I need your help please

[Omega Man]

Hey everyone,

Need your expert opinions and advice here relating to my misadventure with an UK eBay seller (A Power Seller with excellet feedback so far). I am from Canada.
Please forgive me for such a long winded message and for hijacking a new thread for my own benefit. I know there is a separate eBay thread in the BS forum. I thought I should start a new one as I hope it will get more exposure. Moderator, if you want to move this, please feel free to do so.

First of all, call me an idiot for taking no action with eBay and Paypal and my CC company up till now. I have been transacting in eBay for over six years and so far, I have had no problems except with this seller. I guess I am naïve.
I will leave it up to you to provide your valuable advice in terms of how I should deal with this situation.

I will try to give you as much info and correct dates as possible. Here is how the scenario played out:

Aug 23, 07\t
Asked seller whether a men's cologne can be shipped to Canada and requested her to declare it as cosmetics/body lotion as there are/maybe some restrictions in sending fragrances across different countries. Listing shows seller is willing to ship internationally.
Aug 24, 07\t
Seller said yes and will declare customs as appropriate
Aug 28, 07 \t
Bid won ( ~BP90)
Aug 29, 07\t
Paypal sent with specific instructions on listing it as cosmetics/body lotion during shipping.
August 30, 07
Seller posted item through Royal Mail

Sept 2, 07\t
Seller left positve feedback on eBay
Sept 11, 07 \t
Note to seller - non-receipt
Sept 12, 07\t
Seller: Tracking number provided
Sept 19, 07\t
Note to seller - non-receipt
Sept 20, 07\t
Seller: Postal strike in UK may affect mail. Can't log a claim with Royal Mail unless 21 business days has past
Sept 22, 07\t
Note to seller to confirm again listing as cosmetics/body lotion
Sept 22, 07\t
Seller - labelled as "instructed" as "perfume"
Sept 30, 07\t
Seller - Logged claim for missing post with Royal Mail. Promised to either get the item delivered or my money back.

Oct 1, 07\t
Seller - Investigation started with Royal Mail. Informed me that I can have up to 90 days to leave a feedback.
Oct 15, 07\t
Note to seller - Concern about no recourse in eBay/PayPal
Oct 19, 07\t
Seller - Indicated I can start a claim with eBay/Paypal if I wished. I didn't and I thought we could resolve this amicably (how naïved now). She agreed and promised to keep me up to date and promised "2000 percent" that I will not lose out
Oct 29, 07\t
Notified seller of a letter from Canada customs indicating the item has been confiscated and destroyed. The letterr also specified the item was clearly labelled as perfume
Oct 30, 07\t
Seller - Investigated with Royal Mail.

Nov 9, 07\t
Follow up with seller. Notified the seller a neutral feedback will be provided "Item is lost. Seller will make me whole"\t
Nov 10, 07\t
Seller - Further investigated with Royal Mail. Will keep me in touch

Dec 11, 17 & 23, 07 Follow up with seller
Jan 2&10, 08\t Follow up with seller
Jan 8, 08\t
Informed by eBay, Paypal and my CC company that I have no recourse. eBay has also confirmed there was no feedback from me. I may have not left my feedback properly. But can eBay remove a feedback withour notifying me?
Jan 15, 08\t
Terse note to seller. Please see below
Jan 22\t\t
eBay provided me with seller's telephone number

My view:
My part of the contract is completed
Seller ignored my repeated instructions on NOT to declare it as perfume during shipping.
Seller failed to comply and not carried out her end of the bargain.
Seller has been radio-silenced since last correspondence on Nov 10, 2007
Our conversations have been pleasant up till Dec, 2007
My "terse" note
- I will/may post her eBay id on various online forums indicating her poor customer services
-I will/may ask "friends" to bombard her with questions on her auctions
-I may even risk my pristine feedback and bid on every auction and not pay for \t them just to lodge multiple negative feedbacks
-My aim - to freeze her account, tarnish her reputation and make her life difficult \t as a seller if possible. Get my money back if I am entitled to.
-Note was sent through regular email. It specifically stated that I will/may take these actions if I have not heard back from her. I know eBay may take action against me if it is interpreted as threatening / retaliating.

Still have not heard back from her!

In short, I am short of sending her a dead horse head (re Godfather) had I known of her address......

Yes, I should have taken actions sooner (and you are free to call me names

....). I know many of you here in the forum may have dealt with a "deadbit" seller on eBay. Any suggestions/tactics on how I should deal with this? Many thanks.

 

[Thomas]

Seller should have known better than to declare as perfume for customs purposes.

That said, you've done your part, seller did her part, excepting the paperwork.

If I were in your shoes, I would leave negative feedback noting that 1) seller failed to ship as instructed, and 2) failed to make you whole as promised.

I've not bought many things on ebay with that value, but I have bought a few dogs that were not as advertised. On those occasions, I decided that my steal:dog ratio was good enough to absorb the occasional bad deal, and never pursued it. But, for the dollar loss you had, I'd probably offer to split the loss 50-50, just to get something back.

 

[Omega Man]

Thanks Thomas. Quick and easy.


Update: Proposed an even split on the lost. Seller agreed and reimbursed me.