Ebay query

[rayinkrabi]

Hi all, I used ebay for the first time on the 3rd Dec last year and guess I'm just unlucky as my parcel still hasn't arrived. I informed ebay and opened a 'case' as directed and have already exchanged many emails with the seller.

I'm puzzled on a couple of points though and wonder if anyone out there has any experience or thoughts on this:

Neither I nor the main Post Office can use the tracking number given but the seller responded a long time later with a link that does work??

The seller sent me this email:

Seller's message:
"We are ready to offer 40% refund of the item's price to you. But since you opened an item not received dispute ,we can't offer partial refund. Could you please close this dispute first and then open an item not as described dispute. We will issue the 30% refund to you once you change the dispute."

What is going on? If I was to do as they ask it would make me a liar as I have never even seen the item, what has the seller to gain from this?

[Crossy]

60% of your money.

Continue with the not received case as initiated. You should get all your cash back, but keep an eye on it, it will auto resolve if you're not careful.

Is the seller in Hong Kong perchance? There have been massive delays in postal services due to a new policy of x-raying all packages and rejecting any that appear to contain batteries.

I've had two non-arrivals from HK, got full refunds on both.

[lopburi3]

As said any non received item should get 100% refund - do not accept such an offer. Did you look at the sellers history? Normally they want to keep that good and will not screw around with such nonsense. You should have received item by now even from China so do not cancel your case with Ebay if using PayPal. Not sure of conditions when using other forms of payment on Ebay but most any credit card payment requires delivery of item ordered.

[rayinkrabi]

Thanks Crossy & Lopburi3, Yes I'm with PayPal and yes the seller is in China and supposedly sent it via China Post but the tracking link they provided me was with a swedish carrier (maybe they simply share the business with each other)., it shows this:

16/12/13 05:00 Order dispatched

17/12/13 05:30 Order departed on flight from origin

12/01/14 08:06 Order departed from sorting hub

13/01/14 19:55 Local mail tracking

I ordered it on the 3rd Dec so there was a 13 day delay in dispatching it but the main delay seems to be at the 'sorting hub' wherever that is..Bangkok? if so, I wonder if 'local mail tracking' means BK or Krabi? if BK, maybe the political situation is the cause of delay.

For some reason I can't see my sent messages but my reply was something like " I don't understand your proposal and I am willing to pay 100% of the price if/when it arrives", I am not interested in a partial refund of any kind. I will of course wait longer"

I didn't think to look at their history but they have plenty of positive feedback for the past 12 months, not sure if this amount of negative is normal tho? I do agree that the reason for the strange request may be to keep a good delivery record.

372,532 Positive

4,567 Neutral

6,174 Negative

Another thought occurs to me now..if I had accepted their proposal to say the item was 'not as described' surely the next step would be for me to mail it back to the seller (and show proof of sending?)..not possible of course as I haven't received the flippin' thing in the first place.

Meanwhile to be fair, I'll carry on waiting till the ebay deadline of 8th Feb otherwise as you quite rightly say, my 'case' will auto close and I lose out on the refund.

[lopburi3]

I normally only check the percentage which appears below seller as you check item and look for 98% or higher. This appears to be a bit lower. But with the long delay before shipment you may indeed still get the item. Indeed there was virtually no mail service here in Bangkok (at least at my house outside the protest areas) last week so may be delay in dispatch. I recently received a low value item more than 2 months from mailing time.

[sam sen]

i've always got or given a replacement item or refund in similar situations

[darrendsd]

Do not close the case and do not accept the sellers offer, he is asking you to close the case as to many cases found against the seller could result in his account being closed

Message him one more time saying you want a full refund, if he refuses escalate the case to ebay, they will refund you within a couple of hours as he can't show the item has been delivered

Do not feel bad about doing this, the seller is messing you around and is wrong to offer you only a partial discount

By the way this sellers feedback is awful, how is he still operating on ebay

Edited January 23, 2014 by darrendsd

[innerspace]

Have you asked your local postoffice? Ive had things sit there a few times.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[rayinkrabi]

Thanks all, yes I've called into my main post office twice to inquire (with the tracking number) but they found no trace of it and also had my GF phone them 3 times more but still no trace, on each occasion they were very helpful and spent a lot of time searching with a follow up phone call about half hour later.

I'm thinking of trying again today though and will point out that the carrier is not 'china post' as first stated by the seller but is 'post nord' (according to the link the seller sent me the other day)...maybe this will help?

All a bit unfortunate as this was my first ever venture into the world of ebay and on-line purchasing but I will persist as it seems to be so easy (or should be) and def the way of the future! Btw, a couple of my friends ordered stuff from ebay and amazon long after I placed my order and their items were delivered to my house long ago.

One final thought, if it turns out my parcel is stuck in Bangkok because of the political mess, I wonder if it's possible to get ebay to extend the deadline as I can wait longer and have no wish to hurt the seller as it would be beyond their control.

[darrendsd]

Again do not feel bad about hurting the seller, the fact that he has only offered you a partial refund for a item you have not received means that this seller is dishonest

Do not extend the deadline, ebay will not do this anyway

If you wish wait until the day before the last day of the deadline and then escalate it to receive your refund

[lopburi3]

There should not be any Bangkok factor other than a few days last week.

[LuckyLew]

Do not close the case

If you close the case you will not be able to open a new one

You should get all your money back if you did not receive the item

If the package has a tracking ID and is shipped to Thailand, the tracking ID wll be added to Thai post web site as soon the package clears customs. If the tracking ID does not and never does appear on Thai post web site ... the package is MIA

If you escalate the issue with paypal they will find in your favor as the buyer has to prove you received the package.

Do not close the case until you have full refund or the item your purchases

[rayinkrabi]

Thanks again all for your thoughts on this (I'm also thinking this thread could help others in a similar situation).

I will indeed take all your advice on this and have less sympathy with the seller after re-reading some of their emails...

"Your package was shipped on Dec-04 through postal system. This does not tie in with their tracking link "16/12/13 05:00 Order dispatched"

Then they sent this:

"We know it is a loss of you ,but it is also a loss of us. We could offer refund 30% of the item price to you as compensation to reduce your loss?" (I should add the item was 30$ and p&p an extra 30$ which means I would be refunded a mere 9$)

I'm new to on-line shopping so don't know if this kind of seller response is normal and maybe I'm getting paranoid about this stuff but I also think what a scam it could be (and I'm not accusing this seller of this of course) if..for example..the item is non-existent, many thousands are sold, and refunds have to be made but maybe 1 or 2 % accept the 'offer' ..this could potentially make a fortune! But my guess is ebay wouldn't allow this anyway?

Edited January 24, 2014 by rayinkrabi

[darrendsd]

The sellers response is not normal and he is messing you around

On a ebay or Paypal dispute the seller has to prove the item has been delivered

Why are you having second thoughts about this? Escalate the dispute and get your money back ASAP, this seller does not deserve any more of your time or patience

Edited January 24, 2014 by darrendsd

[YeaBiGgiEs]

Oh lord have mercy

DONT CLOSE THE CASE

Shipping from CHINA sometimes takes 45 days or more from payment

Ive been using eBay for 14 years buying and selling. Almost 200 transactions last year.

Ive learned many tricks and encountered dishonest merchants..

Nothing is 100% when dealing with a stranger but there are precautions that you should do to make a more diligent decision before clicking BUY IT NOW.

Look at FEEDBACK against their transactions..FEEDBACK on eBay is what a credit report or Dun and Bradstreet is in the USA.

Its easy for someone to have 99%-100% FEEDBACK when they only have 10 transactions

Now if they have 10,000+ or more and a 98%+ feedback thats GREAT.

Harden your heart and dont fall for their sympathy phrases and offeres of less.. Imagine if they openned an account..Never mailed out a single product and just offered everyone 60% or more refund instead of openning a dispute?

As a matter of convenience people would probably fal linto that. Think of the numbers... Sounds like reverse insurance scheme.. Hey I think Im onto something hmmm

Anyways, I'd invite you to message me directly so I can give you a quick rundown maybe in a phone call instead..

but.............

DO NOT CLOSE THE CASE but pay close attention when its your time to respond if you have too

You have various avenues of recourse..eBay, Paypal and then finally your own bank or credit card.

Merchandise not received is common. Ive received things faster from the USA to Thailand than I have from CHINA..go figure....

msg me.. I'd love to chat further

[rayinkrabi]

Thanks YeaBigies, I certainly wouldn't fall for their 'offer' and will escalate this on the 5th if still no delivery. GF phoned the main po again yesterday but still no trace..funny thing is she got my address slightly wrong and they corrected her saying they know me & my house well.

I've just read about the ebay history on wikipedia and must admit I didn't fully appreciate the huge scale of this business so I guess it is possible for them to miss a few dodgy dealers along the way.

I'm still curious though why I can't use the 'tracking number' provided but their link emailed to me later does seem to work, albeit with 'Direct Link, Postnord' and not China post plus different dates to the the ones the seller says...maybe a simple & innocent explanation to all this?

Ah well, time will tell.

[giddyup]

Does anyone know why the post from China is sooo slow and so unreliable? I have bought hundreds of items from Ebay over the years, and it's only the ones from China that either don't arrive or take a month to get here. A few items I've bought have only been available from China, so it's really frustrating when they don't arrive. It means opening an Ebay case to get your money back after already wasting a month waiting, then having to order from a different seller and going through the process all over again. Impossible to find one Chinese seller on Ebay that has 100% feedback, they just aren't reliable.

[rayinkrabi]

Interesting feedback giddyup, could this just be that China post system is crap or the sellers are dodgy? or both? (given the large numbers of Chinese sellers on ebay).

[rayinkrabi]

Good result, after 2 months of waiting it finally arrived today via a big smiley postie who knows I've been a bit anxious about htis one (he's delivered quite a lot from ebay lately). I guess this tells me that patience is indeed a virtue and the seller wasn't so bad after all..just bad timing with festive season, Chinese hols etc.

So thanks to all for your comments and help on this. I will certainly carry on with ebay etc. as it is def the way ahead imo and I hope this small thread might help others in a similar situation. Cheers, Ray.

[Crossy]

Good result, I try to give the seller the benefit of the doubt when things fail to arrive, this is now helped by the change in ebay rules which start the 30 day counter from the 'anticipated' arrival date.

It's possible things are improving, my last order from Shanghai took 2 weeks (and it was 'free' postage).

[Pib]

My last Ebay order from mainland China on 29 Oct 13 has yet to show-up...and it probably won't...it was just a digital multimeter costing approx $15. But the seller refunded my money when I flagged the non-delivery to him just before my 45 day PayPal refund window was approaching. Now as Crossy mentioned the Ebay/PayPal refund window closes 30 days after the expected delivery date which effectively stretches out that refund window to around 60 days on many international orders...expect this will reduce the number of refunds paid out....expect they probably had an increasing number of international shipments taking between 45 to 60 days regardless of what the seller estimated. This is the first time an Ebay buy has not arrived.

Seems over the last year for orders from mainland China the delivery time has ranged from as fast as 10 days to as slow as almost 60 days (I did have one order show up around the 60 day point but I had already got a refund from the seller a few weeks earlier...the seller said just keep it)....but most mainland China orders for delivery to my Bangkok address seem to take 3 to 4 weeks even when they are shipped AirPost...I expect the only place they went airborne was when being thrown onto the slow boat.