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Untitled
Welcome to
the home of
THE
FROLICKING FLAMINGO!
(The
FF apologizes in advance to any mustelidae who may be insulted by
this page. Thank you.)
The
Frolicking Flamingo is sad to announce that she will not be listing
any items for sale in the near future. With its new policy of
prohibiting negative feedback for buyers, it has given carte blanche
to dishonest, unscrupulous, weaselly buyers to refuse to pay for
items they won in bidding, make ridiculous demands of sellers, and to
give negatives to sellers for no other reason than they can.
THIS
SITUATION IS INTOLERABLE.
Just
as buyers used feedback as a tool to weed out sellers not meeting
their standards, so sellers used it to gauge their buyers'
desireability. By taking this ability away from one side of the
buying process (sellers can't warn others about bad buyers), Sellers
are now (metaphorically speaking) having to show up at a gunfight
with a knife, and the buyers got the gun.
This
is not fair to anyone. And dammit, I'm no good with a knife.
But
that's okay. I can deal with this.
BUYERS
-- Sorry, but since Ebay and Paypal don't want to protect me as a
seller, I must do it myself. I considered various methods to protect
myself, and I have come to the conclusion that it's just not worth
the effort on my part and annoyance they would bring to the honest
buyers, and eBay will not get the message that sellers are unhappy
unless sellers start refusing to list their wares. As I am doing.
Simply put, the only way to guarantee not being burned by
unscrupulous buyers is to not sell at all. I do not like this one
bit, but it is what it is. Once I can figure out how to protect us
both, I'll list goodies again.
SELLERS
-- my own feedback as a buyer stands for itself. You don't have to do
much to earn a positive from me. It is very easy to make me happy.
Ship my item in a timely fashion, make sure it arrives undamaged, and
solve problems quickly, and life will be good.
THINGS
I WILL NEVER DO TO A SELLER:
I
will never confront a seller with a case of 'buyer's remorse'. I try
to do my research, and if I don't like what I bought, I will work
within the seller's return parameters, if there are any. I understand
a 'no return' policy is just that - so the unlucky item will either
be donated or listed for sale elsewhere. You shouldn't pay because I
got stupid. And you won't.
I
will never neg a seller for recycling packing boxes, using packing
peanuts, or using a mile of tape to seal a 6x6x6 box (I cussed and
said terrible things about the seller's parentage, then decided a
mummified box with intact insides is better than an easily opened box
with broken pieces!). I won't neg a seller for bad packing - because
if the packing is bad enough that the item is damaged, that seller
has bigger problems to deal with. (See below) If the packing is bad,
but the item is okay, then I got what I paid for, no harm, no foul,
no neg.
I
will never try to re-negotiate a price - because I bid what I was
willing to pay, and no one held a gun to my head to force me to go
higher than I wanted! My bid is my word, and my word is my bond. EXCEPTION
- I am not likely to accept a Second Chance Offer - because they
are usually asking what my highest bid was before being outbid.
Because of the high incidence of shill bidding, I will not accept an
SCO for greater than my bid immediately before the bidding war broke
out. Relist the item, I'll probably bid on it. (I'll know if it got
relisted - I leave watched/lost items on my page for quite a while,
until I either find one, or it falls off on its own.)
I
will not try to get a seller to change their payment method - I
usually only buy Paypal-listed items, but if I want an item badly
enough, then I should be willing to trot over to the post awful and
get a money order!
I
will not freak out if an item takes a few days to get here. Priority
*tries* for 3 days, but that isn't guaranteed. I may ask you at ten
days if I should be concerned. I may hold off until day 14. I will
not badger you with back-to-back-to-back emails - but I do have a
limit as to how many I will let go unanswered before I take action.
Unlike
the weasels, I consider my bid to be binding to all the terms of
your listing. You can safely bet I have read your ENTIRE listing, and
either thought, 'okay, I can deal with this', or 'who the hell are
they kidding?' and chose to bid or not. No one forces me to bid.
Unlike
another variety of weasel, I'm not going to bid on an item if you
don't ship to the US. Unlike yet another variety of weasel, I am not
only literate, but capable of handling bidding without hand holding
or training wheels.
In
other words, I read the rules and I understand that they apply to
me. ALL OF THEM.
That
was the pleasant stuff. Now, the painful part:
WHEN
BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD AUCTIONS:
Sometimes,
things go wrong. USPS ate it, or broke it, or the wrong one got
sent. I understand that. What is important is what happens *after*
things go bad. If any problems do arise, and you deal with it quickly
and painlessly, we've got no problem. If you insist on the buyer
paying for insurance, I've no problem with it, but keep in mind that
postal insurance is not intended to protect the recipient - it
protects the seller. Thus, I expect the seller to refund me *at once,
in full* for lost, missing or damaged items, and file for the refund
with your post office. That's how it is supposed to work. Remember,
legally, the item is still yours until it is in my hands.
THREE
FAST WAYS TO EARN A NEGATIVE:
PART
1 - LIE TO ME - Please don't tell me an item is in stock if it's
not. Don't tell me you've shipped it if you haven't. Don't tell me
you don't use a drop-shipper when you do. Just don't lie to me. If I
catch it, and I usually do, it will be reflected in your feedback.
NEGatively. Follow?
PART
2 - SWAP SHIPPING - if I have paid for Priority, and it arrives
Parcel Post or any other lesser method, you've got a neg. Period. No
recourse, no chance to make it right. The only way to make thievery
right is to not do it in the first place, and as far as I am
concerned, if you are paid to ship a certain way, and choose a less
expensive way, you have stolen from me. A good seller eats it when
they screw up shipping quotes, as I have done plenty. Take a chance,
and ASK ME if we can at least split the difference BEFORE you ship -
I am a reasonable woman. (HINT - to prevent this happening, it's a
good idea to pre-pack and weigh and measure the package and get a
price using the USPS website. My misquotes dropped dramatically when
I started doing that!) EXCEPTION - DHL, FEDEX, etc are acceptable
substitutes for Priority Mail.
PART
3 - IF I HAVE TO ESCALATE A DISPUTE TO A CLAIM, you'll get a
negative. Filing a dispute is my warning to you to make things right
- and soonest is best. If the item didn't arrive, and you won't
refund, but want me to file the postal claim, I'll open a dispute -
because postal insurance is intended to protect the shipper, not
the recipient. You refund my money at once, you file the
paperwork, you cash the check. Same thing if it arrives broken. If
the item arrives and does not match the photos in the listing, and
you refuse to make it right, I will file a dispute. If I get no
response after several emails regarding where an item is, I'll file a
dispute. What happens after that is entirely up to the seller. If I
have to elevate a dispute to a claim to get my money justifiably
refunded, I'll do it.
These
are not the ONLY ways a seller will get a negative from me, but they
are the fastest ways.
AS
FOR THOSE STUPID STARS....
Ebay
treats anything less than a five as BAD - do not let thim make you
think otherwise. And they have no business asking buyers to rate
sellers on something they have no control over - shipping costs, and
shipping time. Once an item is in the shipper's hands, the seller has
lost control over it. That said - I will not hesitate to give low
shipping stars for items that do not ship within 10 days. (If I paid
for something on the 15th, the postage date better not be past the
25th!) I will not hesitate to ding communications stars if a buyer
can't be bothered to answer emails, or decides to get pissy with me.
Make me happy, five stars across the board. Displease me - and your
starry starry night will be pretty dark and dismal.
Oh,
yeah, one more thing - if Paypal decides against me, I'll file a
chargeback with my credit card company. In case you weren't aware,
Paypal will hit YOU with a $10 charge if this happens.
I
am not happy about any of this. I don't like leaving negs or
neutrals. They give me heartburn.
GOT
QUESTIONS ABOUT NEGATIVES OR NEUTRALS I HAVE LEFT? CONTACT ME VIA
EBAY'S MESSAGE CENTER AND ASK!
(don't
know how to find it? Click on my feedback number, and over to the
right will be a short list of options, one of which will be Contact
Member. Click on that, and ask away!)
This
used to be a fun place, both to buy and to sell. It can't be
considered fun when sellers feel like they have to go around watching
their backs, and buyers risk getting called frauds over honest mistakes.
DISHONOR
ROLE
Well,
sometimes it happens - I have to file a claim. And sometimes, the
miscreant buyer/seller bites back, thinking I won't or can't return
the favor. So, here are nutshell versions of the negs I have left and
the circumstances (if I can remember them!) I will not put the
sellers' names here - you can find them by scrolling for the date.
More details are available if you ask me.
|
date |
FB left |
I was the... |
details
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2/10/2009 |
negative |
buyer |
Astounding.
Fraud over a $17 T-shirt? Let's see - I routinely pay three digits
for handbags - why would I want to defraud someone over a t-shirt?
This would be funny, if it wasn't so pathetic. When the item failed
to arrive in two weeks, I contacted the seller. This was apparently
offensive, and he got his shorts in a knot over it. Told me it had
shipped. Still no shirt after three weeks. I contacted him again,
insisting he give me an explanation or a tracking number. He decided
behavioral blackmail was a good plan, and fired back that I was rude,
and to "Try again, and I'll be happy to help you." That was
the wrong answer, and what led to a dispute being filed with Paypal.
His response to that led to immediate escalation. So sorry, but
behavioral blackmail is going to get a dispute filed, and if you have
my money and I don't have the item, it'll get you a dispute *and* a
claim. When the package was given to me (having been misdirected), I
*immediately* closed the dispute and claim. He got one star each for
shipping and communication, and five stars for the remaining
categories. This seller is a horse's butt, and, with a 98% feedback,
should be avoided at all costs. His feedback speaks volumes about his
business ethics. (I am still wondering why, if I was trying to
commit fraud, I would have insisted he give me a tracking number. It
boggles the mind.) |
|
6/17/2008 |
negative |
buyer |
I bid on a
terrific panther television lamp. It arrived broken, due to poor
packing on the part of the seller. Seller chose to drag her feet on
refunding, and refused to refund the full amount of the sale, so I
filed a dispute and escalated it to a claim. CLICK
HERE to view photos. Seller believes I filed a fraudulent claim.
Seller believes I can't bite back. Seller is sadly mistaken. |
|
1/12/2008 |
negative |
buyer |
This was
strange - I bid on, won, and paid for an Atari. Communication was
great, but seller stalled on shipping until he suddenly just
*vanished* - no communication, no Atari, no nothing. Filed claim, got
refund. Never found out what became of seller. |
|
6/23/2006 |
negative |
buyer |
This fellow is
a drop-shipper, and did not tell people that in the listing at that
time. Very difficult to deal with, shipping time was NOT clearly
stated - I simply avoid him like rabies, as I try to avoid ALL drop-shippers. |
|
8/23/03 |
negative |
buyer |
I cannot
remember what I bought (5 years ago!), but it says it all that it was
the postage thing that earned the seller the neg. |
|
5/3/2001 |
neutral |
buyer |
Again, item
forgotten, but another of my pet peeves - poor communication |
(content
edited 17 February 2009)
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