Thursday, June 17, 2010

eBay: I Won, Seller Lost!

Okay, so this morning, eBay asks me through the dispute forum after the seller FINALLY replied (and totally lied) if I want to escalate this.  Meaning, eBay decides for us what's going to happen.  Again, I wrote out, quite thoroughly, my "case" against this seller.  It was all provable - easily - eBay had only to verify the facts which are already there for them to see.

I get back on my eBay account about 3 hours later and they had already resolved the dispute and closed the case!!  They deposited the entire amount for the bio-filter back into my paypal account and didn't even ask me to send the filter back to the seller!!  This seller now has 32 negatives and I think it was 30 neutrals from buyers - for the last 30 days.  That's BAD stuff, right there, I don't care if he's selling thousands of items per month, a seller should never have that many negatives in that short of a period of time. 

I have myself partially to blame for this situation, even if it ended well.  I looked at his feedback rating - it was 98. something and figured that was good enough.  I didn't pay attention to the numbers of negatives or what they had to say.  I could just have easily used another seller selling the same exact thing for only a couple bucks more.  I haven't used eBay in quite a long time - but the buyer protection program that they are doing now is totally awesome, you are covered for a purchase if you don't receive if or if it's wrong - but - you must make sure that whatever you're buying has that buyer protection logo and statement on the item before entering a bid or buying it now. 

Well, whatever, I am now $48.95 richer because of this situation and the outcome of the case, yes, that makes me happy!  I can ask for Paypal to send me a check and use it for bills around here. 

Onto other things.  Temporary tenant is gone.  He told me last night something of his situation and why he was staying here.  Seems he was driven out of his own house that was being occupied by friends that are also tenants.  The story wasn't quite detailed enough to understand how that happened, but he was a good guy here, I had no problems with him whatsoever.  That money gone, I will try to re-rent the room for another week or so before the - military reservist allegedly returns.  That woman drives me nuts, she doesn't communicate at all.  I have NO idea whether she's actually returning or not.

Diet:
I weighed myself this morning.  I know, you aren't supposed to weigh yourself every day, but I did anyway.  Down to 195.  I ate a subway chicken breast sandwich today - no mayo, no cheese,just the chicken, veggies, a thin line of mustard and some vinegar.  Weighed myself again, it was about 4 hours later.  My weight had risen 3 pounds.  How?  Well, the sandwich, of course, but also because I drink a lot of water during the day.  That subway sandwich definitely weighed nowhere NEAR 3 pounds.  It's very encouraging to see the weight loss continue, but I will try to stay away from the scale for the next several days and focus fully on keeping my caloric intake down.  WELL down, thank you.  That was the jist of my eating today.  I will maybe have some steamed veggies with a small portion of fish later on, around 5:30-ish.

I'm done.  Totally tired and going to go take nap.

ben

Thursday

eBay seller - who sent me something other than what the sale was for - finally reponded.  After what, almost 3 weeks?  He TOTALLY lies - saying that "we have no communication with this buyer".  Well, eBay can and will retrieve all FIVE messages I sent this idiot through eBay's system.  What a total ass this person is. I am going to write on the feedback for him a link to my ebay description of me and put the whole story on there.  But, not until eBay makes a decision.  If I end up stuck with the filter, at least it's a brand name one, it just isn't what the ad said it was, which is a bio filter WITH a UV light, not a bio filter WITHOUT a UV light. 

I escalated the thing to let eBay decide what to do.  What will they do? I have no idea, they give themselves 72 hours to come up with a solution.  I asked they cancel the guy's account, he has almost 30 negatives in the last month, that's a staggering amount of negatives for one, single seller.  Hey, you take a risk buying on eBay, I have never thought or said you don't.  I probably would not, however, ever buy a big ticket item through it, too much risk of losing your money. 

I received the UV sterilizer yesterday.  The review I had read says the connectors are cheap plastic - and they are.  However, I found out I don't NEED those connectors/reducers.  My hose is big enough to fit over the outlet on the sterilizer itself, eliminating the need for reducers.  This seller also sent me the wrong sterilizer, I paid for a 9 watt version, he sent me an 18 watt version.  Yes, I got a better product, but I am going to alert this seller what they did.  I have no money right now to spend on anything but the bare essentials.  There will BE no more money spent on ponds and such at this point.  What I have I am going to have to make work, period. 

Meanwhile, an 80 MILE stretch of area along the border on the U.S. side has been closed due to an "uptick in violence".  80 miles of border that apparently aren't being patrolled at all.  This is pure insanity.  4 years of this president will not pass quickly enough, hopefully there is no permanent or undoable damage in the interim. 

Well, I spent my pre-work time going over this eBay thing, so, didn't have much time to write here.  No biggies.

C'yall later.
ben

 Sunday - early 20 minutes until departure time.  I don't much care for delivery on Sundays for it takes a while to get security to the ...