A quick advice

[Vee]

I ordered 23 new tiles from a seller. He had the very best price and these were his last 23 tiles of the color. Along with this order, I had a second order, from another seller, and from this other seller I ordered the 24th tile of same color. I need 24 tiles. Both orders had lots of other stuff in them, not only the tiles.

Now, the package from seller 1 arrived and it has 20 tiles, not 23. I write to the seller and ask him to send me the 3 missing tiles. He, only then, writes back and says that there was an "oversight" and then he sends me a refund and a "sorry for the inconvenience". No 3 missing tiles.

Now I need to order the 3 missing tiles from some other seller, pay new shipping, wait for the order...

Would you give a positive feedback for this seller?

[naf]

If they have more of the tiles that you need, they should send them to you at their expense. If they don't have them, then a refund would be the correct way to resolve the issue.

Yes, they should have pulled the order and made sure they have the bricks before even invoicing you, but most of the sellers are hobbyists who do this in their spare time, and mistakes happen. I would perhaps leave a neutral feedback stating your situation, it would give the seller incentive to improve. I reserve negative feedback for sellers who never send items, buyers who don't pay, etc.

Of course, if the seller sends you the missing bricks, leave positive feedback since they went the extra step to get you the missing parts.

[Vee]

No. He did not send me the missing pieces and I had explicitly asked him that I wanted the parts, not a refund. He simply answered by telling that there was an oversight and sent the refund without any other interaction. IMO, he knew from the beginning that he didn't have all the pieces but kept quiet until I complained. Not nice.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Vee

[Tuinman]

I agree with Naf, give a neutral comment in which you mention the situation. At least the seller refunded, so basically you paid for what you've gotten from him/her. But for you it is inconvenient and it leaves you with extra costs.

[Fugazi]

This kind of discussion (buyer-seller issues) belongs in the Buy Sell Trade & Finds forum, in the Bricklink thread -- moving. Also, when creating a new topic please try to come up with a more descriptive title!

[Andy D]

I believe a positive is in order, afterall, he did refund. I would mention the confustin in the comment.

With Bricklink I believe it is usually better if problems are resolved via email. Afterall, most BL sellers are just hobbiests trying to fund their hobby and we all make mistakes.

To avoid issues like his when I clean out a seller I always order a few more from a differentseller as it is usually much cheaper to buy a few extras than to pay more shipping. In fact I usually order more of most parts I order just to add to my inventory.

Andy D

[Vee]

I just gave him a neutral feedback. I expect him to "retaliate" because he has not posted his feedback yet (and sellers, be them in ebay or in BL, will more and more often not post feedback first so that they can "retaliate" if needed). If he retaliates, I will never buy from him again. If he is honest and gives me a positive (after all he made the mistake and I will pay the price of it), he will continue in my whitelist.

@Andy: you are right, I have just learned this. Next time I order all the remaining stock of a seller, I will either ask the seller if he or she did indeed have them all or order a few more from other vendors.

[AFOLguy1970]

Making a mistake is one thing. How the seller resolves the mistake is another. I think the neutral is appropriate in this situation. In many Bricklink orders, there have been a few mistakes. Sometimes the parts were not the same or the color was different. Thankfully, all of the sellers responded by sending the appropriate pieces. Your situation is unfortunate, because now you have to pay more shipping costs to get those tiles from elsewhere.

[fred67]

I'm actually tied of things like this happening... you need x number of pieces, you order x number of pieces, you pay for x number of pieces plus shipping... and you get fewer than x number of pieces.

The seller often does right and sends the pieces, but otherwise you're stuck paying double shipping because the seller thought refunding your 25 cents was good enough... or, in reality, the seller didn't want to eat double shipping to make it right. That's NOT good enough... instead, YOU pay double shipping.

Not cool, and definitely not worthy of a positive.

[Vee]

Fully agree.

Thank you all for your thoughts. I feel good that I have posted a neutral feedback ("You need to keep better track of your stock", I wrote) knowing that it is not just me that thinks this way. I don't like being unfair to people and I feel I was not.

[elleana]

I have some sympathy for the seller, and sellers in general. As mentioned, most of the BL sellers are just doing this in their spare time as a hobby or to raise some spare cash to support their hobby. I don't envy sellers having to pack large orders with dozens of lots each consisting of a different number of pieces. It's already tough for me as a buyer to go through my orders and make sure its complete, so I can't imagine a seller having to go through someone's order, pull the pieces pack them, invoice and add shipping fees, make sure payment is received, then actually ship. To me its far too much effort for not that much reward so if I make a 50 lot order consisting of 1,000 pieces I can live with only receving 997.

[Deathleech]

The part that gets me is the seller didn't refund you immediately when he shipped your pieces out. He obviously had to notice he was short a few pieces but it's almost as if he hoped you wouldn't notice/care? Only after you brought it up did he refund you. To make it worse you already placed another order for the additional pieces you needed and now you will need to place a THIRD order for them since he made an error. Don't get me wrong, I know errors occur but as a seller you should notify the buyer immediately to try and reduce any issues. As is he didn't refund you immediately or even notify you so I think a neutral feedback is definitely warranted.

On a similar note, how would you guys handle someone sending you the wrong version of a piece? I ordered some older pieces and specifically stated in the notes I wanted the older version but the seller sent me a mix of newer and older versions. I contacted him about it and at first he didn't even know there was a difference, despite them both being listed separately on BL. I sent him a picture and he never responded back. What should I do?

[Vee]

... To me its far too much effort for not that much reward so if I make a 50 lot order consisting of 1,000 pieces I can live with only receving 997.

The order had 15 lots with 180 pieces, I received 177.

The part that gets me is the seller didn't refund you immediately when he shipped your pieces out. He obviously had to notice he was short a few pieces but it's almost as if he hoped you wouldn't notice/care? Only after you brought it up did he refund you. To make it worse you already placed another order for the additional pieces you needed and now you will need to place a THIRD order for them since he made an error. Don't get me wrong, I know errors occur but as a seller you should notify the buyer immediately to try and reduce any issues. As is he didn't refund you immediately or even notify you so I think a neutral feedback is definitely warranted.

On a similar note, how would you guys handle someone sending you the wrong version of a piece? I ordered some older pieces and specifically stated in the notes I wanted the older version but the seller sent me a mix of newer and older versions. I contacted him about it and at first he didn't even know there was a difference, despite them both being listed separately on BL. I sent him a picture and he never responded back. What should I do?

You described and understood my situation perfectly!

As for you situation, I don't know what to say because if the seller does not answer, what could be done?

Since I am new to BL and MODs/MOCs (I became an AFOL sometime in the beginning of Dec/2013), I am also new to this problem of old and new pieces. I don't know if it is related but while building this project, I ran into some color issues, minor issues, but enough for me to pay attention to it, in an eventual next project, for instance. Some parts that I got have slightly but noticeable differences in colors, like Dark Red and New Dark Red, etc, For this project in particular, not big of a problem but it could be depending on what I would be building.

[Deathleech]

Ya, I am not sure what to do. He already left me positive feedback and I am debating on what to leave him. I mean it isn't a huge deal, I was able to find the pieces and include them in another order I placed but it still cost me an extra $5 or so. The part that gets me is he was almost annoyed/offended when I brought the issue up, despite me clearly saying I wanted the older version of the pieces. He made the comment "A Lego piece is a Lego piece, I don't see the difference". If he didn't have them or didn't know what I was talking about he should of cancelled the order or asked first! The fact he didn't respond back after the second e-mail and his overall attitude makes me want to give him a negative feedback, or neutral at best.

[Vee]

I would not post a negative but a neutral would be fair, in my view. I reserve a negative only to really bad sellers. In my 14 years in ebay (around 70 purchases only), I gave just ONE negative feedback, and it was recently, and it was for a Lego purchase!

During these 2 months using BL (I am very new to BL), I have already tens of orders completed and this was my first neutral.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Vee

[SearchFunction]

This topic is relevant to me. Far too often I find that sellers do not have what their inventory states, they send the wrong parts or whole lots are missing.

For the most part, replacement parts are sent, but about 1/4 of the time only refunds are offered. Like you I don´t really feel comfortable leaving anything but positive feedback. I am a hardass, and I have to lower my level when dealing with BL. Mistakes are made all the time. I don´t really like buying through BL, but its really the only choice when specific parts are needed.

1 shop, not to be named, stated it had "used" parts. Many of the parts where downright defective, and the seller had put plates together one on top of another so they where impossible to pull apart. The shop had a "return" policy which I decided to use. Cost me more in postage than I saved, but the seller did refund the bricks. The feedback on the sellers page did not contain any negatives, but the neutral ones clearly reflected my experience.

In another one after leaving neutral feedback, the seller didnt understand basic english and sent me angry childish messages with lots of exclamation marks insulting me. I had made a mistake, not noticing a part of their policy and although it was extremely hard, I stayed polite and I was able to get the seller to actually send me the parts that was missing. Afterwards the seller stoplisted me. Not that I ever want to buy in that awfull place ever again. Thats what I hate the most. Be very aware of sellers with pages that clearly indicates a lack of english skills. If something goes wrong, communication is nearly impossible.

So, my policy is to not leave any feedback at all if it goes all to hell. Otherwise I write a positive one, but explain that parts where missing or similar. But it can be nerve wracking to be so polite all the damn time. I know I am in the right to give neutral and negative feedback sometimes, but its just so much easier and restfull for the soul to forget about it and be done with it.

EDIT: I advise buying in multiples of 2 if possible as sellers seem to have an easier time remembering these numbers.

EDIT2: If something goes wrong, never assume, what you can´t possible know about. Package goes missing? Maybe it really did go missing. You don´t know because you didnt pay for insurance. Seller does not respond? Maybe there is something happened you dont know about so ask.

My patience is quite wide, but once after almost a month and 3 messages to the seller without reply, I was very very close to giving a final ultimatum warning the seller that unless a response was had, I would have to report them, their choice not mine, which I might add I should have given earlier. I finally recieved a reply, and the dispute was solved. I was feeling the whole time that the seller just hoped I´d go away so they could keep my money, because transactions was going on at the store...BUT I cant possible know for sure what happened, so the only thing I can do is not to buy there again.

Edited February 20, 2014 by SearchFunction

[Deathleech]

So, my policy is to not leave any feedback at all if it goes all to hell. Otherwise I write a positive one, but explain that parts where missing or similar. But it can be nerve wracking to be so polite all the damn time. I know I am in the right to give neutral and negative feedback sometimes, but its just so much easier and restfull for the soul to forget about it and be done with it.

The problem with this is that if everyone does the same then no one will know if a store is bad or not. Everyone seems to be so afraid of retribution when they leave negative feedback that no one does it anymore. Trust me, I am just as guilty of this. When a store is genuinely bad though the negative feedback needs to be left to warn other shoppers.

I placed another order about a month ago. The store was in Canada and I am in the US. That same week I placed a few other orders and one other was also in Canada. Well I got all those orders within a week but am still awaiting the one from Canada. He has been very quick responding but I am wondering where my package is. I didn't pay for tracking (here is the US you get free tracking even on the cheapest mail services if you use USPS) so there is no tracking number. I am thinking of asking him for the receipt so I know there is at least SOME proof he sent the package. I know sometimes customs can keep a package forever and I know sometimes there can be unexplained delays. They are rare but do happen. I sent out over 300 packages selling on eBay and twice I had people ask me where it was after not receiving it in a few weeks. I send them the receipt and tracking number showing I sent it and the tracking usually shows like processing at a facility several days or weeks earlier and then no more info since then. I am trying to wait as long as possible to see what happens but am getting nervous at this point as tomorrow will be a month exact.

[Vee]

In my short history of buying from BL Canadian sellers, one order took 10 days to arrive, after shipped, other took 9 and other took 5.

I have had two orders that took a long time to ship, both from US sellers: one took 20 days to ship and the other took 22 days. This latter was shipped almost 10 days ago, and since it is a US seller and it hasn't arrived yet, it is kind of worrying. It is a rather big and important order for me and this long wait for a US (problematic) order to arrive is also making me anxious. At least it has tracking info and it shows it is on its way. I think this very bad weather across the US is responsible for the delay.

And I stopped leaving feedback first. Now I will do as I do in ebay. I will only leave feedback for sellers if they leave for me first, unless I want to place a neutral or negative feedback. I think it is important to leave a true feedback, even if they can retaliate, as it is usual since most sellers refuse to leave feedback first. I think that there should be a rule where if the seller does not post a feedback, the system will post automatically a positive feedback for the buyer after a certain period of time (60 days, for instance). This would make sense, after all, if you have not complained about a person for 60 days, it means there is no complaint at all and a positive feedback is in order. After posting an automated positive feedback for the seller, the buyer would still have some time to post his/her, and if s/he doesn't do it, the system would also post an automated positive feedback for the seller after that grace period is done.

The way feedback system works at ebay and BL now is broken. Sellers use it as a means of retaliation. Buyer pays first, buyer has done all he has to do well then, so seller must post feedback first, period.

[Deathleech]

Or eBay could just keep track of when payment is received and make sure it is the correct amount and then require the seller to leave feedback to log into their account or something. I know this wouldn't be perfect because buyers can still do crappy things like claim to of never gotten a package when they really did, or leave negative feedback over something extremely minor (small dent on package when slight wear is stated in auction). Maybe there could be some sort of rebuttal process then where the seller can go back and at the very least argue the feedback or change the positive one for the buyer to neutral? Idk, there has to be some solution because you are right, as is the system is broker.

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

Unfortunately there's no perfect system. As an occasional Seller on eBay, I get frustrated when Buyers complain about where their package is when the tracking information clearly shows the location. Some Buyers don't understand that once an item has been turned over to the USPS, it's out of the the Seller's hands and they can't make it arrive any faster. In cases like this, I refuse to leave feedback first. As a Seller I would rather receive no feedback then have a Buyer turn around and leave a negative comment about the shipping time that I have no control over. If they're really upset they can leave their negative feedback and I will have an opportunity to comment about how the shipping time was out of my hands.

[Vee]

Complaining to the seller about what happens to the package AFTER the seller has shipped it makes no sense. I have had problems with sellers that take too long to ship, which is their problem.

But, in the case of BL, differently from ebay, the seller KNOWS that the package has arrived, the seller knows that the order is complete, because the buyers has set the status as such, and still the seller does not post feedback until the buyer does it first. THIS is very very wrong.

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

As a Seller on eBay I always ship promptly within 1-2 as described in my listing and even note that I'm not responsible for how long the USPS takes. The tracking information even shows when the USPS received the package. Despite this I still have to deal with the complaining and explain thoroughly that their package is enroute. On rare occasion I will have a Buyer demand a refund. Absolutely unbelievable.

With Bricklink, you deal with better clientele. I've never had issues with a Buyer on there, just a Seller once. I always post feedback first once the Seller changes the transaction to "Completed".