aia wrote:yesterday i found this auction by trollandtoadstore:

http://cgi.ebay.it/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0007447305

i wrote them asking why the object in the picture is not the one described in the auction... furthemore i asked for shipping fees to italy...

this morning i recieved their reply:

after the 5 seconds moment of delusion, i realized that they use the highest rates i've ever seen and they aren't correct at all in showing a 1st/2nd print picture instead of what is effectively in sale (a mere 4th/9th print)!

Stealing someone else's picture for your own auction is unethical.

Deliberately posting a picture of [i]the wrong item, especially and particularly the wrong edition is a frackin' FOUL!

This seller's careful mentionof the print run in the auction text seems to me to show that he knows what he's doing and is being deliberately deceptive.

Protestations of innocence or ignorance from this seller are starting to sound hollow.

Mark   [/i]

This is the text of the email I just sent to this seller:



** expired/removed eBay auction **


    Your attention is directed to the above auction post.

    The decision to use a false picture...and your auction text seems to me to indicate that the writer knows the picture is of an earlier edition...strikes me as unethical.


    Whatever the problem in your business may be, you need to fix it ASAP. You are hemorraging credibility and you are quickly building a negative reputation that will be hard to erase.

I don't think I have displayed any rancor, Frank.

Maybe it seems that way because it is piling on to what others have said.  I guess I need to give him more time to fix things before I pile on again.    

I figured that the problem was fixed after he came here and posted his concern. Since I am not a seller, I guess I don't know how long it takes to repair incorrect listings.  I haven't checked this seller's "items for sale."  Maybe he has a lot of these to correct...?  

You must have great confidence in him to vouch for him so strongly, so I will accept your word on it.

Mark  

Frank,
I have confidence in your judgment, but I've had 2 bad interactions with T&T.  Both of them related to misrepresentation of the items, including inaccurate descriptions over the phone.  They did, however, refund my money.  No big deal, but it was disappointing and inconvenient.

I have bought from them before and got a good deal I thought on the items I picked up (course there was no issue of other printings.)
It seems that the major WebStores seem to use stock photos for any printing (I know NobleKnight does this also and Dragontrove as well) so its always best to ask (heck even a cover doesn't always tell you what printing it is).

ShaneG.

Hi All:
 Jon from Troll & Toad here.  To respond to some concerns raised here

I took down some auctions, but due to the way our software posting works, that got put back up by the computer (who was "fixing" what it saw was an unexpected auction down. NONE of our auctions are put up by human beings, it's all software run).  I went ahead and "turn off" entirely our D&D section, it was the only way to temporarily fix this.  I won't be turning our D&D back on on eBay until the pictures are replaced.

We did have a wrong picture up for a certain version of the monster manual.  It's getting fixed.  C'mon guys, it will be really easy for someone  (my picture employee who knows nothing about D&D) to put up the wrong picture for the 4th - 6th version or whatever of a Manual.  I'm certain there is probably another half dozen or so errors in our future D&D listings where similar mistakes will be made.  But as long as you are kind enough to message me when you see one, they will get fixed.  If someone gets an item that was due to our error, we refund and pay shipping both ways, it's our company's standard policy.

It's going to take 2 employees 1-2 days to go through all 1200+ items we have in our database (for D&D) and fix the pictures.  I'm getting major resistance on getting the job done (from my employees), since that means they have to interrupt their regular work to do this.  I've warned them we can't sell any D&D stuff on eBay until it's all fixed. No sales - so I expect it'll get done early part of next week.

- thx, Jon

p.s. Oh, I forgot.  As promised, I redesigned the legal language, so we're still covered but it sounds much better than before.  You can take a look here at this RPG we just posted recently:


** expired/removed eBay auction **


p.s.s. Our pricing is the "first" time pricing, i.e. we have never gone back over and done a revision.  With all this other stuff to fix, I'd rather get the pictures / descriptions issues taken care of before looking at the pricing.

It's hard to find good trolls nowadays.
You should never grow beyond the point where you have to hire chum for employees. And, I imagine, the trolls probably make less than a one-armed street mime, so I'm sure their motivation level is lower than Maxwell's IQ.
The most successful businessman I've ever known once told me "When you take an employee's money worries away, he will not only perform his best, he'll also be entirely loyal". He had a habit of paying his 18 year old warehouse guys $11 an hour (15 years ago), and you know, he NEVER had any shipping or receiving issues. Ever.

It seems like a clear attempt to defraud the unwarey eBay buyer to me.
Exploiting the fact that once they've paid they're pretty much screwed and you can ship them whatever you like.
It's not exactly rocket science operating a digital camera, and then atleast you would be making an attempt at honesty.
As it stands, your descriptions are as dishonest as they come.

MShipley88 wrote:There have been problems.  The man came here and has said so.  That puts him far ahead of 99% of the sellerss that get discussed here.

Yes, and he is fixing the problem before it grows larger.  Time for a new target.