[Jose Perez]

On Dec 18th I bought a stethoscope on ebay as a Christmas gift for my sister who's in nursing school. I'm in PA and the seller is located in New York. I ended the auction using the Buy-It-Now feature and paid immedietely in hopes that the sender would ship it promptly. Well here it is the 29th and still nothing. I emailed the seller twice so far (once christmas eve and again on Monday) with no responses and I'm leaving in the morning to Florida to see my sister and will be going down there empty handed. I paid $10 for shipping via USPS priority mail and even with the weekend and the holiday break the post office takes, it should have gotten here by now since today is the 7th business since the auction ended. Now I'll have to spend another few $$ to ship it to her in Florida after I return.

Anyways I sent a heated email earlier threatening to leave some negative feedback if the stethoscope doesn't arrive tomorrow (I'll be out of town but a neighbor will be checking our mail for us). Now I'm thinking that I am just letting my emotions get the better of me and that this very well may be an acceptable amount of time to wait on something from ebay. The guy does have a 14 day return policy but between the shipping costs, both the initial shipping and then for return postage, as well as the Paypal fees, I'll be out about $20-25. All because of their screwup and who knows how long they'd sit on it before the refunded my money anyways.

I see these types of posts pop up from time to time and I often side with the seller but this is the first time I find myself on the receiving end of the shaft and was wondering what the consensus opinion is? Should I slam the guy? Should I leave neutral feedback? Or should I just leave none at all and walk away? Any feedback (pun intended

) from you guys would be appreciated.

 

[Ebonyks]

I'd wait a week before taking any more actions. The seller is taking a long time, but leaving negitive feedback is a way to insure that you'll never recieve the item at all.

If you don't recieve it afterwards, leave negitive feedback, and file a fraud claim with paypal (assuming you used paypal). If not, you're pretty much out of luck

 

[PinkFloyd]

Give it a few days more before setting the alarm bells off. Post is very slow at this time of the year.

 

[GlowWorm]

Obvious question, but did you check the sellers feedback beforehand? I know it sucks, but if the seller has exellent feedback previously something could have come up to slow response/shipment. Unfortunately, not much you can do right now but wait. If seller has at least a good excuse for delay, you might want to cut him/her some slack (assuming item will be shipped). If not, well?....

Hope it works out for the best Jose.

 

[Jose Perez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlowWorm Obvious question, but did you check the sellers feedback beforehand? I know it sucks, but if the seller has exellent feedback previously something could have come up to slow response/shipment.

The seller is pretty new to ebay with only a +17 feedback but they've all been positive and more importantly they've all been for items sold not biught soI thought I was making a smart move.

I'll wait to see what day it actually gets here as well as what their excuse is for dragging their feet on shipping and decide what to do then.

 

[Jose Perez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlowWorm Hope it works out for the best Jose.

Speaking of things working out for the best I wanted to thank you again for introducing me to that EddieCurrent amp. After talking it over with Craig at Eddiecurrent, I'll be ordering myself an HD-25 when I return from Florida

 

[meat01]

The problem with the feedback system is that if you give someone a negative feedback, they give you one back just out of spite. A lot of times, a person may have 3000 positives and 1 negative doesn't do a bit of damage compared to someone who only has 10 or so positives. I would really try to work it out through email like you are doing, before giving someone a negative. I am not saying the system is correct, it is just something to think about.

 

[braillediver]

No. It’s the Christmas Holidays after all.

You buy something on a Saturday 7 days before Christmas and expect it to arrive in time?

Be real. You expectations are unreasonable. I doubt a real medical distributor would have been able to meet that time frame for delivery. That Monday or Tuesday was the busiest day of the year for the Post office.

If you want professional service buy from a professional and pay accordingly.


Mitch

 

[GlowWorm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jose Perez Speaking of things working out for the best I wanted to thank you again for introducing me to that EddieCurrent amp. After talking it over with Craig at Eddiecurrent, I'll be ordering myself an HD-25 when I return from Florida

Good move man! Hopefully you can bring your HD-25 to the next Pittsburgh meet so we can do a comparo.

 

[Jose Perez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braillediver No. It’s the Christmas Holidays after all. You buy something on a Saturday 7 days before Christmas and expect it to arrive in time? Be real. You expectations are unreasonable. I doubt a real medical distributor would have been able to meet that time frame for delivery. That Monday or Tuesday was the busiest day of the year for the Post office.

I had [size=small]HOPED[/size] it would arrive in time for Christmas but I [size=small]EXPECTED[/size] it to arrive by now. I wasn't going to give it to her until I drove down this week anyways so if it had arrived by Christmas it would have simply made me happy to have one less thing to worry about before my trip.

And I believe seven business days to ship an item less than 500 miles is definitely realistic. I am of the opinion that if you are not ready to ship an item in a reasonable amount of time as soon as it is paid for then you have no business placing the item for sale.

Quote:

Originally Posted by braillediver If you want professional service buy from a professional and pay accordingly.

As for your last line it altogether too true. I usually try to buy from professional merchants when I do business on ebay or anywhere else online for that matter because of hassles inherent in doing business with strangers. When I buy from people on this, or any other forum I frequent, I try to open some type of dialogue ahead of time so there is a mutual understanding of what is expected. I was in a hurry and didn't follow my own advice this time and this is what happens.

Anyways, I just hope I get what I paid for.

 

[meat01]

I don't think you are being unreasonable expecting your item to arrive by now. I also think the seller would have the common consideration to at least email you back and give you a status on your order. I don't think the holidays is an excuse to blow you off. Yes shipping takes longer because of not working on holidays and more traffic, but I would think you should have your item by now or at least a tracking number.

 

[warubozu]

Sorry to hear that this Ebay transaction is turning out to be a headache for you hopefully things will work out for the better soon. I agree with earlier posts that you should give it another week to see if the stethoscope comes thru. Meanwhile I would continue to try and make contact with the seller for some update and possibly contact Ebay to see if the can send the sell a reminder on your behalf.

 

[Xanadu777]

I've just heard that the airport cargo employee walk-off last week has held up numerous packages in a bit of limbo, it's a mess for now...

 

[mbriant]

Not every seller is sitting by his computer waiting for a paypal payment to arrive so he can immediately pack it up, jump in his car and drive to the post office ... especially at this time of year with post office line-ups long and lots of other seasonal things to take care of as well. (including last minute work related loose ends, office parties, shopping and travel to friends and relatives)

Add that to the fact we've had a few days of real cold and bad weather and the fact the post office and couriers are jammed with last minute Christmas traffic, and the fact that many people ( such as at the post office ) go into holiday coast mode in the days prior to and during the holidays, and it's not surprising your item didn't arrive in 7 business days from when you paid.

Did the seller confirm if and when he mailed the item?

 

[Jose Perez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbriant Did the seller confirm if and when he mailed the item?

Still haven't heard a thing from him

And as for the rest of your post I'll reiterate my previous sentiment that if you are not READY to do business then don't post an item for sale. Its one thing if he has set it up FS in a forum or something two months ago and I dug it up wanting to buy it and caught him unprepared but its another for him to go through the effort of posting a 3-day ebay auction and then sit on it for 11 days after the auction has ended without contacting the buyer. ESPECIALLY SINCE THIS WAS THE ONLY ITEM HE HAD FOR SALE AT THE TIME. If he had a few dozen auctions going at once and this one slipped through the cracks for a few days I would tend to agree with you, but that just isn't the case here. All I'm saying is that if you have so much going on or simply don't want to deal with all the BS of shipping and such during the holiday season then hold off and post your auction after New Year's Day.

Maybe its just me but I think it is simply irresponsible not to check the status of your auctions at least daily, respond to the buyer in a timely manner, and to ship in a timely manner. Call me crazy but that's how I do things.