No Rain, No Rainbows

I've told you about my Spa Music Station in the Truck via Serius XM and how we get a kick out of the Names of some of the Songs.  Well, when all the Crisis with The Man was unfolding, one came on called "No Rain, No Rainbows"... and I thought, how appropriate a reminder.  Then I thought, and how appropriate a great Blog Title Hook too, I'll have to use it!  Not Wasting that one!!!  *LOL and Winks*  

  

I have my first Negative experience on E-Bay too, in all the Years I've never had to leave Negative Feedback for a Seller, but, this could be a first time.  I had ordered my Sun/Moon T-Shirt that I've been wanting and looking for at a good price point forever, paid for it and have been waiting for delivery, it has never showed up.  Well, finally I get an E-Mail telling me the Order was Cancelled becoz the Seller claims I Cancelled it!  NO, I didn't!!!  So, I wanted to get to the bottom of that misinformation.

They claimed I'll get a refund, well, I don't want a refund, I want the Shirt at the Price they had on the Auction of it and I Won!  I'm thinking that Seller puts a lower price than any competitor Selling the same thing, and if the Auction ends and the Bid didn't go high enuf, they retract the Sale and Relist?  That's what I highly suspect happens, coz, they have it back up for Sale, and it's highly suspicious to me, with them claiming they now don't have the Size, but, relisted that Size yet again.  I went ahead and did what E-Bay suggests before leaving Negative Feedback, I contacted the Seller for an explanation.

I told them I never Cancelled my Order and Why would they claim to the Auction site it was the reason for backing out of performing on the Sale and Cancelling my Order?  I then contacted E-Bay to tell them I'd prefer not to leave Negative Feedback, but I will if the Seller doesn't Honor my Purchase, becoz I never Cancelled the Order and the Payment for the item did go thru.  Why would I Pay and then Cancel?  That makes no Sense, you'd Cancel an Order only if you changed your Mind and hadn't yet Paid IMO.  I wouldn't risk NOT getting a Refund and still not have the Item!!!

Anyway, I Ordered the Shirt from a Buy It Now Seller instead who charged more.  But will be likely to Perform and Honor their Sale and not piss off or try to dupe a Buyer by playing Con Games with low Starting Bids they have no intention of Honoring at the end of an Auction.  It's common for some Sellers to start with a Low Opening Bid, to entice Buyers and hopefully a Bidding War, but, unless they have specifically put a Reserve Price in the Auction, they are required to Honor whoever Wins the Auction at the Price they Set and the Seller Won it at.  You can't put a Teaser Price on an Auction and not Honor it.

Buying at a No Reserve item and the the Seller refusing to Sell it to you after you sent payment should Ban the Seller from the Auction site IMO.  Especially if they Lie and claim you Cancelled said Sale to try to weasel out of Honoring the transaction.   When you enter into a Contract, you should Honor it, plain and simple.   Be Wise enuf to set a Reserve or start the Bid at the Minimum you are willing to accept and Sell an Object for.  Don't try to Trick Sellers by Listing it below what you'll actually take and assuming the Bid will go higher, often it does not, but you're still obligated to Sell it to the Highest Bidder who then Pays you for it fairly ad in Good Faith.

LATER: I did get a response from said Seller claiming they already refunded my Money, which I'll check on to ensure they actually did.  They claimed now they Cancelled becoz they only had a Medium, well, the Auction said it was an XXL, which is the Size I wanted and only reason I bid on it... so, don't know what happened to their XXL?  They're based in Cali as a Seller, but the correspondence is in very broken English written similar to how someone Chinese would be speaking English as a 2nd Language.   So, I'm guessing a Foreign Born Seller... or Foreign Seller doing business here via a Cali Identity if they have Stores here and abroad?

As a Buyer, I'm cautious about ordering from Non-American Sellers, since, if I have a problem with the Order, it's been my experience it's easier to handle it from the U.S. based Sellers.   Anyway, if indeed I got my Refund, and now the Seller is claiming in 3-6 Weeks they'll have my Size and I can Order again, I don't want the hassle from a Seller who couldn't and didn't Perform the first time and says my Response time is why they Cancelled without my Permission.

  I didn't have over half a Dozen E-Mails outside of E-Bay until I disputed the problem they claimed happened.   So the various E-Mails were all Dated en mass Yesterday at the same time, June 5th.  But pretending and claiming they were Two Weeks worth of correspondence by the Seller.  The Stories the Seller was telling just weren't lining up so Trust was broken.  If I don't Trust you I won't do Business with you.

 Just before that the Inbox E-Mail from that Seller had Confirmed my Purchase, that it was Paid and the Tracking Number.  So, they're trying to falsely Claim they've spent Two Weeks notifying me of something they didn't and I can prove it, kept all the E-Mails and Dates show they were sent all at once when things got sketchy to where they didn't Perform and Honor the Purchase.

  I don't want to do business with a Seller I don't/can't Trust.  So IF they refunded my Money, I just will flag that Seller as a Cautionary Tale and leave Neutral or No Feedback.  If I didn't receive a Refund, Negative Feedback is forthcoming and I will then petition E-Bay to get my Refund settled.

I've used E-Bay for Years to make Purchases and overall it's been Positive.  Once a long, long time ago I received an item that had not been described accurately, that's all.  It wasn't a particularly Neg purchase as I Resold the item and got Squared financially.  I just felt the Seller of that item was either ignorant about what the piece was and described it based on their faulty knowledge and opinion that wasn't very accurate.  Or, intentionally misled.

  They'd claimed it to be an Old French Religious Icon, but it was Modern and Commonly mass produced in China.   It happens, some Vendors at our Antique Mall think something isn't what it is sometimes and don't err on the side of Caution when describing it on the Price Tag.  If you don't really know, don't oversell it with inaccurate description or false claims of what you THINK it is.

We once had a Vendor get bounced and banned from our Mall becoz she was Selling Costume Jewelry and claiming it was the Real Deal and Customers felt Conned.  She was very Elderly and claimed she had worked for Years in the Jewelry Business.  So, I found it hard to Believe everything she claimed was Real Gold or Silver ended up being POS Costume crap instead. 

 So, like the Mall determined, we felt she was Tricking people and sometimes they Trust the Seller being Honest with them about what they're Buying.   If you say it's a Diamond and Gold Ring, it better NOT be a CZ in GEP or you're misrepresenting your Product.   If it's a Reproduction of something you better say so too. Whether intentional or unintentional, it's not good Business and fraudulent.

Like this Seller, if they didn't have the Size, they should not have it set up so you can finalize a transaction or place a Bid at all on a Size they're out of or never had.   If it's a Retail Seller who has a lot of Stock of an Item, usually when they're out of Stock of a Size or Item, you can't place an Order or a Bid and an Option pops up instead asking if you'd like them to notify you when they get that Size or Item in Stock again?   That didn't happen with this Seller, when I Bid, they claimed they still had XXL in Stock and that's what I chose as the Size and when they notified me I'd Won, I Paid for the item.  

Not at any time did I get an immediate response, Sorry, we're out of Stock.  You don't get notified you're the Successful Bidder, Please Pay for the item Won , Confirmation of payment and a Tracking Number, if they don't have what they're Selling and you allegedly Won.   I even got a Confirmation Number the Seller got Paid and my Tracking Number for the Item generated.  

Which is why I didn't think there even was a problem, except perhaps slow Mailing to receive it.  Thanks for allowing me a convoluted Vent about it... just made me Mad to have to Re-Order via another Seller and pay more, and waste Two Weeks waiting on something that wasn't coming.  I might have thus missed out on another even coming up for Auction at an affordable price point!

Anyway, I did also notify this Seller that I don't have Two Weeks worth of E-Mails from them, all their E-Mails are Dated the same Day, which was only Yesterday.  So that's the first I knew about the problem and their Cancellation.  I also Copied/Pasted what E-Bay had told me was the reason for the Seller Cancelling when I made an inquiry about it, the Seller had told E-Bay that I Cancelled the Order, which, I did not.  I just don't like nor Trust a Liar. 

  Be Honest, if they'd made an Honest mistake and done the Right thing about that, I could have accepted it with a different attitude.  But don't get deep into bullshit territory and not Own your Mistakes and then try to blame the Buyer for your fuck up or Con Game as a Seller.  Anyway, Wells Fargo confirmed the Refund went thru.  So, since I got my Refund, I no longer Care anymore.   I have decided not to leave Feedback at all and just stick with having Positive Feedback on Successful Transactions and not mess with a Negative Feedback Seller at all. 

 Who needs the Drama and a Headache, I don't Care now I got my Money back from a failed transaction they couldn't Honor.  Avoid said Seller and Flag them on a personal Note that they seem shady and suspect.  I still think they just didn't wanna Honor the Purchase at the Winning Price and relisted it in hopes the Bid runs up higher.   Sellers set the price, not the Buyer, so it's a poor Business practice to not Sell something for what you List it at and a Buyer Won and then bought it at.

  Just issuing Refunds doesn't make for a Happy Buyer when they see you've relisted it again at the same low price you wouldn't Sell it at to them or claimed you didn't have in Stock.  I have notified E-Bay so they can determine if they want this Seller on their site or not?  They can investigate the Seller further and see if complaints have been made before or not?   When I get the Shirt from a different good reputable Seller, all is Well as far as I'm concerned, that's all I expect when I close a Sale and Win an Auction.  

I have good Feedback at 100% for being a Buyer and I'd like to keep it that way.  I don't Trust any Seller that can't perform and is trying to blame a Buyer and leave retaliatory Feedback.  Which is why I don't put a lot of Stock on Reviews, becoz some Sellers might be confrontational with Buyers they can't satisfactorily resolve disputes with.   Or some Buyers might be hard to Please even if a Seller tries to resolve a problem. 

 You don't know either Party really so you can't always tell what might have transpired by a Review.  If a lot of Bad Reviews pile up tho', it's a Clue to avoid that Business or that Buyer.  That Seller did have good Ratings and a decent amount of Sales so I assumed they would be okay to Deal with.  Now I just wouldn't try to do Business with them again.

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No Rain... No Rainbows... Dawn... The Bohemian