Crappy Dealers on EBAY Part 2 - Unbelievable!!!

[coastline-migration]

What is going on with EBAY these days, do they just allow anyone to get an account and sell comic books or what? (Rhetorical question, yes?) What happened to good customer service, is it now acceptable to win an auction, pay immediately via PayPal and then wait 30 days later for the seller to email you just to say "sorry your item is no longer available."

 

I just had one of the worst freaking transactions in my 5 plus years on EBAY. I purchased a lot of WANTED #1's from a guy on ebay with over 1600 feedback points and a 99.9% feedback rating back on 3/24, and as of today 4/22 these IN-STOCK AND READY TO SHIP items still haven't arrived. What's worse is how disgusted the guy acts when you even ask the simple query "so where are my books?"

 

This dealer who shall remain nameless BUT IS LOCATED IN OWENINGS, MD sent me an email on 3/31 telling me these would ship today. Then nothing until 4/21 when I received the following:

 

"Due to shipping errors, we currently have none of the covers other than the

Death Row Edition. These books were supposed to be in our hands the week

after the WW LA show. We are sorry for the delay but have been informed by

the shipper that they are on the way here and will arrive by Monday.

 

We can offer 3 alternatives for you at this point:

 

1 Wait for the books to arrive and ship

2. Ship all the books other than that one and ship that one when it gets

here

3. Issue complete refunds for the order"

 

Great no problem, so I write back and say "Don't need the Death Row Variants" please honor option 3 and refund my money. . I then receive the following:

 

"You did order 1 as it came with the set. Look at the

auction if you want.

 

Just trying to be nice here but you are not making it

easy to want to help out."

 

So I write back again, HONOR OPTION #3 I have waited a month for these books which you have already said you don't have all copies of please refund. Here is the CLASSIC REPONSE:

 

"OK, just so we understand each other, you ordered the

item and now don't want it because the price changed. I

am forwarding this off to ebay as I think this is no

longer a negotiable issue between us. I tried to help

and go above and beyond what I was required to do. You

responded in a nasty an unprofessional manner.

 

Just to let you know the way this will work, I will

either send the books and you can refuse them. You can

file a complaint with ebay or paypal and I will handle

it. Lastly, I can issue a refund and then file a NPB

report which will be on file in your ebay records."

 

So he offers me the refund, I accept the refund THEN he decides WAIT, WHAT REFUND? Anyway, consider this a deal with your own risk kind of seller; Shield, OldGuy, Herbie, Thor and anyone else who wants to know who this insufficiently_thoughtful_person is please drop me an email.

 

Stev_HOCP, DavidKing623 and the rest of you who have had bad ebay experiences with online dealers in the past I urge you to stay as far away from this guy as possible. I can't believe that an auction for $30 worth of stuff pissed me off so much but it comes down to just the simple customer service of the thing, WHERE IS IT THESE DAYS?

 

You want your money back from us we give it you, I don't care if you received the item and had buyer's remorse or your dog ate it and you didn't get to read it (you get a replacement), no big deal, send it back, we send you your money, does NO ONE do that these days?

 

Somebody buy me out, its guys like this who make me wish I would have taken up baseball cards as a lifelong passion instead of Comic Books!

[drice6900]

Yeah well, its no picnic with buyers either. I have a unopened box of Magic: The Gathering Unglued game cards which I have had to relist 3 TIMES now for NPBs.

 

I finally got tired of it and posted this last time using the Paypal Immediate Payment option. That way, even if some pops the BIN, the auction won't end until the payment is made - this option may see more and more use.

 

Seems back in the day, Ebayers were a more trustworthy lot. Not anymore. Retaliatory negs, big time dealers, more kids signing up and joy bidding... every day there is something new and annoying.

[Darthdiesel]

is this Owings Mills, Md?

[coastline-migration]

Actually its Ownings, MD 21117 -- my bad . . .I know there are good sellers out there, you, I and a couple others (I am feeling you on those NPB's) but it only takes one POWERSELLER like this guy to ruin it for all of us.

 

I just received another email from the guy telling me the following after I said I would post in the CGC forum:

 

"Paypal addressed. BTW - you don't even belong to

Newsarama or CGC so I doubt yuo will post anything on

their boards."

 

And look at this one Diesel, it just came through:

 

"Wow, huge balls there. Unnamed dealer? Afraid that

people will know you are full of [!@#%^&^] because my

reputation far exceeds yours in every posible metric?

Loser."

 

Not even a clue as to what the above new email is in reply to. I just love this industry. So any guesses who this joker is before I post his info here?

[Shield]

Go for it, what can they do to you anyway? Not sell to you again? Oh, the horror!

[Red Hook]

I love guys who write pompous e-mails like that.

[fantasticrealm-migration]

In response to coastline's post, all we can say is that this person is not someone we want to deal with. We tried being nice and got abuse back. We kept buyer informed and were physically threatened and verbally abused. Anyone who has dealt with us knows we bend over backwards to make customers happy. There will always be one person who makes life miserable no matter how hard you try though.

 

To be fair, here is the complete story -

 

On March 24th, we paid for a large order of Wanted #1 comics. These were being shipped from CA to the East coast following WW LA. We auctioned some sets off and the poster bought one. We gave an estimated shipping date (barring anything unforseen) as we always do.

 

When the books came in, only 1 variant was included. We notified all bidders that there was a shipping problem and that we were taking care of it and books would be sent as soon as the correct items were received by us.

 

In the following week, my sister had an emergency c-section and my grandmother was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She went nito surgery 3 days later and was diagnosed as terminal. I emailed all customers that I would be out for a few days to take care of her and be with my family.

 

Upon returning, 1 book was still missing from the shipment. We again informed people that it was coming in Fed-Ex (with tracking # from seller) and that we would do whatever we could to make them happy, even above and beyond what ebay required us to do.

 

This person never responded to any of this information until the last email whereupon he issued a rude and uncalled for email. We tried to explain that we didn't appreciate rudeness or threats and were not going to do any favors for him unless he toned it down a lot. He also lied to us about what he ordered and we corrected him on that and gave him the link to the auction page.

 

In response, we were called names that can't be repeated on this forum, had a paypal complaint filed against us and have had this person contacting members of ebay telling them not to deal with us. These, BTW, are all violations of ebays User Agreement.

 

We have provided a tracking number to the buyer and he should receive his books. We have completed what we were required to do. We even tried to do more under very hard times for us and were treated with nothing but disrespect and abusiveness.

 

So, if you want to believe the rantings of this person, you may. Now you have the real story though.

 

Also, thanks to all of you who were kind enough to wish my family well. Classy behavior like that keeps me on ebay and in retail despite the occassional fruitcake like this guy.

 

Jeff

[coastline-migration]

Boo hoooo . . .violations of EBAY's user agreement, pleeeease! I will be more than happy to retract everything I have said in this board IF IT WAS FALSE. . .somehow I don't think I will have to worry to much about that.

 

I could go on and on but why bother, I have already been PM'd three times in the last 30 mintues from "past satisfied customers" of the "great" Fantastic Realm. I will drive to your offices in MD myself if my full correct order arrives at my offices here in San Diego within 5 days. Someone I doubt that will happen.

[Red Hook]

Just one question, Jeff.....

 

Did you write this?

 

"Wow, huge balls there. Unnamed dealer? Afraid that

people will know you are full of [!@#%^&^] because my

reputation far exceeds yours in every posible metric?

Loser."

[BassGMan]

No matter whose side you side with, this is a classic example of how we can all be skewed when just hearing one side of the story. Glad to hear it both sides, thanks. But my first thought is, as a seller you should NEVER sell an item before you have posession of it unless it is clearly advertised as an advance order. Had this been the case, there would be no problem. ----Sid

[coastline-migration]

hell yes Jeff wrote that. . .let me know if you want the full header copy, better yet, give me your fax number, I will send it over to you right now.

[wrcomics]

Well said and actually I not 100% sure that ebay allows these "pre-sale" offers as being acceptable seller practice withing the purview of their user agreement.

[fantasticrealm-migration]

Now that is a deal. Now will you e honest enough to admit you actually received all the books?

 

As I said, I don't need the grief. I like dealing with people. I don't like being abused. I was happy to refund the money. In return you called me a thief and an a#@. I again tried to get you to calm down but you wouldn't. You gave nothing but threats and insults. No one in their right mind would do a favor for someone who was kicking them.

 

Still, even after all of this, I will bury the hatchet with you publicly if you will either accept the books (and be honest about them), or admit you were perhaps a touch rude in your emails and that this could all be chalked up to 2 people not getting off on the right foot. I am big enough to post that we had delays in shipping and that you had a right to be upset. Be as big a person and admit that the abuse wasn't constructive or called for and we can move on.

 

What say you?

[Red Hook]

Good point, Sid.

[coastline-migration]

My buddy Jeff, sure I will bury the hatchet, the minute those books arrive, the full order, within 5 days, I will be the first on this forum to say "hey these are my books,. . he actually shipped the books, yeap these are them." And we can go on from there. Frankly, I have always wanted to see MD so I am actually fine either way!

[fantasticrealm-migration]

You have a point there. However, once we have paid for an order and have an invoice from the buyer and shipper, we are ni possession of the items (you take possession as soon as they are on a common carrier. Yes, delays happen. Yes, they can be inconvenient. No, they don't have to kill a deal or a relationship. No shipping guarantees were ever given. Things happen, as we all know. Heck, even now I have a shipment delayed from Fed-Ex due to a thunderstorm.

 

This is not about having books ni your hand or shipping them from a show to your place of business. This is about how people treat other people. When someone is going out of their way to be nice, it is not wise to spit on them and expect them to keep coming back for more. I told the bidder that I didn't care about the money. I care about being treated with respect and dignity. If this was a physical store and someone behaved like that, they would have been tossed out.

 

We have all had great customers and bad customers, good sellers and bad sellers. We have all had items lost in the mail, broken, damaged and so on. We have all made mistakes and over reacted. The point is to be enough of a person to deal nicely and fairly with your trading partner.

 

As an aside, yes I did write that email. I was tired of being threatened with this guy "hunting my A23 down" and such. I don't take kindly to being threatened.

[Red Hook]

Good luck guys!

[fantasticrealm-migration]

Done deal. You will get updated tracking info and I will even throw in some freebies just to extend the olive branch.

 

I am not a bad guy. I am sure you are not either. This whole thing just blew out of control. Ball will be in your court next week.

 

Jeff

[Darthdiesel]

It looks like you and Jeff worked things out. I saw the city and the books in question and had a feeling. I have known Jeff for a few years and the story you posted seemed a bit out of character for him. I'm glad he came on and addressed it personally. Good luck and enjoy your Wanted's...it has been a great read thus far... anyone else surprised it was coming from Top Cow? Anyone else notice the more durable, higher quality cover stock and paper they are using, compared to the other publishers?

[DawgPhan]

In response to coastline's post, all we can say is that this person is not someone we want to deal with. We tried being nice and got abuse back. We kept buyer informed and were physically threatened and verbally abused. Anyone who has dealt with us knows we bend over backwards to make customers happy. There will always be one person who makes life miserable no matter how hard you try though.

 

To be fair, here is the complete story -

 

 

 

*snip* some stuff about "yeah I sold stuff I did not have"

 

*snip* "Surprise Surprise I sold something that I did not get"

 

In the following week, my sister had an emergency c-section and my grandmother was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She went nito surgery 3 days later and was diagnosed as terminal. I emailed all customers that I would be out for a few days to take care of her and be with my family.

 

I rarely believe stuff like this when I see it on the internet...It always seems to happen when people are late shipping something... If it is true...sorry...if it is not then should really fell bad for saying stuff like that...boy who cried wolf and all...

 

Upon returning, 1 book was still missing from the shipment. We again informed people that it was coming in Fed-Ex (with tracking # from seller) and that we would do whatever we could to make them happy, even above and beyond what ebay required us to do.

 

sounds like your real problem is with your supplier...they cant get a shippment right 3 times in a row...that is fairly slack...I think that monkeys could do a better job.

 

 

This person never responded to any of this information until the last email whereupon he issued a rude and uncalled for email. We tried to explain that we didn't appreciate rudeness or threats and were not going to do any favors for him unless he toned it down a lot. He also lied to us about what he ordered and we corrected him on that and gave him the link to the auction page.

 

Jeff

 

what would you think if someone gave you this type of run around? Oh I guess we know since you just let all the stuff from your supplier slide...maybe that is why your order gets screwed up everytime...I think that you need to stop selling stuff you dont have and maybe take your business elsewhere if they cant get your order right after 3 times...that is just [!@#%^&^] poor...