SquareTrade = Bad Deal?

[Wally's Comics]

Hi, I'm a newbie to this forum (but not a rookie when it comes to collecting or buying off of eBay)

I recently had a deal turn the most sour it ever could of on eBay.

 

This happened through a deal with a comic seller that had Square Trade Representing them.

 

To tell you the story from A to Z:

 

The comic seller aka "spencerkiddd" (now decided to make his feedback private) with a 99 percent rating on 200 feedbacks - sold me Uncanny X-men 112, 113, 114, 115 and 118 in VF/NM and stated in his auctions that there were "no major flaws" in any of these books.

 

When I received them I was expecting at the least FN/VF (I have learned to lower my expectations on eBay purchases because sellers tend to fluff there books up one grade higher)

Unfortunately the books I got were GD due to heavy wear and WATER DAMAGE. Ugh!

 

Oh well, I contacted the seller and he gave me a refund, but the worst explanation for his oversite that I have ever heard - He said that "when I grade I never open the book itself, because I don't want to put anymore wear on the spine". What the @#!*&%!!! He also said he didn't know what water damage was.

 

Oh well, still calm an collected I forgave him for being a rookie dealer and wasting my time.

 

A couple of days later... I noticed that the same books that i sent back to him were up again on his auctions - With no changes to the listing of the grades of these books.

 

In turn of that, I had to do what I have never done in my five year stint of eBay trading and give a seller a negative feedback.

 

Now comes the fun part - The Square Trade legal system went to battle for him. I was sent numerous e-mails to go through their mediation process or the negative feedback would be removed. What!!

 

O.K. I went through days and I mean days of litigation and red tape to keep my feedback comments up and running. I mean, don't get me wrong I'm not a jerk, I just feel when somebody really deserve negative feedback they should get it!

 

It scares me to think how many didn't want to go through this process, thus removing any feddback and leaving this shady dealers record spotless. Yikes!

 

Anyway I did this so others in my eBay community wouldn't get ransacked by this clown. I wish I would of known.

 

By the way, again, you can't see the feedback or books that he sold on his feedback (because he has gone private), but you can see through mine - My handle is nerfherder-3 and please feel free to look at the feedback I have left not only for this bad dealer, but for the many others that I have gladly bought and sold from.

 

With this summed up - do any of you out there have any shady dealers or bad deals in general that you want to unveil?

 

I'm definately game, because when I hate wasting my time with shafty mess such as this.

 

 

 

 

_w

[sterlingcomics]

WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!

 

Glad to see another North Carolinian on board.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your bad eBay experience, but appreciate you going to bat to give those their due. I've personally used the SquareTrade service for the past year, but I think the brand recognition isn't there anymore with all of the 'PayPal proection' competition. Whaddya you folks think?

[OldGuy]

do any of you out there have any shady dealers

 

[Wally's Comics]

I hear you Sterl.

 

NC is the place to be! (how corny is that)

 

 

Anyhoo, thanks for the warm welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

_w

[Aces]

Sounds like SquareTrade is a sham to protect bad power sellers.

Who'd a thunk it huh?

 

Is this in the wrong forum?

[Wally's Comics]

I don't know if you're being scarcastic or not,

but I only get burned once if I can help it.

 

 

In dealing with an individual that used Square Trade, I noticed that they (ST)

are used as a shield for the unscrupulous eBayers while they wallow in their tactics of shady actions and bad taste.

 

Once I gave a negative feedback to their client (which he deserved to the uptmost, because I've only given one neg in my whole 5 year stay on eBay and it takes alot to pizz me off) - there was a ledigation process that I had to endure that went on for months - and if you failed to not return any of their e-mail's to them or join there processes then your feedback would be removed??

 

Oh well, in my experience, I HATED Square Trade and vow to never buy

from any dealer that had them.

 

If you want to roll the dice... go for it,

but don't say I didn't warn you.

[Calamerica]

I must state here that I have Square Trade( ST). I have also bought from a ST Dealer recently that gave me my last negative. The Seller gave me a negative for paying via PayPal 3 days late. Let the record speak now: Auction ended April 3rd - I paid Apr 6th - within the moronic Sellers' 3 day pay period. I had until Apr 6th to pay but the Seller hit me when I had to go to a Sacramento hospital to ensure the proper care of my niece. Unable to take care of business while I was gone led to this unfortunate incident, but I was doomed when I bid this man's promo comic. Upon my return to S. Cal, I emailed him in haste and told him I was on family emergency and would pay within minutes. Apparently he had been up all night and started conjuring up some "thing" that I was "late". Needless to say, a pizzing contest ensued, and he negged me AFTER I paid via PayPal. That insufficiently_thoughtful_person Seller emailed me again and again with his Threats of calling the police on me, and how only HE could post negative feedback and I could not( he also changed his feedback to private until just recently). Once he found out that I take garbage from no one just out of general principal if no other reason and retaliated, then he decides that things can be "worked out". I would rather be seen as the most spiteful man on Earth than let this clown off the hook. He got ST after me the next day, eBay, etc. He wanted to get that negative removed from his feedback in the worst way. I refused to negotiate and he has I think, 11 negs now. The last neg knocked him down from the elite "Power Seller" status as the percentage has to remain above I think it is 98.2% of positive feedback transactions. I am not a Power Seller and now have 4 negs - ALL retaliatory and/or undeserved. Said Dealer dropped ST when I refused to "Mediate" and would not go the route of eBays "Mutually Withdrawn" feedback program. Yes, that is right - I WANT the negatives to remain on both his and my accounts. Sounds dumb, but if I cannot get MY undeserved neg removed, I sure am not going to allow HIS neg to get removed - the compromise that I could have taken of getting both negs removed on said transaction would be a complete sell-out and total cowardice.

 

Bottom line: He got mad at ST when he found out how toothless ST really is. However, it is NOT ST's fault that a Seller is bad. To collectively blame ST for your transaction outlined above is like condemning all ( insert stereotype here) for ONE isolated incident and is ludicrous to do such.

 

I got mad at ST months back but cooled off when it was apparent that you are paying for the seal of ST and nothing else. I still use ST, and my rep as a Seller is still sound.

 

Don't let the ST lull you in a false sense of "letting your guard down". You still need to apply the usual common sense in buying from ANY eBayer.

 

I hope this helps you here.

 

CAL

[Aces]

It was 2:30AM and I was babbling a bit.

I didn't mean to condemn anyone who uses ST.

Some sellers will use it to keep their records cleaner than they should be.

[Calamerica]

But most Sellers who use ST are legit and honest.

 

CAL

[MrTester-migration]

I used to be a Square Trade member, but I started listing so much expensive stuff that they told me I would have to give them bank statements and a credit report to prove that I had the equipment I was selling on my guy mr-keyboard. After that I stopped using their monthly seal thing.

 

As far as my experiences with them go. As a seller when I get a negative, I go to them. I've had about 2 in 15 removed and paid for all 15 of them to try. Unfortunately for me, all the people except for one that have left me negatives have less than 10 feedback, and they usually don't stick around to help you get the feedback removed even though you have followed through on your word and repaired or replaced the item. They closed a case on me once that the guy ended up sending me the money on as part of an agreement to get my negative removed, but they wouldn't reopen the case for me and there was no way that I was going to spend another $20 on getting the same feedback removed. Somehow, one of my friends, athomemarket, has Ebay or SquareTrade's number (by that I mean he has them by the short hairs) because all the negatives he gets are turned into neutrals and usually end up just disappearing. I definately know that SquareTrade plays favorites, and just wish that I could be one of them

[supapimp]

twenty bucks to get a neg removed? interesting...very interesting. thanks for the 411!

[Wally's Comics]

If I actually halfway know the person - like anyone on these

threads and wanto to buy from them by all means ST is cool to me.

 

I just choose not to deal with them anymore unless otherwise.

 

If anyone would of seen the months of litigation and red tape

they would think I was a fool for bending even this far with my trusts.

 

As a final note, I've allways hated lawyers that protect the scum of the earth

and this in a way reminds me of that same type of scenerio -

( If it doesn't fit you must equit! ).

 

 

Johnny Cochran can roast!!!!

[Calamerica]

" If the glove doesn't fit- you must acquit".

 

Shortly after the OJ debacle, Mr. Cochran decided to "relocate" to NYC. For many months he had the ususal PO boxes, and treid very hard to keep his whereabouts very low-key and extremely secritive. That does not fit well with someone who is defending justce. My guess here is that he made so much money off of OJ he can live comfortably the rest of his life.

 

But without further deviation of this ST Thread, I must add that I think ST is going to be a thing of the past. Might last another year, maybe two, but ST's days are numbered. People are not stupid and keep paying thst $20.00 fee for "mediation" just to have eBay eMail you and say - "we are not going to remove any negative feedback".

 

Another trick that I seen employed is the opposing party first acknowledging that they are willing to "try" to mediate - but are just stalling for time - time for the eBay listings to go off the books( servers) in the 90-day window period. This happened to me and at least one other eBayer I am very close with. Once the "mediation" has started, it becomes a game of "eMail tag". This can go on and on and on. Nothing gets done. Frustration sets in. Meantime, if you ask ST for your $20.00 back, they will fight you real hard and state: "The process for Mediation was begun on date such-and-such - therefore no refund can be granted." How many times is someone going to fall for that? I just saw a listing where an eBayer says he uses ST all the time to "settle" things - would you buy from this person? I would really have to think about it real hard and it better be a real good bargain for me to gamble on this person.

 

ST will even switch "Moderators" as it is - and if the other party is pulling your leg and dragging you through this, it is all for naught. The ST idea and concept was probably a good one to begin with, but let's face it - online transactions are NOT like live transactions in person. It is always some sort of chance taking.

 

CAL

[Wally's Comics]

Square Trade R.I.P.

[duncan36]

Personally I think if it can be verified that a buyer pays his money on time- which is easy to verify with Paypal that a seller shouldnt be allowed to post a negative on your feedback.

We only see 10% of real problems from sellers because of the fear of retailiatory negs. I bet grading would suddenly get tighter too if this was the case.

I mean you deal with someone with the most horrible business practices ever, who basically steals from you and you come out looking worse than him because you only have a few hundred feedbacks and he has 10,000. Whole system seems flawed.

[Wally's Comics]

Whole system seems flawed.

 

Amen to that! You are preaching to the choir brother!!

[sterlingcomics]

As an update, I don't really see the ST seal much anymore. When I sold on eBay more often years ago I had it "Because everyone else did" but never used their services, other than for the comfort to bidders that I am "trusted". I actually forgot I was still paying them a yearly fee for this, and finally called them up to cancel.