"New Wave discovered selling on eBay (and feedback problem)" Topic

Well, this is the second time I've had trouble with New Wave, but this time, I didn't know I was dealing with them until it was too late.

The first time was through their website (before I knew what kind of company they were), but this time, I was blindsided.

I bought a Vor Union forcebook on eBay at the end of January, and I didn't realize the seller was New Wave until I was actually making my PayPal payment (to "dakkon@newwave.org", eBay ID "dakkon0_0"). I always make payment within a day or so (unless I'm getting multiple items from the same seller), and in this case, I paid right away. That alone should have got me positive feedback, but oh no...

Well, time goes by, and no book. And more time goes by. So I e-mailed him and asked about it. After a week or so, I got a response saying it had shipped and that it should be here in a few days. Acording to the date stamp on the package, it took 24 days to reach me (from Georgia to California) because he sent it "media mail" (which wasn't mentioned on the auction). The packaging was almost destroyed - fortunately only a tiny corner of the cover was bent, so I could live with that.

Well, I gave negative feedback because of the terrible communication and ridiculous shipping time, and my comment was: "Do not buy from this seller - it's New Wave in disguise" (since it doesn't say who the seller is on the auction, except for their eBay ID).

In return, I received negative feedback saying: "Problem customer, trouble maker, Avoid at all cost". He was holding me as a "feedback hostage", and struck back when he didn't like the feedback that was left about him (as I understand it, the seller should leave feedback first, based on how quickly/easily the buyer pays - as that ends the transaction as far as the seller is concerned).

So now I have a negative mark on my spotless eBay record. I'm also being held a "feedback hostage" by another seller as well, but they aren't worth my effort - but I had to warn people about this hidden New Wave seller, and am suffering because of it. My response to the negative feedback about me is: "Known shady dealer in the gaming community, upset by my negative feedback of him"

Be warned!

I've been experiencing the 'feedback hostage' syndrome for a while now. As a seller, I always post feedback the instant I receive a valid payment from a buyer. He met his end of the deal, so I meet mine (prompt payment = good feedback).

BUT lately, when I'm the buyer I have to wait for weeks for the seller to post postive feedback, and this is usually well after the item has arrived in my possession and I've posted my own feedback for the seller.

What's up with this new practice?

Can't comment on NW on ebay's doing it, but it does seem to be much more common than it was in the past.

He's still at 99.8% positive feedback at this point out of 1468 members who've delt with him. I did notice that he's starting to get some negative and nuetral feedback though, something I didn't see the last time I checked. Old habits?

The "feedback hostage" thing arises because as a seller if you leave feedback and then the buyer says the parcel hasn't arrived, or was damaged or wasn't as described then the seller becomes the feedback hostage. I now say when I despatch I'll leave positive feedback when the buyer lets me know the item has arrived safely either by email or by leaving feedback for me. As ebay grows there are an increasing number of unscrupulous individuals using it and as your reputation is your only guide you have to protect it. The shady can open a new account, a long period as a member and a good feedback record are hard to build up.

As a occasional eBay seller I'd like to explain the reason why some seller would wait till a positive feedback was left before I leave mine.

Reason was that after a feedback was left, you cannot take it back short of contacting eBay admin. It is possible that the item could get lost in transit or the custome could be unhappy with the product and leave a negative feedback without contacting me first.

Just a way for sellers to protect themselves.

I ordered from them once and it took them several months, a call to the Consumer Protection Attorney here in Montana, and a virtual threat to take them to task in court over my order before I got it. Also, they never communicated that the items I originally ordered that I paid for were either out of stock or discontinued. When I found out, I asked for substitute products instead of a refund and it still took the better part of 6 months to resolve the problem.

I was going to buy something from Ebay - Hybrid - but saw who the seller was and decided I'd rather order through my store where I live than risk not getting a product for 6 months while being out $80.00 plus shipping with nothing to show for it. New Wave ought to invest in better customer relations and improve their shipping and online ordering system to insure that customers get the products they order in a timely fashion AND if they can't ship it quickly, notify the buyer of the delay and ask if they would like a credit or refund or if they are willing to wait.

I'd rather pay full price through Brookhurst than pay discount for crappy service from New Wave. Brookhurst tells you up front about issues and ships promptly. Same with every other company I've done business with. New Wave should take note. Just my two cents worth!

Next time just link back to the posts about them here. hows that for feedback.

I think 4000+ positives are a pretty darned good record personally.

The whole hostage thing is immature as you can respond to feedback anyways. As a seller, I give feedback as soon as I receive payment. I fsomething happens after that, it is beyond my control. I might get a negative, but at least I am not being childish...

Better yet, link to their BBB record.

link

There it is…

Aestivalis, contact e-Bay Admin and give them the whole story and they might remove it.

Is there no way to have a negative rating reversed?

I have bought from people with the odd negative feedback , but I guess I wouldnt if they were flooded with them...

Actually I have never seen a user with a really bad feedback record, at what point does Ebay close it down??

I always leave feedback as soon as the item has arrived or when the payment has cleared, doesnt really bother me if they leave me any or not.

My biggest gripe about ebay users is those that dont state the Post and packaging, or you get someone selling items and charging upto 3 times the amount for P&P than others selling the exact same item.

When I sell items if the P&P charge is less than what I have stated I always enclose the difference in 1st class stamps ( Its never been more than a couple of pounds )

Is there no way to have a negative rating reversed?

Just noticed Skannys latest post, guess you can then

I buy often from ebay and I agree with Aestivalis....when I win an auction and pay immediately, my part of this transaction has been fullfilled and I should get a positive feedback right then and there. Like was stated earlier, you can respond to any feedback left one way or the other.

I've sold things on Ebay and I give feedback as soon as payment is recieved. The biggest problem I had was the item I sent to the buy took a month to arrive, what was wrong with that? The mail screwed up. Fortunatly the buyer got it. Much to my relief, when I say it's shipped I mean it. I have no use for things I'm auctioning off just sitting around my house, maybe there are unsavory sellers on Ebay but I'm not one of them.

I'm not even a dealer, just trying to sell off old Battletech and 40K stuff. I was suprized my Eldar Harlequins went so fast, wonder how fast my 7 unseen marauders will go once I put them up?

Regarding a couple of suggestions above --

Last time I checked eBay prohibited posting a link or URL in a feedback.

Ebay advises sellers NOT to give feedback until they know the package has been received, since the transaction isn't really complete until then (things do get lost, after all). As a buyer I generally email notification to the seller on receipt, then wait until their feedback shows up before giving my own.

Hundvig

Why wait until they have given you feedback, if you have revieved the item then the seller has done his bit, what happens if the seller has the same thoughts...you both going to sit there waiting for each other?

I am in the midst of only my second out of about 150 buys that is going sour (not dakkon - have had good transactions there.) It has been nearly 30 days since I paid "bigworldcomics" through Paypal and after a couple of email exchanges where they kept requesting my address (which I have given freely) they have stopped answering. They have several thousand mostly positive feedbacks but after reading them more carefully, I find they often include "I received it but it took forever" type responses. More chilling is a trend of retaliating with a negative for any that come their way. This is not an appealing thought for one who has a 100% positive rating and has not been the one to do wrong.

Hey I wrote this exact message last month, when I found out that I hadn't received a mini from them and then found out they were linked to New Wave, New Wave monitors this site, because I received an email saying that Dakkon 0_0 was someone buying up their unsold stock and selling it on Ebay, But I understood from others on this site that it is actually the president of the company (Doust is the name)

Skannian 27 Feb 2004 3:17 p.m. PST

Aestivalis, contact e-Bay Admin and give them the whole story and they might remove it.

*NJH: BTDT - Ebay will do absolutely nothing and they offer no redress.

I started sending a note with payment that says something like, "Leave positive feedback and I will do same." I have found this to be pretty effective, however I don't do a lot of ebay transactions. I put the ball in the seller's court, and if they don't leave me feedback I don't leave them any. I feel that we both benefit from a transaction or neither one of us does.

When I'm the seller, I wait 'til I've gotten a positive from the buyer before I leave feedback. Why? You could be like the guy that started this thread. You got your stuff. It's not Doust's fault that the post office took a month to get it to you.

He didn't mention he was sending it media mail? Did he mention he was sending it in a lexan box via armed courier?

Actually, it is his fault. Regular mail takes 3-5 business days to arrive - even across the breadth of this great country of ours (7-10 days in a worst case scenario). Not responding to my e-mail for a week is also his fault. Considering that I paid right away, that's all that should matter to him as far as my feedback is concerned. If he wants to avoid negative feedback himself (or any seller, for that matter), he should have taken measures to ensure that the customer is satisfied.

I have a strong suspicion that a lot of his positive feedback is from friends or "alter-ego" ID's. Based on my previous experience with New Wave, and on the comments of so many others that have had problems with them, it seems virtually impossible for him to have that good of a reputation (unless most "ebayers" really don't have high expectations as far as customer service goes).

As a seller on Ebay I always use delivery confirmation on my packages. After being burnt by someone who said an item didn't arrive I can now find out if the item was delivered or the USPS is just being slower than dirt. (An item once took over 8 days to go from Lincoln, NE to Chicago, IL and it was sent first class mail). I always post positive feedback after being paid, as far as I'm concerned the buyer has kept his part of the bargain.

"I have a strong suspicion that a lot of his positive feedback is from friends or "alter-ego" ID's."

Oh please, the ID has over four 'thousand' positive feedbacks, many from others with hundreds or thousands of feedbacks themselves. It's not some massive conspiracy to defraud you of a few dollars.

You can tell when the package was sent by the postmark can't you? If it was late, it was late. I never leave negative feedback for a late package, neutral normally. You got the parcel at the price you paid for it, Ebay isn't Amazon, it's usually one guy doing his best. Someone getting hundreds of feedback a week is sending hundreds of parcels a week. If one slips down the back of a box for a few days then " happens".

By all means boycott New Waves site because of the risks involved but it's plain for all to see that the Ebay ID here uses a different business practise (right now at least) regardless of who it is.

Artemis

www.artemisblacks.co.uk

By the postmark it took 24 days. Did he wait for a long time after payment before sending the package?

BTW, what's your eBay userID so I can ban you from my auctions?

Item 1: ALWAYS check on the details of any auction, including who the seller is (at least as far as you can determine it).

Item 2: High numbers of positive feedback do not necessarily guarantee that your transaction will work out.
I won an old Dr. Strange comic book from a store in North Carolina one time at a very low price(there was no reserve, though, so win it I did).

Sent the money, which they took, and never heard from them again.

Checking through many pages of their feedback, which was in the 2,000's positive, I did find a few glaring negatives along the lines of what I was experiencing.

I deducted that their system goes something like this:
They do not use reserves because that tends to scare some buyers away, and start low, which is sort of the 'accepted norm' on Ebay.

If the article gets somewhere near the price they had in mind (the 'hidden reserve', if you will), they will actually sell it to you, resulting in good feedback and happiness all around.

If it doesn't, they'll take the money (for their trouble...), as well as the negative feedback for never coming through with the item, as a kind of 'business risk'.

I'm not exactly sure what Ebay's policies are for banning businesses due to negative feedback, but I would imagine that a)someone with thousands of pluses would have to amass a bunch of minuses before they kick them off the air, and b)who's to prevent that outfit from starting anew under a new identity?

Blackscribe: it took 24 days from the day that it was postmarked (i.e. 24 days in transit). It was sent out a few days after payment was received, but it was sent "media mail" so he could save a few cents (and cost me several weeks). Totally unacceptable - unless something like that is stated clearly in the auction description (which it wasn't).

My eBay ID is "aestivalis_in_irvine", so ban away. I don't know what you sell, but I'm sure there are other sellers out there who would like my money just fine.

So, if you had paid the few cents more would you have then expected it to be sent priority? Where does it end? Media mail doesn't usually take that long. Are sellers supposed to predict when there will be a hold-up? If he had sent it via FedEx or some such and it still took 24 days to get to you would you have still left negative feedback?

Once again, he probably should have responded to your emails, so I can't argue with you on that. Who knows, though, there might've been a problem. I've had two cases where there were extreme commo problems that were not the fault of either party. In one case (prior to the lovely service Paypal). I received a non-paying bidder notice. That came as a surprise since the seller had not answered any of my seven e-mails in regards to where to send payment. I had given up on getting a response. Turns out his ISP had my domain blocked. One phone call later and all was well.

My policy is pay the exact amount of shipping for whatever method of delivery you choose. However, if someone left me negative feedback for the post office delivering slowly, my wrath probably wouldn't stop at reciprocal negative feedback. BTW, I have no negative feedback. It's the result of playing nicely with others.

I am with Aestivalis on this. Regular business practice on ebay is to send regular post, or faster.
As a regular ebay purchaser, including from Dakkon/New Wave, I would be irrate if my package was not delivered promptly. New Wave (the e-tailer) has always filled my orders, but occassionally I am out of pocket for an item and do not receive it for a while. I am a forgiving person when I order from a company who might be out-of-stock of an item, but NOT when I win an auction. An auction represents an item for sale that is ready for delivery; and delivered promptly it should be.

Blackscribe said: "BTW, what's your eBay userID so I can ban you from my auctions?"

...it does not sound ot me like you are "playing nicely with others."

And blackscribe, if it is your intention to threaten people on this site, I'd prefer not to do business with you. What is your ebay username?

Actually for heavier shipments, UPS is cheaper. Before you protest, do the math: at no extra charge you get tracking and $100 insurance. also the package is guaranteed to arrive by a certain time. If you live in an apt or work at a business. the pkg requires a signature. I admit customer counters and ups stores are rather expensive due to commissions. but for an additional fee you can have ups come to your house and pick up the package.