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Hiya all
Wanting to know the overall feedback, experience on buying things off eBay that needs shipping from USA to Australia
For me it seems to take ages for eBay sellers to respond to my enquiries especially with regards to whether item is shipped.
Bought the sdcc 2013 metroplex with seller in USA with international shipping option. Won the auction but seller has not responded. Yes I did pay the seller
i get nearly all of my tf's from 1 seller in the usa and he's the most trustworthy of them all but it did take me a little while to actually find 1 like him cause it's pretty much hit and miss with them.i give him alist of my wants and he gets nearly all of them in quickly and always in great condition.so look him up, he's store name is sotherbuys.
It's not much different to buying from anywhere else in terms of the eBay experience. The item takes longer to arrive (it can take anywhere between 1 to 2 weeks on average with First Class or Priority USPS shipping, but I've had items arrive as quickly as 4 days, and as long as 5 weeks, so it varies) and postage is more expenseive, but in terms of seller communication, you should get a reply from them within 24 to 48 hours (keeping in mind the time zone difference) if they are a reputable seller.. and they will always let you know whether the item has been posted or not. Also be aware that items shipped via eBay's Global Shipping Program may incur additional fees at checkout. The other main difference is that they will usually only accept Paypal as a payment method.Quote:
Originally Posted by nexusnixx
I usually give them 3 days to respond. Check their terms and conditions (Description, Postage & payments), too, as sometimes they will state whether there will be a delay for whatever reason. How long has it been?
thanks for the prompt reply: auction closed on the 28 July (3pm their time), did make payment during the day itself. Since then, I have not heard from the seller, sent him/ her a message (via ebay) yesterday morning (29 July our time) but till now I have not heard anything....
having a bad feeling as the first ever auction I won on ebay USA - seller had 2 negative feedback and have not responded to my message for 10 days that I decided to esclate the matter to ebay as "non-performance" on the seller side - No response/ no shipping notice - no action
this will be my 2nd experience with ebay USA - fingers crossed i will not be burnt - coming out USD$600 to date is not funny at this moment...
I'd say give them another day or two. If they have a good feedback score then it should work out fine. With the other seller you mentioned, 2 neg feedback is a big red flag to begin with. :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by nexusnixx
Let us know how it goes and good luck!
It also depends why they've received the negative feedback. I always review their feedback first & determine if it was appropriate. If it's in regards to shipping, i shy away, i have however seen sellers with excellent shipping history with negative feedback -a result of the buyer not reading the details: leaving a negative reply because they got a medium size shirt, when the auction clearly stated it was a small etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Megatron
All the best, i hope it gets sorted for you asap.
this particular seller that i have put a case with ebay has been getting positive feedback for other items that he/she recently acquired at the sdcc 2013 convention, hence i am very puzzled as to why I have not gotten any communication from the seller - I did read and re-read and re-read the description and there is international shipping provided..... i just want the seller to respond to me that is all... anyway it is in the hands of ebay now so fingers crossed, seller will respond as it is a ebay prompt and not a buyer's prompt....
decided to jump onto an alternative seller on ebay and yes did read and re-read the description and international shipping is provided - Global Shipping Program (some sort of 3rd party arrangement by ebay and courier)
So i am really puzzled as to why ebay sellers are not responsive on their communication at all....
fingers crossed :cool:
how do you search ebay for store names?
If you think there something funny...put a dispute straight away so all teh email get logged in your favour and then you should get your money back easy ..Quote:
Originally Posted by nexusnixx
It in the advance search menu on the right of the search button ...Quote:
Originally Posted by Kapryiath
To clarify, I was going by nexusnixx's description, that he "had 2 neg feedback" and assumed that he meant 2 neg feedback only, not 2 neg feedback amongst 100+ positives. If the latter was the case, of course I would take all feedback into consideration.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sinnertwin
On your main search page or Summary page, click on "Advanced" to the left of the big blue Search button, at the top right hand side of your page.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kapryiath
Look for the Stores heading on the left hand side menu under "Advanced Search".
Click on Find Stores.
update:
2nd ebay auction for the SDCC 2013 Metroplex seller has reverted to me and he/ she will be posting out the item.... so its fingers crossed for the long journey here to Perth, Australia
1st ebay auction for SDCC 2013 Metroplex - issue has been escalated to a dispute claim and ebay will only look at it on the 6 August for seller to respond... if not... hopefully the money will be refunded with ease...
I've been buying a bit on eBay as of late. Normally I only buy from sellers with thousands of positive feedbacks left but I have bought from a couple of newer sellers.
The established big guys are normally prompt to post, give tracking numbers and say to let them know if there are any problems. The little guys seem to take their time posting, don't always give tracking and I never hear anything from them. On top of that I had a guy over charge me on postage by 50%.
I think of eBay as a minefield but if you stick to the big sellers with 99% or better positive feedback you minimize the risk.
Update
2nd seller has posted the item and provided the tracking number.
1st seller has not responded to eBay claim yet and given 5 August to revert if not claim will be refunded to me. Which is good as usd has strengthen against aud so might get more back.
Update
1st seller never responded to eBay enquiry and eBay had refunded the money after 10 calendar days from the date of claim being escalated to a dispute.
Left a very negative feedback on the seller.
Well at least you got your money back man.... it so annoying when they do that .. i dont know how they think they can get away with it..?Quote:
Originally Posted by nexusnixx
Yeah I am puzzled as to why people do it on eBay as the protection policy on it is really strict. Oh well lets move on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lancalot
Glad you got your money back nexusnixx :)
My last couple of ebay experiences (as a whole) from the US have not been so good and I'll clarify that it has not been anything to do with the sellers so much (the last one partially but I'll get to that below) as they have communicated quickly with questions and tracking numbers and sent the items in a reasonable amount of time etc. It's more about the time to arrive and condition of the item when it arrives (maybe I should be pointing the finger more at USPS than ebay :p )
I had purchased a TF of a US ebay seller a few months ago and it took just over a month to get here instead of the usual 2-2 1/2 weeks (priority mail). The seller informed me that he had found out from USPS (apparently after getting very angry at the phone operator and getting to speak to the manager :rolleyes: ) that it had gone via Canada before eventually finding its way back to Aus.
My most recent US ebay purchase was an SDCC epic conclusion pack. It only took about two weeks to get her but did the grand tour of the US prior (it started in LA went to Cincinnati, hopped around in that area for a while then back to Oakland CA (switched from USPS to fed ex along the way) stopped over in Honolulu before finally getting to me here...:eek:
Finally my question for you guys....
Should I leave negative feedback to the seller for the SDCC figure set or Neutral at the very least??
The reason is this...yes the seller had great communication and sent the item quickly but he only wrapped the box in large scale bubble wrap then modified another box to fit snugly around the SDCC box leaving no room for movement (shock absorption etc) also meaning any damage done to the outside box was also incurred to the inside box resulting in the beautiful artwork on the front of the SDCC box looking like a piece of corrugated iron :mad: The toys inside were not damaged thank god...Oh and by the way the seller did write on the outside box in marker pen "fragile please do not crush" with a big smiley face which IMO just made it a bigger target :mad:
So do I do a Jim Carey and "bend over and take it up the tailpipe" or ask for a partial refund or just leave some sort of negative feedback?? What would you guys do??
Message the seller first and see if they'll come to a compromise. It's pretty unfair to leave negative feedback for someone who held up their end of the bargain, even if the packing was less than iron clad.
I often leave a message with the paypal transaction warning them that Australia Post are a bit rough and please allow for some extra padding, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ravagecat
hmmmmm... i will seek via messaging the seller first on possible refunds rather than putting down the ratings (cannot be changed once it is made - and it might end up as a slug flight).... message the seller and see whether he/she is agreeable to a partial refund (re: shipping cost)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ravagecat
Taking a look at from the seller point of view , He actually did everything right , unless you stated to him to pack it extra carefully . The sdcc box is really big so it would have been very hard to get a box that matches the same dimension. He actually wrap it in bubble wrap and sent the item to you .Quote:
Originally Posted by Ravagecat
If it's the Titan Guardians figure set, they were all pretty much hammered when they hit the floor at SDCC. There's not many in great condition.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ravagecat
Thanks for all your comments guys...I'm glad you are all of the opinion of communicating with the seller first :)
I really hate angry ebayers (and there seems to be a lot out there) that just slam people with negative feedback because something is not exactly as the imagined or expected when a solution or compromise could of been accomplished by simply contacting the seller first :rolleyes:
But I believe we can all agree Australia post handling of parcel is just amazing.
The Ebay "Global Shipping Program" thingy is annoying, but was probably a result of people scamming ebay or buyers scamming sellers with claims of items not arriving.
If a listing is using it (and if it isn't obvious), it won't let you use a Post-box address, so ebay won't let you go through Checkout until you change your address (which isn't clear as to why it is refusing your address, despite the original listing saying it ships to Australia).
Then when the customer service person suggested changing my address from a POBox address, the payment went through, but most of the shipping went to an unknown third party. Ordinarily that would be fair, because at least you know that the seller isn't shafting you on the shipping quote... but in this instance of mine, I won the item for $2 and wanted him to send it by a cheaper shipping option (the GSP demanded $44) which would have only been about $20 by USPS for trackable shipping (to still cover us both for paypal/ebay)... leaving him with an extra $20.
I know it isn't necessary, and I'd still be paying the same total amount, but I just felt bad for the seller getting stuck with just $2 for a complete boxed Built to Rule set.
And I know it is part of the risk of ebay auctions, but I don't see why a $2 item needs $44 in postage... when some of that can be kept by the seller, and I still pay less than my maximum anyway.
agree, expensive shipping :(
Well so far items are arriving at my parcel locker. all my ebay items are going to it without issues.
The posting options on ebay isn't very accurate, I believe ebay.com had more flexibility in adding insurance, registered, ship to what places exclude whatever......
Some of my items overseas did not even reach to Australia Post system but it arrived.
I really think that Ebay should instate a small listing fee, as the current system of "free until it sells" is driving up prices, by people who have no incentive to drop them if they don't need the money.
I know it is intentional by ebay to encourage people to pad out ebay with more listings, but more and more of the collectable stuff is not selling, and fewer people are having low-starting auctions (or auctions at all) to sell at what the market is willing to pay. In the past when Ebay had listing fees, the Buy-It-Now option was rarely used, as it was something you maybe used once if you thought there was enough demand for it to be snapped up at an excessive price (otherwise you were stuck with a hefty listing fee and no sale). Now it seems people just sit on items for years, sometimes never selling (or even willing to discount). One item I've had on my watch list for 3 years now (yes, since 2010), is a $50 SCF figure. It's obviously not worth $50 or else someone would have bought it by now... but since there is no incentive to discount (no ebay fees to force a quicker sale to make a profit), it's just going to keep sitting there. (and I've asked if they would drop the price after all this time... but no)
This dealer was one I was looking through because they advertised on TFW recently, and you'll see on that link (if you are member of ebay) the completed listings... and less than 10% sold (25 of their recent 277 TFs items). I then clicked on some of their relisted items, and they were all the same price. So even though no one bought or bid on 91% of their items because they over-valued them (compared to what the market obviously values them at), there is no incentive to list them at "market value" because it is free until they eventually sell.
Perhaps they should have a tiny fee for repeat listings, and then their regular % fee if it sells. That way, it remains free for a one-off listing for the seller to see if there is interest at their preferred price, and then they have a choice to relist it for a fee that will be negligible at first, but will start adding up if they don't start turning over their stock.
Because as much as ebay gets people listing lots of stuff for free, if they don't have an incentive to turn over that stock, the listings will plateau as most will only have the time to manage a certain number of listings at one time.
And people will be less likely looking if bargains are harder to find (especially if the 10% of items that are selling to rich or desperate buyers, encourages other sellers to bump up their prices believing it to be "market value" - one random sale to a rich or desperate collector doesn't make "market value", the recent average auction win is what the "market" is willing to pay).
It's making it harder to buy rarer items if sellers keep sitting on them (including collectable stores who watch ebay listings), instead of auctioning them off to get what they are actually worth.
It'd be like a flea market that wants to increase its business by starting to only charge people if they sell stuff. Sure, there would be a surge of sellers, but they would be less willing to discount if they don't have a financial penalty for being there now (minimum sales don't need to be as high to cover their costs of being there). And sure, they would keep coming back each week with their hefty prices, but they will only be able to bring in a certain amount of stuff each time (meaning, the flea market reaches a certain capacity eventually)... and buyers are less likely to go back if there is less of a chance for a bargain.
Ebay used to be like a flea market - full of bargains and items that needed to sell. Now it is full of greedy people, teasing us with stuff we can never afford, that they don't need to sell.
(it probably also encourages Knock-Offs, seeing how much they could sell a fake for, or catering for the majority of people who can no longer afford the original)
I used to look upon Ebay as first source to get cheap deals for toys, now I know this would be my last resort for all new toys. Things have definitely changed.
Most current toys on ebay are 20% mark up as they consider the commission they have to pay ebay as well.
Agree 100% people just putting up their favourite pieces at stupid prices and just hitting resist every 30 days. Pretty much just waiting for some inexperienced collector to over pay for stuffQuote:
Originally Posted by griffin