the weird world of eBay
I buy many of my supplies from eBay, these range from beads and thread to balloons and packing envelopes. This is a tale of confusion and to be honest a warning to anyone who ever uses it.
Recently I wanted to get some silk ribbon for some little things I’m making, I found some, checked their feedback, some negative, but a long long time ago, and so went for it.
I ordered it on the Monday (13th), on the Thursday (16th) I received this ‘automated reply’;
Thank you for placing your order with ********* *****. We are pleased to
confirm that your order has now been passed to dispatch and will be collected
shortly:
Your parcel has an electronically tracked barcode in the franking strip,
so you may be required to give a signature upon receipt:
so that was cool, I thought it should be with me by Saturday : )
The following Monday (20th) nothing had appeared, so I mailed the seller in the morning and asked when I could expect it to arrive, I received the following reply;
Hi Alice it was collected by royal mail on saturday morning so it should be with you early this week, Many thanks Jo
So that was fine, there had been a delay, fair enough, until I received the next e-mail from the seller later that evening;
Hi Alice, I am sending you a replacement parcel as it may have gone astray in the post. Your new parcel will be posted in the morning (Tuesday). many thanks Joanne
I thought this was a little odd, to receive an e-mail like this at almost 10pm, so I asked;
Hi Joanne
Could explain as to the change of heart? 11 am today, it would
be here early this week, and now you think it has gone astray?
If you could let me know I would appreciate it.
Alice
I felt this was fair enough, as what could have changed, it also made me suspect that she had never sent it in the first place : (
Hi Alice. I have had reports tonight of five of my parcels not arriving so I am replacing them to be on the safe side. all the best, Jo
Ok, give her the benefit of the doubt, it said on the automated thing I got at the start that she tracks all her items, always a good idea, so I went to bed happy that my ribbon would finally arrive on Wednesday.
On Tuesday I sent her another mail because of the tracking, maybe it wasn’t lost and just delayed?
Hi
Looking back at all the communications from you, I was reminded
by the one I received on 16/10, which states;
‘Your parcel has an electronically tracked barcode in the franking
strip,
so you may be required to give a signature upon receipt’
So surely if this is the case you should be able to track all these
missing parcels and see where they are.
Also to let you know it has still not arrived.
Alice
I thought that was fair enough, and I knew she would probably come back with saying yes, they had been tracked, and no they had been lost, etc etc.
A little later I got this;
Hi Alice, yes the parcel did have tag tracking which I can confirm shows the parcel has not yet been delivered so I have sent you a replacement out today. The other may or may not turn up, my experience is if they havent turned up after a week, they usually don’t turn up at all. Joanne
So yes they had gone missing, but hang on, this reply was from the right person, but the wrong account? Weird, I’ve never bought anything from this person, but it was about the ribbon, so I clicked on the link for that account, and there it was, totally different, ok, fair enough she had two accounts, clicked on the feedback, and whay-hay, the account that I had bought my ribbon from, had left feedback on this one!
So here was someone running two accounts and leaving feedback from one to the other! So I wasn’t very happy, ok the ribbon was not expensive, but that isn’t the point, the point was I felt I was being lied to!
On Wednesday the ribbon arrived, the postage wasn’t tracked, it was a Paypal printed postage thing, so I guess that it how the first one was sent as well : (
So I had to leave feedback. I have never left bad feedback for anyone, let alone negative, but I felt I had to do it, so I left the following;
Good item, delivery did not match that, seller using two account to communicate!
I couldn’t argue about the quality of the goods, they were fine, it was the lying I can’t get on with, she replied to this with;
complaine item never arrived? I REPLACED IT, STILL SHE COMPLAINS AND LEAVES NEG
Don’t think she really got the point!
Now of course sellers can no longer leave negative feedback, so I got this instead!
****BEWARE SELLERS, AVOID AT ALL COSTS, FALSELY CLAIMS NON RECEIPT OF GOODS*****
you have to laugh at the sheer madness of it!
I’m not going to say who the seller is, but if you want to know because you are thinking of buying 4mm wide silk ribbon, let me know and I’ll tell you!
But to be honest, you may actually not be able to buy from her again, because more stuff has happened!
After speaking to John about all the problems, and saying that I couldn’t find anywhere on eBay to complain about the two accounts etc, he found me the right place, and I complained just about that, nothing else.
Got up this morning to two e-mails, the first sent by the seller late last night;
many thanks for your negative which to be honest is a bit of a cheek considering I did replace your so called ‘lost’ item for you. I took your word for it that it had not been received but maybe you did receive it and just wanted another freebie. Anyway hope it brings you GREAT joy, YOU VERY SAD PERSON, GET A LIFE!!!!
Also the item was ‘tracked’ so surely she knew I had not received it!
Still don’t think she gets the point!
Then early this morning (5am!) I get a mail from eBay saying that they are removing the feedback she has left for me! And yes, it has gone, also the sellers shop is no longer there either, so my confidence in eBay is restored.
But I would say that try to make sure you do have a good look at someones feedback, even if it is positive, because people put stuff in the comments even if they do not make it neutral or negative.
ps the ribbon is nice though : )
(edit – I would just like to add that the seller has her own website shop, and as far as I’m aware that is still trading.
So to the person who left a snide comment earlier, if she has gone out of business, maybe she should have look at her business practices first)
27th October 2008 @ 12:00 pm
I’m glad to hear Ebay was on top of the situation. What a to-do!
27th October 2008 @ 1:13 pm
That’s a lot of craziness for a little bobbin of ribbon! Good thing eBay was there, though.
27th October 2008 @ 3:35 pm
Crazy stuff. I always try to leave as much information in the feedback as I possibly can, service, shipping, seller correspondence, product condition. I am sorry to hear that there was such a misunderstanding with the purchase process. I am also glad that eBay was responsive to your concerns.
27th October 2008 @ 5:32 pm
whew that’s quite a whirlwind for you! thankfully I never had a negative experience on ebay, but I do should take a closer look at the feedbacks. thanks for sharing the experience.
27th October 2008 @ 5:58 pm
I have been looking for silk ribbon for a project and I think I know who your seller is as she seems the only trader to be selling silk ribbon on Ebay.
The problem is when trying to buy haberdashery in small quantities when you Google whatever it is you are looking for it’s only Ebay links that come up.
27th October 2008 @ 8:48 pm
I have only had one bad experience on e-Bay that wasn’t resolved. I bought something that was broken as as I hadn’t paid by Paypal there was nothing I could do about it. The seller refused to admit the machine was broken.
It hasn’t put me off, but you are quite right. It was the first negative I had had to leave too.
27th October 2008 @ 11:24 pm
I’ve bought quite a few pieces of Liberty fabric on ebay from various sellers. One piece arrived from the UK absolutely reeking of cigarette smoke. All I could picture was the sender blowing as much smoke into the bag as she could and then sealing it up. It was disgusting and permeated anything it touched. I had to air the fabric outside all day.
I carefully read all the guidelines about leaving feedback. I felt that other buyers needed to be aware of this because it’s an important buying criteria. I didn’t want to leave negative feedback so I left a politely frased Neutral comment with good feedback about service and a word about the strong cigarette odour. Boy, did I cop it. I got the most scathing reply from the seller – she was furious. She wouldn’t sell to me again after that (which was fine by me). I don’t see the point in haviing a feedback system if you can’t leave honest and fair comments. Like your situation, my seller totally missed the point. Good on you for following it through with ebay. Seems they confirmed your suspicions.
28th October 2008 @ 11:14 am
hi, I’ve just discovered your blog and had to leave a comment, what a nightmare for you, I’m glad ebay sorted it out for you
: )
28th October 2008 @ 12:26 pm
As a relative newbie to e bay, it is good to learn from your experience, So far so good,but I shall read the small print a bit more now!
29th October 2008 @ 2:31 am
i would say 95% of my eBay transactions have been really great – i hate confrontation but have had to leave negative a few times – things are much better now sellers can’t leave negative as i had a few negative retalliations!!! not nice at all. I’d say really do check feedback.
good luck eBayers!!
29th October 2008 @ 2:35 pm
I’m currently on maternity leave but my main income is selling on ebay – it’s a nightmare not being able to leave neg for ‘customers’ who just mess around and don’t pay! But being cheeky to a buyer like she’s been is just damned rude!!! Please remember that neg feedback is left for sellers unfairly too though – mine isn’t perfect but with 3,000 there’s always going to be a few bad eggs (‘cos I’m a lovely seller ; )
Sorry so many of you seem to have found dodgy sellers though, I had one recently and he still hasn’t refunded me claiming the returned item never arrived, harumph!
29th October 2008 @ 7:10 pm
What a complete nightmare for you to have to go through for a low value item. The cheek of the woman … you didn’t even report the item to her as not arrived, purely made a query.
As you say though, it doesn’t matter how much it cost it’s the whole principal of it. I had a similar experience when I first started using eBay (years ago now), where the feedback seemed to always be from the same buyer. When I looked at the buyer, they seemed to only buy from this particular seller…. obviously meaning that it was a second account trying to make themselves look good, and bidding for items to increase the sale value. Like your situation, eBay were very quick to deal with it and banned the seller from the site within a day or so.
29th October 2008 @ 9:03 pm
what a crazy rude person!
People always get nasty when they have no defense to come back with. At least ebay “dealt” with this person swiftly.
30th October 2008 @ 8:52 am
unbelievable.
2nd November 2008 @ 1:41 pm
Congratulations on Sew Hip great magazine.
I buy lots on Ebay and there are the odd funny fish on there that seem to not understand what running a business is about. It spoils it when people are like that for everyone