Ebay Fun

[weswilson]

At Dragoncon, a particular dealer was offering ten third-party d20 books for ten bucks, so I took the bait. Four of the ten weren't all that great, but the six I enjoyed were so inspiring that I revived my ideas for The Great Wes D&D Campaign(TM).

After I was done reading them... I felt a bit vacant. So I decided to search for more deals on these third party products. Ebay was the logical choice, and I found a plethora of inexpensive D20 supplements to bid on. The shipping charges are the real hit on things like this, so I tended to buy large numbers of items from individual sellers to benefit from combined shipping. Happiness is getting five auctions in one media-mail envelope.

Everything went fine until this week. I had won ten auctions from the same vender... anything from a penny to four bucks per book... and when I got the final bill, the shipping was more expensive than the items themselves. I did a quick scan of all the items and sent off the following e-mail:

I hate to sound like I'm trying to nickel and dime you out of money.... but everything on this list is a 40-60 page booklet. All of them could fit into one media mail envelope. Is there any possibility we could bring the postage and handling down a bit from 26 bucks? I figure it's six bucks to ship one envelope... I'd pay twice that... and round in favor. Could we get it down to 13 dollars? That should compensate you for the time and take care of the envelope.

This is the reply that I got:

Wes - shipping and handling include a lot more than postage. My rates are set. My standards are covered in every auction.

Please pay promptly,

(Insert dealer's name here)

Uhhhhh... what? ok... don't be insulted, Wes. I can't help it! Yeah, I know... but take a deep breath, pay the bill, and try to get her to laugh it off while letting her know that was insulting.

So I sent off:

I am happy to pay promptly... but can't help but feel that was an unnecessary dig... :-P

Please ship my stuff,

Wes Wilson

tbtbtbtbtbtbtbtbbtbtbtbtb

Everything gets better if you stick a raspberry on the end of it, right? Silliness trumps asshole.. doesn't it?

So I get a reply:

LOL, okay dude. :)

And I'm hoping it's the end of it.

Today, I go to bid on an item from another vender... and I'm BANNED! Come to find out that this person has multiple ebay accounts and has banned me from bidding on any of them! And the kicker is that I unwittingly had purchased six OTHER items from that OTHER account, totaling SIXTEEN THINGS I bought from her, and she's being an insulting bitch. Better yet, keep in mind that this other account doesn't register as the same as the one I've been conversing with, so she's scalping me on even MORE shipping by not combining all those auctions into one. Beautiful...

A little detective work and I see that a few people have tried to leave her neutral feedback on the things she has shipped, only to get negative promptly added to their own accounts. It seems logical to me that sellers leave their feedback after the purchase and shipment, but I doubt that will be the case. Now the big issue is whether I should even bother trying to complain about this person...

Grrrrr...

Comments

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

i freakin HATE people who gouge on shipping... it's GEIGH!!!!
i think there is a form you can fill out if you think they're charging too much for shipping somewhere

[theinnocence.livejournal.com]

i would mos. def. be looking into that, wes.

[jayfo.livejournal.com]

i would send them all back and demand a refund when she gets them. ( * )

[girlsonfilm.livejournal.com]

It's A LOT easier to set up a new buyer account than establish yourself as a credible seller. I would leave feedback on all her accounts, then delete yours and start a new one for yourself.

That's just lame!

[weswilson]

The best part is that I get 10 lines of negative in a row if I choose to exercise it... and SIX on the other account... I could write a NOVEL with all that negative feedback.

[fahkingnut.livejournal.com]

It's really a matter of time.

Do you wish to take the time to champion your cause OR are there other things you will have wished you spent the time doing instead?

I've been known to rake personal vendors over the coals so hard that they've comped my orders for free in an attempt to calm me down. I've mellowed in the past few years though and nowadays even stupid drivers rarely stoke my ire.

Me? I'd nuke 'em and salt the earth!

Love & Hugs,
FahKingNut

[sabrina-pandora.livejournal.com]

Now the big issue is whether I should even bother trying to complain about this person...

Ahem.

Oh yes. Look, you can always build another e-bay account. She wants to wreak havoc,play the Mutually Assured Destruction Game. Make additional accounts to complain about her. Bid on her junk and then leave her high and dry. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but if you let people like this get away with being jackasses then they'll never learn. Scorch the earth and let her know your wrath.

Handling my wide ass.

[kay.livejournal.com]

I agree ... especially if you don't have a lot of feedback yet no harm done. But the whole list of big fat reds will do her some harm :)

[kay.livejournal.com]

That would be a revenge feedback ... it against ebay policy and has a good chance of being removed. You could also report it.

Curse You Unscrupulous Ebayers!!!

[madmick.livejournal.com]

I kinda got burned on an Ebay deal lately myself. I've gotten into collecting vintage Horror movie posters over the past year or so and won an auction for a really cool 14 x 36 insert style poster for the 1963 Roger Corman directed movie The Raven. Full color graphics with depictions of the stars, Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. Of course the lady only takes checks or money orders, so I send it off and nearly a month rolls by and still no poster, so I contact her via Ebay and she sends me the tracking number,etc. This all happened back in September and I still don't have the damn thing. I paid the bitch $156.00 and got nothing! I've Emailed her several times and I get the old "well since you didn't pay extra for insurance, there's not much we can do" routine. I guess I am going have to file a complaint through Ebay because she obviously intends to nothing about it.

[kittymel.livejournal.com]

I absolutely hate it when people jack-up the shipping costs.

[naught.livejournal.com]

Nail the bitch.

((So when are we going to start that game of yours? Mondays are good. ;) ))

Oh god, interweb stuff.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I'm now going to be very paranoid indeed. I've just started bidding on some items on ebay, never having used it before. I've only returned to computers* in the last two/three years, and find the new facilities amazing, but I'm still rather rusty. If I screw up, I may yet be begging advice from all and sundry.

Do folk still play D&D?

Anyone here use ProTools?

*I swore in 1994 that I'd never get involved with computers again - in '92 a physicist chum of mine, with great patience, took me through the basics of programming when I was doing a course in same, which, thanks to his help I passed and subsequently got a 'day-gig', which, when I had enough money to quit, I did (and made aforementioned affirmation) - however events (as usual) have overtaken me. At the time I knew computers were the future, it's just they bored me beyond my capacity to endure. They seem much more fun now, except I no longer know my arse from my elbow, if I ever really did.