this person has been active or not.

I fully understand you not wanting to deal with whomever this might be and that just talking about it dredges up painful memories, but it could be very useful information for the rest of us. I'd hate to see another member here get taken to the cleaners.

It might amount to nothing (I suspect this person might have upped sticks, never to return), but you never know ...

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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:30 pm 
 

Small claims court. You can file in your own town.


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Post Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:41 pm 
 

Deadlord39 wrote:Small claims court. You can file in your own town.


Hmm.. I'm in Australia, he is in the states..;) I don't think the paypal is going to work as it was sent not to my confirmed address and so is not covered by their protection plan (Thats the answer I'll get at the end of the day I think)..

At the moment I want to "push" him along.. if he hasn't paid for insurance like he said (and insisted) he did then I think the charge back is going to be the final result as most people aren't going to be willing to give back the $$ even if its their fault. From what I've heard ebay's dipsute resolution is long and tedious...

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Post Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 12:03 am 
 

Xaxaxe wrote:You could use the "memberlist" function at the top of the page and then sort by "last visit date" (down at the bottom of the page) to see if this person has been active or not.

I fully understand you not wanting to deal with whomever this might be and that just talking about it dredges up painful memories, but it could be very useful information for the rest of us. I'd hate to see another member here get taken to the cleaners.

It might amount to nothing (I suspect this person might have upped sticks, never to return), but you never know ...


IIRC, this individual isn't a contributing member of the forum anymore and hasn't posted in some time (this happened a couple of years ago).

Although I could be wrong...

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Post Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:14 am 
 

Badmike wrote:IIRC, this individual isn't a contributing member of the forum anymore and hasn't posted in some time (this happened a couple of years ago).
Although I could be wrong...
Mike B.


You are correct. Though I have not recently been visiting the forum myself nearly as often as I did a couple of years ago, I have seen no more of the scumbag since that unpleasant episode. Which was as stated earlier, well over two years ago.

At the time, I was a buyer of TSR and some other D&D items, and a sometime bidder on E-Bay for RPG items too. I also made a a few private trade deals with members here with no troubles at all. So, when I read the classifieds ad on this site, many of the listed items caught my collecting interest, so I sent the seller an E-Mail stating as much. So, the pathway to my doom was set.

Of course I was the perfect patsy. I suppose I always have been really. I tend to lean towards Trusting in everyone elses integrity. At least until I am proven wrong by that same person. I have always assumed one was honest, until proven otherwise. And even more so when it came to other collectors/members. Folks I conversed with here at the forum, and in E-Mails sent back and forth, and with some whom I was fortunate enough to meet with in person, or speak with on the phone.

I had yet to be stung by thieves in the collecting community.

And No I will NOT name the scumbag here on this forum.
After all, there is the slightest chance that he was wrongly accused by me. Perhaps he was bedridden while I wrote all those E-mails and called his phone all those times and so he could not answer the E-Mails or speak on the phone. Or if he is truly guilty, maybe he was abused as a child and so cannot help the way he is, or perhaps the devil made him do it, or he heard dogs whispering in his ear telling him to rip folks off.

As I said, I learned an expensive lesson or three.

Rant over......  for now.

Best of luck beasterbrook....

Seriously, I hope it all ends well for you.


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Post Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:51 pm 
 

Well it seems sthe seller did pocket the $$ for the insurance as I've been told that there should be an "Insurance" sticker on the box.. there isn't.. he has also sent by media mail at a cost of $9 odd and charged me $14 (which is really neither here nor there I suppose) I tried to open an ebay dispute but because I paid through paypal, it would keep sending me to the paypal site.. I open a Paypal complaint, whcih for the last 3 days he hasnt't bothered to contact me regarding it... so instead of esclating it to a paypal dispute I just rang my c/c company and got a charge back... no probelms, done straight away and I'm pretty sure I'd rather have them look after it rather than paypal themselves...


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Post Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:10 pm 
 

Be sure to report him to eBay for pocketing the insurance money. I probably won't do any good, but it just might

Here is a quote from eBay's Excessive Shipping Charges Policy Page,

Insurance: Sellers offering insurance may only charge the actual fee for insurance. No additional amount may be added, such as "self-insurance". Sellers who do not use a licensed 3rd party insurance company may not require buyers to purchase insurance. This is a violation of state law.



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Post Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:40 pm 
 

I'll update this thread soon with the outcome, but I though you may get a blast from this as well... One of my News Years Resolutions that I mentioned on this site is that I'm starting to leave real feedback, ie I'm going to give neg/neutral/pos when they deserve it.. and I must say with the changes in ebay to their system its righ on time... Anyway here is an email I got from a place I left neutral feedback on.. I have not removed names to protect the guilty.... you sould be able to get the gist of it

Brette:)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: eBay transaction Entertainment House Australia
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 09:36:25 +1100

Hi there,

Just thought I'd contact you regarding your recent purchase from Entertainment House via eBay, I do not normally deal with these issues though I have found several instances of transactions that have may have been better handled and would like to see if we can still resolve this matter amicably.

As you may or may not aware eBay have recently made changes to the feedback rating system, in the past neutral feedback did not effect a sellers overall score though was visible and useful to other buyers, however this will now count as a negative against the seller, detracting from the seller's overall rating irrespective of the stated reason no matter how minor.

As you are not entirely happy with your purchase from us we'd like to see if there's anything we can do to turn this into a more positive experience for you.

Should you wish to communicate with me regarding this matter please respond directly to this email address, hope to hear from you soon,

Sincerely,

Nick Anderson

Manager-Music and Artists
Entertainment House.

----------------------------

My Reply.. excuse the spelling mistakes...
----------------------------



Hi Nick,

Yes I am well aware of ebays new policy in regard to "powersellers" on ebay and their impact on the "fees" charged through them. I'm pretty sure that it is only the "star" rating rather than the positive/neutral/negative rating that I have given you (but I could be wrong, I'm not a powerseller so the change has little impact on me personally). In all honestly I was going to give you a Negative feedback (and I believe that now sellers are unable to give vindictive negative feedback back, only positive feedback can be given to buyers) but in a week moment I decided against it.. Ok now the reasons why (hay you asked)...

I bought the item and then enquire if you had or could you order the item
I recieved and email back that you need to order the item in
I emailed back and said I though that you prob had to do that and asked IF you could get the dvd
You emailed back and said yes
I paid promply
I then recieved an email a week or so later saying that you were having troubles sourcing the dvd from your distributors
another week or so pasted and I made an enquirey
Still haveing problems getting item
I asked for a refund
a couple of days later I got a refund


Ok here is what I see. I asked if you could get me the item, you said yes, then said you couldn't get it. The whole point in me asking was to not have this situation occur. It was quite easy for you ring your distributor and ask and they say yes or no, which I assumed you did (or implied you did) and then I was told that the dvd was pretty much unavailable after you had my money of course.... Going by your feedback I can see that you have to order a lot of stock in and that stock is unavailable or has a fairly long delay, I call this vapour stock, it was a bit of a rage a couple of years ago (I think called Just-In-time suplying form my old economics days). Basically you order stock in as you get the orders and don't hold much stock (and hence not much capital is tied up in stock) on hand. The problem occurs when your suppliers are unable to supply or you have delays in suppling stock to you.... From a buyers point of veiw, I can tell you, that we don't care what your suppiers tell you, if you have an item for sale we expect the item to be to be shipping at short notice otherwise you are selling stock you don't have (which I believe is the case in this instance.. you also had an AUCTION for the same product at the same time as I bought mine, this is a big NO NO for me with auctions you MUST have the stick on hand at all times)...

What can you do to change this? You have 2 options is you want to stay on ebay that I can see:

1) Continue on as you are and pay the extra fees if your rating slips below a certain level as those people you are unable to supply stock you say you have or cann't change them to other available stock to keep them happy leave you negative/neutral feedback (Not really interested in "other" products, If I had wanted something else I would have bought it origionally...) and the fact that you (or other sellers) can't leave retalitory feedback will make more buyers more likely to leave such feedback... And looking at your feedack and the feedback that you have left for people that have left you negative feedback, I hate to say it , but this looks like what you do! Esp when there is stock delays (http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=p ... y&ref=home) I find that some sellers leave neg feedback as a retaliation for for there own (rightly) earned feedback and hope to be to get some mutual withdraws (you have 199 of these) ... and actually if you don't mind ,do you think that the feedback I left was accurate?

2) Change the way you do business. That means for you probably holding a lot more stock on hand and being more up to date with items that are currently experienceing delays in shipping etc (AND FOR GODS SAKE DON'T RUN ANY AUCTIONS UNLESS YOU PHICALLY HAVE THE ITEM)... this means that you have to offer better customer service as well....

Anything else you have my email....

Brette:)


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