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Looking for advice on what would be the BEST thing to do.
I purchased a Windstone on ebay. I asked the seller to pack him carefully, double box, and told her I’d cover the fees if she could ship him FedEx (love FedEx). She says she will double box him and send him priority. I’m really worried, but I wait. He arrives, broken, of course. It is a male dragon, and the back of his head where his horns meet is broken off. He was listed as “mint condition” and listed as “new” in the auction. He smells VERY strongly of cigarette smoke, his felt pad is stained brown, hes dusty (and not just ANY type of dust, but brown dust).The seller stated in the auction that she doesn’t accept returns, but this item is DEFINATLY not as described. I know some people are picker than others, but in no universe could this dragon be considered “mint condition”. He didn’t have his original box or thick plastic shipping bag. Now, I dont care about the box and bag, just mentioned it to further illustrate that a “mint condition” dragon should have that. Windstone ships their pieces in those boxes and bags, therefore, for it to be in the same condition it left the factory/”mint” in, it should have it. Beyond that, its horribly dusty, stained, stinky, and broken. If I would have known ahead of time that it was stained, dirty, and smoke smelling, I would not have bid-it was a black gold male dragon. I would have just waited and gotten one from a dealer later, or found one from another collector later on.
The seller’s communication is not fantastic. She takes days to reply, if at all. I opened an item not as described dispute. She says I should file the insurance claim with the post office.
If I do that, I’m out the $18 shipping (as far as I know, the post office doesnt reimburse shipping where as ebay does) I’d like to send the dragon back to her, get my money back from ebay/paypal and she file the claim for the damaged item. Ive dealt with the post office before (although not recently) and I was told that any claim over $50 (the dragon was $75) has to go to some other office out of state, and last time when I filed a claim for my broken Emperor for $275, it took 6 MONTHS and I still never saw a cent. I finally gave up and got my dragon back).So-
Option 1:
File a claim with the post office. Possibly wait months, no gaurantee of a refund, I’m out the shipping cost, but the seller stays out of it.Option 2:
I send the dragon back to the seller, get my money and shipping back through ebay’s buyer protection policy, and the seller claims the insurance.Option 3:
None of the above [open to suggestions]I didn’t even know that buyers/ recipients could file an insurance claim. I thought that was the seller’s responsibility.
I think even if the item hadn’t broken, it still isn’t as described, therefore you should return it and get your money back. If the seller wants to go through the insurance stuff, fine. She didn’t describe it properly, and I think that’s the real problem here. The item was not “new”, even before it got broken, and you wouldn’t have bought it if you had known that.
Was the packaging inadequate? I think it’s kind of rude that she insisted on sending it priority even after you offered to pay extra for fedex.
The safe thing to do is put the item not described thing through paypal or ebay or whatever, send the item back, and get the return. Take pictures of him now, and the packaging, in case it comes up (like if she accuses you of breaking it and sending it back or something) but yeah. If you do the claim yourself, you’d have to prove how she packed it and it’s really not your problem as the buyer. And, if the claim isn’t paid, you’re out the money, not the seller.
Sorry this happened, it always sucks getting things broken in the mail 🙁 *hugs*
I’d definitely go with option two. Make her give you a full refund of shipping and return shipping and the price of the dragon.
She totally lied about what condition it was in and you shouldn’t have to suffer for that.
DO NOT file a claim at the post office. They never get anything done. It’ll be a complete waste of time. Just go through ebay. They’ll maker her give you your money back.
And on a side note, I’m really sorry that happened. I don’t like getting pieces off of ebay because they’re, at least in my experience, always damaged or smellier than you are led to believe by the sellers. 😛
Definitely option 2.
As for buying on eBay, I occasionally sell on eBay and so do many other forum members, including Wolfen. You need to vet the seller, whether it is on eBay or on the forum. If I have any doubt about either the item or the seller, I don’t take the chance; it is just not worth the hassle or the disappointment.
I agree with the others; option 2 is your safest bet.
You did nothing wrong, so you shouldn’t have to lose a cent on this.
The seller lied about the condition of the piece (stains + dust + stink = NOT MINT), ignored your reasonable request for FedEx shipping, and packed the dragon poorly (a properly packed piece should be able to survive rough handling). She should be on the hook for all costs. If she doesn’t like it, too bad, don’t be a dishonest seller.
Those of us who sell on eBay often complain about the new buyer protection policies that seem to penalize sellers, but this is exactly the kind of situation where they’re needed.
No doubt option 2. It is not as descibed and I would send this issue to paypal as well. Its people like that that give e bay a bad name and waste peoples time. Hope it all works out for you
Option 2. It’s not your responsibility to claim the insurance on the damaged dragon, it’s hers, she shipped it. Also, it will probably be easier to deal with Paypal than it would be to deal with the post office.
Much easier to deal with paypal than the post office. When asked about the smoke smell and the stains the seller said the item was at her friends house for a while and said “who knows what happened” while there. Really? You are going to sell an item that has left your possession without first getting it back to rep inspect it? I guess not everyone takes selling seriously. If the seller is unwilling to work with me how could I ask her to pay return shipping?
I think when ebay rules in your favor of item not described, and you have to return the item, ebay makes you pay to ship the item back to the seller. I’ve never done it but that’s what I’ve heard. So you’d lose out on money here but get the item price back.
You can ask her to pay return shipping, etc and if she says no, well, all the more reason to leave a negative, no? I hate when sellers put “no returns” and then assume it means they don’t have to describe their items accurately.
You’re right Scenceable, I’ve had this happen. If paypal rules in your favour, you get the price plus shipping to you back, but you’re stuck with the return fee.
Which is why I usually try to negociate a partial refund and keep the item. In a couple of cases, I’ve been able to then sell the item and recover the rest of the money. Unfortunately, in this case, a partial refund will simply not do.
You could always check with paypal/ebay, since the item arrived broken (on top of everything else) if you can get a full refund without having to ship the item back. You never know…
So here’s an update on this. The seller wanted me to file a claim with the post office. I asked for a full refund. She told me to file a claim with the post office.
It sounded to me like she was trying to wash her hands of this thing. I escalated the case with ebay and I got this message from ebay:
Thank you for contacting eBay in regard to the windstone dragon that you recently purchased. After reviewing your claim, I see that you escalated the case to us because the seller was asking you to file an insurance claim with USPS. I know how disappointing it is when you have received an item not as described. However, I would like to commend you for the effort and time that you exert to solve this case. I want you to know we are here to make sure this case is resolved as quickly as possible.
First, I want to thank you for your patience, let me apologize if you have not received an email from us. Please know that your concern is always important to us. We have been upgrading our system to let us serve you better. We apologize for any inconvenience or if it made you feel that your concern is insignificant. Also, allow me to thank you for choosing eBay despite the fact that you are experiencing this kind of issue.
Linsey, while addressing your concern, I see that you’ve been part of eBay community since October last year. I would like to thank you for choosing and trusting eBay over the years and I hope this one bad transaction hasn’t damaged your confidence and you’ll continue to be a successful member.
Upon reviewing the case, I found out that your seller already provided you the receipt for the insurance of the item. All you have to do is to work out the insurance claim with the seller since you do have a receipt for it. It’ll be better to get help from USPS and resolve the insurance claim as soon as possible.For a better buying experience on the site, please look into the link at your convenience as it provides tips on how to have smoother, hassle free eBay transactions.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/betterbuyer.html
In summary, I placed the case on hold for another 5 days to give you and the seller ample time to fix this with USPS immediately. Thank you for your continued patience and willingness to work with us.I would like to thank you in advance for the time and the patience that you’ll render throughout this claim process. Thank you for choosing eBay!
Have a wonderful day!
Does that mean ebay is telling me not to bug the seller and take it up with the post office? I surely hope not. I’ve never had any good experiences with the post office.
It sure seems like that when I read it.
If it were me, I would persist in getting ebay to cover it. USPS is awful. I had to do a claim through them and the whole process was a pain. You CAN get your money, but yeah, it’s a pain!
I think the biggest point here is that, even if the dragon had NOT been broken during shipping, he was not as described in the auction and you would have filed with ebay regardless.
They seem to be using the fact that he also broke, to put this off on the USPS system. It makes sense. But yes, they are ‘washing their hands of it’ with this letter. Even if it is in a polite and somewhat helpful way.
If the dragon was just as described, but broken, then USPS would be responsible for sure. But the seller sent a not-as-described item out before it broke.
Kind of a gray area but I’ve always had better luck with ebay than with USPS.
Wow, I’ve never dealt much with ebay but WOW that letter was 2% actual information and 98% fluffy BS.
5 days to sort out a claim? Laughable. Claims take weeks. Plus, how is it your responsibility as a buyer to fill out the claim? If the seller wants to submit the claim, they should. The post office is going to give the seller back the money anyway, aren’t they?
I’d reply back to the ebay person and explain further, that the item aside from being broken was not as described, and that that’s why you want the money back, not because of the damage.
🙁 this sucks, and it’s even worse that ebay isn’t being helpful. *hugs*
Well I think they are giving me 5 days to sort things out with the seller before they step in. They should have seen the entire conversation between the seller and I since I opened the dispute and should be able to see that I’m claiming the item is not as described. I have photos to prove the stain. As for the damage, the dragon is broken on his head, because his head was against the top of the box, but there is another chip on his back side where the end of his tail curls up to his body. I didnt find any broken pieces in the box that looked like they could have come from that spot-which leads me to believe it was chipped before being shipped out. There was no picture of the dragon’s non display side in the auction. But again, it was described as “mint” so I didnt question it.
Here is the bottom of his felt pad
Broken head
Dust
More dust
Packing -the box on the left was INSIDE the box on the right. There was almost no packing materail between the boxes.
The dragon was wrapped in yellow stained newspaper
and this was all he had to cushion his journey from the seller to me
The inside box was too small, as you can see, he didnt even fit inside. The box was not closed, it had two pieces of tape holding the flaps in a tent shape over the dragon’s head
Ugh, yeah, even if you file a claim USPS probably won’t honour it because it isn’t packaged well enough at all. Not a single shred of bubblewrap on a fragile item? Packed with newspaper? Two big no-no’s that the post office will use to decline the claim.
Is there any way you can call USPS without putting a claim in and asking them about the process and under what circumstances they’d pay? That way you’d have something substantial to tell the seller. :/
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