Should I leave negative feedback? What would you do?

[maltapso]

I bought a low priced but rare and HTF item from a US seller, the shipping was 3 times the cost of the item, but I really wanted it, had been looking for one for a while and it'is difficult to find sellers who ship internarionally anyway. Can't get this thing here.

Anyway, 3 weeks later a box arrived, 3 times the weight it should have been, so I was confused. The seller had sent the wrong item, so I took a few pictures of what I got, contacted the seller and started a return with ebay. I subsequently found the item I had received  on the sellers feedback profile, he had got things mixed up, I concluded that the item I bought probably got sent to that other buyer, but wasn't sure.

I didn't hear anything for about 3 days, then the seller replied to my message in a casual tone and asked me what he had sent me. I had already detailed what had happened and included pictures. I was expecting a refund,  which would have been disappointing, I really wanted my item, but instead he said he would look into it and get back to me. A few more days and I got a message saying he had located my item and  he had sent it and that he was very sorry and would make it right. I thanked him and asked for a tracking number and an expected delivery date. I was surprised, happy but a tad suspicious.

He wrote back and said he would look for the tracking number and get back to me and would I please cancel the return with ebay because they keep sending him reminders.

My response was that I would cancel the return when my item arrived and that the tracking number would be very helpful and thanked him.... again. I was very polite and reasonable, even though I was suspicious by this stage.

His next response was to tell me that he was SO VERY sorry and that he feels really bad and would I please forgive him, but he hasn't sent the item, it's still with the person he wrongly sent it to and that he would send me a different item or send a refund.

I replied saying a refund would be acceptable. At that point I escalated the return to a claim through ebay and got an almost instant refund. I no longer trusted this guy, he was either in a huge mess or deliberately stalling. He kept calling me the wrong name and seemed to be forgetting what was going on or what had happened and he had lied about having and sending the correct item.

I went to buy a similar item which I had been watching, waiting to find out if I was in fact going to get the original item I purchased. But I found that it had already sold earlier that day. I was furious, now I've missed out of two rare opportunities to get something I really want.  It's difficult to find these things being sold by a seller willing to ship to Australia, and at a reasonable cost. Theres not one for sale anywhere on ebay now apart from one which wont ship to Australia, I cant even contact this seller to beg, he doesn't accept international messages I guess.

I checked my messages again, my seller had replied again, saying that I should check my paypal because he thought he had sent me a refund 'yesterday'.... he hadn't, I had just got my refund through ebay.

 I sent a final message to him saying he didn't refund me and that I got a refund through ebay and that I was very disappointed at being lied to and messed around for so long, I mentioned that I had missed getting the item a second time because of  his lie about sending the correct item.

I haven't heard back again.

I don't like leaving negative feedback. I'm angry and disappointed about what happened, but  I kind of feel sorry for this guy, he made a huge mess of everything and maybe he does feel bad about it. He's done this once before, one neg for the same thing, but mostly lots of glowing recommendations.

Any thoughts? Please share what you would do?

[countessalmirena]

@davewil, I'd hover between giving no feedback or neutral feedback. If it weren't for the seller saying that the correct item had been sent, I wouldn't be hovering at all; it would be no feedback.

Like you, I'd always prefer to send back an incorrect item. (Obviously), as it's now been explained that it was sent via the GSP, that is not cost-effective for what's clearly a low-value item.)

@maltapso,

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If I did leave feedback, I would make it very factual based on what the seller did, rather than accusatory based on what I might think the seller's motives may have been. Something like:

  Wrong item sent, messages used wrong name, wrongly said item re-sent. Inept? eBay resolved

The only word there to demonstrate a possible conclusion is "inept", because at the very least, the seller seems to have been inept in this transaction. (At worst, he may have lied in saying the correct item had been sent after you informed him that you'd received the wrong one.However, here's a possibility that he mixed you up with someone else to whom he DID sent the correct item.)

You certainly did the right thing in refusing to close the dispute merely upon being informed that he'd sent the correct item. One could conclude that he was trying to get the dispute closed so that he could simply ignore you from thereon... but that calls for speculation/operation of the mind - viz. what did the seller know? what was the seller's motive? I think it's highly unlikely that the seller sold to you with nefarious intent; this scenario (with the value of the item, for one thing) just doesn't fit the pattern of a scam! Unless it seemed like planned dishonesty to me, I would be satisfied with a refund and would simply keep on looking for the item.

Hopefully you will complete the set soon. (I'm assuming that 322623190515 or 233490779573 are not the ones for which you're looking as they seem to be by The Bear Workshop instead of Build-a-Bear...? Perhaps take a look at "Build A Bear Pirate Puffy Shirt with Parrot & Sword" on the River. Also... "Vintage Build a Bear Pirate outfit!" on the E site... and what about 333479337649? or 1237645958 on Gumtree?)

[4channel]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

wow, what a mess.

What would I do? Well, considering the rarity of the item I would not leave feedback yet. You do have 60 days to leave feedback, so there is time to see if this rare item is returned to this seller by the other buyer.

I would suggest that if the rare item is returned to him that he relist it as a Buy-It-Now with an unrealistically high asking price and Best Offer feature.  This way you can see when the item is relisted by having that seller as a ‘saved seller’ and email notification of newly listed items.  Then, you make an offer at the same amount of the original listing which the seller accepts.  Then, you just complete that transaction and hopefully you get this rare item.

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This is also a very good idea with a seller that one could compromise with in a different case scenario. This could also be used to get around the GSP issue as well other things. One of them is with the item not falling into the hands of another punter. A pre-agreement  and seller knows who he  / she'll accept the offer from and eBay gets their cut and everyone's happy.