In my weekly cyber stalking of Tonya's Games, I ran across this unsatisfiedcustomer. If this is true (there is always going to be doubts I realize) it is pretty hilarious. It does seem to resemble our girls hilarious recent rants. It was on a guy's About Me page on Ebay. In Tonya's defense, the guy is a
newbie and pretty much any negative I've ever received has been a
newbie. But still, geez! I've highlighted a couple of classic lines. I predict if things continue as is, 2006 will be the year of total meltdown for Tonya's Games:
a bad experience with tonyas-games Tonyas-games is a very nasty seller and I thought I would take this opportunity in my About Me page to explain exactly how vindictive, dishonest, and threatening this "nice person" can be.
The bottom line is that she charged $12.30 for shipping but only spent $3.50 to mail it. I realize that's actually pretty normal on ebay, but on top of that, she waited 8 days to mail the item which took a total of 19 days to arrive via media mail. Throughout the process, I'd attempted to email her and finally had to call her (13 days after paying) to learn the status of the package.
I thought I was being very polite with my complaint, please read the responses for yourselves.
My first email:
Hi,
I received my package today and was somewhat disappointed. The books arrived in fine condition, so there was no problem with that.
However it seems that I was overcharged for shipping by almost four times the actual amount you paid, which (while really not very nice) wouldn't be so bad if my package wasn't intentionally delayed by over a week before it was given to
usps. I tried emailing you several times to ask for a status and never got a response until I actually called you (over 9 days after my first email was sent).
I plan on leaving the following feedback for our transaction (or whatever will fit in 80 chars):
"I paypaled immediately. was charged $12.30 shipping, actual cost $3.51, package held over a week, slow communication"
I'm not extorting anything. I don't want anything. This is just a courtesy because your profile asks to email you with problems before leaving feedback.
tonyas-games response was:
Hi, thanks for writing.
Glad you got your items.
No, you were not overcharged. I assume you DID read the auction descriptions, and do realize that my cost of postage has almost NOTHING to do with costs of Shipping and HANDLING.
In fact, my cost of LABOR is far higher than the cost of the postage.I paid a lister $1 per item to list. I also paid a packer $1 per auction to pull, pack, affix postage, and mail them to you.
I don't know, off the top of my head, how many items you bought, but lets assume 5 items.
That was $10 in handling fee's to cover my labor. If it was 4 items, then my labor was only $8.
Did your items come in a new box, or in a new envelope? Those are, oddly enough, not free.
Anyway, glad you got your items.
As for your complaint about slow communication, I would point out that my packer, Melissa, was hospitalized with cancer of the uteris, and has since gone on to take several doses of Chemo Therapy - and that I, a college student, got stuck packing and helping to train the new guy for about 40-hours last week, and hte week before, to get caught up.
If you don't care, figure my problems are just excuses, then fine by me - leave whatever feedback you like.
So will I.
Tonya King
It Ain't My First Rodeo, Cowboy.I replied:
Hi,
I see your point, however although the cost was clearly listed in your auction, i'd assumed that i was paying for postage, not for you to pay people because you'd prefer not to mail the package yourself.
I'm sorry your colleague has gotten sick, I wish her a speedy recovery. Cancer is a horrible disease and everyone knows at least one person affected by it.
That said, I see by way of complaints in your other feedback, that this person has been sick for several weeks. As terrible as that is, if I were a seller, I would realize the priority of finding someone else to fill in while she was out, or handle it myself. If you were too overworked to do that (and it sounds like you were getting killed that week) then a partial refund would have been appropriate.
By your "So will I" threat, I will assume you plan on leaving retaliatory feedback. I'm sorry to hear that because I have paid immediately, have been very polite, and I think I have a valid complaint. I'm confident that whoever reads any negative feedback from you about me will agree.
To which she sent:
Wow. You paid, and I notified you within 24 hours of getting your payment. Then, your items were shipped within 72 hours, and you paid for MEDIA MAIL, and you blame ME for the slow delivery?
Please, do not bid on my items any more,
Tonya
(This, of course is a complete fabrication. Please review
USPS tracking # 9102805213907176116395 for evidence).
I replied:
Hi Tonya,
I think you are confused.
I won on 2/2 and paid immediately. I received a timely note that my payment was received.
On 2/8, I received another note that my items would ship "sometime this week". I responded that for the price of shipping ($13 for $3.50 spent) that I would appreciate a quicker shipping. I did not get a response to that.
On 2/14, I followed up and requested a tracking number but got no response.
On 2/16, I sent another email and also called your number and left a voice mail.
Late that night I received a note from you that my package was sent on 2/10 (8 days after auction close, not 72 hours).
Please review any of my email threads to you for confirmation of the above. In any event, there is no need to be no nasty.
Then I received this threatening email:
You keep assuming, and making stupid errors. I don't "prefer" not to ship myself, I run a business. I have employee's. When I sell a book for 1¢ or even $1.99, I don't make a profit enough to cover expenses, and my S&H fee's are clearly defined in my auction, so you had no room to expect ANYthing other than what it clearly said.
You don't get a partial refund when you clearly say "I don't want anything" that kind of thing puts you clearly into the "Too many personal problems for me to fix for you" category of idiot customer.
You bought games, and they are not human kidneys. If you are so impatient that you could not wait for Media mail, you should have opted for priority. Fairly simple.
My real retaliation is when I forward your eBay account name to my webring, where more than 400 eBay game sellers share idiot customer stories, so we can each block the idiots others have found.Then, when dozens, even hundreds, of people block you from bidding on their items, YOU lose out.
Live and learn though, huh?
Now, I will ask you - just this one time - do not email me again. Doing so again will be considered cyberstalking, and will be reported to the laundry list of agencies I have dug up for just that purpose.
Bye,
Tonya