Jordan’s counselor suggested a book for him at our last appointment. She actually suggested one for him and one for me. Jordan’s was The Young Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success
I went to Half.Com yesterday and found both of them for a really really good price. I also grabbed Gigi, God’s Little Princess
Let me preface this with, I Ebay a lot of smaller things that I either can’t get locally for a good price or that I can’t find on Etsy, but I don’t Ebay it nearly as much as I used to. My feedback rating is only 150 since 2003. This seller noted it in our back and forths. Yes, that’s true, but you should see my feedback rating on my account my ex-husband and I had used since 1999. Before Ebay lost the feeling of being one big garage sale and started being full of greedy people looking to make a fast buck on cheap crap. You have to dig deep over there to find anything decent anymore. He got our account in the divorce because well, I didn’t want his last name as my user ID, but that one had well over 1000 positive feedbacks in a couple of years. I miss fun Ebay where you feel like you are on a treasure hunt.
Ok, so back to Half.Com (a part of the Ebay corporation, hence me bringing up feedback ratings). I got an email this morning from the seller of Jordan’s book that they had canceled my order and issued a refund because gee, it turns out they don’t have that in stock. Ok, if you are listing items on either of those sites, should you not have it in stock? Just saying.
You picked ***** for your recent Half.com order, and unfortunately, when we checked our inventory, we found that your item was no longer available. As a result, we had to cancel your order. We’re extremely sorry for the inconvenience!
So, I left neutral feedback.
Item refunded. Please don’t list items for sale that you don’t have available.
Not negative – neutral.
I gave them 1 star for item description because the item wasn’t as described, the item didn’t exist. But, I did give them 5 stars for communication (they got back to me the next day) and 5 stars for shipping (they refunded today). I think people should know that they may or may not have this item in stock that they are wanting to buy.
Oh then the emails start to flow.
Them –
Re your feedback "please don’t list things you
don’t have…." It happens, keep shopping online
and it will happen more often. People buy things
on one site before the system catches up on
another site. Or, humans make mistakes. None of
it calls for you to be nasty. Please shop
elsewhere next time.
It’s not like this was a top 10 best seller I was looking at. It’s not like all of us standing in line to get our greedy little fingers on a copy of New Moon before it sells out. Come on now. The system needs to catch up on that book? Besides that, I wasn’t nasty. I told the truth. I would want to know that about a seller before I buy something from them. It’s not the $$. It’s the fact that Jordan has been looking forward to this book and I told him that I found it and it was on it’s way.
I wasn’t being nasty. Being nasty would have been to leave negative feedback, which I thought about, not neutral, as I did because I got a refund. When I go to Ebay or half, I expect the seller to have items listed that they actually HAVE for sale. I shop online quite a bit and never have I paid for an item that was listed as for sale and then told, oh sorry, that item, the one your son was really excited that you found for him, we lied we don’t really have it. If an item is out of stock, you keep track of inventory and mark it as such. That is how a responsible person practices business. I’m sorry if you don’t keep track of your inventory until after the sale, which results in upset customers. Even Wal-Mart who carries a way larger inventory than you do is able to keep track of their stock and mark things out of stock.
Don’t worry, I had no intention of purchasing from you again.
I signed off and got more angry. Maybe it’s the fact that I stayed up until 4:30 in the morning with Pato watching New Moon, or maybe it’s just I’m really tired of some of the sellers on Ebay. See paragraph three for my reasons why.
So I added to it.
RE: your keep shopping online comment, I had to expand. I’ve been an Ebay member since 2003. Not once has this ever happened before. I’ve been a member since 1999, when my ex-husband and I had a joint Ebay user name – again, never happened. Amazing that in 11 years of shopping online it’s never happened, but I should come to expect it now.
Their response –
From your statements you obviously DON’T shop
online very often because oversells are a part of
life online. Further I’ve seen online price
mistakes from Wal-Mart, Dell, and Lenovo where
they had to cancell ALL the orders from customers.
Now these things don’t happen often but do happen,
be it Dell, Lenovo, Wal Mart, or whomever.
A feedback score of 150 doesn’t bode well for
suggesting you know what you’re talking about
because you don’t. Neutral feedback is negative
feedback proving once again you have no clue as to
what you’re talking about. Disappointments are a
part of life, the bigger people don’t crap on
others just because of a little disappointment in
their own life…particularly over a cheap
discounted book.
My response -
Just because I don’t shop on Ebay all the time doesn’t mean I don’t shop online very much. I actually stopped using ebay so much because it has lost it’s personal touch. It’s not the person at home any more trying to make extra money. The whole reason I was attracted to Ebay in the beginning. Half.com was a different matter. I do most of my shopping on Etsy anymore, so I can support the smaller sellers. I only turn to Ebay and half.com if I can’t find an item on Etsy – such as this book that my son has been asking for and was extremely excited that I found for him. Cheap or not, he was happy. You changed that.
I’m not going to argue about this anymore. I left neutral feedback because people need to be warned that you are irresponsible with what you say you have to sell. Responsible in the fact that you gave a refund right afterwards. My feedback completely relates the truth of what happened. Don’t get your hopes up that this seller has this item in stock. You might get it or you might not.
I’m done arguing with you about it. You were irresponsible in your practices, offering to sell something that you in fact did not have in stock. People don’t expect that on Ebay or Half.com. We expect people to ONLY list what they have. The last time one of the big companies had to cancel an order for all their customers – I don’t remember which one, Twitter, message boards, and blogs were afire with it. It was over Christmas. Wasn’t great advertising for them either.
So, who is right here? When I’ve sold stuff on Ebay I have in my hand what I am selling. I know it’s condition and I know if it’s sold. I’m assuming Half is the same way, sellers there just don’t want to deal with the auction part of it, right? I could have been evil and left negative feedback, but I don’t give negative feedback for hardly anything (ie: If the product never arrives, I never see it, never receive a response, etc – that get’s negative).
I’m not out to destroy the seller which is why I’m not putting their user ID in this post. I just want to know who is right? Although, if they send me one more email telling me I’m clueless, I may change my mind. Ebay and Half.com should be different. Maybe I just expect the old practices where, like I said, people have the items in their hand, then they sell it.
I’m trying to figure out how with a feedback rating of 150 I became one of the “bigger” people since I “have no clue” what I’m talking about.
I was all going to post about getting New Moon during a blizzard at midnight last night and the woman I ticked off at McDonald’s today (I’m 0 for 2 if you’re keeping track of me making people happy today), but I’m just blah now. It’s taken me all day to post a blog post today period. My kids have had an I need mommy day all day and what could I do but comply?
Have a great – er – um, night. 
Popularity: 2% [?]
