What/how do I reply to a disgruntled U.S. seller,and protect my name on ebay as a buyer?

[ozwiz27]

   I bought an antique wall clock from a seller in the U.S. The 1st question I asked him was,"could you let me know the tracking number please?",which he did.The clock subsequently arrived on the 7th of July,virtually destroyed,but there were no signs of damage to the box it was packed in.

  When I sent him a very politely worded list of the damage,he began accusing me of calling him a "scammer"(which I never did),and saying,"I would never send you a piece of trash like that"(both in capital letters,akin to yelling at me),and also complaining that I was accusing him of the delay in the time the package was taking to arrive and saying it was damaged in transit.This I find utterly impossible to believe,as there was not a sign of any damage to the box it was sent in,and I supplied all the necessary photos to him via "Contact Seller".

  For once,eBays "help centre" came to the rescue and secured a full refund of the purchase price & postage,but the operator told me that he had "reported me" to the ebay community and because he was bad mouthing me,secured the refund.Has anyone else ever had this sort of problem before?

[4channel]

Hi, sorry to hear of your issue.  Could this be a seller who refuses to take responsibility for their actions? 

How was the item sent. Was it sent via USPS post or the Global Shipping Program. The reason I ask is because I have had damaged items due to bad re-packing at the Pitney Bowes depot. And in the very few other times I have had stuff sent via them, the packing has at times been very poor.

[4channel]

As you've been refunded, maybe leave a Neutral or Negative with an explanation of how horrid the experience was. Possibly a Neutral. Also let eBay know about their attitude. But have a long think about what you want to do. If it was re-packed at Pitney Bowes' depot then it is not seller's fault!

[davewil1964]

I agree with 4channel. If it was sent via the GSP, then Pitney Bowes probably repacked it. They are known to do this and use the flimsiest packaging available. Although that wouldn't explain no damage to the packaging.

As you have a refund, I would move on. The seller has doubtless blocked you and that is all they can do.

I'm not sure what reporting to the eBay community is supposed to mean. The community is other members, not eBay, and naming another member in the context of an issue is forbidden.

[sandypebbles]

To add , I am not sure what you mean by protect your name on eBay as a buyer

As mentioned, WE here are the eBay community, the seller has not done any such thing as report you to us, that is nonsense

Buyers can only be given positive feedback, it has been that way for several years

IF this seller is foolish enough to leave a green tick with a neg comment, contact eBay and they will remove it

[papermoon.lady]

I agree with what has been said in this thread too. I don't buy fragile items sent vie the GSP any more because they even remove packaging. Last year I bought a fragile item from the USA. The seller used the GSP, but actually weighted the item, so postage was actually reasonable. I asked her to put a note in the parcel "please repack carefully", then when following the tracking on www.parcelapp.com I noticed that the weight of the parcel went from 1.5 lbs when it was handed over to the local post office to 0.6 after being processed by PB. I was very worried, but somehow hoped it was a mistake. When the parcel arrived I realized that it was not a mistake, as my fragile item was virtually floating in the box with only a thin layer of bubble wrap thrown on it like a blanket, not even wrapped around the item. It was a miracle that the item did not arrive broken. The note the seller had written was still inside. I now know that the note idea was silly and that they don't care and would not ask again, but the seller also thought they would repack more carefully. There was a lot of "fragile" tape wrapped around the box, but AusPost always says they don't have a fragile policy when people complain that they have broken something and there was a fragile sticker or tape on the box and always advise to pack carefully, so the tape was basically useless.

Anyway, ozwiz27, your reputation here is certainly not damaged. We are just a message board. The seller might have reported you to eBay, but as you were polite to the seller and they can see your correspondence, I don't think there will be any consequences. If the item was sent vie the GSP as we all suspect, they probably know that PB's repacking is not good.

If you want to explain the issue to eBay, you can use live chat at the bottom of the Help page.

[papermoon.lady]

By the way, I was just thinking that when he said that he reported you to the eBay community, he might have meant that he wrote something about what happened on the US community board. Naming and shaming is against the rules anyway,  so if they left his post they most probably removed your name (or they deleted the post altogether). You know his name, so you might want to check his posts on the US board...

[stoph-88]

I always ask for the seller to post at the post office.  If they will only send by the ebay GSP, I don't buy the item.  The GSP is just another way ebay steals from us.  Pay double for shipping, get a sub standard service.  Its getting to the point where using ebay is not a smart way to shop.  

[padi*0409]

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@stoph-88 wrote:

The GSP is just another way ebay steals from us.  Pay double for shipping, get a sub standard service.  Its getting to the point where using ebay is not a smart way to shop.  

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I have had 2 recent purchases from sellers using the GSP, one from the UK that arrived to regional WA in less than 2 weeks and one from the US that is in Australia and should be delivered in the next week or so, that one was purchased just over 2 weeks ago.

For the UK one the postage was on par with Royal Mail's charges, and with the US one postage was half what USPS would have charged.

I wouldn't risk buying fragile items through them, and I don't regularly use GSP but I've never had a problem with delivery with sellers using it.

[countessalmirena]

Buying fragile items from US sellers who only offer shipping via GSP is definitely risky.

I would use my US parcel forwarding address and of course ask the seller to package the item very carefully. If it arrived at my US parcel forwarder in pieces, with the photo of the packaging showing it was inadequately packaged, the seller will need to bear the responsibility. If it arrived from the US parcel forwarder in pieces, I would claim on the parcel forwarding company's insurance; the process involves sending in situ photos of the damaged item, the packaging, etc.

It's also worth taking extra steps to minimise the chance of en route damage. Asking the sender to use double-boxing is crucial for costly or rare items that are not exceptionally robust. That does mean not using the GSP, but I don't have any first-hand knowledge of items shipped via GSP since my US or UK eBay purchases have been from sellers who use other postage methods.

EDIT: padi, how are you!!!!? And to all of the thoroughly excellent people on this board with whom I haven't bantered lately, I'm giving a hand-in-isolation wave... (Melbourne.)