So, I finally bought from my first bad seller. I'm including the e-mail chain here, it would be really great if I could get some advice on how best to deal with this situation. I've never had a problem with a seller or a buyer until now.
I bought 4 complete NES carts from this guy. He charged me $15 to ship. After 10 days, I e-mailed him to ask for tracking information, and he said, "The hurricanes in Florida might be screwing up the mail." Whatever. When the carts arrived, nearly two weeks after I paid, they were in an envelope with no protection and $4.50 worth of postage on it. When I opened it up, the games, which for the most part looked cherry in the auction photos, were in really bad shape. Angry, I decided I would ask for a refund and send them back. The e-mail chain below details my communication with him since last night.
Should I bother pursuing this? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill, or should I nail his ass to the wall? What do you guys think would be the best course of action? I'm not inclined to stress out much about $40, but on the other hand it's the principle of the thing.
Originally Posted by To bsager123, IWe have a serious problem. I think you're trying to cheat me.
First: I paid you $14.45 for shipping. For my $14.45, you stuffed the games so tightly into a padded envelope that they were crushed, and then put $4.50 worth of postage on them. No wonder they took so long, and your excuse was pathetic. What would hurricanes in Florida have to do with postage from Maryland?
Profiteering on shipping is bad form. Normally I would just make a mental note to never do business with you again and move on, but this time I am unable to do that, because the items I've purchased from you are for the most part nothing like the items in your auction listings. They are in such bad condition that I cannot accept them. In detail:
-Tecmo Bowl arrived in a crushed box, with a permanent sticker attached to the front. One of the top flaps is torn off. The label on the cartridge is peeling. The bottom of the box is buckled on the right-hand side. There is no poster or Power subscription card, though they are pictured in the auction.
Compare what the auction photo looks like:
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...ctionphoto.jpg
To what the actual product looks like:
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...1-overview.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...02-boxflap.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...03-sticker.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...-cartlabel.jpg
The item in your photo is not the item you actually sold me.
This is unacceptable. I want a refund.
-R.B.I. baseball arrived without foam. The box is torn at the top. The sides have buckled near the bottom, where it is torn. The bottom of the box is caved in and does not hold shape. There is a permanent sticker on the front of the box. There is a price tag on the sleeve. There is a price tag on the cart. There are adhesive remnants on the cartridge itself. This is unacceptable. Although your auction photo showed only the cartridge, the cartridge in your photograph did not have a price tag on it.
Compare what the auction photo looks like:
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...ctionphoto.jpg
To what the actual product looks like:
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...bi/01-cart.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...rbi/02-box.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...-boxbottom.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...icker-tear.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...boxsticker.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/.../06-manual.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...nualcorner.jpg
The item in your photo is not the item you actually sold me.
This is unacceptable. I want a refund.
-Crystalis. The box is torn at the top. The sides are buckled. The bottom is crushed and does not hold shape or stay closed. The tabs do not hold form. Let me be clear: The bottom of the box is more or less totally destroyed. The manual is torn on the front and back cover, and wrinkled. The cartridge itself is very, very dirty. There is dirt inside the cartridge, that rattles around when I shake it.
Compare what the auction photo looks like:
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...ctionphoto.jpg
To what the actual product looks like:
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...1-overview.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...2-overview.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...tdirtfront.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...rtdirtside.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...rtdirtback.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...anualfront.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...manualback.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...8-boxright.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...-boxbottom.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...-boxcorner.jpg
http://www.fahrvergnugen.net/images/...11-boxleft.jpg
The item in your photo is not the item you actually sold me.
This is unacceptable. I want a refund.
You overcharged me for shipping and mis-represented your goods. Further, I believe that you likely did this intentionally. Although I paid quite promptly, you with-held feedback, presumably so that you could retaliate if I spoke openly about how you mis-represented your products and the way you exploited shipping. Too damn bad, buddy. I will blow you open,
I'm really unhappy with you, <REALNAME>. Out of four cartridges ordered, only
one, Blades of Steel, is in decent shape.
I want a refund for the three cartridges ordered. That's $34.77 for the
cartridges. Give me an address and I'll ship them back today (in better shape than you sent them to me). Shame on you, sir, for mis-representing your products in the way that you have, and for ripping off your buyers on shipping charges.
You can contact me at this address, or via instant messenger at these nicks:
AIM: fahrv242
ICQ: 50791045
MSN: fahrv@hotmail.com
Yahoo: fahrv242
I look forward to hearing from you very soon.Originally Posted by In reply, bsager123I'm writting to you just to say i have read your e-mail. I'm sure something can be worked out. I will have to review your e-mail before giving you a response and how i will handle this situation. maybe for the better maybe for the worse.Originally Posted by So to bsager123 II'm sorry about some of the angry tone of my last letter. I was really frustrated at the time, and I let a lot of that show through.
This doesn't change the fact that I'm still unhappy with the product, and the fact that the condition of the items in the auction photos don't in any way match the items that arrived in the mail, but I am willing to see what you have to say about this matter.
Honestly the item I'm most upset about is Crystalis.
Hope to hear from you soon.Originally Posted by in reply to which, bsager123this is going to take me a little bit. I think the best thing to do is to talk about one item at a time. I really need to look at my auctions and read the fine print. Now as to shipping & Handling i know i charge a high price for shipping and handling. There are a number of reasons behind this one the cost of the auction to put up on e-bay, e-bay expenses, paypal expenses, are also calculated into the price of shipping (normally only covers about 20% of these costs). 2 nd Shipping supplies is expensive i spend like $200 a month on supplies. for $800 worth of auctions about $3.00 an auction. 3rd the auctual price of shipping (normally my international buyers end up paying me cost or less than what it cost me to ship and i end up taking $$$ out of pocket). 4th i had to buy the game which requires gas, money, my time etc most of the time i lose $$$$ on my auctions. I am just a poor college student who's trying despartly to pay his bills, study, and trying to make a living off of e-bay.
Anyway i explained the shipping now on to the games i will probably (not 100% sure as of yet) accept cryistalis and give you a refund for the game once i recieve the game. as for the others i am still researching the games. I've only did crystalis so far and checked that out. Also if you read my auction it clearly states "I am not responsible for lost or damaged mail" If i determine the games/boxes were damaged during shipping it won't be good for the both of us. The bubble wrap protects only does so much. Also you could have paid for insurance or even asked me to mail in a box. Things such as this is not my responsibility!!!!! but if i believe i may have inaccurately typed up the auction then i believe this is my responsibility and should take responsibility and try to provide the best customer support i can. anyway I will be writing you later today or tomorrow sometimeOriginally Posted by Irritated with bsager123, I hit reply andI don't like the direction in which this is going. you cannot honestly tell me that the cartridge you shipped me is the exact one in that picture, because it's not. The Crystalis cartridge in the picture is cherry. This one is beat up. Because of this, I want a refund.
I do a fair amount of selling, too. Are you aware that the post office will give you free boxes for Priority Mail? You can ship in those free boxes, and just throw in some styrofoam peanuts or shredded newspaper and everything will arrive in perfect condition, every time. Postage is usually $4 - $8 for complete Nintendo games, and you can print out your shipping labels, bought with Paypal, and tape them down before you go to the post office and just drop off the boxes. It even comes with tracking numbers included in your shipping price. It's very, very reasonable, and as I said, you get free boxes. All you need spend money on is tape, ink, and peanuts. If you ship a lot of individual complete NES carts, I recommend you ask the post office for 'Priority Mail video mailer' boxes, they're the perfect size, and can be dropped in any mailbox.
Shipping is not the appropriate place to recover your costs. The opening price of your item should include these costs. Shipping is just what it costs you to ship the item, not what it costs you to ship the item + list the item + buy the item + gas to get the item.
After taking those pictures yesterday, I spent a lot of time cleaning up the cartridges, Crystalis in particular. There's a tear in the label that I can't do anything about, and quite a few scratches, but the rest of the cart is in good shape now. The manual has been pressed back into shape, and with some work in a book press, the box can be recovered. I have no interest in doing this work. You can re-sell this item to someone else, with the real picture this time, and they can deal with the beat-up cartridge.
If I open a paypal dispute with the photos I've got, it's going to go to me, the buyer, for all of them. You send me a paypal refund, so there's no processing fees, and I'll return the games to you, with delivery confirmation.
I'm not going to let you wait me out of the time period in which I can take action. I'll be filing seller and paypal complaints on Monday morning, so you need to get it in gear and fire off that refund. As soon as I have cash in hand, you'll get a cartridge. You'll pardon if I don't really want to send you a cart without getting the money back first. It's just that after this, I don't trust you.Originally Posted by bsager123, apparently himself irritated,Ok if that is how you feel you have every right to but I REFUSE TO MAKE A REFUND PAYMENT UNTILL I RECIEVE THE GAMES!!!! I've had many bad experiences with this kind of situation. Once I recieve the games I will notify you by e-mail and make a refund normally that same day. I have done this before in the past my customers have ALLWAYS gotten a refund if they had a valid complaint about the product which they have recieved. I am an honest dealer and a fair one at that or so i believe and many of my customers who i had disputes before. But i will not make a refund untill I RECIEVE the games. THATS FINAL. Other wise complain to ebay I will gladely spend $20 for a disputer mediator and other appropriate actions will follow on my part if worse comes to worse. You have my games so i should send you a refund for the games while you still have them?! Doesn't make sense and then all you have to say is I shipped them and they m,ust have been lost in the mail. Then I'm out of my games and money which i recieved for the games. So that is why I kindly request you to send me the games then i can physically see the games and make a refund for themSo, what do you think I should do about this? Am I taking the right course of action?Originally Posted by Exasperated, I thenYou listed auctions with photos of items you weren't actually selling, and overcharged for shipping. Also you don't seem to believe in punctuation. In addition, your feedback includes the words "crook, liar," and most tellingly, "game arrived broken." I think you can understand why I might have a hard time trusting you right now.
Your insistence that you be allowed to evaluate the merchandise before issuing a refund also makes me very nervous.. What will happen if you decide the games are "good enough," that you can blame the damage on "the mail," and you don't want to issue a refund? Now you've got the games, and my money, AND I will have spent the money to ship them to you, AND you'll probably be asking me for another $20 shipping to return them to me. This gets very expensive, and requires me to trust someone who has already lied to me three times (once in each auction listing). Also there's that lame hurricane excuse. That one really bugs me.
Taking all of this into account, you can see why I'm not going to ship the games to you without you first issuing the refund. Sorry.
You've got until Monday morning to return my money. If you want, I will purchase the priority mail shipping label now, and give you the tracking information, along with photos of the items being packaged and prepared for shipment. But I'm not sending you the games without my refund.