I am an online shopper and have been for a very long time. I’ve also had an Ebay account for a very long time and I make great use of it. I’ve even sold items on Ebay so I have played the seller role a few times in my life. Usually, I have very good experiences. I receive my items quickly, I receive the correct items and the sellers are great with communicating. Recently, however, I went through an experience that showed me two things: 1: I was not well informed, and 2: The seller was well informed. When working with online retailers, you as a buyer need to know the rules. Everyone cannot be trusted so you need to know how to protect yourself. You need to realize that the sellers know the rules and will definitely take advantage of the fact that you don’t. I am going to share my experience and then inform you of what I should have done to protect myself.
I bought an item from makeyourdreamcometrue in the beginning of December. The seller had very positive feedback which is something I check before making purchases. Because my item was shipping from overseas, I knew it would take at least a couple of weeks to get here. I had to leave for vacation in a couple of weeks and although I wanted to take the item with me, I ended up having to leave before it arrived. Once I returned a month later, I saw that the item was not as described. I am usually not one to complain about these things and I hate returning items, especially when I’ve waited a long while for them. However, I decided to contact the seller, just to let them know that the item I received was wrong. I told them that I was not looking for a resolution because I did not want to have to return it and then wait to receive another item. I said that I was going to keep it but I just wanted them to know what had occurred and that I was going to have to give them feedback accordingly. The seller responded and was very nice, saying that they wanted to find a resolution and that they would send me a new item at no cost to me. Of course, even though I did not seek a resolution, I was happy about that. I told them that was great and then communication started to get confusing. The seller wanted me to send them a picture of the item that I did receive so I did. They said it was not clear so I sent them another one. Then they gave me three different options for a resolution including me sending back my item. I started to get frustrated because I had previously stated that I did not want to return my item. I told them that I thought we’d already come to a resolution and I didn’t understand why I was now getting these three different options. The seller claimed that because they could not tell the difference in the item I received and what I should have, they were scared that they would send me the exact same wrong item again. I told them I did not care. Why would I complain about receiving the wrong item a second time when I already agreed to keep the first wrong item? I thought the issue was finally resolved when the seller told me that they would have to ship my purchase after February 2nd since it was a Chinese holiday and that’s when they would return to work. I thought everything was settled until recently, when I tried to contact them and inform them that I had not received the new item and got no response from them.
Now, here’s what I should have done. My first mistake was not reading the negative comments on the seller’s profile. When you look at the feedback percentage, unless it’s 100%, there has been some negative comments. My seller had 99.1% which to me was such a high percentage that I did not care about the negative feedback. However, after I got no resolution, I went to read the negative feedback and was not too surprised about what I found. Buyers complained about bad descriptions, missing items, broken items, item not received and of course these people did not receive any resolution. The seller responded to all negative comments, asking why they did not contact them for a resolution. Some of the buyers said that they did, and had waited for a long while before deciding to go ahead and give feedback.
Those buyers were more fortunate than me. They had gotten the opportunity to give feedback and to open a case with Ebay. Some of them even received their money back. By the time I realized that I had been led around in a circle that was going nowhere, it was too late. The deadline had passed to make a complain and to leave feedback. This is why I said that the seller knew the rules but I did not. Ebay Buyer Protection says that you have 45 days after you buy an item to open a case. The seller knew my deadline and was friendly to me until my deadline passed. Once they knew that I could no longer make a case against them or leave negative feedback, they stopped communicating with me. The day that they emailed me to tell me that they would ship the item after February 2nd was a couple of days before my deadline would pass. They claimed that the holiday had begun the day before. Obviously, since I believed them, I was not going to go ahead and file a case against them.
My advice is to file a case anyway! Even if the seller tells you that they are working on a resolution and your deadline is approaching, go ahead and file a case. The worst that could happen is that they resolve your case and you inform Ebay that there has been a resolution. What I realized was that the seller may have treated many of their customers in the same way that they treated me. Which means that their percentage of success is not a true reflection since they caused many of their buyers to miss the deadline to complain. It should not have taken that long to find a resolution. In fact, the date they first told me they would send me a new item was long before their so called holiday began. They took advantage of the fact that I did not know about their culture but a quick search after the fact showed that the date they gave me for the particular holiday was wrong. I tend to be a very trusting person but in situations like this, you need to go in expecting the worst. Verify everything thing that they tell you. If they say that a shipping company takes a month to ship, verify that. If they claim they can’t ship right away because of a holiday or bad weather or anything, verify that. You may come across a different seller who is honest but you still want to protect yourself. Be familiar with the Buyer Protection policy. Know your rights. Know your deadlines. Don’t trust that the seller has your best interest at heart. Especially if you are new to shopping on sites such as Ebay and Amazon, be informed. It could be a great experience for you but you could also have such horrible experiences that you want to just give up on the whole thing.