Bad experience I figured I would share

[Cerulean]

This is long, so bear with me.

So back in late July, I ordered a Japanese Arcanine CD Promo for $15.99. The ETA for shipping wasn’t until a couple of weeks later, but I figured no big deal. It’s a cheap card and it looks like a PSA 10 candidate.

The seller marked the card as shipped within a couple of days, so I figured it would be on its way. There was no tracking, but hey, whatever.

A couple of weeks go by, and the card has not arrived. At this point, I’m thinking that if he really shipped the card when he said he did, it would have arrived by now. So, I shot him a message just asking him if he definitely shipped the card. He tells me he definitely did and then proceeds to start complaining about eBay for some reason.

I knew the mail has been slow because of COVID, so I was very patient. I actually gave him the benefit of the doubt and waited over a month for the card to arrive. Again, the card was cheap, so I wasn’t in any rush. But now it’s the beginning of September, and the card still hasn’t been delivered.

I then messaged him again asking if he was absolutely sure he shipped the card. I don’t know. Maybe he thought he did but didn’t and failed to check? Who knows? No reply.

More days pass, and I message him again. I didn’t even care about getting my money back. I really just wanted the card, and I wanted a reply from him.

So I send this message:

You never replied to my message. Are you sure you shipped this card? It has been well over a month (almost two months) and it has not arrived.

He replies with this:

I am 100% positive I sent this card out to you. It too weird how I have never had an issue with my cards making it to their location and all of a sudden none of them are seeming to make it to where they need to be. You can check my reviews. I deliver and if I cant I will let you know not lie. I take the pics and also make sure they are sent out. Please call your local post office and ask if they have any mail for you because it has not been sent back to me and ebay verifies all addresses. USPS also provides a free service that tells you of all mail that is to be received. All mail is scanned now and reported for delivery.

You should 100% have gotten that card.

So basically, he is telling me to check with my local post office and ask them about an untracked item that was supposedly shipped a month-and-a-half ago. Lol.

I then wrote this back to him:

Well, I didn’t receive the card, and unless there was a tracking number on the item, my post office is not going to say that they have mail for me. If they did, it would have been delivered to my address. You marked this card shipped in late July. It is now mid-September and it still has not arrived.

You are not the only one who has sent cards out that have gotten lost in the mail. I am a seller and the same thing has happened to me.

I didn’t even ask you for a refund, nor did I open a case. All I asked was if you were absolutely sure you shipped the card, so your attitude is actually pretty off-putting. First, you ignore my message when I originally asked you if you sent the card, which is poor business. Now, you are giving me attitude when I asked you again.

I believe you that you shipped the card, so yes; I should have received it. You are right. But I haven’t. This is what you have to deal with when you are a seller. It has happened to me TONS of times and I have never once told my customers to “check with their local post office,” especially when it has been this long of a duration of time that the card has not arrived.

It’s only $15, so I don’t really care about the money, which is why I didn’t ask you for a refund. I just wanted the card.

I have never once left someone a bad review and I never will, because I don’t want to hurt someone else’s business. But I can guarantee you that 99 percent of other customers would have left you a negative for how you have handled this situation, first by not replying my initial message that you obviously received and just chose to ignore and now by trying to tell your customer (who has been on eBay longer than you) how the post office and eBay works.

Regardless, I never received the card. YOU as the seller are supposed to take responsibility for that.

Keep in mind I just told him that I didn’t care about the money and wasn’t asking for a refund.

He replied with this:

The post office will hold mail because they are looking for additional postage to be paid to release it. I told you I sent the card and I did. Patiently waiting 3 months leads me to believe you received it some times ago and simply allowed this to continue because it’s secured. But you intend not to pay because I didn’t use tracking. A freebie. No matter what I say you are going to state you didn’t receive it. Keep the card. Please don’t come back to my page to purchase anything.

LMAO. Now he’s just revealing himself to be a complete moron.

If additional postage needed to be paid, the post office wouldn’t “hold” it. They would ship the item back to the seller and tell them that more postage needs to be paid. It has happened to me a couple of times before when trying to put more than one top loader in a PWE (and 99 percent of the time it doesn’t). And because this was just one card, it should have been one top loader inside of a PWE, which shouldn’t have been an issue.

He then proceeds to call me a liar and accuse me of trying to get a “freebie” even though I specifically told him I wasn’t asking for a refund. Not to mention the fact that it is past the 30-day point of even being able to open a case for a refund through eBay and past the 45-day point of PayPal, so it wouldn’t even be possible for me to force a refund at this point.

I wrote this back to him:

So now you’re telling me that I am a liar and that I received the card?

My friend, if that were the case, then I would be asking you for a refund. I am NOT asking you for a refund. The post office doesn’t “hold anything” if they are looking for additional postage to be paid. If that were the case, they would have shipped the card back to you to pay the postage. Clearly, you know nothing.

I do NOT have the card. It is not a “freebie” considering I didn’t even ask you for a refund.

Explain to me how any of that makes sense? Go ahead. I’m waiting.

You obviously have no clue how to handle your customer relations, which is why I will absolutely NOT be returning to your store.

He then tells me “I simply expressed my logical thought. Take your refund and thanks for stopping by.”

He didn’t actually send me a refund. He was probably just telling me to go ahead and open a case.

I sent one more message saying this:

Lol. No. You didn’t express your “logical thought.” If you were truly expressing “logical thoughts,” you wouldn’t have said the item was at the post office in wait for additional postage to be paid. You would realize that if additional postage were needed, the item would have been shipped back to your address.

If you expressed your “logical thought,” you would have realized that I clearly did not have the item because I was not even asking for a refund. If you had expressed your “logical thought,” you would have realized that calling a customer a liar is not usually a good idea. If you had expressed your “logical thought,” you would have realized that items DO, in fact, get lost in the mail. Again, I am a seller who has sold a heck of a lot more items than you, and I have handled tons of these situations and have always understood the buyer’s side of the case.

Do some buyers take advantage of the system? Absolutely, but you accusing me of doing that when I have shown NOTHING that indicates I am trying to get a “freebie” is terrible business, and if you continue those types of practices, I can guarantee you that you will run into a heck of a lot more problems on eBay.

Again, I don’t care about the money. If I did, I would have opened a case much sooner. It wasn’t an expensive item. At this point, it’s about the principle of the matter. I do not appreciate being called a liar and looking for a “freebie.”

This guy literally couldn’t have handled things any worse. He probably did ship the card, and it probably did get lost in the mail. It happens, and that is not his fault, but guess what? That happens to EVERY seller on eBay at one point or another, and 99 percent of them will just say “okay,” refund and be done with it.

[tartrate]

Sh** happens. Don’t linger on it, go buy yourself something nice and enjoy God’s green earth.

But yeah seems like a less than ideal exchange XD.

[nuttun]

@mjs61290 ,

Just an FYI, Paypal extended it from 45 day refund to 180 days I believe. You can file a dispute still.

[JoshB]

Yeah agree with Tartrate it’s so easy to get sucked into these issues and become bitter, but we have to do our best to let it wash over us and not let these abrasive idiots infect our daily lives. Great way to build strength of character too . As a buyer if ever I have a dispute with my seller I just open a case, grab a cup of tea and let eBay handle it.

[yz2428]

with this, less talk is best. i think just simply state what you want, if the delivery is taking too long, just ask for a refund, because the seller is bitter about the situation that he may not be able to control. and he probably did send the card? either way, the risk is with the seller if he sends with no tracking. i do this on cheaper items because it’s not worth the extra postage, and i am willing to eat any loss in the event anything happens. you move on.

anyways, get your refund and just forget about it. you can’t prove he didn’t send it.

[rayquaza911]

A game I bought from UK to Canada took 30 days to arrive here (entire month of August). I just waited. Sometimes things in my neighboring provinces never arrive here, things get lost sometimes it happens.

It’s funny how this guy is accusing you of being a liar. Sometimes I don’t want to deal with these types of sellers and then just go straight to ebay and open a case.

[Cerulean]

@yz2428

with this, less talk is best. i think just simply state what you want, if the delivery is taking too long, just ask for a refund, because the seller is bitter about the situation that he may not be able to control. and he probably did send the card? either way, the risk is with the seller if he sends with no tracking. i do this on cheaper items because it’s not worth the extra postage, and i am willing to eat any loss in the event anything happens. you move on.

anyways, get your refund and just forget about it. you can’t prove he didn’t send it.

Oh I’m sure he definitely sent the card. I fully believe him. I’ve had cards I’ve sent get lost in the mail before. It happens.

I don’t even really care about that at this point. My issue is with him calling me a liar and essentially accusing me of attempting theft.

[matthewevan]

There has been a lot of this lately. I purchased a psa 10 red cheeks pika 1st edition on 7/23 that I am still waiting for . The seller is reputable and has a ton of sales- the eBay listing shows that the usps is still waiting for the card- but the seller advised that the item was picked up from him by the USPS withs several other items. ( and before you jump to conclusions- I also bought a 1st edition lass psa 10 from him the same day- and that arrived in 2 days).

He says it was mailed- the tracking was never updated and I still don’t have it- nearly 2 months later. I made the eBay claim and for a refund. Seller actually helped with that.

I have been on eBay since 1996! This year - I have seen more mail issues than in the previous 23 combined!! It’s sad… and I want my red cheeks pika but I don’t think I will ever see it..

But- the best advice you for here was to not roll around in the mud. A great American philosopher once said not to argue with fools- because from a distance you can’t tell who is who… that philosopher was Jay-Z and it is good advice. Make the claim- get the refund. We all know you aren’t a liar.

[KingPokemon]

I’ve waited up to 3 1/2 months both as a buyer and seller. How long did you wait before contacting the seller the first time?

[teraz]

I had a seller reach out to me for an untracked card I sent saying she didn’t get it. Her feedback as a seller was honestly atrocious, like maybe 30-50 negative feedbacks and on each one she replied with so much snide and arrogance. I have a pretty good hunch that she’s lying to get a free card based on the feedback and she’s obviously a scam artist. But you know what I did? I messaged back and said, “I sent it letter mail, so I don’t have tracking, here’s a refund.”

I honestly don’t understand that seller’s position to argue. You should be aware what position you put yourself in as a seller if you send untracked. There’s literally no fight to be had and he should know that.

On the other hand though, you could have been a little more chill in your responses… As others have said, you spent more time and emotional energy than is worth for what’s the equivalent of maybe an hour or two’s pay of a minimum wage job.

I think it would be wise to not make such a big deal out of something so small in the future.

[burpies]

I know you mentioned not wanting to leave bad feedback because you don’t want to risk hurting his business, but I think this is exactly the type of case where it’s justified. Certainly as a buyer I wouldn’t want to deal with someone who accuses others of fraud and has zero sense of customer service. Maybe a better way of framing it isn’t that you’re hurting his business, but rather that you’re protecting other buyers.

[Cerulean]

@teraz

I had a seller reach out to me for an untracked card I sent saying she didn’t get it. Her feedback as a seller was honestly atrocious, like maybe 30-50 negative feedbacks and on each one she replied with so much snide and arrogance. I have a pretty good hunch that she’s lying to get a free card based on the feedback and she’s obviously a scam artist. But you know what I did? I messaged back and said, “I sent it letter mail, so I don’t have tracking, here’s a refund.”

I honestly don’t understand that seller’s position to argue. You should be aware what position you put yourself in as a seller if you send untracked. There’s literally no fight to be had and he should know that.

On the other hand though, you could have been a little more chill in your responses… As others have said, you spent more time and emotional energy than is worth for what’s the equivalent of maybe an hour or two’s pay of a minimum wage job.

I think it would be wise to not make such a big deal out of something so small in the future.

Sorry, but if someone calls me a liar and a thief, I am not going to be “chill.” I have been been on eBay for years and this is the first time I have ever sent someone messages in that tone.

[mcorey777]

The second things went wrong I would have left negative feedback and got a refund.

Congratulations on holding out so long it shows you really gave the seller the chance.

I ran into a similar situation not long ago. Took three months to arrive from Australia and it turned out to be a fake level X Azelf

I definitely lost my cool receiving a counterfeit card!

[friendyboy]

You want to know the only way to get your own back on him calling you a thief?

Get your claim in, leave negative feedback and block him.

[teraz]

@Cerulean

@teraz

I had a seller reach out to me for an untracked card I sent saying she didn’t get it. Her feedback as a seller was honestly atrocious, like maybe 30-50 negative feedbacks and on each one she replied with so much snide and arrogance. I have a pretty good hunch that she’s lying to get a free card based on the feedback and she’s obviously a scam artist. But you know what I did? I messaged back and said, “I sent it letter mail, so I don’t have tracking, here’s a refund.”

I honestly don’t understand that seller’s position to argue. You should be aware what position you put yourself in as a seller if you send untracked. There’s literally no fight to be had and he should know that.

On the other hand though, you could have been a little more chill in your responses… As others have said, you spent more time and emotional energy than is worth for what’s the equivalent of maybe an hour or two’s pay of a minimum wage job.

I think it would be wise to not make such a big deal out of something so small in the future.

Sorry, but if someone calls me a liar and a thief, I am not going to be “chill.” I have been been on eBay for years and this is the first time I have ever sent someone messages in that tone.

That’s exactly my point though. If it’s so important to you to prove to a stranger on the internet that you aren’t a liar and thief then so be it. But you posted this convo here for some reason, I’m guessing to get our opinion? Or just to vent? Either way, I’m giving you my perspective, which is that you as a buyer can just open a case with ebay, but instead you choose to argue with a dude over a $15 card, to me it’s just a massive waste of emotional energy and time.

[Cerulean]

@teraz

@Cerulean

Sorry, but if someone calls me a liar and a thief, I am not going to be “chill.” I have been been on eBay for years and this is the first time I have ever sent someone messages in that tone.

That’s exactly my point though. If it’s so important to you to prove to a stranger on the internet that you aren’t a liar and thief then so be it. But you posted this convo here for some reason, I’m guessing to get our opinion? Or just to vent? Either way, I’m giving you my perspective, which is that you as a buyer can just open a case with ebay, but instead you choose to argue with a dude over a $15 card, to me it’s just a massive waste of emotional energy and time.

The problem here is that you are trying to tell someone else what should be important to them. I come from a cultural background where we take this type of thing very, very seriously. Just because you think it isn’t important doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t feel it is.

I also didn’t post to get anyone’s opinion. If I did, I would have asked for everyone’s thoughts. I posted just to share the experience.

I think you’re also overestimating the amount of time I spent on this guy. Lol. In totality, those few messages took me several minutes to type altogether. It really wasn’t this huge thing that I spent an ample amount of time on, and until I saw your response in this thread, I had honestly stopped caring about it. Trust me: I have already put this behind me.

I don’t mean to go at you. I know you’re just trying to help. So if it seems that I am attacking you, I apologize. But yes: when someone calls me a liar, a thief or a fraud, I am going to take that seriously. If someone calls me a POS or an idiot or a moron, I wouldn’t care. It’s the idea of questioning my integrity specifically that irks me.

[r2d287]

Here is my take.

You waited 3+ months for the card. The guy that sold you the card probably isn’t stupid, that’s not really what a scammer would do. They would file the claim quickly. Since he would probably know that, accusing you of theft was a defensive move, and looks shady to me. I’m actually betting that he didn’t ship the card. With all that is going on, people have a little more wiggle to blame the PO on stuff.

On a cheap card, coaxing honest buyers to wait past the claim period seems like an easy way to make a little extra money.