eBay has been steadfast in it's refusal to publicize the number of fraud complaints filed, their disposition, and the percentage of claims substantiated (buyer protection insurance claim paid)
Additionally their coverage has a $25.00 deductible, and $200.00 max. That makes only a small percentage of all eBay transactions even marginally protected. How small of percentage? Only eBay knows. Meg didn't put over 1 billion dollars in her pocket in 5 years by giving the customer an even break.
What happen to the OP of this thread who was complaining about Able Hobby, Spokane WA?
Let's see now. One was mailed from Cincinati, Ohio in the begining of Dec 2002, the Canadian post office tracked it as entering Canada 3 days before I got it on Nov 27th, 2003.
The other, originated from Timonium, MD, mailed in late November 2002 and was tracked as entering Canada 4 days before I recieved it on Nov. 30th,
About as many as are told about FedEx. And FedEx will charge your account upon notice of shipment - wether or not they ever actually handle the package. I have to call them fro credit every time their online service hiccups and charges me twice for the same shipment...maybe 2-3% of the time. The express side is easy to get credit from, the ground side is the biggest pain...
Canada Post had nothing to do with that, I suppose...
Set off a firestorm with my reply in support of Mr. Rathburne did I!
If it makes you feel more comfortable in calling me a few names so be it. I have been called far worse and in better company so fire away.
My original reply to Mr. Rathburne was to agree that eBay leans towards the seller rather than the buyer. I just happened to have recent proof in support of my opinion and posted such. Should a buyer rack up that amount of numerical negatives in a years time, he/she would be out. eBay would have cut them off.
And yes I did purchase one item from "Jim" at Hobby Central. Looking at the total feedback for wwwhobbycirclecom (2720) was impressive. I did not look beyond the page as most of the time it is pointless when a rating is that high.
As I stated before, I have been buying (and selling) on eBay since 1997 that I know of (Since Apr-01-98 for ArtM and I have also used ArtM2 and ArtM3 for different email accounts back in the time that eBay would not let you transfer IDs to new emails). If I remember right, ArtM2 may have been an ID I set up for sales only. Anyway I hated the sales aspect. Just as I really do not give a rats patookie about personal feedback.
If you care to research any or all of the IDs you will notice there are no negatives... nope not a single one and I have purchased well in excess of
1000 items off of eBay and many more times than that offline through some of the same sellers. Hmmm, just was looking at my tally. eBay has changed the format again. I did have one Neutral converted from a positive from a buyer that left eBay in 1998. Now it's gone??? Interesting. anyway, the most likely reason I have none ( I assure you, I have screwed up before on eBay. Sometimes spectacularly) is the fact that I communicate with the buyer or seller on both the good and bad. I don't leave them guessing as to my intentions should a problem arise. Historically, I pay and ship (past) on Tuesdays and Fridays because of my really hectic schedule. If for some reason I cannot, I send and email or call if I have a number. Some people call that customer service, some call it professional, I just call it being courteous. I have never given someone any worse than a Neutral no matter what the reason and I see no reason to ever do so. If I can screw up occasionally so can others, I will not penalize them for that possibility.
As for being a "chump," perhaps, I tend to look at it a bit differently. I deal with vendors (suppliers) and customers on a daily basis. Should I adopt an approach that seems to be favored by a few on this group, I would wind up with neither and then shut down my operation. And That is out of the question for me to do as I prefer to feed my family. This is a copy of my initial email to Hobby Circle,
Jim, I will be sending you a MO for $15.48 per your emailed instructions. I evidently misread your auction description (my fault, not yours) as I read that S/H was $3.99 (I finally noticed, in fine print, at the bottom a charge of $7.99). I would still like the car as I contracted but I will let you know that this will be my one and only purchase from your company. I have set myself some very strict guidelines on what would be reasonable for handling charges and yours is above the limit. I also make the assumption that you would be shipping Priority Mail. That said, I do expect you have valid concerns for making the charge that I may not be aware of. Also, I have been wishing to see an example of the tankcar although I don't think it is prototypical for the line I model. I have not seen a example locally out here. Please ship to,
Thanks for the auction.
That was before I found out the type of company I was dealing with. I still do not consider Hobby Circle to be a criminal operation (i.e., engaging in systematic fraud). I do however think it to be a poorly run company as it's customer service attests to it being. In further voice and email communications I informed him of my requirement for him to reimburse me for my fees and handling charges since I was being required to prove that he cashed my money order (This was in pursuant to NYC statutes) as well as to my legal remedies if he should continue his course of non-compliance in fulfilling our contract. Yes, After his initial failure I did start reading ALL of his neutral and negative comments. He then posted that the car was shipped. I did receive it, it was not shipped Priority, It was packaged well, and it did arrive with broken pieces. I can only assume that he shipped a knowingly broken product. It was quite visible through the box window and there was zero defects with the box. He does have a history of that according to the feedback. This had already taken more than 45 days. I did not wish to waste any more time and effort on seeking further remedy from him. I had already spent enough time and effort on the matter to be able to purchase 30 or so cars locally at retail (if they could be found). I gave him the following feedback,
formatting link
to prove payment sent, I did, Tankcar arrived with a broken truck. Buyer artm (300 ) Jan-12-04 10:56 3152981096
I haven't read any posts claiming their feedback wasn't over 100. I don't know whose feedback statistics you're quoting above but it's not Able Hobby's. Here's a link to their eBay feedback (member profile page):
Do you have the faintest idea of how astronomical the odds are against this having happened as you claim it did?
Has anyone reading this message ever received a piece of mail that took 11 months in transit? Try to count the total number of pieces of mail all of us have received in their lifetimes. I'll take a wild-assed guess that I've received 30,000-
50,000. (average=40,000) If they're 400 people who will eventually ready this, multiply by 400 (product=16,000,000)
If one person will claim they've received something 11 months tardy out of
16,000,000 pieces, what are the odds of the same person having that reoccur three days later? The odds are astronomical, it couldn't have happened by chance.
Those two tardy cars you received were at one time, in the same place in a Canadian Post Office where they fell between a piece of furniture and a wall. And weren't discover until almost a year later.
Have I wrongly accused you of hijacking the Able Hobby thread by posting the URL to Hobby Circle's feedback page?
I have Rathburne's posts filtered so it may have been he who hijacked the thread. To do so, he would have had to been the initial responder to the OP's complaint about Able Hobby.
Did Rathburne confuse Able Hobby and Hobby Circle? Hobby Circle does use two domain names which was mentioned in a separate thread recently.
Now a question for Art Marsh: How does your anecdote about Hobby Central fit into this thread? When referring to a vendor with such a generic name, I would suggest including the name of the vendor's town too. I know of three stores called Hobby Central. I imagine they're more than that out there.
A point we agree on. eBay users do include a disproportionate percentage of trailer trash. This is less true in the model RRing categories where the demographics of the hobby show themselves -- older, better educated, more affluent.
I'm not aware of any 'tracking' provided by USPS when you purchase Delivery Confirmation. You are talking about DC that you paid for at the time of posting?
Or are you using the free delivery confirmation?
The USPS retail clerk scans the DC barcode & that info is printed on your receipt. And (hopefully) the carrier scans it again when he delivers it which will show up the USPS website when either party checks?
Ebay?! As if they care. They have their money so the guy is hosed. The seller can say he mailed it and it got lost if their is no insurance, so even IF (a huge IF) Ebay even cared, which they don't, all they would say is that and it is over. The seller pays ebay, not the buyer, so never think they care.
I used the Hobby Circle incident in support of Rathburnes contention that eBay is geared to supporting the seller and not the buyer.
I think someone else mentioned that they were kicked off after 3 negative comments. I would assume that eBay uses a percentage figure in order to terminate privaleges. Just not the same percentage for buyers as for sellers.
I've heard by former workers that UPS loads its trucks using the Airborne method. Guy A throws the box to Guy B in the truck, who deposits it in the truck in particular order. Assuming he didn't drop it first.
In my case their address states they are in Spokane, Wa. while I live but 60 miles away. Spokane is the PO hub that delivers mail to our local PO. 30 days is plenty of time to wait.
Wrong opinion. I made an honest attempt to get them to refund my money. I found, as others have mentioned, that I have little or no recourse with Ebay. Since the sellers attitude was that of " we got ours" I had no recourse but to focus some attention on the people I bought it from. Definitely a learning experience and that's what I related.
Too late, already said it. How creative? Drive down to their home and sit on their steps? Send them a virus? Like you said, it's less than $20. The energy expended on this is already well over what it should have been but it was a matter of principle.
Yep. As soon as Canada Post/Poste Canada found the mail where they had dropped it behind the cabinet, they marked it and sent it on it's way.
Do you have any evidence it did not happen as I stated?
Sorry, but to lay the blame at the feet of the USPS strictly by opinion is hardly fair, especially in light of the experience of millions of other people.
If two letters from different locations were so delayed, then they most likely got lost ~while they were together~ And that was most likely after they crossed the border.
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