Shady Dealers

Posts: 2611 · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:45 pm

JohnGaunt wrote:

Mentioning the gaping hole is something a nice seller does; relying on the picture is what a standard seller does; lying is what a shady seller does.

Perfectly summed up.

Mark, this guy tried to get one by you; that needs to be mentioned. Plus, future buyers will thank you when they see the feedback comments and can make more informed decisions about this guy.

Leaving a (deserved) negative does not make anyone a bad person.

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:00 pm

FormCritic wrote:

I haven't ever posted a negative feedback and I don't know if I will now.

This guy has annoyed me with his duplicity.

I should have looked harder at the photograph.

A halfway believable reply would have sufficed. Something like:

"Yeah, the box is damaged, but the contexts are good. The photo was not intentionally misleading, and the damage can be seen if you look."

The seller does offer refunds within seven days and his shipping price was just over $2.....so just a semi-honest shyster reply would have been OK.

Mark , at least lay down a neutral. This dude was deliberately misleading, and then he lied about it later. If nothing else take a hammer to his DSRs....seriously, this is the EXACT reason for the "no retaliating neg feedback" stance of Ebay now.

Mike B.

Posts: 2611 · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:04 pm

Solomon Kane says: "Smite the infidel, oh Critic of Forms!"

Posts: 96 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:11 am

Got a new one.

Ebay handle Ssearp

Wasn't much, just bought an Oriental Adventures from him:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110262729715&s sPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=001

When I got the book in the mail, pages 3-12 had come detached from the spine, and fell onto the floor when I opened the book. No problem, right? Send him an email, right? Three emails, a PayPal dispute and then an open claim later, zero response, zero assistance, zero contact from this asshat.

Block him, block him, don't buy from him, and frankly, don't let him buy any of your stuff. Who knows what else he'll do??

Zen

Posts: 226 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:14 pm

Quote:

Ebay handle Ssearp

Wasn't much, just bought an Oriental Adventures from him:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110262729715&s sPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=001

When I got the book in the mail, pages 3-12 had come detached from the spine, and fell onto the floor when I opened the book. No problem, right? Send him an email, right? Three emails, a PayPal dispute and then an open claim later, zero response, zero assistance, zero contact from this asshat.

Once you hit him with a negative he will reply. You can send these guys daily emails and they won't respond. But give them a negative feedback and that will get their attention. Good luck.

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:16 pm

Zenfinite wrote:

Got a new one.

Ebay handle Ssearp

Wasn't much, just bought an Oriental Adventures from him:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110262729715&s sPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=001

When I got the book in the mail, pages 3-12 had come detached from the spine, and fell onto the floor when I opened the book. No problem, right? Send him an email, right? Three emails, a PayPal dispute and then an open claim later, zero response, zero assistance, zero contact from this asshat.

Block him, block him, don't buy from him, and frankly, don't let him buy any of your stuff. Who knows what else he'll do??

Zen

Irritating as it is to get a damaged book in the mail....almost all of the Oriental Adventures books were factory seconds the moment they shipped. Pages falling out is the norm...not the exception.

The binding on all of the Oriental Adventures was so bad our gaming group used to joke about opening the book facing away from you...to avoid having it go off like a grenade in your face.

It is actually more difficult to find one that does not have the pages falling out.

It is entirely possible that your seller had not opened the book...and opening the book was what made the binding fail.

Seriously.

Posts: 543 · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:24 pm

FormCritic wrote:

Irritating as it is to get a damaged book in the mail....almost all of the Oriental Adventures books were factory seconds the moment they shipped. Pages falling out is the norm...not the exception.

The binding on all of the Oriental Adventures was so bad our gaming group used to joke about opening the book facing away from you...to avoid having it go off like a grenade in your face.

It is actually more difficult to find one that does not have the pages falling out.

It is entirely possible that your seller had not opened the book...and opening the book was what made the binding fail.

Seriously.

Yeah, but the seller should have answered. Thanks for the tip. Ssearp will be blocked.

Posts: 226 · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:02 pm

Quote:

Yeah, but the seller should have answered.

Right. As a buyer I can forgive a lot of things but a lack of communication isn't one of them. There just aren't many legitimate excuses for not answering emails. Nice to know that ebay now allows a buyer to express satisfaction without worrying about retaliation.

Posts: 96 · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:43 pm

napoleonsdad wrote:

Once you hit him with a negative he will reply. You can send these guys daily emails and they won't respond. But give them a negative feedback and that will get their attention. Good luck.

I negged him like crazy. Still no response, not even to the PayPal claim. Well, he has until the 16th to even respond to PayPal, if he doesn't I win by default. I'll keep us posted.

And I agree, you gotta open the book!! Imagine selling modules with markings all in them, and your defense being "Oh, I never opened it to look." lol that wouldn't fly. Though I understand about the poor binding, this sort of selling is reprehensible.

Zen

Posts: 1431 · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:22 pm

This listing clearly shows a scan/picture of the book having a white cover.
Which is exactly what I was bidding for, since I already had a copy of the Black cover version of the same book and I wanted to obtain a copy of the white cover version of this book.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120275410622&_trksi d=p2759.l1259

Not to mention, that I have read (Somewhere?) that the white cover is actually an earlier version than the black cover version.
Not that I care that much, I am sure each version had at least 30,000-40,000 copies sold.

http://www.acaeum.com/forum/about254.html

BUT, I was shipped the Black cover version. I do realise this was not a very expensive purchase, but still.
I would NOT have bid at all if I had known I was going to be sent the black cover version, instead of the White cover version shown in the picture of the E-Bay Auction listing.

The listing does not indicate that the picture is a Stock photo either.

Do I let it go and move on?

BTW: I have dealt with this seller on several occasions and have NEVER had a single problem, so I feel this was an oversight and not intentional.
I also do NOT consider this seller to belong in the category of Shady Dealers either.
I just didn't think this post deserved a whole new thread on its own.

Posts: 226 · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:15 pm

Quote:

Do I let it go and move on?

Could very well be that they had both the black and white covers and just shipped you the wrong one. The packing list would have said to ship a Monstrous Manual TSR 2140 and not say anything about the color of the cover. I could see that happening.

Posts: 1002 · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:03 pm

Aneoth wrote:

This listing clearly shows a scan/picture of the book having a white cover.
The listing does not indicate that the picture is a Stock photo either.

Do I let it go and move on?

BTW: I have dealt with this seller on several occasions and have NEVER had a single problem, so I feel this was an oversight and not intentional.
I also do NOT consider this seller to belong in the category of Shady Dealers either.
I just didn't think this post deserved a whole new thread on its own.

Hmm.. tough one.. Obviosly best practice is a pic of what you are actually selling, if you can't do that (usually because you are lazy) then a stock pic of the item it acceptable as long as there is a very accurate description of the item.. hopefully it is a packing mistake "Monstrous Manual TSR 2140 and not say anything about the color of the cover" .. if it was a orange or green covered Palace of the Silver Princess (which have the same stock code) I'm sure that a few more people would be very upset..

Since you have had dealings with the person before I'd send an email to see if in fact that it was a stock photo or just got sent the wrong item and go from there.. if it was me and I'd had used a stock photo (and the wrong one) I'd probably offer a small $3? credit on next item purchase and say sorry... also get "stock photo" inserted into auction descriptions .. although I can see this prob hurting sales a bit..

Brette:)

Posts: 1001 · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:32 pm

beasterbrook wrote:

Hmm.. tough one.. Obviosly best practice is a pic of what you are actually selling, if you can't do that (usually because you are lazy) then a stock pic of the item it acceptable as long as there is a very accurate description of the item.. hopefully it is a packing mistake

IIRC, the same seller was auctioning potpourri TSR lots a month or two ago. They took numerous pictures for those auctions because of the crazy combinations of items in each lot. I see they have a Battletech auction and a Gamma World auction, both of which have a massive number of pictures.

I imagine they got "lazy" for their one-off lots. Ask them.

Posts: 1431 · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:04 am

beasterbrook wrote:

.. if it was a orange or green covered Palace of the Silver Princess (which have the same stock code) I'm sure that a few more people would be very upset..

Brette:)

LOL, while writing the first post above I thought the same thing.
Glad it was not an Orange B3 I had won and was sent a Green one instead.... Shocked

Yeah, it is no big deal, just a dissapointment to see the one come in the mail that I did NOT bid on. Confused

And yes, I did send them an inquiry asking what had happened.

Posts: 4704 · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:26 am

Post a picture of what you are selling and there can be no problems. Pretty simple.

Posts: 107 · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:45 am

JohnGaunt wrote:

IIRC, the same seller was auctioning potpourri TSR lots a month or two ago. They took numerous pictures for those auctions because of the crazy combinations of items in each lot. I see they have a Battletech auction and a Gamma World auction, both of which have a massive number of pictures.

I imagine they got "lazy" for their one-off lots. Ask them.

I purchased one of their large lots, with a companion box set an immortal box set a B5 and a couple other semi-random items pictured. It was titled as "Companion Set" or something to that effect, however, I bid as if it contained everything pictured (including the immortal set), and won. However, I only received the Companion box set.

My next step was to contact them and ask - they quickly responded and sent the rest of the pictured items. So the moral of the story is these guys may be a bit disorganized, but will make things right. They probably shipped you the wrong one by mistake.

Posts: 1002 · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:00 am

Aneoth wrote:

LOL, while writing the first post above I thought the same thing.
Glad it was not an Orange B3 I had won and was sent a Green one instead.... Shocked

You know I could have lived with bidding on a green one and being sent an orange one.. which I think happened to Matthias if I remember correctly...

Brette:)

Posts: 87 · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:36 am

I need some advice. Not only am I fairly new to The Acaeum, I've also only recently begun buying on Ebay. I recently bought a Dark Tower for $56. The item description said:

Quote:

Judges Guild #88 Dark Tower Dungeons and Dragons module. 72 pages. 1979. Good condition. No pencil marks.

Now, if the date really is 1979, then this is a first printing. I get the module two days ago, and the copyright date (first inside page) is 1980. In fact, it turns out to be a fourth printing.

So I e-mailed the seller. I said that, since the market price difference isn't all that material between a first and fourth printing, and the description was otherwise accurate, I wasn't looking to return it, or even for a refund. But I did want an explanation.

He e-mails me back the next day:

Quote:

I am not sure how I mistook the printing/copyright date. Is there a date on the back cover that I mistook for the actual copyright date?

In the future, I will be more careful about my listings.

So it seems like it may have been a mistake (though I can't find a "1979" anywhere in the module). He's also got only one feedback (positive), so I may assume that he's even newer to the process than me.

Anyway, question is, what do I do for feedback here? I want to be both fair and accurate. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Posts: 1276 · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:03 am

Well, since you said you didn't want a refund, and it doesn't bother you that you paid for a 4th print when you thought you'd get a 1st print... I'd say leave a positive, but give 3 or 4 stars on "item accuracy" explaining there was a minor discrepancy in description (a shame eBay limits you to not a lot of characters.)

Personally, I'd have probably asked for something back, seeing as the description was misleading at best (which is why I always give refunds if I mess up when selling something - not full, necessarily, but something - it is important to mak sure your buyers are happy with what they get, and if not, at least happy with how you treat them because of your mistake) and if he did not, probably leave a neutral.

Posts: 87 · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:27 am

Yeah, I was probably a bit too quick to dismiss a refund. But it really wasn't about the cost, since I thought the price was still fair for a fourth print. I guess I was really hoping for a bit better explanation.

Anyway, this sounds like a good approach. Thanks.