I can't speak for others, though I know that Ven has recently posted about problems with an Amazon Marketplace situation, but I'm finding that sellers through eBay.com and Half.com are becoming less and less reliable. I've recently had a number of occasions where sellers have grossly overstated the quality of the items they were selling as well as problems with sellers not even shipping items. Is anyone else noticing this trend?

Case #1
I purchased a CD from Half.com that was listed as "Brand New" and arrived missing the booklet and visibly scratched. I sent an e-mail to the seller who never responded. I filed a claim with half.com but after filing the claim, I had to wait "48 business hours" before anything else could happen. A couple of weeks later, I finally received a notice from half.com that I had to send the CD back to the seller with delivery confirmation. Once the confirmation showed that the CD had reached the seller, I then had to send the tracking numbers to half.com via e-mail. About a week after doing this, I finally received my refund notice today, more than a month since the purchase.

What's more troubling is the note that came along with the refund notice today, particularly the passage that said...

"Under the terms of the Half.com Buyer Protection policy, buyers can file one Buyer Protection Report per month, with a lifetime maximum of three. Please take a moment to review the Buyer Protection policy carefully to see how this may affect future reports that you may want to file."

If I'm reading this correctly, after I've dealt with just 3 bad sellers, I can't file any more claims. This seems ridiculous to me, particularly given the way things seem to be going as of late.

Case #2
I won an eBay auction on January 11 and immediately paid for the item. On January 14 I received a notice stating that the post office had tracking numbers registered with it, but that it hadn't yet received the package for shipping. As of January 22, the package still hadn't entered the post office's tracking service. The seller is unresponsive.

Is anyone else seeing this trend with the eBay/Half organization? Are sellers getting worse and eBay/Half dropping the ball on fixing the problems?

In case #2, that might be a post office issue. I find their tracking system to be pretty much useless. I've noticed that any time I've tracked a USPS shipment, the notice that you mentioned seems to be the one which remains online until after the parcel has actually been delivered.

The best advice I can give is to always keep an eye on the feedback ratings. Be sure to check if the seller's feedback has come from buyers--some crooked sellers build positive feedback purchasing small items. Read the feedback comments, too--if a seller is abnormally slow to ship items, some buyers will mention this while nontheless leaving positive feedback. Also with Ebay, if you have any doubts or questions about the condition of an item, e-mail the seller before bidding or buying. I've never had a problem with any Ebay seller who was willing to answer any question I've had about an item (and my questions usually concern condition) prior to my initial bid. I would also not reccommend buying bootlegs online. One other thing I like about Ebay is that you can check to see what else a seller has for sale, and I also get sketchy whenever I see a seller is selling something blatently illegal, such as bootleg music/videos.

Still, I had to make a claim with Amazon last month. They were able to refund my money as promised. You can't always tell who the bad sellers are.

Your advice here is very sound and very much the due diligence that I do every time I make an online purchase. Still, I find more and more that I run into unexpected issues with sellers. How could I have foreseen that a "Brand New" CD would arrive without a booklet and scratched? Nothing in this person's feedback gave that one away. I didn't use to run into these kinds of issues at all, but they seem more and more common.

I would have to agree. One of my peeves is sellers posting items for sale that they don't physically have, and by the time you find out (often only because you have inquired; seems some play the odds that some buyers won't follow through if they don't receive their item), if they don't force you into going through the eBay dispute process by not initially responding (which can go on for weeks), by the time you do get your refund they've had your money for some time. But the idea of posting items for sale you do not actually have (which i think is technically an eBay infraction) really gets me. But when you've bought from a power seller who brings them all sorts of revenue in comparison to your account, there seem to be no repercussions at all for the seller no matter how egregious their infraction was.

And i've had problems with overgraded items as well, but in most of those instances was dealing with decent sellers who allowed full return and refund, or even a partial refund (while keeping the item) to offset the grading deficit.

But these types of things have become more frequent in the past couple of years or so, and are ALWAYS irritating.

Well, I guess I've had pretty good luck up till now. I once got ripped off by a seller who sent me an obviously pirated DVD (My BS detectors should have gone off when I saw the phrase "Shrinkwrapped" in the listing, rather than the words "New", "Official" or "Legal"); another seller, with whom I paid an extra $5 for insurance, was unable to provide me with any receipt for the insurance when the item arrived damaged (That's right--if the item arrives damaged and the person receiving the item has no receipt FROM THE POST OFFICE for the insurance, the post office is only going to shrug their shoulders). Caiman also once sent me an OOP Elvis Presley CD, but neglected to mention that the booklet was in Espanol.

Recently on Amazon, a seller with absolutely no feedback was offering a "new" copy of the hard-to-find offical import version of the 1973 "Dylan (A Fool Such A I)" album for $49.95. I was EXTREMELY tempted at that price...but even with the Amazon guarantee, something about it just didn't feel right. Again, I like how on Ebay I can often look at photos of the actual CD for sale (not a "stock photo") and contact the seller with questions.

I was saying in another thread how I don't really like ordering music online--I always feel better in a store when I can shake a wrapped disc to see if I can hear any broken plastic tray spokes rattling loose inside the jewel box--but some sellers have also amazed me with their prices and service.

You always take a chance with eBay/Half/Amazon Marketplace...but I've had very few real issues, and the ones I had were rectified pretty quickly.

Biggest problem for me is people posting under the wrong UPC code, or if one doesn't exist posting under ANY similar UPC code for the artist. So you wind up thinking you purchased a Rhino double disc Elvis Costello album and receive a Rykodisc single disc instead.

Buying Cds especially thru Half.com or Amazon Sellers has always been hit or miss. You never know really what their sending.

I find Ebay a little better since you can correspond with the seller or see an actual photo.

While I sell on ebay, I've had numerous problems over the years with other cd sellers who call heavily scratched cd's "mint". I believe one of the causes for this is many scratches will only show up under a regular plain old lightbulb. Florescent lights & sunlight will hide many scratches. A lot of ebay sellers don't know this.

One of the few good things I'll say about Pay Pal is that the buyer theoretically gets protection from misleading listings.

On the other side, one thing to be aware of is that the Muse data base ebay uses for their "prefilled listing" section is AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL. It's frequently inaccurate. Ebay has created a situation where it's very hard to sell cd's & dvd's without using that database, as customers expect it.

Many online sellers, including myself use an insurance company called U-Pic. There are no receipts from u-pic & the package will not be marked insured for 2 reasons:

1. U-pic requests that we don't do it; they feel that a package marked "insured" appears more valuable to a potential thief.

2. The USPS expects additional postage paid for their insurance. If a package is marked insured, it could very easily be returned to sender for more postage.

The USPS also has a program for small business insurance called a "Firm Book". Someone using a firm book would not have a receipt that they could provide you, but they would be able to file a claim on your behalf. I know this because before U-pic started up, my business used the USPS firm book.

$5 is a lot to pay for insurance unless the item was several hundred dollars.

In my experience, half.com's buyer support & resolution is AWFUL. I'm also very hesitant to buy through them in the future.


Many of us are using the USPS "Electronic Delivery Confirmation". It's only 15 cents & prints simultaneously with internet postage. The downside is that the USPS policy is that they generally don't scan edc's until actual delivery, or at minimum until it gets to the destination post office; i.e. you will see the message that "the shipper has informed us to expect your item...." message until it's actually delivered. They briefly changed that policy in xmas 2006 & scanned packages in when they were dropped off, but for reasons unknown they reversed & went back to the old no scan policy after just a few weeks. There are some exceptions, but the "shipper has informed us to expect your item" message is very much the norm & is not due to anything negative done by the sender.

I've had a painful education as far as sellers gouging me for things like insurance and shipping. The worst example was the mandatory $12.95 I paid for "expedited shipping" for a DVD boxed set that was roughly 7.5"x5.5"x2". Thanks to the miracle of USPS tracking, I was able to chart the progress of my parcel as it finally left New York (well over a week after I ordered it) inexplicably spending a day in Romulus, Michigan on its way down to Florida. Again, this was called "expedited shipping" (italics mine).

ex·pe·dite (ksp-dt)
tr.v. ex·pe·dit·ed, ex·pe·dit·ing, ex·pe·dites
1. To speed up the progress of; accelerate.
2. To execute quickly and efficiently: was trusted to expedite the directives of the board.
3. To issue officially; dispatch.

After years with no problems at all relating to Half/Ebay/Amazon transactions, I had not one but two packages "lost" in the mail last month; I eventually did get my money refunded, but it wasn't easy. My only advice reiterates what some have already posted: read feedback ratings & comments very carefully. (Lately, I only prefer to order from companies with 98% and up feedback ratings!) And I also find in my experience that it's easier doing business with the "mom-and-pops" than the companies that sell professionally. You get better communication, it's more likely the item is actually in stock, and you have a one-on-one person to deal with, rather than a department. Both major problems I have had came from stores/companies rather than from individuals selling. Just my two cents' worth!

There's even a bit of questionability with feedback ratings too. One time , I won on an auction, and the seller had a rating of 99%. I usually dont deal with anyone under 95-96%. It was the worst tranaction I ever had! It took him 2 weeks to ship it, and it wasnt as he described it. I gave him negative feedback, after he ignored me. He then turned around and Gave ME negative feedback for no reason other than I had done it to him! We ended up mutually agreeing to remove both of them.

Jeff

To me, that's the biggest problem with the feedback system...retaliatory feedback. The seller should lose any right to leave feedback for a buyer is the deal is voided with a claim against the seller.

Furthermore, I have an issue with eBay's recommendation as to how feedback should work. Check out their policies. They state that the buyer should leave feedback first, after they've received the item and only then should the seller leave feedback for the buyer. HELLO?? After the buyer has paid, in my book, they've done their job. Why shouldn't they receive positive feedback at that point? This policy, at least in my mind, almost encourages retaliatory feedback from sellers. The only possible reason I can think of for a seller to wait would be if the buyer proves to be petty and complains endlessly about what they've received, but given what you actually have to go through to get a claim processed against a seller, someone has to cut the buyers a little slack.

One other increasing trend to be aware of on ebay, half & Amazon is the "drop shipper". They NEVER have the product in stock; it's some guy in an apartment who has a deal with a one stop who theoretically will ship your item directly to you. The Drop Shipper never even sees your item, much less has it in stock. As an ebay manager said to me last year, when these guys fall they fall hard & it impacts alot of people. If anything goes wrong with the DS's relationship with their one stop, 100's of orders may go unfulfilled before ebay/half/amazon catches on.

I recommend always using a form of payment with these folks where you can initiate a chargeback.

Here's how to id a drop shipper, in most cases, all of the items below will be true:

1. 100's or 1000's of listings
2. HIGH shipping (only on ebay, half & amazon regulate shipping)
3. A high number of feedback each month (1500+?) with a significant number of negs
4. Generic listings (ebay only)
5. New (or mostly new) product only
6. Will have many new releases &/or imports

Regarding ebay, while these folks generally are violating ebay's "fee avoidance" policy of low selling price with high shipping, ebay almost always leaves them alone because of the high ebay fees they pay for listing all these items (often 10's of Thousands). They fit Half & Amazon's model perfectly, so unless Amazon or Half get TONS of complaints (& has to pay out tons of refunds), these folks tend to be welcomed by the web sites in question..

The reason I usually only leave feedback after the buyer has done so is because we pay ebay to respond to plus feedback left for us automatically. I'm aware of 3 ways for a seller with fairly high volume to leave feedback:

1. Do what I describe above

2. leave feedback 1 by 1. This requires the ebay item number, which I don't use & is really time consuming. For sellers like myself who don't use drop shipping & offer real customer service, the entire process is so time consuming that i don't have much of a life, & I'm not willing to spend several hours weekly on feedback. It used to be possible to go to a specific page on ebay, paste in a bunch of email addresses (which is how we track orders by email address) & leave all of them the same + feedback. When that was available, we always left fb upon receipt of payment. When ebay changed their policy to require items numbers with feedback it completely eliminated this option. I don't have several hours per week to leave feeback on top of everything else. If ebay would find a fix for the system, I'd be glad to go back to leaving fb upon receipt.

3. Ebay also offers the option where I can bulk + feedback to all buyers at once. This also leaves + feedback for non paying bidders so it isn't an option.

I see a need for feedback left for sellers, so that potential buyers can tell if it's likely to be a safe & positive transaction. I don't see nearly as strong of a need for buyers to have huge feedback. I treat a buyer with 100 positives EXACTLY the same way I'd treat a buyer with 1000 positives. The only things I'm looking for in a buyer's feedback would be a history of fraud or non payment.

I haven't used ebay in about six months (Bad news with a Dropshipper and 2 1/2 months dealing with emails and such waiting for a refund for something they didn't have/ never had in stock. Couldn't even leave bad feedback 'cause the item fell off the tracking. Which I'm sure was the delay.)

However, as a buyer, I like when the seller leaves feedback at reciept of payment. If only to know they did recieve it.

I had an expeience a couple of years ago with one particular seller. He was selling boots of Elton John and Billy Joel shows. He had an approval rating of 99%, so I bought one. I got it within a couple of days (he was in WI, Im in IL). about a month later he had new shows in. So I purchased another. 2 weeks went by, and no CD. I got his phone number and called him. He said he had jad some personal trouble, and would be shipping it our the next day. Two MORE weeks went by. This time I contacted EBay and told them what had happened, They were useless, told me they couldnt do much, except suspend the seller, since they had other complaints about him. Also they said for me to contact local authorities in WI about him. It was only $15, but come on! He ended up ripping off about 25 other people other then myself, they all posted negative feedback against him, but of course it was too late...

It used to be against eBay policy, but it hasn't been for years now. It was when they removed that provision that I realized eBay was no longer the grassroots, ordinary-people-dealing-with-other-ordinary-people venue that it once was. Now it's just a vehicle for businesses to reach a wider audience.



The majority of CD sellers on eBay don't have a clue about what "mint" really means. They think that if the disc plays perfectly, it's mint, even if it looks like someone used it to polish a stone wall. I stopped giving the term any credence a long time ago.



Ridiculous shipping charges are a huge pet peeve of mine -- they're nothing more than a way for the seller to make an extra couple of bucks on the side. But what really pisses me off is that most buyers don't seem to care! These sellers make hundreds of sales a day, charging $5, $6, or more to ship a single CD, and the buyers leave happy-as-clams feedback comments (including "reasonable shipping charges"...WTF??). Don't they realize they're paying waaaay more than they would from any number of web retailers? I just don't get it.

Apparently ebay agrees with Walter's original point. Starting in late February, ebay sellers will no longer be allowed to leave Negative feedback for buyers under any circumstances.

I expect the one of the consequences will be a surge in undeserved negs for sellers from non paying bidders & buyers who don't read the listing before buying..

As if on cue, I got an order from Amazon Marketplace of "Like New" CD yesterday. Although the disc itself was in pretty good condition (not quite "Like New", though), the booklet and tray card suffered from considerable water damage. Very frustrating!

Jay