E-Bay

I'm a keen fan of on-line auctions; in fact, auctions in general.

Recently I've bought a few items off e-bay, and I thought I'd share one experience with you.

My new van is racked out. The back of the van sports lots of lovely shiney shelving. To help stop all my various bits and pieces getting thrown around, I thought I'd invest in some plastic boxes.

Off to the bay we go. I found just what I was looking for, and bidded away like you do. I wasn't lucky enough to win the items as I was 'sniped' (another pet hate of mine), but after the sale, I was given a 'second chance' (which makes me wonder if it was the seller bidding on his own goods to 'boost' the price). I dutifully paid there and then, and wondered if I was being sensible spending so much money.

Two weeks went by, and despite the fact that I paid the seller straight away, there was no sign of the boxes.

I contacted the seller, who kindly gave me the details of the courier, and told me that they had 'carded' the delivery twice (which was not true). Why he couldn't contact the courier and sort it out for himself is beyond me - in my opinion, it's the responsibility of the seller to ensure the goods get delivered.

Anyway, I contacted the courier on Wednesday, who told me the same lie that delivery had been attempted. When I told them that they were wrong, they suggested that they may have been trying the wrong address, so I gave them an alternative delivery address. "You'll get a delivery on Thursday" they said.

Thursday came and went, and by Friday afternoon I was getting a little cheesed off, so rang them again.

"our fault" they said. "It's still here because the driver forgot it".......

Anyway, to be fair to the courier, they sent the package via Parcel Force (I bet that hurt their pride) for saturday delivery, and at 9am on Saturday it was here.

This whole process took 20 days.

Now comes the rant.....

Whenever you buy anything off e-bay, you have to leave 'feedback'. Options are 'positive', 'neutral' or 'negative'.

Given the fact that I'd had to wait for the delivery for 20 days, and chase the sellers courier myself, I left 'neutral' feedback.

I've just had a message from the seller;

"Hi. Generally they are OK and this is the third different carrier we've used as they all seem to have problems. We're very disappointed you've left neutral feedback as our conduct has never been the problem so it seems somewhat unfair. At least you've eventually got the goods and that should finalise things. It would seem best for all concerned we have no further dealings"


Is it me?

What did they expect?