"I saw fantastic interplanetary battle engines of awesome scale and power."
Joined: Dec 2002 Gender: Male Posts: 3,143 Location: Whittier, Ca
Another e-bay thread:terng3110**Red Flag « Thread Started on May 6, 2005, 12:46pm »
I mentioned this on another thread, but today I'm crossing the line from irritaton to anger. I bought a GX-03 from this guy, terng3110, 'Buy it Now' for $109. on Monday. Of course, both e-bay and paypal immediately generate confirmation e-mails. As I always do when I buy something on-line I sent an e-mail to the seller asking for acknowledgement and confirmation of the order, and shipping. No reply. I have sent this guy four notes so far and received no reply. Have any of you had a similar experience? Has anyone else dealt with this guy? This kind of stuff drives me nuts. (And for me that's a short trip) JWM
Joined: Aug 2003 Gender: Male Posts: 198 Location: Watertown, MA
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110 « Reply #1 on May 6, 2005, 3:01pm »
I've never dealt with him, but the last time I read ebay's policies (about 5 years ago) they stated you should give 3 weeks for contact. Perhaps something has happened to keep him from responding. sh*t does happen in real life, and sometimes you can't respond to an ebay autcion e-mail as quickly as you'd have liked to. have you checked his feedback to see if he has a history of this kind of behavior?
Joined: Feb 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 2,857 Location: Ottawa, Canada
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110 « Reply #2 on May 6, 2005, 3:09pm »
Not the same seller but something similar happened to me a few weeks ago.
First the auction said that "international buyers" had to email them to confirm shipping. So I did. It was Tuesday.
Thursday rolled around and I still didn't hear from them, so I went back to the auction to see if maybe the page updated with an invoice button. (It was). But I also noticed for the first time a tiny fine-print clause in the "Shipping Info" section that buyer had to have a minimum feedback score - else email them first. But since I'd already won, I wrote them immediately asking if it was a problem. So now I was confused - why the hell did they bother with such an important clause by hiding it in fine-print... let alone in the WRONG section of the auction listing?
On Sunday morning, I gave them the benefit of doubt. I decided to click that "Pay Now!" button - seemed to me that the button used to be "Send Invoice." I wrote them again anyway explaining that I had grown tired of waiting and decided to assume that it was all good since they never replied to my question about my feedback.
On the following Tuesday, I wrote them a third time (4th if you count the eBay "Send Invoice" button from 7 days prior). I quoted the days since the auction end and the days since I sent payment. I also explained again why I was initially worried thanks to all those clauses in the original listing I failed to notice when I first bid. I also asked again for them to send a shipping confirmation (if they'd already shipped, and if they hadn't, when they expected to ship).
The following Sunday I was at my wits end. I avoided being rude, but my final email was indeed very dry. I counted a summary of all the times I tried to raise them on email, the number of days since the auction end, and the number of days since payment. I also told them in no uncertain terms that I was ready to take this up with Paypal and eBay to get my money back.
An hour later they wrote back and promised to send out on Monday. They claimed they had been having computer difficulty for the last week or so.
The deal was a load of sh*t because I know they were on-line - they had left feedback for other users during the last 14 days....
Anyway, I eventually got my stuff... ...still I would recommend prompting them every 2 days or whatever you feel is logical... you never know, to continual flood of email will certainly get it through heads that you're unhappy.
On the other hand, I'd also like to point out that there've been times where I never got any email from the seller and the item just arrived out of the blue a short while later.
"I saw fantastic interplanetary battle engines of awesome scale and power."
Joined: Dec 2002 Gender: Male Posts: 3,143 Location: Whittier, Ca
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110 « Reply #3 on May 6, 2005, 4:38pm »
Hey, how ya doing Mcfitch. I know that stuff indeed happens. Perhaps I'll receive the order in a timely fashion. I've got about a week and a half to wait. I sent another e-mail to the guy today. One of the feedback notes said he responded quickly, another said he didn't respond to the e-mails. Go figure. As I see it it's a matter of both personal and professional courtesy to respond quickly to a customer's contact. Especially in the anonymous and impersonal realm of cyber business. One of the things I mentioned to him is that Japanese toy collectors (that's us, folks!)are a pretty tightly knit on-line community. If a seller is good to deal with we pass along the good word quickly. If one of us gets burned by a seller it also gets around fast. A couple of posts on Robot-Japan or Toybox DX can be quite a boost, or cost a seller thousands of potential customers. So I wait. JWM
Joined: Feb 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 2,812 Location: New Orleans, LA USA
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110 « Reply #4 on May 6, 2005, 6:04pm »
Ben's right, you should continue to email them until they reply. Although I usually prefer not to, I too have completed satisfactory transactions (as the buyer) without direct contact with the seller, but that usually only occurs if there is a small sum at stake and the seller has a good reputation. However, if I feel uneasy, or get a bad feeling about it, I'll send a message and would certainly expect the seller to respond. A concerning email should never go unreplied.
As a friend, I gotta be honest with you though, I saw this auction a day or so before you posted that you bought one, and I was a little skeptical of its authenticity. $103 is unusually very low for GX-03 and for a long out of production toy, it seems unlikely that he'd have a stock full of them. Plus, iirc, he has a pretty low feedback rating. Not bad, but relatively low. Which means he has less at stake if eBay boots him from the community.
As far as a timeframe goes, I wouldn't give him a minute more than what PayPal or eBay will give you to file a complaint. I had a bad deal with a member of a TF forum last year when the guy kept telling me he was going to send what I ordered from him. He had been a long standing, reputable member of the board, so I trusted him and waited...and waited. BIG MISTAKE. He ended up disappearing from the board with several people's monies, and is now totally gone...scott free. Moral of the story: cover yourself. No matter what someone tells you, or how good their reputation is, the bottom line is this is the internet, and one can very easily be made a victim of another's deceit.
If you paid with PayPal DO NOT wait past 30 days to file a complaint.
File your case no later than the 29th day after payment was made. If the seller refuses to accept the fact that you have to look out for yourself, then shame on him. You can bet your buck he'd do the same thing to cover his own hide. Besides, I'd rather have a negative feedback left for me than allow a no good thief to escape with my hard earned money.
I'm sorry jwm, I don't mean to spook you out. I just don't want to see you get taken for a ride. It could very well be a completely legitimate deal, but we won't know for sure until you have good ol' Combattler in your hands.
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
Joined: May 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 896 Location: Los Angeles, CA
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110 « Reply #5 on May 6, 2005, 11:41pm »
And the thing that sucks is that the seller lives 1 t o5 miles from me!! GRRRR, he better not steal JWM's money! There is no way JWM shoudn't have received it yet. I buy some stuff from Computer Geeks in San Diego. If I order at 4:00 pm on a Wed, I get the item by 2:00 pm the next day...
"I saw fantastic interplanetary battle engines of awesome scale and power."
Joined: Dec 2002 Gender: Male Posts: 3,143 Location: Whittier, Ca
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110 « Reply #6 on May 7, 2005, 12:49am »
Thanks guys. Rex 203- that's some good advice. I haven't been burned yet, so for now I kind of have to give him the benefit of the doubt. But yeah, I'll definitely contact paypal, ebay etc. if that thing isn't here in two weeks. As I said, I already let him know how quickly his reputation as a toy dealer can go down the tubes. On the other hand, crooks don't care much for reputations. So we'll see. Thanks again. JWM
"I saw fantastic interplanetary battle engines of awesome scale and power."
Joined: Dec 2002 Gender: Male Posts: 3,143 Location: Whittier, Ca
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110 « Reply #8 on May 7, 2005, 1:05pm »
I did a little more research- I went through all his feedback, and transactions. Except for one squabble, all the transactions for SOC pieces were completed to the buyers' satisfaction. That is reassuring. I don't want to start accusing the guy of being a crook. So there's nothing to do now but wait. Again thanks for the input.. JWM
"I saw fantastic interplanetary battle engines of awesome scale and power."
Joined: Dec 2002 Gender: Male Posts: 3,143 Location: Whittier, Ca
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110**UPDATE « Reply #11 on May 8, 2005, 10:16am »
Easy there, Mazinkaizer. No need to go into attack mode.
I got a note today from the seller. He apologized for being tardy with the response. Combattler is on the way. So all is well for now. I be happy. And considering this guy's prices, he might be a good one to watch. Thanks again guys. JWM
Joined: Oct 2002 Gender: Male Posts: 702 Location: Pasadena, CA
Re: Another e-bay thread:terng3110**UPDATE « Reply #12 on May 8, 2005, 2:56pm »
Yeah, funny story about ol' Mazinkaiser : I had told him about how some local ebay seller in Yorba Linda had burned me on a deal. He asked for the guy's name and address, so I gave it to him. Mazinkaiser pays the guy a visit and delivers a severe beating about the head and neck area. Well, as it turns out, when I had given him the guy's info I was a tad bit inebriated and accidentally gave him a different seller's info. He ended up thrashing an 82 year-old innocent seller within an inch of his life. My bad. The story, however, does end on a happy note as my piece arrived the next day. Good Times and Laughs on Robot-Japan.
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