My unhappy tale of a failed quest
Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 1:09 pm
Hey everyone,
As some of you know, one of the items I've been chasing around forever and a day is the rare LOTR Backgammon set from Noble Collection, which came out years ago, was not produced in great numbers, and has long since vanished, becoming very scarce and e xp ensive in places like eBay.
Well, thanks to the unceasing efforts of Polyphemus and Nerdanel, we came across one that was for sale for a starting bid of 99 cents. Problems were, the seller had a rating or zero, and it was US shipping only. Some of you may have watched this tale unfold a little in the Price is Right thread a few weeks ago, but here is how it all ended, just yesterday in fact.
I was able to contact the seller, a fellow named Gary, who lives in the LA area. He said he was very ine xp erienced with eBay and Paypal and initially resisted all my attempts to get him to a) change his listing to include international shipping, or b) allow Striders_Heir, who happens to be near his area, and generously offered to pick up the game locally and then ship it to me.
After numerous emails and despite multiple reassurances, he was simply too scared of the prospect of someone showing up at his door, even after I suggested that perhaps SH could bid on the item on my behalf, have his sale protected that way, and simply allow him to pick up the item. No matter what I tried, he simply wouldn't overcome his reluctance, the window of opportunity came and went for SH, and I had to drop the matter. Then, he finally agrees to let me bid, saying he would ship it to me regardless, but then when I next check, the auction is suddenly ended, and the game is listed as sold, and for a ridiculously low price.
I contacted him again to ask what happened, and he says he made a mistake, the game sold for way too little (because he didn't know about setting a reserve or not starting auctions at 99 cents,) and that he had contacted the seller about it and issued him a refund.
Fine, I said. Could he please now create a new listing and this time include international shipping so I could buy it? Yes, he says he will try, and does so, puts a buy it now price and includes the shipping in the price because the quote was coming back as way too e xp ensive, so he lists it for free shipping to get around that.
All good. I get the message, and the minute the new listing goes up, I hit Buy it Now, and the deal is done for $500 USD total. Next thing that happens is the Paypal payment notification on the eBay transaction says Processing, something I had never seen before. After a day of waiting and no change, I contact him again to ask what is up, assuming that since he has no e xp erience with Paypal, that he hasn't accepted the funds yet or something was wrong with his account. Sure enough, he says that his eBay email account was not linked to his Paypal account and that he had fixed it. Shortly after that, the payment goes through, all is well. I contact him again, and he assures me that he was in the process of carefully packing the game and going to the post office that day to mail it, then send me the insurance and tracking info.
When no info comes, I contact him the next day and he says that he didn't get around to it, but will soon... and that was the last I ever heard of Gary Simmon.
I give him the benefit of one week, but no shipping notice is forthcoming from eBay in all that time. Those of you that use it know that a seller is required to submit notice of shipping on a transaction, and the buyer receives that as a notification. Well, I got nothing. I sent him a few messages asking what the delay was, and got no response. In my last message I told him that I would have to seek help from eBay and Paypal unless he sent me a tracking number.
Nothing.
Alright then. Heart in my throat at the thought of losing $500 in a fraudulent transaction, I go to Paypal, open up a dispute after having allowed two weeks since the original transaction date to elapse, and carefully relate to them the entire history of the transaction. They tell me that they will attempt to contact the seller to get his side, and hopefully resolve the dispute by getting him to ship the item. I check the status every day and there is no response from Gary. One week passes, and nothing. Then, after waiting the required week, I am allowed to escalate the dispute to a claim. Now I need to wait another 10 days while they try to get a response out of this guy. The 10 days pass, and nothing. Finally, the following day I get a message from Paypal that they have ruled in my favour and are refunding me the money in full. The day after that, my credit card statement showed a credit of $500.
End of story.
Sorry to bore you, but I'm willing to bet that at the very least, Nerdanel and Striders_Heir were wanting to know how this turned out, and to SH, I would like to thank him once again for all his effort in helping me out with this very difficult seller at the beginning. Had this person simply been a little more trustworthy and less paranoid, perhaps today I would be enjoying this collectible. As it is, the quest ends here. As it turns out, the e xp erienced soured me so much on the actual item and how much people want for it than even though there is one on eBay right not for not too inflated of a price, I am staying away from it.
Moral of the story? Not sure if there is one, other than to always be cautious, and do your due dilligence wherever and whenever possible. As for Gary Simmon, I sincerely hope nothing untoward happened to him which caused him to be unable to uphold his end of our transaction, ship the item, or at the very least communicate back to me with some kind of update. If not, then rest assured I will never deal with him again, and I would caution anyone here about any future dealings with eBay member hayden4077.
As some of you know, one of the items I've been chasing around forever and a day is the rare LOTR Backgammon set from Noble Collection, which came out years ago, was not produced in great numbers, and has long since vanished, becoming very scarce and e xp ensive in places like eBay.
Well, thanks to the unceasing efforts of Polyphemus and Nerdanel, we came across one that was for sale for a starting bid of 99 cents. Problems were, the seller had a rating or zero, and it was US shipping only. Some of you may have watched this tale unfold a little in the Price is Right thread a few weeks ago, but here is how it all ended, just yesterday in fact.
I was able to contact the seller, a fellow named Gary, who lives in the LA area. He said he was very ine xp erienced with eBay and Paypal and initially resisted all my attempts to get him to a) change his listing to include international shipping, or b) allow Striders_Heir, who happens to be near his area, and generously offered to pick up the game locally and then ship it to me.
After numerous emails and despite multiple reassurances, he was simply too scared of the prospect of someone showing up at his door, even after I suggested that perhaps SH could bid on the item on my behalf, have his sale protected that way, and simply allow him to pick up the item. No matter what I tried, he simply wouldn't overcome his reluctance, the window of opportunity came and went for SH, and I had to drop the matter. Then, he finally agrees to let me bid, saying he would ship it to me regardless, but then when I next check, the auction is suddenly ended, and the game is listed as sold, and for a ridiculously low price.
I contacted him again to ask what happened, and he says he made a mistake, the game sold for way too little (because he didn't know about setting a reserve or not starting auctions at 99 cents,) and that he had contacted the seller about it and issued him a refund.
Fine, I said. Could he please now create a new listing and this time include international shipping so I could buy it? Yes, he says he will try, and does so, puts a buy it now price and includes the shipping in the price because the quote was coming back as way too e xp ensive, so he lists it for free shipping to get around that.
All good. I get the message, and the minute the new listing goes up, I hit Buy it Now, and the deal is done for $500 USD total. Next thing that happens is the Paypal payment notification on the eBay transaction says Processing, something I had never seen before. After a day of waiting and no change, I contact him again to ask what is up, assuming that since he has no e xp erience with Paypal, that he hasn't accepted the funds yet or something was wrong with his account. Sure enough, he says that his eBay email account was not linked to his Paypal account and that he had fixed it. Shortly after that, the payment goes through, all is well. I contact him again, and he assures me that he was in the process of carefully packing the game and going to the post office that day to mail it, then send me the insurance and tracking info.
When no info comes, I contact him the next day and he says that he didn't get around to it, but will soon... and that was the last I ever heard of Gary Simmon.
I give him the benefit of one week, but no shipping notice is forthcoming from eBay in all that time. Those of you that use it know that a seller is required to submit notice of shipping on a transaction, and the buyer receives that as a notification. Well, I got nothing. I sent him a few messages asking what the delay was, and got no response. In my last message I told him that I would have to seek help from eBay and Paypal unless he sent me a tracking number.
Nothing.
Alright then. Heart in my throat at the thought of losing $500 in a fraudulent transaction, I go to Paypal, open up a dispute after having allowed two weeks since the original transaction date to elapse, and carefully relate to them the entire history of the transaction. They tell me that they will attempt to contact the seller to get his side, and hopefully resolve the dispute by getting him to ship the item. I check the status every day and there is no response from Gary. One week passes, and nothing. Then, after waiting the required week, I am allowed to escalate the dispute to a claim. Now I need to wait another 10 days while they try to get a response out of this guy. The 10 days pass, and nothing. Finally, the following day I get a message from Paypal that they have ruled in my favour and are refunding me the money in full. The day after that, my credit card statement showed a credit of $500.
End of story.
Sorry to bore you, but I'm willing to bet that at the very least, Nerdanel and Striders_Heir were wanting to know how this turned out, and to SH, I would like to thank him once again for all his effort in helping me out with this very difficult seller at the beginning. Had this person simply been a little more trustworthy and less paranoid, perhaps today I would be enjoying this collectible. As it is, the quest ends here. As it turns out, the e xp erienced soured me so much on the actual item and how much people want for it than even though there is one on eBay right not for not too inflated of a price, I am staying away from it.
Moral of the story? Not sure if there is one, other than to always be cautious, and do your due dilligence wherever and whenever possible. As for Gary Simmon, I sincerely hope nothing untoward happened to him which caused him to be unable to uphold his end of our transaction, ship the item, or at the very least communicate back to me with some kind of update. If not, then rest assured I will never deal with him again, and I would caution anyone here about any future dealings with eBay member hayden4077.