Archive for the ‘feedback’ Category

Dear eBay Queen:

As a side job to my eBay selling, I do picture-framing.  I have hundreds of antique frames I’ve picked up over the years. It’s always been fun to find something interesting behind the print you see through the glass – something used for backing or some print or photo the former owner just decided to cover with a preferred picture. I’ve found parts of vintage posters, pieces of old boxes with advertising, family photos, rejected lithographs (misaligned colors), and so on. The other day, I disassembled a huge, c.1900 frame I’d gotten for just the frame and glass. The backing was wood and was covered with heavy white paper tacked around the edges. The print would have gone on top of that white paper. So I removed the paper to use for whatever and was delighted to find on the reverse a large, pencil-signed engraving! Fun!

I can’t read the signature. I tried a Google image search with keywords anyone would use to describe the scene, but no luck.

Do you know of a website, institution, or person who will attempt to identify works of art for free? The engraving is presumably a copy of a painting, so this would need to be an expert in Victorian-era painters.

David

Dear David:

I’ve never thought about looking behind photos or prints to see what I found.  Have you ever thought about writing a blog about your finds?  There is a really interesting blog I follow called:  http://www.missingbookmarks.com He is a book seller, and writes about the stuff he finds stuck in books.

Some good places I have found to research old prints and paintings are:

• www.artconversation.com
• ·         www.artcyclopedia.com/
• I’ve also contacted the Nelson Atkins (816) 751-1278, and they have helped me with research on old prints.

Dear eBay Queen:

I sell vintage albums, turntables etc, on eBay.  I’ve been doing this for around 5 years.  Recently, I had a buyer claim that the turntable I sent her is broken.  She threatened to leave negative feedback if I did not provide her with a full refund or a replacement but she has steadfastly refused to return the item.  I always double check my items are in good working order and condition prior to sending.  I do want to find out why there is a problem with this turntable. In my defense, I offered her a full refund once she sends the items back to me.

She opened a case with PayPal saying that the item was vitally important for her child and she needed one desperately, but went crazy once PayPal told her to return the item and then she will get her refund.  She now has admitted to me that she has 7 of these items, has received a few of them that did not work and the seller gave her a refund without returning the item. I checked out her feedback, and she has been buying these items for some time. She wants to send me a video of the console not working as proof of her claim – how am I to know if this is the console I had sent if she already has 7 others?

In her last email, she says that she wants to keep the player and still have her refund!!!  What would you do in this situation?

Colleen

Dear Colleen:

One of my crazy buyers from years ago taught me to always take a photo of the serial number of the electronics I am selling.  I don’t put this in the eBay description, but I do save the photo.  When I send electronics I put the serial number in the notes when I print the PayPal shipping. Then the buyer knows that you know which item you have sent. Then if a different one is returned it’s obvious.

I would call PayPal to talk to someone in resolutions. Ask if you can forward the emails where she says she has 7 of these and none of the other sellers made her return them.  I would also contact eBay about this.  PayPal is going to require her send the item back before receiving a refund.  You have a couple of options.

1. Let the PayPal claim expire on its own, and by doing this it will be found in your favor.
2. Escalate the claim, PayPal will investigate and find in your favor since the buyer refuses to send the item back.

The buyer could still give you negative feedback, but you can always respond: “buyer demanded to keep the item & get money back.”  This is a tough situation.  I wish eBay would put more safeguards in place for sellers when it comes to buyers.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 250992365252 How much would you pay to have Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley at your wedding? Check out this auction, Be 1st Couple Married at KISS “Hotter Than Hell” Vegas Wedding Chapel with KISS! Check it out HERE  SOLD $15,300.00

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul, Kansas.

Dear eBay Queen:     

I’ve purchased several items from the same bead seller. Every order before this one was perfect. I bought some stone beads on eBay, amethyst and cherry quartz. The auctions for both indicated the beads were 16″ strands. I received the items, but they were not described. Instead of receiving a strand of beads, I received one single bead, that I think resembles cherry quartz, but is browner than what was shown in the photo.

I wrote the seller and told him that the amethyst arrived fine, but the strand of Cherry Quartz was missing. I explained I received a single bead, and if I had thought I was paying $14 for one bead, I would not have purchased it.  I stated I would like either a refund of the $14, or for them to send out the strand of quartz that I paid for.

He wrote back saying that he “double checked” his records, and that they have TWO people that check their stuff, and in fact they DID send the order that included BOTH the strand, AND a single bead.

The box arrived sealed, and the strand was not there.  So what do I do now?  He’s a Top Rated Seller and a PowerSeller, so I’m sure there is no recourse for me.

I’ve read some of your previous articles and you suggested going through PayPal, but why would I do this?  They are owned by eBay!  Do you have any other suggestions for me?  If not, I guess it cost me $14, but it will cost him word of mouth and any new sales from me.  Maybe the loss of my sales won’t hurt him because he’s a power seller.

Fran Campbell

Dear Fran:

eBay does own PayPal, but I don’t believe that is a bad thing.  Their partnership will only help your cause.  In a situation like this, I would contact your seller one more time.  Let your seller know that you are a repeat buyer, and that you would be happy to send them a photo of what you received.  Give them a day or so to respond.  If the seller doesn’t respond, I would file a complaint with PayPal.

eBay and PayPal care about your buying experience.  I would imagine that your seller cares too.

Dear eBay Queen:

I had a men’s suit up for sale that was clearly olive green and marked as olive green in the listing. For some reason, the product finder mistakenly had the color as black. This was my fault for missing that.  Before the buyer paid for the item, he tried to back out of the sale by saying he wasn’t sure it fit.  Today I received this email.

Here is the email that the buyer sent me:

“I received the suit yesterday and I have to say I am dissapointed. Quite surprisingly it fits just fine. I will need to extend the waist by an inch or so but the jacket fits beautiiful which was my main concern.

The problem is the color. Your description says black ….the pictures show beigee and the actual color is green!!

I have purchased 11 suits in 4 weeks from ebay and have perfect record of paying and feedback and have been very reasonable with the sellers..

In this case I am lost as I have 3 green suits. If you have something else I would consider it, else I would request full refund incl shipping as the item is grossly misrepresented. You have fantastic feedback and
mistakes do occur. I hope you will rect”

***Yes, he did send the email mid sentence.

Now, I disagree with him on all counts, except that I accidentally put black in the product finder, but the description and pictures are clearly not black. Also, I have no issues issuing a refund, but I want to insist upon my return terms and I most definitely do not want to pay for return shipping.  What’s your opinion on this?

Jaime

Dear Jamie:

There isn’t really anything to do except offer to accept the return.  I would email the buyer immediately and ask them to return the item.  Since there was an error in the listing, I would bend over backwards to make sure the buyer is happy.

They already mentioned your “fantastic feedback.”  While eBay won’t consider this a threat, to me the buyer is saying “hey I’ve seen your feedback and I just might leave something if you don’t do what I want.”  Keep in mind they could be being complimentary, but they are waiting, and believe that you are going to do the right thing.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 390366911972 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page. President’s day was this week!  Check out this Abraham Lincoln Autograph Signed Note.  I would have thought it would have sold for more.   Check it out HERE   SOLD $7500.00

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul, Kansas.

Dear eBay Queen:

I accidently send out a bed in the bag set and it was the wrong color. The buyer (whose address was in NY, opened a dispute for $114. I sent him a free return shipping label,  and I would send him a for a replacement. I then get an email saying he cannot return the item because he lives outside of the US.  He said it would cost $30 to send it back to the NY address and then another $30 to send the correct one to him. I had no idea he was sending this somewhere else. I can’t just refund him $114 without getting the item back! I sure hope PayPal doesn’t go and refund this money without the item being sent back.  Do you think they will?

Also, I am a dumpster diver.  I found a really cool Star Wars R2D2 interactive droid with a table mounted on it, (and it came with batteries!) out behind a grocery store dumpster.  It’s about 17″ tall and moves on command. It’s made by Hasbro and came out in 2002.  I hope to be putting that on eBay soon.  Do you have any ideas how to ship it?

Deb

Dear Deb:

PayPal will require the buyer to send the item back before they refund the money.  I would make sure that you put your return shipping label tracking number so that PayPal can see that it has not been shipped back to you.  Normally, claims close within 45 days.  If your buyer doesn’t do anything in that time, your money should be back in your account in no time.

Congratulations on the great find!  If this were mine, I would box it up, making sure to put lots of padding around the toy.  Since this could end up being a  pretty large, shipping box I would consider using UPS to ship it.

Dear eBay Queen:

I wrote to a seller concerning some jewelry charms that I was interested in. The picture had a group of these charms lying on a table and it was a bit difficult to distinguish the exact detail. I wrote and asked if he/she had a picture of an individual charm. The seller’s response was “Unfortunately we do not.”I thought that was odd, so I asked if it would be possible to take a picture of just one. The response was: “Unfortunately we only sell similar items not exact ones.”I was a bit surprised! I wrote back and asked if I wanted to purchase this exact charm, would you have them. The response was simply “no.”  Now I am really perplexed! How does a seller list/sell a pictured item they don’t have on hand?? I asked the seller if this ever cause a problem with his customers and the response was:

“Our description states clearly that we sell similar items, not exact. All of our customers know this and accept that fact. Most sellers today cannot post exact items due to the manpower required in taking pictures of every single item. That would probably run us out of business. That is just how it is done on eBay and all the large sellers do it this way. ”

Wow. Okay, I re-read the description and it does say “we sell similar items not exact”. But is this truly the way all large sellers work? When I do sell on eBay, I don’t list a lot of items, just a few here and there.  I’m not sure how large sellers operate but this just sounds a little “off” to me.

Ginger

Dear Ginger:

I would bet it is the same item, but not the exact item.  I also do this, when I have multiples of the same item.  It is weird that they would not take an up-close photo for you. Are there other sellers that have the same item up for sale?  If so, I would move on to their items and leave this sellers’ stuff for someone else to purchase. I would be interested in looking at their wording. If you still have it, let me know the eBay item number.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 320761066590 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page.  Were you a stewardess in the 1970’s?  Get out your old gear!  It’s time to sell it.  Braniff Airlines Emilio Pucci Space Bubble Helmet Rain Dome Uniform Hat. SOLD $1650.77 http://www.ebay.com/itm/320761066590?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? Email: questions@asktheebayqueen.com