Home › Forums › Windstone Editions › General Windstone › Overall luck with eBay–good, bad, or…?
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April 14, 2008 at 9:00 pm #689379
After skimming through the posts here, I’m starting to get a little–no, make that A LOT–nervous about the dragons I won on eBay. I’ve had contact from the seller on the Peacock Spectral letting me know he’s been shipped, but the other 2–the Peacock Mother and the Peacock hatchling have both been paid for as of the auction ending on 4/6, and to dat, I’ve not heard from the seller OR received the dragons. I’ve read some of the horror stories about broken dragons, etc., and I’m starting to get a preeeetttty good case of the “What ifs?”
So my question is: Overall, has the eBay experience been good, bad, or indifferent?
If the Momma and Hatchie don’t get here soon, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I have been withholding feedback until they get here, just in case there is a problem.
Any feedback? TIA!April 14, 2008 at 9:00 pm #495061April 14, 2008 at 9:13 pm #689380My ebay experiance has been both good and bad…I have recieved several pieces damaged and in pieces and other pieces exactly as they were discribed, there was also once a time where I purchased an expensive piece which I never recieved ( It was a total scam) and I fell right into it… π³
But I usually ask the sellers to forward me the tracking information within 7 days after I make the payment and if I do not hear back from them at all I start a dispute regarding the item on ebay and that usually gets me a reply from the seller…it is also a safe way to do things incase the item does not arrive, becasue it allows me to proceed with a dispute with paypal and get my full refund… just in case. Ebay also guides you through the process so it is very simple… π
If I were you I would just email the seller and ask for the tracking number for the two pieces that you have not recieved yet… π
Hopefully it all works out for you… πMarzena
April 14, 2008 at 9:16 pm #689381Hi!
Ebay is full of great sellers, but as you’ve read sometimes we run across a bad seller. π It’s one of those unfortunate facts of life… there are all sorts of people out there.
Fortunately, you do have some recourse!
A few questions…
– How did you pay? (PayPal?)
– Do you know where the dragons are shipping from? (e.g. if you are in NJ and they shipped from CA, it can take a week or more), which leads to the next question..
– Do you know how they were shipped? USPS Priority? Parcel Post? UPS? etc?A week isn’t very long to wait- you can send the seller a question through eBay and see if they can provide a tracking number for you. If they don’t respond and you do not receive your dragons in another week, you might consider opening a claim. For now though, if it were me, I’d contact the seller both through eBay and via email if you can, and ask them to give you some shipping info.
P.S. Though I love the color of your font, it’s really hard to read against the grey/black of the forum! Perhaps consider using “Cyan”? π
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My art: featherdust.comApril 14, 2008 at 9:19 pm #689382Well… I can’t really give too much on it. I’ve only bought 8 of my WS from eBay. All of them came in perfect condition except two. The unicorn mom… they put something on her head to protect her horn, but it gave her a small paint rub on her nose. No big deal though! And then my large happy cat gargoyle… they shipped him in a bubble envelope… so he was shattered. Got the money back, and Kyrin made him look like new.
It’s really hit or miss… some people don’t have any communication, but the sculpture is double boxed and arrives fine… Hard to say one or the other π
April 14, 2008 at 9:23 pm #689383Jennifer covered all of the important points, so no need for me to repeat them.
Overall, my experiences on eBay have been good to excellent, with only a couple of clunkers….and I’ve been eBaying for almost 10 years.
April 14, 2008 at 9:54 pm #689384My experience with ebay has been great so far. I have had some problems here and there, but it has always been handed. Like for example, I bought a white male and mother the lady didn’t mention they had like this paint stuff on them (like the stuff used on a ceiling) and when I let her know, she gave me more than a partial refund, and let me keep them. And once I got a dragon damaged, and the seller paid for the return shipping and gave me the money I already paid back. So…I guess it depends on who you deal with. All I can recommend is that if there is a problem, contact them first, and always remain polite even if they aren’t so polite. π
April 14, 2008 at 9:58 pm #689385I can’t say, I’ve never bought any Windstones off of e-bay before. But, I have been on e-bay almost ten years and only had one bad experience.
April 14, 2008 at 10:07 pm #689386Jennifer wrote:Hi!
Ebay is full of great sellers, but as you’ve read sometimes we run across a bad seller. π It’s one of those unfortunate facts of life… there are all sorts of people out there.
Fortunately, you do have some recourse!
A few questions…
– How did you pay? (PayPal?)
– Do you know where the dragons are shipping from? (e.g. if you are in NJ and they shipped from CA, it can take a week or more), which leads to the next question..
– Do you know how they were shipped? USPS Priority? Parcel Post? UPS? etc?A week isn’t very long to wait- you can send the seller a question through eBay and see if they can provide a tracking number for you. If they don’t respond and you do not receive your dragons in another week, you might consider opening a claim. For now though, if it were me, I’d contact the seller both through eBay and via email if you can, and ask them to give you some shipping info.
P.S. Though I love the color of your font, it’s really hard to read against the grey/black of the forum! Perhaps consider using “Cyan”? π
I paid through paypal (immediately after winning the bid) and the dragons were supposed to be coming from MA–not as far as CA–and I don’t know the shipping method, although I do plan to email the seller if the dragons don’t arrive by midweek. Maybe I’m just getting a little paranoid… π
April 14, 2008 at 10:20 pm #689387I have had overall good luck so far. I always pay within 24hrs or so. Some people send you notice when they ship, some don’t. If I think it has been over a reasonable time, I will send them a question asking if and when they shipped the item. I usualy get a reply that way.
April 14, 2008 at 11:00 pm #689388I’ve had good luck with eBay so far. All of my pieces have come to me intact, and I think more than 90% of my windstones came from eBay. I had one mother get a paint rub in packaging because the seller ignored my packaging instructions and she was moving around in her box, but other than that, I can’t think of anything that arrived damaged. I usually contact the seller first asking questions and get a feel for how well they communicate before I bid though.
April 14, 2008 at 11:18 pm #689389I’m someone whose had both good and bad luck on ebay. I’ve had some pieces come intact, and others get damaged. With two of the ones that got damaged the sellers were kind and refunded some of my money since I wanted to keep the pieces. On the third I had to fight a little more just to get the paperwork I needed to file the insurance claim, but never did file it. The rest of the pieces I have gotten on ebay came to me with no damage.
I look at the recent feedback left for a person and see if they have shipped windstones or other fragile items recently. If the seller doesn’t have much experience packing fragile items I include a link to the Windstone packing tutorial.
I typically give the seller a week (7 days) from the time I pay before I contact them to see if my item is shipped yet. That is more than enough time (IMO) to get the item shipped out.
As a seller, I ship within two days of payment and as soon as I get home from the post office I upload the tracking numbers through paypal (and now that ebay has a spot to upload the numbers I’ll add it there too).
I definately think it’s a good thing not to leave feedback until your items arrive. Give it a little longer, try to contact the seller and if they still don’t respond file an “Item Not Received” dispute with ebay.
April 15, 2008 at 12:48 am #689390I’ve made 7 Windstone purchases on eBay to date with only two minor mishaps. In one case the dragon wasn’t as described; the seller was extremely polite and compliant and I got a partial refund. In the second case, the seller went for an extremely long period of time before sending the items (more than a month). Persistance finally paid off and I got the goods π I’ve had some other issues on eBay buying things like VHS and CDs that arrive broken in smithereens from sellers who think that the protection offered by a padded envelope is enough, but each time I’ve been fortunate enough to get my money back without even having to file a claim.
Overall I’d say eBay is definitely worth it. My aces up the sleeve so far have been to be nothing but polite to the seller from the beginning of the transaction to the end, know when to (politely) suggest that a claim will be filed if they don’t address the problem, and to take lots of “evidence” pics if something goes awry π
However, I must also add that my experience buying in the flea market here on the forum has a 100% success and satisfaction rate 8) π π
April 15, 2008 at 1:26 am #689391I’ve been buying pieces on eBay for five years now, and only had one arrive broken. And that one was broken from the start: the auction pictures clearly showed her wing was bashed up and had large pieces missing. When she was shipped, the seller didn’t double-box her (fair’s fair, I didn’t ask them to), the box was too small, and they used packing peanuts rather than something that would keep the piece from moving around. So the modest wing damage became major wing damage, and she collected some other injuries as well. I decided not to raise a fuss about it because she had gone for very cheap, and I’d bought her because I wanted to try restoring something anyway. π
April 15, 2008 at 7:01 am #689392I’ve bought a bunch of Windstones off E-Bay. Only one ever arrived broken (but then for real, like shattered to bits). The seller ignored my instructions about double boxing, but I got a full refund, so I can’t complain. Overall, buying from E-Bay has been a positive experience, and not just for Windstones. Knives, books, a scope – all went very well.
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