ebay item, poor packaging, items broken.

lindos90

Hi there, can anyone advise me please.
My OH put a bid on a collection of pottery hedgehog/bear things (sorry dont know the names im not a nic-nac person) on behalf of a friend at work, who wanted them for his girlfriend, anyway, thats not the problem!

He won the items, they turn up today, about twenty little figures, each wrapped in a length of three bits of toilet roll, in a flimsy shoe box. Obviously the majority of them are broken, one has an ear thats broken off which also shows that at one time it has been glued back on!! (the items were described as 'in very good condition')

We have a problem, up to now we have 100% possitive feedback from our buying/selling and I am very concerned that if we complain to the seller about the quality of the packaging they will leave 'revenge negative feedback'
also they may say they didnt break the items, and royal mail did, similarly I doubt i will get far with royal mail as they will blame the packaging.

Has anyone had any similar experiences and advice they can share please?

Thank you!

StaffsSW

We spent ages looking for a blue gallileo thermometer that finally arrived today.

In a Royal Mail plastic bag filled with liquid.

It had been wrapped once in bubble wrap then in brown paper. We haev just emailed pictures of the item to the seller and asked if they will refund, becasue they "should" be in a position to claim back as damaged from the RM.

In both these cases, the RM would probably reject the claim due to insufficient packaging, but it will prove the point to the sellers.

If we get a refund we are not elaving feedback - the seller can learn from their own mistake, if we dont get a refund then I am happy to leave a neg, as it is a separate buying account I have used.

Retalitory negs from shoddy sellers should be worn as a badge of pride!! A factual follow-up normally explains the situation to people viewing your feedback.

Gingernutmeg

stevew8975 wrote: »

We spent ages looking for a blue gallileo thermometer that finally arrived today.

In a Royal Mail plastic bag filled with liquid.

It had been wrapped once in bubble wrap then in brown paper. We haev just emailed pictures of the item to the seller and asked if they will refund, becasue they "should" be in a position to claim back as damaged from the RM.

In both these cases, the RM would probably reject the claim due to insufficient packaging, but it will prove the point to the sellers.

If we get a refund we are not elaving feedback - the seller can learn from their own mistake, if we dont get a refund then I am happy to leave a neg, as it is a separate buying account I have used.

Retalitory negs from shoddy sellers should be worn as a badge of pride!! A factual follow-up normally explains the situation to people viewing your feedback.

I had exactly the same problem just before Christmas ... wonder if we've bought off the same seller lol. The seller initially refused to refund me, despite the fact that all they'd wrapped the thermometer box in was a small sheet of bubble wrap and some brown paper. Finally got a refund when I pointed out that the thermometers are filled with ethanol, which is highly flammable, and Royal Mail would NOT be happy with such a poorly packaged potentially dangerous item going through the system

StaffsSW

This wasn't even in a box!! just bubblewrap and brownpaper!

muppets.

ollyk

lindos90 wrote: »

Hi there, can anyone advise me please.
My OH put a bid on a collection of pottery hedgehog/bear things (sorry dont know the names im not a nic-nac person) on behalf of a friend at work, who wanted them for his girlfriend, anyway, thats not the problem!

He won the items, they turn up today, about twenty little figures, each wrapped in a length of three bits of toilet roll, in a flimsy shoe box. Obviously the majority of them are broken, one has an ear thats broken off which also shows that at one time it has been glued back on!! (the items were described as 'in very good condition')

We have a problem, up to now we have 100% possitive feedback from our buying/selling and I am very concerned that if we complain to the seller about the quality of the packaging they will leave 'revenge negative feedback'
also they may say they didnt break the items, and royal mail did, similarly I doubt i will get far with royal mail as they will blame the packaging.

Has anyone had any similar experiences and advice they can share please?

Thank you!

were there pictures of the actual items on the original listing? Also what is the feedback like of the seller...? Have you got a link?

suckmaster.burstingfoam

lindos90 wrote: »

We have a problem, up to now we have 100% possitive feedback from our buying/selling and I am very concerned that if we complain to the seller about the quality of the packaging they will leave 'revenge negative feedback'
also they may say they didnt break the items, and royal mail did, similarly I doubt i will get far with royal mail as they will blame the packaging.

Has anyone had any similar experiences and advice they can share please?

Thank you!

Most people are fairly reasonable. Write to them politely, inform them of the damage without assigning blame, and perhaps include a (small) photograph showing the damage.

I don't think you should worry unless they refuse you; they might surprise you and take responsibility.

lindos90

ollyk wrote: »

were there pictures of the actual items on the original listing? Also what is the feedback like of the seller...? Have you got a link?

Thanks for your questions, the photo looks genuine, just roughly arranged on a table, so much so that you cant make out all the items in detail, but I can see that the ones we recieved with the most significant damage, do appear intact on the photo.

Their feedback to be fair is 100%, so perhaps I am being silly, they may be just as worried about negative feedback. they have bought/sold 52 items.

Sorry im not tecnical enough to do a link.

I know we need to contact the seller really to get the ball rolling, but not sure what we should be negotiating on. The items cost 20 pounds with 10 pounds postage, it would seem silly to pay another tenner to return them only to get twenty refunded.

Any suggestions about the procedure or refund?

KathrynPenguin

I had this recently, 2 framed pictures packed face to face with 1 layer of bubble wrap over and some brown paper. Postman knocked with this broken rattling package and explained it had arrived in the sorting office like that, he was very apologetic and there was also a Royal Mail label apologising for damage. Clearly they were not packed properly so it was hardly surprising they arrived damaged.

Emailed seller and told them that the package arrived broken, mentioned royal mail label and told them I had pictures of the damaged package & goods. I asked if they could raise a claim with royal mail. I didn't mention I thought they were badly packed. They raised claim and got turned down but refunded me as a goodwill gesture. I left them feedback saying "Good transaction -:-) Royal Mail Battered - refund promptly given :-))" In return I got "Very understanding so sorry the item was ruined by the post A++++++"

Previous item I got that was broken from another seller was one of a few sales he made - I emailed that they had arrived broken and then a couple of days later he emailed saying that all those he had sold had arrived broken so he guessed he didn't package well (sure hadn't!) he refunded and again both left positive feedback.

lindos90

we have just emailed the seller, expressing some of the items were broken, and that we feel the packaging was inadequate, asking them to contact us about it, we were polite but said we were disapointed.....awaiting reply, will keep you all posted about developments, any more advice very welcome!!!!!!!

lindos90

recieved a curt reply from the seller, saying it was the post office that broke them not her! She says she inividually wrapped the items before posting, and wrote 'Fragile' on the box which is all she was required to do.

Yes they were wrapped..... but in tiny bits of toilet paper! and then in a flimsy shoe box, If I try to make a claim via the post office then they will just laugh, The guy that we bought them on behalf of does not want to go to any trouble and says he will pay us and try and mend as many as he can, I am still concerned about about getting negative feedback from the seller, but it feels unfair that she can post things with such little care, keeps all the money and gets away with it.

Any more gems of wisdom folks?

veruccasalt

I definitely would not accept her reply. She needs to refund you the whole amount, including the postage y ou have paid.

You are right that Royal Mail will not refund as the items are so poorly packaged-but it is the sellers hard lesson, not yours.

Tell the seller you will be raising this with ebay and that you expect a full refund.

And dont worry about the possible negative. If it comes, leave a reply under her comments, then leave her a well deserved negative as well.