Bad buying experiances?

[RIP-Felix]

I ordered Final Fantasy IX online. The Game was described as “Used – Very Good”. To me that means the complete game (all 4 discs) with little to no scratches, all artwork and manual included in the original case, unless otherwise notified, which was not the case. However, upon arrival the case was 2 after market 2CD jewel Cases taped together, not the original. There was no instruction booklet. The front and back artwork was obviously folded to fit the after market cases and obscure the contents, which were the most troubling part of this order. I received 1 copy of Disc 1, 2 copies of disc 2, and both disc 3 and 4 were missing. Needless to say the game can't be completed with only half of it! And what Am I supposed to do with a redundant copy of disk 2? I don't see why anyone would want half of one game and part of another; And it appears by the way the artwork was blocking view of the games inside, neither did the person who put it together..."unless [i assume he reasoned] they were hidden from view and misrepresented...Hmmm!" This kind of thinking makes me sick.

I got ripped off! Well, I don't know, the seller had a good rating, so maybe they got ripped off before me and didn't know it before selling it online to me. Still they should have inspected the contents and verified they were selling what they described online. Not to do so would be negligent, so there is no excuse. I can understand an honest mistake and not hold it against them though. I am amenable, if they make it right. So I requested a refund. I should not have to pay for shipping either if there is a return required as I have already paid shipping to get this "hunk of dishonesty" here, and had a negative experience. We'll see...

Anyone had any of your own? I'm sure there are some good bad sotries out there.

[Draco1962]

That sux. I can't say that I have had anything terrible happen, but my ebay experiences have been limited.

[Adultery]

I sell records online and I know mistakes can happen. It sucks when sellers dispute the charge without even trying to address things with me first. I always make it right whenever I can.

Don't be that guy and jump into a dispute unless the seller turns out to be a huge prick... Sometimes an honest mistake is just that.

[DazzleHP]

I sell records online and I know mistakes can happen. It sucks when sellers dispute the charge without even trying to address things with me first. I always make it right whenever I can.

Don't be that guy and jump into a dispute unless the seller turns out to be a huge prick... Sometimes an honest mistake is just that.

While i agree completely with what you say Adultery, you never know if something was an innocent mistake, or just a plain scam. I can see where RIP-Felix is coming from. Bottom line is, if it was a genuine mistake, then the guy will own up through correspondence and offer a refund or replacement. If however you open them channels and the guy continues to act "suspiciously" then you may well have been ripped off. You are well within your right, at that point to claim a refund, and ebay will act to get your money back. You must do what you can to resolve it first though.

[RIP-Felix]

Yup, I'm in the e-mail process and my correspondance was respectfull. I just explained the contents of the package wern't complete or as described and asked for a refund. I've had this happen before and amazon has refunded me immediatly if the seller didn't. They took care of it after that. I've had good luck mostly, but every now and then the above annoyance happens. Luckily I've not been stiffed by both the seller and amazon, so let's hope that trend sticks.

Also, I have a more strongly worded version in case they give me lip. But the first e-mail is written frim a moms ignorant perspective. It's harder to husstle a mom buying a gift for little jimmy. I don't lie, just come off nieve:

"Um, on the back it says there are supposed to be 4 disks and only three were sent. Also there are 2 copies of disc 2, that can't be right can it? In any case disc 3 and 4 are missing. The product was described as used very good, this must be a mistake, so I would like a refund."

[Tom Speirs]

Since ebay made it so sellers cant leave negative feedback a lot of sellers will help if you approach them directly as they don't want it to affect there business.

I am so glad ebay made that change. I used to complain about the issue.

I also like to think at least the majority of people are decent individuals and if they were not ebay wouldn't exist how it does.

[DazzleHP]

Since ebay made it so sellers cant leave negative feedback a lot of sellers will help if you approach them directly as they don't want it to affect there business.

I am so glad ebay made that change. I used to complain about the issue.

I also like to think at least the majority of people are decent individuals and if they were not ebay wouldn't exist how it does.

Exactly, which is why i suggested to open some channels first, before going all Clint Eastwood. People make mistakes and deserve the chance to rectify things

I find it hard to imagine you were ever in that kind of situation though Tom - you're so honorable! Easily done though i spose

EDIT - To explain, i imagine you to be very thorough

[Tom Speirs]

I mostly do very well. Been screwed a few times though like everyone but I don't make the same mistake twice.

[DazzleHP]

Yeah, as GW Bush says: Fool me once, sh-sh-sh-shame, just fool me dammit i dare ya coz of shame n stuff Good call though, we all get fooled at least once. No doubt.

[tthurman]

Yep been there! After years of pretty much no problems too.

Purchased the Dragon's Lair collection on DVD for Daphne, and got a pretty clean set of disks, but they had never been removed correctly, and these shipped with the death grip DVD case claws. Regardless, the inside was shattered on in most cases hanging on by 1/2 of the clear part of the DVD. I got them pretty cheap, and didn't worry with it. A week later another set popped up listed as "excellent", so I grabbed them. DVD's scratched everywhere.

Then there's the XBOX I posted here, I gambled on feedback with it, and lost. More recently the Yamaha speakers I purchased for my pedestal, which probably "were" in great shape before they shipped (we settled on 1/2 refund for those).

I honestly think some people are oblivious to proper packaging techniques, that are they live in dreamland where the shipping companies ship everything on stacks of Charmin.

Others just have a different perception of "very good".

Your case should be interesting, as it seems nobody bothered to verify the contents, before shipping anyway!

[nullPointer]

I recently bought a 32GB Memory Stick Pro Duo MagicGate memory card from eBay for use in my PSP. (I know there are effective alternatives to using Sony's proprietary cards, but if the alternatives aren't MagicGate compatible the transfer speeds aren't even half of what the official hardware would be) Any hoo, I was ordering from China and I knew that I'd be taking my chances as to whether I was getting actual Sony merchandise or counterfeit crap. Turns out that it was the later. My PSP had errors the first two times it attempted to format the card, and when it finally did format, the MagicGate functionality wasn't recognized.

I contacted the seller directly telling him that there was some overwhelming evidence that the card was counterfeit. At first he offered to split the cost with me (not including shipping), but honestly I wasn't having it. I told him that I'd like a full refund and he complied. It really does go to show that most of the time it's a lot easier to deal with the seller directly than it is to try to go through the official channels to seek a refund.

[Adultery]

Man I remember the days of counterfeit psp memory cards... I always just shelled out the extra for genuine ones (had a 1, 2, 4, and 8 GB, my camcorder used them too). The 8 GB one I use now is more than enough (I still break it out all the time when I'm not on the 3DS), and I got San Disk sticks for the kids.

With the amount of time I put into playing with my PSPs (I've had at least one of every model right up to the Go) it was worth spending a little extra for the shiny sticker.

At least when I was huge into that scene counterfeit cards were rampant. Even Amazon had them.

[RIP-Felix]

Update:

The seller responded to my e-mail that night and issued a full refund + the shipping cost to get it to me. They don't want the item back either. So I guess I have some extra copies of FFIX, the first half anyway, taking up space. I went ahead and ordered another copy of the game, lets hope it goes better.

I usually stick to amazon as they have always refunded my order when something was damaged, defective, or not as described. I never give negative feedback until I give the seller a chance to rectify the situation, it's just unfair otherwise. Honest mistakes happen, it's what they do once finding out that matters. I think I've only had to have amazon arbitrate once as the seller did not respond. I will give this seller positive feedback as they quickly and fully resolved the issue, well It would have been nice to have recieved a replacment, but in this case that's not really possable.

[tthurman]

Glad to hear it worked out for you!