"Need your advice - items not received" Topic

I'm relatively new to ebay, been active there from August last year. Got some nice minis and met good sellers, I was lucky enough until this month. First, I didn't received an item from UK seller. Had a problem with him before, when I got a package from him torn and restappled on our internatioanl post office with the stamp "arrived damaged". In my case that meant that I got only two plastic bases, but not the figures. I wrote to him, he apologized for the mail, wrote smth that he'll try to make a claim on his post, but nothing happened. By this time it was already too late for any actions, and since it wasn't an expensive lot, I've decided to forget about it. Next lot from him – nothing at all, he's not answering any mail at all. He has nice feedback of ca 1500 with 99%, but looks like he's waiting until it will be too late to report an item not received.
So…what's your advice? Report an item? forget about it again and never buy from him? Give him negative feedback – I think he'll do the same to me, whether he's right or wrong…

After the first mangled package, you should have had some sort of tracking and insurance placed on the package.

The post office carriers/agents will not accept a damaged package so the first package was mangled while in transit, it is likely that a similar fate awaited the second.

"I wrote to him, he apologized for the mail, wrote smth that he'll try to make a claim on his post, but nothing happened."

He shouldn't be keeping your money AND making a claim to the post office…

Did you pay Paypal? If so, you may be able to lodge that the item didn't arrive and recover your money. Keep an eye on the date. Things do get lost in the post (lots, if recent Govt/PO figures are to be believed…) but that's no reason why you, the innocent purchaser, should go out of pocket.

If you used PayPal – file the claim ASAP – you will only be protecting yourself and your cash. If there was a mistake or error or some other problem with the post in this case – then he should file the claim with the post office and refund your money.

Fool you once, shame on him, fool you twice – shame on you. Report his conduct with Ebay/PayPal immediately and if he gets upset with you because of your report – too bad. You paid for an item and you should receive it. I had a similar problem – I didn't receive an item and I emailed the guy – no response. So, I filed with PayPal and lo and behold this guy gets all up set, claims he sent it, gives me the date he sent it and everything. I finally get the package – but it is post-marked the day AFTER I filed my complaint, and 23 days after he claimed he mailed it. Further, this joker had a good Ebay rep – and pulled his account within a month or two of my complaint. So, one can never be too careful to protect oneself.

Best of luck on this!

If you feel that there is a problem with the transaction, be it with the seller, post office or other thing use the Paypal Buyer protection policy and let them deal with it for you. If the seller is doing everything he is supposed to do then there is no problem for him.

This always happens from China so get used to it. Not trying to be rude here, as I buy from there too all the time, but it's the "mood" I get my self in to when dealing with this crap. I recently received a package with only 4 of the 20 pieces it was supposed to have. In my case, the package wasn't even opened, they just shorted me.

This happens quite often, so sooner or later, I'll finally learn and not shop from that area.

Here's my strategy in the mean time. First, kindly send an email stating the problem. Sometimes I do this up to 5 times before I get a response or I give up on this phase. They either fix the problem or they don't. 90% of the time they do fix the problem however. Next, if the email system doesn't work, open up a dispute with PayPal. It takes a while to go through the PayPal dispute process, but it will eventually end. I have always won this way.

There have been times when I never received what I ordered, but it was so cheap, it wasn't worth the time to fight it.

A side note; never trust the total they send you if you order multiple products from an Asian source. It will often be excessive. Add it up yourself to see what you actually owe and just send that amount. Watch and you will see they never dispute it and accept it. Maybe it's a cultural thing? I don't know.

Now for those who want to play the discrimination card on me. My fiancée is Chinese and I lived in San Francisco for 10 years. Its not discrimination, just a different culture with different values you have to learn how to deal with it.

Ok, I've started a dispute and got an answer that the item was sent in mid March. I can't verify that, as the item number starts with FF (whatever that means) and Royal Mail states that in order to learn anything I should call them. The cost of several minutes phone call from here is comarable to lot cost, so I'm not doing that. Seller says that he can not be responsible for Royal Mail, so he says that he can "file a claim to Royal Mail on my behalf". I have a suspicion that it won't work, as he is the sender, and not me. So…as he is definitely is not going to refund my package, should I escalate it into claim right now, or his method really works?
Other question – it is typical for sellers to right, that they're not responsible if the item lost on the way if it is not insured – even for registered delivery. As far as I understand this disclaimer doesn't work with PayPal, or is it enough to save them from the trouble?

Barin

If you want to email me the details I can call them from here (UK) and see what they say for you.

A claim to Royal Mail has to be made by the person sending (cos the contract is between them and the PO). They will refund his postage and, depending on the service used, may refund him under the insurance for the value of the item.

Paypal should work anyway. If he's trying to recover the shipping then he's accepting the parcel as lost. You can claim your money back as 'parcel not arrived' from Paypal.

Geoff

By the way, if you pay with PayPal, sellers can say that they aren't responsible for the mail all they want, but if they can't prove delivery to PayPal, they lose any dispute. So it turns out they are responsible whether they want to be or not. Frankly, in your case, I would file item not received with PayPal ASAP. Also, whatever you do, don't cancel the complaint until after they resolve it (via refund or shipping you new items, whatever). Once you cancel the complaint it can't be reopened so some unscrupulous sellers will ask you to cancel the complaint before they do anything and then you're out of options.