The hazards of shipping stuff lately

[TritonGlenn]

I'll preface this message with saying "I'm not referring to anyone on this site, in any way shape or form - I'm referring to dealings on other sites". :lol:



I seems as if a lot of people are having medical problems within their families lately. The problems all seem to show up immediately after receiving payment from someone, but just prior to mailing the item that was purchased. I've seen so many stories from so many people, and it always is the same - Payment arrived, but sometime immediately after the payment was recieved, someone is the Sellers family either died, was hospitilized, is sick, or is having some kind of other family crisis.



Now, I realize that there are legitimate occurances that happen all the time. I hate to take away from that, as I know there are people grieving and others that are legitimately in bad health. There are people with legitimate excuses.



However, it seems as though a lot more people are using this as an excuse, when nothing is really wrong - they just forgot to send it, or have some other excuse (too lazy to go to the post office maybe?)



The thing that suprises me is the people I'm talking about in the paragraph above must think others are stupid. Either that, or they don't realize that others can surf the web too. I have seen people who have "been too busy with family emergencies" posting in other places on the same site they sold stuff on! Or using the same user name and posting somewhere else - you can tell it's the same person due to their location, registered name, etc... If they have time to post online, they have time to go ship something - at least that is my way of thinking.



Yes, it finally happened to me. Waiting on a package that should have been here days ago. Contacted the person who sold it and got a reply about a death in his family as well as other family members having health problems. I'm not sure what to believe, as he posted a few times after the date he was supposed to ship my package. None of the post mentioned these family issues - he was just commenting on other peoples posts. Once again - if you have time to post... you have time to go to the post office in my book. But then again... he might be home-bound if he has a family member that actually is having issues. But on the same note - if he is taking the time to post, I would have thought he would email or PM me on that site to let me know what is going on.



I might be out of $120. I'll know in a few days, as he claims he shipped it yesterday. Dangers of buying off the internet from private parties I guess. Luckily, I used PayPal, and have had good luck in the past getting money back from people who don't produce the goods I purchased.



OK... rant off.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Dan J.]

Amen to that!! Had the same happen with a fella recently. I waited almost two months on some custom baits "ready to ship" when purchased from a guy in the next state. When I asked about the holdup I was told that it was put on hold for a "death in the family 600 miles away". :lol: Funniest thing, the guy was able to list and post from his home IP addy during the supposed weeks he was "away". :unsure: I finally got my stuff, but found yet another person just looking to take the money and take their good 'ol time.

 

[TritonGlenn]

I can't really be upset with the guy I'm talking about right now - He might have legitimate issues, and I'd feel terrible calling him a liar and then finding out that he was telling the truth. I'll give it another couple of days. He only lives 4 hours from me (in TX), so I figured that even at the slow-boat-to-china postal rate, it would have been here in a few days at the most. That is why I emailed him after 6 days had passed. I had ordered some stuff from NY on the same day he claimed he was shipping it, and I got those orders on the 8th and 9th. That is why I started worrying about his shipment. In state, 4 hours away, and it's not here... but items coming from NY that were sent UPS ground get here already.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Dan J.]

I hope it works out for you and it most likely will. Overall odds are highly in favor of a positive resolution, although by now a little belated. I wouldn't wait too much longer before opening a dispute console with Paypal. A little push from them seems to get a lazy-butt shipping quickly in many cases. Good luck!

 

[Jimmy Easterling]

I sold my wheel covers and center caps from my new boat trailer to a guy in Maine. I made the box from a HP printer box and put the items inside, taped the hang out of it, taped the address to the side and took it to the post office. I am in SC. I recieved a letter from the PO in Atlanta this week with all the address and postage included saying they had found the addresses but no container. Fill out the form, attach a discription and picture of items and we will try to find the box. The address labels were found in a postal distribution center 10 miles short of it's destination. I know this is not the kind of thing Glenn is talking about, but it does happen. I haven't sold many things but I have found that when dealing with folks who are members of this forum can be trusted. Even though the gentleman in Maine told me to just wait and see if the wheel covers show up, I am sending him a check just in case they don't. I never want to be one of the people that Glenn is refering to.

 

[TritonGlenn]

Gotta respect people of your caliber JimmyE. Heck of a nice gesture on your part. Hope everything works out for both of you.



The guy I'm talking about said that if I wanted my money back to just ship the item back to him and he would refund my money. That made me a bit more nervous. If the item actually shows up here, I'm good. Why would I want my money back then? I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but somehow I just think something is going wrong here. I'm taking the pesimistic view, I realize, but I can't help it. When something starts smelling rotten, I get nervous. He said it "didn't have a mark on it", and that it was in excellent condition. But he ads in his first email to me after I PayPal'd him the money - "If there are any problems, just email me". I wanted to ignore that comment, but couldn't help but think "Have you had problems in the past?" Or "Do you expect problems?". Now that this is going the way it is, I've got that feeling in the pit of my stomache. I just want that feeling to go away.



Keeping my fingers crossed.

All the best,

Glenn

 

[Paul Sumpter]

I had a guy on ebay get me for some lures.Just took the money and never responded Hope he is alright.Thanks to paypal got my money back

 

[Greg Meyer]

In all my years of dealing on eBay and other sites, I have only had two bad experiences. One, I didn't know I was dealing with a nut job... Bought something and sent the payment (money order for under $15.00). I was traveling for work at the time and didn't pay attention to the matter after I sent the payment. For whatever reason, the money (according to her/seller) never arrived. I didn't do anything about the item until I realized that after three qweeks or so it hadn't arrived. I sent the seller a question asking if she got the payment (offering a photocopy of the receipt copy of the money order to help her remember the transaction). She sent a real nasty email back saying that I hadn't paid and then she filed something with eBay... I responded to eBay with a photocopy of the money order, together with an explanation that I would send a new payment (wasn't going to spend the time or money, $10, to stop payment on like $12 or $13). The seller insisted that my failure to stop payment was "proof" that I was lying. I sent a replacement money order and she never cashed that again alleging that I never sent it (I had the delivery confirmation...you can get that for non-certified but Priority Mail)... So, I could prove to eBay that I did send the payment... Anyway... As I watcvhed her feedback about 8 or 10 more people reported the same behavior... not cashing checks or money orders... I just determined she was nuts and walked away.



Second problem was from another fishing site, there the seller did get tied up with other things... Took about a month and I got my merchandise. So That's not bad, about 1% of the time a problem arises and of that one-half was a legitimate issue...

 

[Dan J.]

Greg summed it up best. 99.5% of the time it works like it's supposed to. The other .5% happens on rare occassion. (Usually involing a RARE individual! :lol: ) After a few weeks of waiting, I start to wonder if I'm due for a snafu.

 

[Carlos Hathcock III]

I have been pretty lucky with Ebay and also sellers on boards. My only problem was I sold a reel recently and I did not get an email from them stating they got the reel...I got a nervous..but it ended up ok after a couple of days with the email confirmation.

 

[TritonGlenn]

I've had some "honest mistakes" lately from sellers. Although I'm still not too keen on them making mistakes, I understand "it happens".



I put an ad on a local TX gun buy/sell board, wanting to buy TC Encore pieces. A guy responded that he had what I was looking for - A pistol grip and forearm set. I looked at his price, and then checked EABCO (thanks for that link Greg Meyer!). I commented that EABCO had the black rubber grips for $4 less than what he wanted for them, unless they were the Pachmayr models, and then what he was asking was about a $10 discount. So I asked what kind they were, and his reply was "Pachmayr!". I waited a while for them to show, and when they finally did, they were NOT Pachmayr grips. They were plainly marked with the TC logo, had no checkering (Pachmayr's are checkered), and had no Pachmayr emblem anywhere (which they put on their Encore grips). I contacted him and he agreed to refund my money. However, I ended up having to pay to ship the grips back to him, so that was money out of my pocket. Not much money, mind you, but looking back at it, the money I lost on return shipping made up almost the entire difference between regular TC black grips and the Pachmayr models. Unfortunately for both that guy and myself, I was also interested in a "Stainless Steel fluted Pro-Hunter barrel in .223" that he had for sale. I probably would have purchased it, has this first transaction went smoothly. However, after his first fubar, I was skeptical about buying anything from him again. The funny thing is - I offered him $180 for the barrel at one time, and he said he was "firm on $200". It's been a few weeks, and now that same barrel is still on the website, reduced to $185. Had he been more careful with his original sale, I'd probably own that barrel right now, even at the original price because that still was a decent deal.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Texas Transplant]

The other side of the coin.



We sold a Kayak earlier in the year, and delivered it to a mid-way point with the buyers. I told him that there were some accessories that we could not find, and that when we found them we would send them along. They were not part of the 'advertised deal', but when we remembered them, decided to send them.



Once found, they were pretty dirty with some mold, etc. We cleaned them all up, bleached some of the material on the 'cooler' to clean it up, and then boxed them up. I wrote him to tell him that we had found the other things and would send them along. He said great, and that he would reimburse us for the shipping.



Got everything boxed up, sent along, and notified him via email to be expecting it.



Needless to say, we haven't heard from him again. They seemed like a very nice couple, but sometimes people's follow through is just not there.



Tex

 

[TritonGlenn]

Well, I might have a good ending to this. As long as the item was as advertised, I should have it in my hands by tomorrow morning. I got home today and found an "Express Mail" slip on my door - from the gentleman I was speaking about. I guess I had to sign for it, so I can pick it up tomorrow morning after 8am at the post office. I was planning on hunting in the morning initially, but I'm feeling like heck today, so I might sleep in, go pick up the package and hunt in the afternoon if I feel better.

All the best,

Glenn