I need to vent, we have been searching for a Chattanooga steam engine for months now and finally found one on Ebay...made purchase and have been waiting for it for 2+ weeks...my son fell in love with this train and talks about it all the time, when is it coming, where is it dad? Every night he tells me he is going to dream about the Chattanooga pulling a box car with a red caboose (he's 4)...Why won't the man mail it to me dad? His birthday is in 2 weeks and he had saved up a portion of the money for this item. Well, this (insert bad name here) won't respond to my (5) emails inquiring about the train, where it is or why he is avoiding us...and he is 10-20 auctions selling train related items all the time. I am filing a claim against him tongiht for my money... fwiw, I loved this hobby as a kid, my son loves it, we have a future model railroader in the making...but someone like this comes along and really puts a dark shadow on the day for my family. It's a sad day when you take advantage of a kid and spoil his dream.Thanks for letting me vent. Buyer beware.
Your frustration is understandable.
1. What is this person's feedback record? In my experience I've found it best to stick with the 100% positive ratings. A person with even a 95% feedback rating that has sold 1,500 items or more can mean that he still may have a number of dissatisfied buyers. Check the record. Sellers with a significant number of negative feedback should raise a red flag.
2. Sometimes sellers have circumstances pop up on them.
Case in point: I won a locomotive shell on ebay back in the winter. After 2 weeks I e-mailed the seller. He responded several days later apologizing. A severe winter wind storm toppled a tree into his house a week earlier but repairs finally started and he was playing catch up with ebay shipments.
3. Since he hasn't responded you're taking the proper steps. Hopefully if this person has a good record he will respond, apologize and send you the the steamer.
We have to remember though that ebay is the world's largest flea market. The Caveat Emptor rule especially applies: Let the buyer beware.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
I used to frequent ebay for all collectible hunting. But I was burned twice as a buyer , and three times as a seller. I haven't been back there since. That was about 3 years ago.
If you patiently wait and give someone the benifit of the doubt, and then are forced to complain to ebay, they say you should have notified them sooner, so it's out of their hands.
*Update*
the seller finally contacted me today...must have felt guilty...gave me a bunch of different reasons why I don't have the train yet..not sure I believe any of them tbh! Caught him in a lie about the shipping portion UGH!
he has 1200+ transactions and 5 that say same thing like this has happened to them.
so... long story short is I still don't have the train in my hand. We'll see what today's mail brings.
Thanks again to all for listening and the advice, we appreciate it!
I agree, we hit several shows this winter in MA and CT and we made out with some amazing deals...problem was whenever we located a Chattanooga, the pricing was outrageous considering the conditions. This particular engine on EBAY was a great deal and we worked out a BIN deal so it never went to bid (we have let 5+ steamers go 'cause the bidding was out of hand).
on a side note...just dealt with Walthers on a loco that was acting up on us...2 mos old, barely able to pull a box car or two anymore...rep at Walthers sending us replacement loco free of charge, no questions asked....so there is a bright side today!
Oh NO, another ebay post!!!
Hope everything works out. Can you PM to let me know who the seller is, so I can avoid him?
**UPDATE**
We received our train on Saturday in perfect condition. Seller said his son messed up the mailing and apologized repeatedly for it. We ran the train on Saturday it I am very happy with it.
Thanks to all for listening.
Mowack wrote: **UPDATE** We received our train on Saturday in perfect condition. Seller said his son messed up the mailing and apologized repeatedly for it. We ran the train on Saturday it I am very happy with it. Thanks to all for listening.
Congrats to you, glad to know that it was resolved on a good note!
BTW: Are you leaving him "Positive Feedback" ?
Wal!
Glad that worked out well!
I'm glad that you got your loco, for a while there I was thinking of sending my one just so that your son wasn't dissapointed. Unfortanatly it isnt running but it would be better than nothing. Some sellers have a tendency to hold off on sending the product if they don't get the price they want.
Remember the "E" in ebay stands for evil!
S&G I appreciate the offer on sending me one!
Yeah, I left "positive feedback"...lol...sure... product rec'd. That's about as positive as I could get.
I hear ya on the evil thing...was going to bid on a Lionel set, used (never used), was watching the price skyrocket over the course of 2.5 minutes! Seems like there was something called "Shill Bidding" happening..the seller had someone running the price up and not being too subtle either! lol. Ebay caught wind of it and knocked the bidding back down to where it should have been. I never realized how many crooks there are out there!