"Worst eBay Seller... ever! Warhammer 40K Valkyries" Topic

Check this out and tell me what you think. What type of feedback should I leave him?

link

Erm, in terms of feedback may I suggest the title of this post. I would be most upset by this!

At least you could repair the damage, I would keep the Paypal complaint running re the damage and send Paypal the photos to back it up, you may get a partial refund.
Check out when they were posted as well, I am pleased to see that the seller seems to have made a rapid recovery though!

Yes, amazing how fast he recovered – and funny, it was "his business" not "his friend's packing". The ships are well painted – why not take the time and effort to make sure they are protected? What a maroon!

Agree with earlier comments, you would not have paid what was asked for them had you known the overall story, and are surely entitled to a reduction in the price as a result.Or he can fully refund you and arrange to have them collected out of his pocket as you are well within your rights to refuse the goods.

Please talk to Ebay also about this as they will be very un happy with him and help you.

Agree, you do need to follow this up with eBay or this pirate will continue to tell lies and do this sort of thing to others.

Just be grateful the man made such a complete recovery from his "massive heart attack". Maybe they got smashed when he took bad and fell on top of them, did you ever think of that?

And even as he's lying in intensive care, clinging desparately to the very thinnest thread of mortality, he digs deep down into his very last reserves of strength, tears off his oxygen mask, and croaks it out to his friends to try to ship your order, how's that for customer care!?

You're very hard on the poor sod… he goes lugging that box to the post office, probably puffing, wheezing and gripping his chest (remember he's had a "massive heart attack") all the way there and back, and you're worried about a bit of bubble wrap? Tut Tut… :O)

The title of this thread is – as Rhysius Cambrensis said – the feedback you should post.

Give him a negative and end of story. Ebay won't do anything about it.

Nothing for sale now:

auction

Since you repaired them, I assume you really want them, but a partial refund is in order.

Don't leave Feedback yet. I always give sellers a chance to make it right. Contact them, ask for some sort of monetary redress (what's your repair effort worth to you?) and if they make good, then leave good feedback or none at all.

Agree with ordinarybass, give them the chance to put things right, but at this point you can't really provide a positive feedback.

Pursue the complaint. This guy is trouble and should be held to account for it.

This guy was trying to rip you off. I would not even hesitate to leave bad feedback and pursue the case in paypal for a full refund. Show them the pics of how damaged they were.

Hello all. I fixed them, I liked them enough to fix them. I really think the guy was just mad because I made a claim on paypal, I mean geez no answer from him after a massive heart attack that I was told via email 6 days after the auction, I am sad to say this, but I thought he may have passed on when I had no reply from 3 emails, etc. So I figured since I got no answer I would put a claim in, 10 days if no answer I would get my money back, no problem, end of story. I was not really mad about it.

He is the one that got mad, 2 hours later and I think he just threw the models in the box, lack of care showed. Anyways, its all done. He sent us two very hateful emails after we basically told him….his shipping methods were bad. (very nice and professional have you)

I was hoping he would just apologize…that is all, dont care about a refund, but it would have been nice if he offered. But instead we were made to feel sorry because he had a heart attack, and that his friends had did all the work and sorry if they messed up.

I would post his comments, some would be interested, but I am done with it. I really feel that he is being untruthful, something tells me. But he is one angry person, let me say.

Funny my wife lead this charge, I fixed the ships and moved on….but it felt good to vent.

You follow….

Meanwhile back to repainting 5000 miniature bases in my game room.

Cheers!!!

Tom

ps, I wont buy from this guy again.

Combatpainter has it right though…I agree, I am moving on.

I'd go with 'cretin/selfish twerp' myself. But you did the right thing.

I think you owe him his first negative feedback for shoddy packaging and damage to your models. Ruin his perfect ebay rating. He deserved it.

A couple years ago, I bought a fairly inexpensive CD of images of old Bibles from a guy on Ebay. The CD never arrived, and the seller wouldn't communicate with me. So I contacted Paypal, and got my money back surprisingly quickly.

After my refund arrived, I finally got a very brief email message from the seller, my first and last communication from him. In one sentence, he told me that he was busy helping wounded military people at Walter Reed Hospital(!) There was no explanation at to why he hadn't sent my CD or had not communicated.

I don't think this guy was telling the truth. It is likely he was probably trying to make me feel too guilty to leave bad feedback for him. Since I had already gotten my refund, I had no urge to respond to this bad seller's parting shot.

There does seem to be a lack of empathy (to put it mildly) for others from these kind of sellers, doesn't there?

I'm glad you were able to repair your models, and that your experience wasn't a total fiasco.

The guy sounds like an arse but, if he really has has a heart attack, I can understand his ire at someone getting their wife to complain about some models.

Apologies if that sounds harsh but you asked what we thought.

If the man had a massive heart attack he is probably still on bed rest at home. You don't recover from those very quickly. Sometimes not at all. You just live with the damage. That also can change ones personality and drive. I suspect the harsh words were because he had other things on his mind like living.

You got your vehicles and he got paid. He knows not to have his friends ship for him anymore and he does not seem to be selling anything else right now. If you are happy with the vehicles now then move on.

This was years ago and probably couldn't happen the same way on eBay now, but I once won a series of 1/1200 sailing ships. All little ones; brigs, schooners, cutter types. I got them for a song, barely above minimum. Suddenly the seller wants to charge me the individual shipping instead of the promised combined. So I protested to him and it seemed to be over. Then they arrived. All loose in a priority mail box. Of course dismasted and banged up. I sent him pictures and words of righteous indignation and got negative feedback in return for "being a whiner." So I left him negative feedback and started rebuilding the models.

He no longer sells (at least under that name) and the negative feedback on my record mysteriously disappeared one day. So yeah, some people can be vindictive.

BaldLea,

I am and was not very mad about the whole thing until I got broken ships. I would have basically lost my temper and told him off too the point I would give him another massive heart attack, so I let my professional wife at him. I did not care.

So if you think I just let my wife at him, because I am weak, that is just not true. I dont care if the guy has a heart attack, he had my money and frankly I think he was lying about it, and that he was a total crook, and he should not be selling on ebay if he is so ill, if he is. I was nice about it, never let my wrath at him. I was very concerned about getting my money back or getting the ships.

I think I hit it on the nail. I fixed the ships, and I have moved on, my wife is a ball of fire, and I can aim her at mean people. Because I do not like to be mean and lower someone down, because I can.

So I will let my wife at any Ebay seller that needs schooled correctly,

Everyone has a right to their opinion, and in no way Im I angry typing this, just conversation, that is all.

Who cares if the OP set his wife at the seller. The hard fact is that the seller or his cohorts packed the Valkyries in an unacceptable manner that caused them to be damaged. A seller has an obligation to pack and ship items in the most careful and protective way possible.
Or he can refund the payment and move on himself.
-Edgar

"…he told me that he was busy helping wounded military people at Walter Reed Hospital"

Funny how frauds always have some excuse why they can't do what they've committed to do, whether it's heart attacks or charity work, blah blah.

Once again, it's funny how a paypal dispute sparks action when days of emails get nada.

If it was me I'd hang on for a partial refund, if you want to move on just post the bad feedback and move on.

I hope the NHS is reading this thread. A potential Paypal dispute seems to be a miracle cure for massive heart attacks! :O)

My wife is an executive director, so I usually let her handle things as well. It's what she's good at. Spouses are meant to balance us out. ;-)

What an . It is amazing how many people have "health problems" or pets dying as soon as they run into logistics problems. I think you need to fight it with PayPal or Ebay. I had a similar problem with a guy in India! Just broke even in the end.

I doubt he was he ill when he started the auctions. A heart attack is the kind of thing that comes upon you pretty suddenly in my experience. Anyway, I have to say based purely upon reading this thread and the blog page that I tend to agree with Baldlea and Who asked this joker; I'm sorry that the kits were banged up and you're right to be frustrated but if you assume that his story is true (and unless you have evidence to prove that it isn't, any investigation would have to accept this point) and that he did have a heart attack, it's very possible that upon having his account frozen or whatever that he did ask some friends to pack the stuff up and send it out. It's also *very* possible that these friends just don't care about minis the way we all do and just threw them in the bags in a hurry to get them in the mail. I've seen passers-by at the store I play at pick up and handle my minis and it's almost given ME a coronary because they really do have absolutely no clue how fragile these things are.

Assuming he did have a heart attack then your wife's email (which makes NO comment about 'hope you are feeling better' or 'sorry to hear about your illness' but instead launches straight into a frankly condescending explanation of how to package things, which if it were me would be the LAST thing on my mind, thanks for the sympathy btw lol) would be the kind of thing that were I really laying in a hospital bed waiting for surgery, would certainly cause a spike in my blood pressure and the obviously emotionally charged response! He claims he got friends to package them up after your initial follow up and get them in the mail and unfortunately it seems they did a bad job; but from what I read he did then offer to refund all the money for the auction no questions asked, just that you would have to ship them back (which seems reasonable to me).

I've been in your situation before and had stuff that was very shoddily packaged shipped to me, and it *sucks* (especially since I try very hard myself to package and ship out my own auctions as well protected as possible). I've also heard similar excuses and yes I'm sure that some of them have been completely bogus. However I'm not sure what you're looking for here; you won an auction, the items were late, you got an email explanation for the delay (and having been in hospital laid up myself before, you can very easily get online and monitor emails etc, what you CAN'T do is go home and make sure that your friends are following through with your requests etc; maybe his friends were blowing smoke up his ass until he got your complaint, who knows), the items were shipped poorly, when you complained the seller he offered to refund your money. You're not happy and that's your prerogative, but besides leaving bad feedback and/or shipping the models back and getting a refund I'm not sure what else you can do. The fact that he's listed no auctions since actually lends some credibility to the heart attack story to be frank.

"I think it was the combination of the extreme lack of communication and poor shipping that got me mad. Had I been the in the hospital and recovered (as he apparently is saying that he is) then the first thing I would have done when I got back on my feet would have been to send a follow up email to all my Buyers letting them know that I was OK and that I got their payments and that I was going to ship their items as soon as possible. But did he do that? No. It took freezing his paypal account to provoke a response from him. Jerk."

Er, you read that he was STILL in the hospital when your stuff got sent out, right? He was still a LONG way off 'recovering and getting back on his feet'. Probably if you hadn't pushed him to rush it out while he was still laying in a hospital bed then he may well have done exactly what you suggest; instead a very sick man (and who are you or I or anyone else for that matter to assume that he's lying? Up until now his feedback had been 100%, no reason to suspect he's a flake or make up this situation at all) was hassled over some toy aircraft.

This last comment is to all the drive-by posters who may not have read the whole thing or gone to the blog posts. Let's assume he's telling the truth and he had a sudden massive heart attack. Can anyone here *honestly* tell me that shipping out some toy soldiers you sold via an auction that was still running when you were rushed to hospital with a *life-threatening* condition is a priority? Really??? My own ebay feedback since 1998 is also 100%, but were it me laying in that hospital bed PRAYING I get to go back home to be with my wife and kids, worrying about my ebay auctions or feedback would be the LAST thing on my freaking mind, sorry!! Apologies for the rant :)

were it me laying in that hospital bed PRAYING I get to go back home to be with my wife and kids, worrying about my ebay auctions or feedback would be the LAST thing on my freaking mind,

Having dealt with a family member and a family member suffering severe heart attacks since the beginning of the year, I assure you a friend or loved one would not only dealing with the auctions five days after the fact, but continuing communications well into the summer. Him getting aggravated by eBay buyers would be the last thing his doctors would want.

On second thought, any seller referring to $200 USD worth of models as "toy planes" is either a horrible eBay seller to deal with, or perhaps it is the friend/loved one cleaning up the messes they or another person made?

I don't care if it's toy aircraft, auto parts, or avocados, a $200 USD sale requires a wee bit better packaging.

If the seller could go online and read and monitor his traffic then he could have just as easily sent email notices,updates and responses to his buyer, long before the action needed to take place. I can see where the seller's priorities placed shipping sold items at the bottom of his list, but he should not be surprised that his buyer is taking action to protect and/or recover his investment. And his "friends" dumping the planes into the box, as seen in the photographs, to me, shows itself to be done in malice. So whatever the excuses, a partial refund is in order.
-Edgar

Wow!

Dear Bob,

You have your right to your opinion, and I appreach it the feedback.

QUOTE
"Er, you read that he was STILL in the hospital when your stuff got sent out, right? He was still a LONG way off 'recovering and getting back on his feet'. Probably if you hadn't pushed him to rush it out while he was still laying in a hospital bed then he may well have done exactly what you suggest; instead a very sick man (and who are you or I or anyone else for that matter to assume that he's lying? Up until now his feedback had been 100%, no reason to suspect he's a flake or make up this situation at all) was hassled over some toy aircraft. "
END QUOTE

OMG that is funny stuff, I am laughing so hard, thank you

Bob, Bob, Bob….

I forgot to use my clairvoyant skills to see his exact situation of his health, before his email arrived and before I placed a bid on the item. I totally believe everything anyone tells me, because I do not like to protect myself from fraud and get ripped off on Ebay that is full of fraudsters.

Oh, and those emails were not written until after we got the package, fyi since you read the whole blog well.

And you are right 13 days of waiting is rushing

And I like my $200 USD worth of stuff to arrive not smashed, regardless of who packs it, regardless of your health…End the auction, do not let your friends run them, or pack, etc….been ripped off plenty of time on Ebay.

"IF" is a dangerous word, when it comes to CASH. They do not go together.

If I would have had a MASSIvE HEART Attack, the last thing I would do would ask my friends to take care of my ebay auctions. I would have just let them go, not touch thier money in paypal, and if I recovered I would send out an apology and why the lack of communication etc……and happily refund thier money. Who cares about ebay, I am dying.

I am having a heart attack, I whisper in my family and friends ears, "Take care of my ebay stuff"

I am no sucker, and I am no fool…but I do appreciate your insight, but I have to disagree with you.

I just do not like being nice to someone who is a real jerk back, again…I should have used those Clairvoyant skills I have.

But besides all that I was nice, all the way till the box arrived.

I guess anyone else would have just let it go. Like the song…

Let it go…let it go….let it go…

I was hoping just for a nice kind, Im sorry email, and I would have just left him decent feedback, and overlooked it, and moved on…but oh no….

nay….

Hi folks,

I've read some of the comments posted in the last few days, and would like to comment one last time (I wrote a couple days ago about one of my own bad Ebay experiences with a questionable seller.)

To the folks who can see the Ebay seller's point of view, I salute you for your kindness and decency. No, I'm not being sarcastic; I admire you, especially Who asked this joker. Your comments are very insightful. I confess that it is sometimes hard for me to give others the benefit of the doubt in trying situations, and I must sometimes work at being fair.

In spite of that, I also see darclegion's point of view too. There were some real red flags in his dealings with the seller, which I won't reiterate. He was forced to take steps to protect himself, a situation I've found myself in in the past. It's not pleasant.

This Ebay seller's position is not unlike that of some of the homeless people I've encountered in recent years. Many of them are people who are genuinely down on their luck and need some mercy. But a few are scalawags who will try to con you if you can. There are times when I've felt I was certain I knew who really needed help and who didn't. But being human, I can only try to use the best discernment I can, with the risk of being wrong.

An update about the bad Ebay situation I described two days ago: I got my refund, but did I leave bad feedback for the unresponsive seller I told you about? For the life of me, I can't remember, but I don't think I did. I was torn: is this guy telling the truth, or is he a rip-off artist? Do I let things slide, or should others be warned? What if this guy pulled this stunt on other people after dealing with me? I could only hope that this guy's future customers were savvy and knew how to fend for themselves.

Ultimately, I can't blame darclegion for making this topic public. And if you think about it, he has really pulled his punches. There's a lot more information he could have shared with us, but didn't.

Jeff

"I was hoping just for a nice kind, Im sorry email, and I would have just left him decent feedback, and overlooked it, and moved on…but oh no…."

I agree this would have been the best outcome given everything else and it's too bad this wasn't the response your received. Sometimes tone is everything and what seems like a not unreasonable comment to one person can set off all kinds of red flags to another.

Anyway, Darclegion, I apologize if my reply came off as ranty, just playing devil's advocate a little. Over the last sixteen years I've been on ebay I too have been led down the garden path by multiple sellers (including a guy who sold me a Lego set described as 'Mint Condition' but which arrived as several large chunks of partially disassembled elements covered in about an inch of dust – mint condition my ass). I think what struck me about this guy was that rude or not, if he was blowing smoke up your ass about his illness he probably would have already gotten right back on selling more items, and he hasn't (had that happen to me before too!).

…unless he's laying off selling for other reasons. Maybe ebay removed his listed items for a span of time…

Bob,
No problem at all, your fine, you have the right to your opinion, and I was just playing back. You had valid point as well. No problems here. That is what the topic said, what do you think.

In the end, I got my models, and I am happy with the paint jobs.

I think the guy knew he was in the wrong about this or that, but instead just lashed out, which was the wrong choice. Kindness could have made the outcome less stressful. IMO

If the guy was ill, I think he
was running his auctions from his hospital bed via his phone, and having his friends do the leg work. That could explain the duplicate auction pics, etc. (not there to take pics, already sold some painted the same way)

But his friends had thier own life too, and forgot…and let him holding the bag….and I think he was ticked off about it, and lashed out. That is what I think.

I think whatever happend to him occured before the auction, etc.

Darclegion,
Sorry for coming late to the party.
I think you are right to say that you are moving on.
You've had a bad experience with this seller but from my reading of what has happened I wouldn't describe him as the 'Worst E-Bay Seller ever'. You 'eventually' got the models you paid for and you are happy with the paint jobs. Thankfully you have been able to fix the damage.
From what you say the big problem is with the state they arrived in due to how they were packaged. Whether he had health problems before or after the auction one thing does seem to ring true. You said yourself that he was "having his friends do his leg work". I think he got someone to do the packing for him who a) wanted it gone asap b) didn't understand or care how to pack them properly. Your wife has already made the point to him about 'careful packing' very clearly.
In answer to your original question I would leave him neutral feedback with a comment about the packaging and leave it at that.

Meh… I'd leave a big ole fat negative with a comment about how items arrived damaged due to improper packaging. Looking at his feedback shows that he's been active on eBay buying things and doesn't seem to have had any problem paying for stuff he wants in a timely fashion. Yet, you had to open a Paypal dispute to even get him to acknowledge your inquiries.

Yea, that was one of the red flags, that got me concerned a little, was his buying activity, and his lack of communication, until I pulled his punk card. But yea, I am not sitting around crying about it, I am happy with the models, in the end…thankfully.

Thanks for all the thoughts from everyone.

Give him poor feedback.

If he genuinely had a problem it'll be the only bit he gets and I'm sure his eBay selling won't be affected (everyone has an off day).

I had to do the same thing myself recently with something that simply didn't show and after I got no response from the seller when I asked him to stump up evidence of him actually posting it – or better yet me recieving it – (all of which he claimed he had).

He wouldn't respond to ebay messages and so I had to take a claim out. He responded pretty promptly after PayPal gave me my money back from his account…

I have to say that I don't agree that your wife's tone was off and I do think that the seller's was both combative and unpleasant.

Like I said, give him the eBay feedback you think he deserves.

John T

Definitely agree with the last couple of posts. Give him a negative, if you feel you should(I do), and a it's a lesson learned on all fronts.
-Edgar

The sellers response started off very snotty, the color of the Earth comments indicate a lot about him, heart attack or not.

I received a package of painted figures that were packed about the same as yours were. I sent the guy a message of admonishment and his reply was that his GF had mailed them, he was apologetic at least and sounded surprised. I was going to strip them anyway, so chipping didn't matter to me. I mainly didn't want him or his ditzy GF to ship anyone else minis packed as crappily as she did.

I have had a painted metal mini arrive loose in a video box from an Ebay seller! So there are more idiots out there than you'd realise.
I would leave the guy negative feedback but try to fit in why. ie. 'Very late, badly packaged seller claimed health issues'. That way if he was lying buyers will be warned and make it difficult for him to pull the same stunt again.