Question:
Some sellers have a very arrogant take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward their buyers. They only get my business once. I, too, have seen some amazingly bad packing jobs. Personally I take great pride in good packing, and enjoy getting comments on it in the feedbacks. But it’s too bad the shipping companies treat packages so badly that you have to pack as if the item was going to have to survive World War III or it probably won’t arrive in one piece. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I DID offer to pay extra for the shipping – he ignored me. I think it was too much trouble for him. You should send him over to me and I’ll show him how to pack. He’ll learn a thing or two about packing. 1) Plastic shrink wrap all items first. 2) Enclose in Styrofoam (minimum of 2" thick) 3) Wrap in in heavy cardboard before taping and strapping. (Cardboard tightly conforms to the size of the package for safety. Another words, I custome build a box arount the packed item. 4) If customer wants item double boxed, I get a larger box and place the above package in a peanut filled box. Sounds like overkill to you? I feel it’s not since I know when a peice of merchandise leaves hear, I won’t have to worry about it being damaged. My packages are UPS tested. I caught the UPS driver dropping one of my 128# packages twice before getting it on the truck. No damage to the package or merchadise, the end user was happy with the item. Well, for the UPS driver, I had some words with him as he turned out to be a wise ass. He almost found my foot in his ass. Needless to say, he had a whole new pleasant attitude the next day after I had a long talk with his supervisor. It’s more trouble not to properly pack an item then it is to deal with an unhappy customer. In later emails he indicated that it was alot of trouble and how he had to go out of his way to ship the thing. Excuse, me but insn’t that part of the hassle you have to assume when you deciede to sell this thing on ebay? My gut feeling on this is that the item was damaged before shipping and he was looking for a scapegoat. As I said above, he’ now finding out it’s more of a hassle dealing with and angry customer than it is to do the job right. Then again, maybe he doesn’t care. If you’re gong to sell it – you better be prepared to get it safely to the customer! It’s not sold until the customer is happy! Period!!!! Good luck. Spot Lance says… says… I agree. How did the paint get all scratched up? It looks like he had a broken enlarger for sale and found pictures of a good one to fool bidders with. I thought that at first, too, but if you look carefully at the picture that illustrates the auction, you will find the same paint chipping pattern on parts of the enlarger that show up in the damage photos. I’m certain it is the same enlarger. Whether or not the damage is due to the lousy packaging, mishandling by the gorillas in the back room of the post office, or outright carelessness by the seller…who knows? BTW… I sent him these instructions ahead of time: —– Please do the following when you ship the enlarger: * Remove the head and wrap in bubble wrap * Remove the bellows/head from the rail if possible (if not, please wrap the bellows/head in bubble wrap, and then wrap all that in tape so it’s totally secure) * Please ship the column and the other items in two separate, well packed boxes. I’m asking all this because I was shipped another enlarger which was destroyed in shipping due to improper packing. If shipping in this manner is a problem, please let me know… Can’t fault your instructions, as that’s how I ship enlargers when I’m stuck selling one of those beasts. But most folks might not have 125′ rolls of bubble wrap lying around like I do, or be willing to go thru any special packing procedures, so it wouldn’t have hurt to have offered to pay a few bucks extra for materials for the extra packaging. What was his answer to these instructions? BTW, was it insured and has a claim been filed? — 9004 Jolly Hollow Drive Austin, Texas 78750 512-257-2900
Response:
Well, having read and learned tons from everyone on this newsgroup for a few months now, I can finally reciprocate with a bit of knowledge of my own: Provided you have access to the same email address from which you sent the original message, you can get deja to remove your posts from their archives at this url: Alice beginning eBayer (my-wings)
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Yes, you’re right – I shouldn’t have done that. I was pissed! Lance says… Any ideas? No ideas on the auction item, but I’d work on covering my butt for posting a private individual’s contact information on the usenet. Should someone forward this to the seller they’d have a very good case on having you banned from eBay. — 9004 Jolly Hollow Drive Austin, Texas 78750 512-257-2900
Response:
I agree. How did the paint get all scratched up? It looks like he had a broken enlarger for sale and found pictures of a good one to fool bidders with. I thought that at first, too, but if you look carefully at the picture that illustrates the auction, you will find the same paint chipping pattern on parts of the enlarger that show up in the damage photos. I’m certain it is the same enlarger. Whether or not the damage is due to the lousy packaging, mishandling by the gorillas in the back room of the post office, or outright carelessness by the seller…who knows?
BTW… I sent him these instructions ahead of time: —– Please do the following when you ship the enlarger: * Remove the head and wrap in bubble wrap * Remove the bellows/head from the rail if possible (if not, please wrap the bellows/head in bubble wrap, and then wrap all that in tape so it’s totally secure) * Please ship the column and the other items in two separate, well packed boxes. I’m asking all this because I was shipped another enlarger which was destroyed in shipping due to improper packing. If shipping in this manner is a problem, please let me know… —– Lance — 9004 Jolly Hollow Drive Austin, Texas 78750 512-257-2900
Response:
I agree. How did the paint get all scratched up? It looks like he had a broken enlarger for sale and found pictures of a good one to fool bidders with. I thought that at first, too, but if you look carefully at the picture that illustrates the auction, you will find the same paint chipping pattern on parts of the enlarger that show up in the damage photos. I’m certain it is the same enlarger. Whether or not the damage is due to the lousy packaging, mishandling by the gorillas in the back room of the post office, or outright carelessness by the seller…who knows?
I know, the packing job was terrible. The seller did the worst packing job I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot! Lance
Response:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=401701876 made no attempt to pack the item with care — When it arrived at my door via USPS, my purchase was smashed.
Never, ever post someone’s personal info on a newsgroup! That being said, after looking at the photos, from the nature of much of the damage, I don’t believe that it could have happened in transit- I think the seller scammed you on this item. Whatever the case, you should demand an immediate refund, and return the item (I’ve recieved delicated items packed worse than that with *no* damage, btw). Then contact Safeharbor, and leave the guy bad feedback. But dont’ post anyone’s personal info in a newsgroup! Steve
Response:
Yes, you’re right – I shouldn’t have done that. I was pissed! Lance says… Any ideas? No ideas on the auction item, but I’d work on covering my butt for posting a private individual’s contact information on the usenet. Should someone forward this to the seller they’d have a very good case on having you banned from eBay.
– 9004 Jolly Hollow Drive Austin, Texas 78750 512-257-2900
Response:
I agree. How did the paint get all scratched up? It looks like he had a broken enlarger for sale and found pictures of a good one to fool bidders with.
I thought that at first, too, but if you look carefully at the picture that illustrates the auction, you will find the same paint chipping pattern on parts of the enlarger that show up in the damage photos. I’m certain it is the same enlarger. Whether or not the damage is due to the lousy packaging, mishandling by the gorillas in the back room of the post office, or outright carelessness by the seller…who knows?
Response:
This seller: User ID: dbunnie Name: donald r.hansell Company: snowshoe ranch City: Staples State: MN Country: United States Phone: (218) 397 – 2587 in this auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=401701876 made no attempt to pack the item with care — When it arrived at my door via USPS, my purchase was smashed. I have bought several of these, and I sent the seller a note ahead of time telling him exactly what he needed to do to insure that the item would not get broken. The seller totally disreguarded my instruction, and tossed the fragil item in a flimsy box with pieces of a styrofoam cooler for packing. The item is now useless – what can I do? Here are photos of the damage: http://www.lantx.com/ebay/snowshoe1.jpg http://www.lantx.com/ebay/snowshoe2.jpg http://www.lantx.com/ebay/snowshoe3.jpg http://www.lantx.com/ebay/snowshoe4.jpg http://www.lantx.com/ebay/snowshoe5.jpg I do not believe that the USPS id at fault, even the best service would have busted this thing with the half ass packing job he did… Any ideas? — 9004 Jolly Hollow Drive Austin, Texas 78750 512-257-2900
Response:
Any ideas?
No ideas on the auction item, but I’d work on covering my butt for posting a private individual’s contact information on the usenet. Should someone forward this to the seller they’d have a very good case on having you banned from eBay.
Response:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=401701876 made no attempt to pack the item with care — When it arrived at my door via USPS, my purchase was smashed.
Wow…that is probably the worst packaging job I have seen in a long time. You’re right – chucked into a box with some chunks of styrofoam cooler. Unbelievable. The first thing I would do is send an email to the seller, and attach the photos of the damaged item. Request your money back, and offer to return the busted enlarger. (I don’t remember any duct tape in the original auction photo either – was that on it when you got it? Where’s the bellows? What about the lens? Geez, you got the shit end of the stick there!) If the seller refuses a refund, give them one more chance but this time warn them that you’ll be goping to Safeharbor with your complaints. Forward ALL correspondence – your original contact emails asking them to pack the enlarger safely included – with all headers to Safeharbor with your complaint and ask them for help in resolving it. The next thing I would do is reconsider EVER posting someone’s contact info in Usenet. Especially the phone number – no matter how badly someone dicked me on a deal, there are better ways to handle it than that. Posting the auction URL, the seller’s eBay ID, and the URL to your damage photos would have been plenty to get the group to help you.
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