So a few days ago I purchased a chaos dwarf sorcerer off eBay. I paid using paypal about an hour after the auction ended, and was excited to be getting my first bighat mini. Sadly, there was trouble in paradise and I received an email from the seller saying that they couldn’t send to my address. I will post the email exchange here, with the names changed to protect the innocent…
Suspicious ebay seller:
its not accepting your address as a vaild mailing address…so till that
is fixed i cant mail it…i tried to do it tonight which is monday…so your
item will not be shipped on tuesday
Already perturbed by the lack of capitalization and punctuation, I replied
Hello,
That is distressing, because I’ve had several packages delivered and never had a problem. I guess it’s just having trouble because its my college address. Can you just send my order to the provided address regardless, or do you have to have a valid address in order for ebay to process it?
Thanks,
Tetnis
Suspicious ebay people:
we get discounts in shipping for using the online thing…not to mention having to do things by hand takes more time…we are pretty busy and sell a lot of stuff…if i get my projects done tonight or tomorrow i will look into it for you
Later:
i tried to just hand type your address in and it wont take it…i dont know what to tell you…it will not allow me to ship to this address…
I respond:
I guess i’m confused about what type of system you are using for shipping. If you have the package in front of you can’t you just write my address on it?
Suspicious ebay peope:
yes i can…im very busy…we have an automated system for a reason…we sell hundreds of items…i dont have time to run to the post office everyday during the day and stand in line… i drop them off when i can at night…but if the system we are using is not accepting the address then that means there is a chance this is a fraud and then we get blamed for you not recieving the product then filing a claim then there is nothing we can do about it because we dont have a record…we just had that happen with a 500 dollar forge world product we are not doing it again…i dont have time for court either…and back to why we dont do them by hand is because we get a discount which is factored into our cost…we are mainly worried about why this address is not accepted…it smells fraud for us…we get this more then you know
So after being accused of fraud and insulted, I am pretty annoyed, especially because I have recieved dozens of packages at this address, and have bought through amazon.com without a problem. I responded with a final email
Tetnis:
Hello again,
I’m trying to be reasonable here, but this is my address and I honestly don’t have another option for shipping. Could you give me the contact information of your shipping company, please? Perhaps if I talk to them directly we can resolve this. I would be willing to contact ebay directly to tell them that I am asking you to send to this unlisted address, as well as pay any additional shipping costs if that would expedite the process. Also, I find that implying to your customer’s face that he is attempting to fraud you is a poor business practice.
Best wishes,
tetnis
So are any of you guys/girls familiar with ebay? do you know if this is at all a legit problem, or are they just going to pull this crap until I get frustrated and leave without my precious sorcerer? quick responses would be appreciated if you managed to get this far as this is an ongoing struggle. I appreciate your wisdom! :hat off
Sounds like someone is trying to scam you to me. As you say, why can’t he just get a pen and write the address on the package? It’s also pretty shoddy service to accuse a customer - who’s already paid money and therefore entered into a contract - of attempting to commit fraud. I think you should contact ebay and tell them that someone is refusing to ship to you, because that seems to be pretty much the situation to me.
Thanks for your advice! Ebay won’t let me start the process unless its been at least 10 days and I haven’t received it, but I will send an email telling the seller that I am prepared to take this course of action. I’ll keep everyone posted on what happens.
If they are really big… Then maybe but the whole thing seems a bit off. From the bits and pieces it sounds like he is worried that mediamail won’t pick it up?
In form eBay and also infor the sellers that as soon as the ten day period is il you will be opening the dispute console
Well they responded to me (I never even got a chance to send a message threatening to contact ebay on them)
we will be giving you refund…we run our biz fine thats why we have the feedback rating we have…you have no record of anything on ebay you have a zero feedback rating…and you are claiming that you use that address all the time…you also have invalid address according to the united states postal service…which is the people we use for shipping…THEY ARE THE ONES TELLING US not to use this address…we never implied you were a fraud we told you why we wont ship to an address that is not valid…we have be doing this awhile and we run into frauds often…and know their tricks…we also will just report this to ebay just so we are both protected…have a great day
Somehow I feel that the USPS would know the address to a college older than the United states herself. Should I worry about them reporting me to ebay? will I get a chance to share my side of the story before I get a black mark on my feedback?
Dosen’t sound very business like to me, trying to show how they are right because they have a good rating (which I’ve seen is easily faked, just saying;) )
And yes, your address has to be on the USPS, no way of getting around that.
Again, this reeks of scamming - that last message sounds mostly like a scare tactic to get you to back down. I think you might want to get in touch with UPS yourself (and take notes - like the name of whoever you end up speaking to) to confirm that they do have your address (and I’m sure they will) so that you can call their bluff. It looks like you probably aren’t going to get your items, but at least you can emerge from this mess unscathed.
EDIT: Also, if you’ve paid already, how can it be fraud? The seller isn’t making sense. What would you have to gain from lying about your address if you’ve already completed your side of the transaction? If you’ve paid your money and they won’t send the item, then they’re the ones committing fraud.
My ex synth player once tried selling some AD&D books. The guy who bought them claimed to have recieved them prior to them being posted. Now that was a wierd scam…
I have had trouble like this on ebay before. I got round it my offering a second adress (my parents) There was no way that both adresses were not on the system and so they were forced to post it.
Could you not do the same?
Either they make their scam obvious by saying that both adress can;t be posted too, or that they refuse to use a second adress for some reason. Or you get the model but have to ask your parents or whoever to send it to you. (but seeing as its a single model shouldn’t be too miuch hassle)
What is the name of this seller? Check his feedback to see if he has any negative or neutral feedback and read what they say. Someone else might of had a similar experience with him.
If you are being told your address is not valid then just call ups and ask them yourself if its valid or not. If the seller still doesnt accept it then give him your parents address and leave negative feedback.
IT’S FUNNY, he has not time to run a post to the post office but he certainly has plenty of time to fire off emails to you… I’d still involve ebay and paypal and then i’d post up negative feedback anyways… what a douchebag…
Well thanks for all the advice and righteous indignation everyone, it is much appreciated.:cheers
Anyhoo, the d-bags refunded my money through paypal and decided to call the whole thing off, so I figured i’d quit while I was ahead. The model was kind of overpriced anyways, so I like to think I came out ahead. Their feedback was actually overwhelmingly positive, so I have no idea what the deal is. Cest la vie…
I’d tell them you’re going to take them to court for NOT shipping your item. UPS, Fed-EX and even the Post Office can provide them with a tracking #. If the item is “lost”, it’s up to the shipping company.
Look at the facts: they have breached contract and falsely accused you of fraud. if this company deals in hundreds of deals per day, they would not hire someone that lacks basic grammar skills. I doubt any proffessional business refers to itself as a biz. Do not wait for the 10 days, e-mail eBay now, show them the same e-mails and explain it all. Point out that they said you “smell fraud to us” (spell fraud mayahps? Or smell of fraud. Who knows…), point out that you’ve received items through Amazon.com and eBay (if you have), state all of their terms and conditions and it should be sorted.
Next step (after that), is to e-mail the “seller” informing them that you have begun the process of legal action with the administration of eBay due to their negative contact, their breach of contract, their false accusations, their own fraud and their disregard for basic business practices.