For all of you people that have ever sold and/or bought from E-Bay, what's a "rule of thumb" to allow before submitting a non-compliance grievance? I have had some people bend over backwards to answer all of your questions, and some that getting correspondance was like pulling teeth, but I still got an answer and/or the piece. My most recent "problem" is I ordered from a person that had a rating of score of 58 and a rating of 96.4 I believe. I kinda hesitated with it being so low, and noticed that the biggest gripes were slow delivery and lack of communication, but when I read the others, most people were happy. I noticed that his neutrals and negatives were 1 & 2 respectively in the past 6 mos. and 12 mos. (or is it 3 and 6 ), but none in the past month. Anyhow, trying to get a good deal and give the benefit of the doubt, I won the South Bass Island piece for $40 and I believe $$9.51 S&H with insurance optional at $1.30. I hate playing the add-this game and like it better when the total is all inclusive, but like with car insurance, I pay it whether I believe it's needed (or a good deal) or not.

Long story short, I received the invoice, added the insurance and recalculated, then hit pay now, but the total did not show the insurance. As I had just received a Old Point Comfort piece witht the ventilator ball broken off, I sent an immediate e-mail to the seller (and a nother one a few days later) asking if he received (or should I transfer another payment of $1.30 through Pay Pal. No answer! I then waited another few days and sent another e-mail asking him to reply when he sent the piece so I could be looking for it and any tracking info he may have since it was not inmsured; no answer!! Two days ago, I e-mailed him again and asked him to please send the piece ASAP, reply to my e-mails, and let's get this back on the right foot as I have never had to wait this long for a package and still have no contact and did not want to stop payment on his money or enter a dispute. To this point, no answer!!!!!

I am a nice (sometimes, TOO) guy, but my patience is wearing thin. I noticed when I checked that you have to report w/i 45 days of the payment and it's only (ONLY??) been 15; not too bad perhaps (though I have always received them quicker) if there was some answers, but... :rolleyes:

Waddayathink?

Wait it out and all emails should not have a threatening tone. Plead your case and express your disappointment sincerely. A negative feedback from you will surely be followed up with a negative feedback right back at you.

Ebay has more good sellers and buyers than bad sellers and buyers. It's a roll of the dice when you're bargain hunting.

:rolleyes: Bob :rolleyes:

Hey Bigbird...

I, too, would tell you to try to be as patient as possible. Things may eventually work out...or, you may start a situation that you wish you hadn't. I have a quick story on both scenarios...

First, I bought a Monomoy Point off of ebay (in hindsight, a mistake...when you look at the HL). The picture looked fine and the description said "mint"...well, it wasn't. The piece came to me without it's original box (again, should have asked...the description didn't mention it so it was an oversight on my part). When I got the piece, the tower's "guidelines" were all messed up, so I sent an e-mail to the seller that included pics of the damage. I didn't hear back for over a week...so I figured that it was going to be one of those "bad" ebay stories. Finally, the seller responded and gave me a refund and told me that I didn't have to bother even sending the piece back (allowing me to save on shipping). I was patient...and it worked out in the end.

My second story...my wife bought a halloween costume for our son off of ebay. When she got it, it didn't fit. She originally chalked it up to our son just being too big (if you have children, you realize that all '2T' baby clothes are NOT the same size...). Well, she re-checked the costume and realized that it was a '12-18 month'...a size smaller than she expected. She then went back on-line to check and, sure enough, the ebay auction stated that it was a '2T'. So, my wife left neutral (i.e. NOT negative) ebay feedback stating that the seller sent the wrong size. Well, the seller went CRAZY...ended up sending my wife 3 or 4 hostile e-mails (without my wife responding at all) complaining that my wife handled the situation "poorly" and that my wife didn't use "proper ebay protocal"...basically saying that we could have returned it for the proper size, etc. (for the record, we could have...but we would have received the halloween costume AFTER halloween...).

So, needless to say...there are some 'crazys' out there in ebay-land...so be careful.

Jeff,

I'm not saying that the second person was right for sending hostile e-mails but they are correct on one point- you should always try and settle the problem with the seller or purchaser before leaving even neutral feedback.

Yes I understand it would have been after Halloween but you might have gotten as good a resolution on the second one as you did on the first.

The neutral feedback is considered almost as bad as negative- because we all know many people are reluctant to post negative feedback so as to avoid the flaming that comes from it sometimes. It's why you even have to read betwen the lines on the positive feedback.

It's always a good thing to at least try and get an equitable solution to a dispute before leaving feedback that can't be changed.

Again, I'm not saying it's a liscense for abuse from people, just the right thing to do. You can still get the abuse even if you try it the right way.

Dennis

If a person bails out of eBay membership, their feedback left for you becomes a neutral instead of a positive. Is that true like it was in the past?

Bob

It strikes me that the unfair part of all this is that if you honestly report how a seller (or buyer) stiffed you they can burn you back for telling the truth. Wonder how many people would search enough to see that the burn of you was in retaliation for telling the truth about a bad experience?

"You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."

My own experience with eBay's feedback forum is to compare the percentage of negative feedbacks to positive feedbacks. More emphasis should be given to recent gigs of negative feedback. Neutrals should just be consider non-existant. If a person is unwilling to leave negative feedback, then they probably don't feel strong enough about complaining, or maybe they don't want a negative sitting in their personal feedback forum.

Is it damned if you do, damned if you don't?

:p Bob :p

Believe the person receiving negative feedback can respond to it and that response posts beneath the negative feedback. I have two negative feedbacks from one disgruntled buyer who refused to allow me the time required to make certain his personal check (his decision, not mine) cleared for the two auctions he won. My response is posted beneath his feedback and I've blocked his ability to bid on any of my auctions.

Hi all!

Thanks for the feedback. Well I e-mailed another time to appeal to the "shoe-on-the-other-foot" side of things and have yet to hear back (from Sun.). As far as another scenario, another dealer dropped PayPal and I had dealt with them before, but they are slow in responding (if at all - which they didn't this time) and i had to send a personal check from VA to IL and received their piece Mon the 31st and bought it the 22nd; this guy stillsends no reply and I paid the next morning with PayPal and purchased on the 14th!?!

Oh well, I'll give it 'til the 27th or so (which is around 44 days) and then initiate a complaint through PayPal.

Steve

Just a note to let ya'll know that I got a notice from the post office yesterday that Ihad a package; yeah, it was here finally. Picked it up today and it was packed fine and arrived in good shape. Get this though, they never answered my e-mails, but sent me a calendar and a letter that their business was discontinuing their gift lines (ie. HL's) and and concentrating on their home fragrance and purfume lines; they hopethat I will order from them!?! :p

Well, it is a nice gesture I guess, though it was from his wife. :rolleyes:

Anyhow, I'm glad that's over. Now, just to figure out how to come up with a good feedback to leave...

Steve

You could say "I liked his wife"

I've had simiar ebay experiences regarding non response to e-mails. However, no problems with shipping, condition, etc.
Your ttem did arrive in good shape, was carefully packaged, etc. Be thankful, and nice with yopur feedback.
Glad your experience had a happy ending.

"The product arrived in good shape and well packed" - no lies there, and no comment on the very poor customer relations. Maybe it took that long for them to get it packed up.

Yeah, maybe they had to make their little packing "Cheeto's" (as I call those bio-degradable, corn-starchy things)!!

If you were happy with receiving no replies to your numerous emails and going through the frustration of not knowing if you would ever get what you paid for, leave them a positive feedback. But it appears from your earlier posts in this thread that you were not happy with the whole situation. If it were me I would just be thankful I got what I paid for and I wouldn't leave any feedback at all.

:rolleyes: Bob :rolleyes:

Well, as usual, the feedback to my post was both helpful and confusing in the fact that what you said Bob would've probably been the best, buuuuuut, I went ahead and left a line like "received piece well packaged and undamaged" rather than have a blemish on my penny ante 14 (which people would pay more attention to than his 1 more negative with 97% positive). I also e-mailed them telling them that though their feedback was not negative, it would've been alot better had they handled the situation/deal better.

Now if he rates me at all, I'll see if I need to rebut the feedback.

Thanks again.

Steve

I agree with you Bob
When ever I have an experience that wasn't pleasant and I didn't agree with how the seller handled themselves with the transaction. But it all worked out okay at the end, I just don't leave any feedback.