Torn on how to deal with poor buying experience

[01TheDude]

ultimately the sender is the one who decides to use media mail.

 

they are the ones responsible to make sure the item arrives safely- even if this is a "free shipping" scenario.

[jsilverjanet]

Has there been a resolution?

[John Campbell]

The seller did right by me. Sent me the full $90 back. Overall, this whole situation has been quite the learning experience, both in proper forum etiquette and the dangers of media rate for comics. I appreciate all your comments and feedback (positive and negative). I know in the future I'll be a lot more inquisitive as to the shipping method used for free shipping items. It sucks because I would have been happy to have chipped in some extra to have everything sent first class. If I had agreed to a somewhat riskier shipping method and the items I did receive weren't so badly damaged I would not have requested the full amount back. It sucks, but it was a total loss.

 

The more I think about it, I think the box might have been torn open. On the interior, the whole left side of the box looked a bit questionable, like it had been cut open but then hastily taped back up. Am assuming the seller didn't send me comics in a box that wasn't originally structurally sound. All the corners were a bit "mushy" so this thing must have gotten tossed around like mad wherever it went on the way to me.

 

Personally, in this day and age I get everything insured. Sure, it eats into the bottom line a bit but I've had a few boxes here and there practically destroyed, even very well packed ones ... like someone went out of their way to drive a car over them or something.

 

As to the "it's just Valiant" comments? Where's the love for old school Valiant?! Hahaha ... I love it all (well, not so much everything around Chaos Effect and beyond). Working on getting a full set of everything. Actually have two Harbinger #1's with CGC as we speak.

[CAHokie]

[the blob]

I would have assumed media mail was being used given the $50 opening bid. I don't think there is any method other than media or local car delivery that could get that much stuff to you for $50. people know better than me, but could that many comics even be sent for $90 by other methods? maybe UPS ground. i need to look into that, but i think it only gets cheap if you are a big customer.

 

And as per my other posts, I don't assume media is a recipe for destruction, but I guess other people have had different experiences. Indeed, the big lot of comics I ever received where the box got trashed (narrowly missing the precious treasure inside) was from a boardie here via priority. I didn't have any complaint about the packing he used...hindsight being 20/20 we can always use more bubble wrap/cushioning I suppose. I've made packing mistakes over the years and each one is a lesson learned.

[jcjames]

Glad to hear it worked out well for you. Definitely a learning experience. Media Mail for comics is basically gambling just to save a few bucks. Not worth it especially if the seller has to eat the whole cost with no insurance. Selling anything runs the risk of damaged goods - but no reason to increase that risk using MM.

 

Too bad you didn't get what you wanted, that's a drag - but good to hear you and the seller worked it out. That reflects well on both of you.

 

 

 

[1Cool]

Glad to hear it worked out well for you. Definitely a learning experience. Media Mail for comics is basically gambling just to save a few bucks. Not worth it especially if the seller has to eat the whole cost with no insurance. Selling anything runs the risk of damaged goods - but no reason to increase that risk using MM.

 

Too bad you didn't get what you wanted, that's a drag - but good to hear you and the seller worked it out. That reflects well on both of you.

 

 

 

Couple bucks? I made some educated assumptions as to how much the box probably weighed and the size of the box and a Priority Box package would have been $30 or so and the Media Mail option is $8 or so. I wonder if the buyer would have been willing to pitch in $20 extra dollars for the Priority shipping?

[John Campbell]

I would have been happy to pay the extra shipping. At $90 I was paying about 20 cents a book. $20 more would be a drop in the bucket for what all I was receiving. Sometimes extra shipping doesn't really make sense, depending on what you're getting, but in this case it would have still been a great deal from my perspective.

[John Campbell]

Ohhh... completely forgot to mention but I've found that for high weight parcels, FedEx tends to be the cheapest to ship ground with, with UPS running second and USPS dead last. Of course, with smaller items, I still think USPS generally the best.

[wombat]

Glad it was all worked out. Maybe full disclosure of shipping method would have been the key here and give the buyer options for something more expensive.

[1Cool]

I would have been happy to pay the extra shipping. At $90 I was paying about 20 cents a book. $20 more would be a drop in the bucket for what all I was receiving. Sometimes extra shipping doesn't really make sense, depending on what you're getting, but in this case it would have still been a great deal from my perspective.

 

Thanks for the reply and good to know.

[the blob]

Assuming a 40 pound box, and I don't know how much this should have weighed, media mail is about $22, and to my surprise, priority is around $50 from NYC to Florida, as an example. I would have thought more.

 

"Parcel select" actually costs more than priority and will take longer, at least at that distance. Parcel seems to be a rip-off a lot of the time.

[shadroch]

Get it under 35 pounds and use a regional box

[youmechooz]

I think fedex is right around 25 or something for a 50lbs box.

[Gatchaman]

Priority mail is not immune to postal mishandling either. This was sent priority. Cost $29 and sat in customs for almost 3 weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I put packing tape on all edges and corners to keep this from happening. I put a lot of tape on the packages as I know USPS doesn't really care about how you mail arrives to you. It also makes your customers really happy to see that you put so much effort in protecting their purchase.