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See? This kind of thing is now happening more frequently with ebay
sellers... both good and bad... who end up stalling for whatever reason... by
not shipping quickly.. or not replying quickly to questions or problem
reports... whatever... the story really doesn't matter because the end result is
that 30 days goes by and the package has still not arrived and the buyer's
option to get his money back easily has expired. Folks, this is
simply NOT acceptable business practice in today's world -- not with the amount
of fraud going on and the kind of delivery options available globally.
Over a year ago I adopted a personal rule which I urge everyone to consider
using:
If I don't have my package within 28 days of making the PayPal or credit
card payment, I'm going ahead and filing a buyer complaint with PayPal or filing
a dispute on the charge with the credit card company. No exceptions. If the
package arrives a few days later, fine, I'll cancel the buyer complaint and tell
the credit card company everything is cool. If the package arrives after I've
received my money back, hey, I'm honest and I will send the seller his money.
But I am simply not going to sit around longer than 30 days and let my ability
to easily get my money back expire. It's just not gonna happen, and I don't care
how long the seller has been in business or how high their feedback rating might
be or even if I've done business with them in the past. There is no good reason
for a seller to take longer than 28 days to get my package to me after I've
paid the invoice. And I'm not buying any sob stories about how "I can't
afford to ship that way" -- in today's world you can't afford not to if you want
to keep your customers and avoid charge-backs. If you need to raise your
shipping rates, then do it and we'll see how your shipping fee competes
with the others who can deliver in 28 days or less (and most sellers manage to
do it in far less, including those operating internationally).
I try to be helpful. If the package hasn't arrived in 14 days, I send a
polite "Hi, there.." to the seller telling them the item has not yet
arrived and asking if they can confirm that they shipped it to ___________
address? I can't tell you how many times I've received a reply to these polite
reminders that say something like: "I shipped your poster last week. You should
have it anytime." ... and then the poster arrives 3 or 4 days later -- with a
postmark indicating it was actually shipped the day *after* I received the
seller's message about how it "shipped last week."
OK, I understand. Stuff happens. I'm a notorious procrastinator myself. But
there has to be a limit -- and PayPal has set it at 30 days so that's what I
have to go with.
Bottom line: 28 days is my waiting limit these days. If that means any
sellers out there want to put me on their blocked bidder's list, please feel
free to do so and save us both a lot of grief.
-- JR
President and CEO, The Poster Curmudgeon, Inc. Our Motto: We paid
for it and we want it.
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