Nine of fourteen ceramic pitchers arrive damaged, seller says not his problem

[jdj53]

The seller is claiming it is not his problem, that I needed to buy insurance, which he didn't offer in the listing. How do I put in a claim with eBay? The seller is in Europe and English is not his first language.

[momcqueen]

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@jdj53 wrote:
Actually, I am talking about the return of the broken jugs. I'm going to wait the five days and see if the seller has to add to his cost, or settle the claim with just my costs for the price of the nine jugs plus the percentage of postage. I don't want one penny more than I'm out of pocket, but neither do I want to take a loss on something not my fault. The seller didn't package properly, plain and simple. If you saw the box and packaging, you'd wonder how five jugs survived intact.

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Oh! Well, then my previous answer stands. Good luck with it. Thank you for keeping us posted. 

[jdj53]

Seller settled claim today. No return of broken jugs. Now I just have to hope the next box is in better condition. lol

[pierrelebel]

So far... so good.

I suggest you wait until everything has been received from that seller before posting feedback.

[jdj53]

Good advice! Thanks!

[jdj53]

Well, some good and bad news. The last two boxes of jugs arrived. One box, where he made an attempt to separate the jugs, only one jug was damaged. However, the other box had seven smashed jugs laying on top of each other, plus one jug is missing, and not in any box. I have started the claims for the eight damaged jugs, notified the seller about the damaged jugs, and also the missing jug. Waiting to hear from him before proceeding with the claim. So of 44 jugs total, 17 jugs were damaged, and one is missing. Not a great experience!

[momcqueen]

It's a little odd that a seller who would find himself in possession of such a large number of jugs would have no idea how to package them for safe shipment. I hope this process goes smoothly for you. It's strange to think one is missing entirely. 

[jdj53]

Very strange, but I went through the three boxes and jug wrappings with a fine tooth comb, and one jug is not there. Considering the seller had over a hundred listings, he may have gotten confused and sent it to someone else. You know, of the three boxes he sent, he packed one with about a dozen jugs in individual styrofoam slots, as well as heavier bubble wrap. That box had only one jug with a broken spout. The second box was again packed like the original, thin bubble wrap with the jugs laying on top of each other, and seven jugs were smashed in that one. I just don't understand why he packed two boxes incorrectly, and one almost the correct way. Oh well, live and learn, and this has been a good learning experience, if nothing else.

[momcqueen]

Assuming the seller is a casual one with no experience in wrapping crockery, I'm not terrible surprised that one shipment would arrive in better shape than the other two as he is probably just grabbing whatever boxes and/or packaging material that is laying around. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he just forgot to include an item but I was having visions of something being so badly packed that it fell out of the box in transit.

My absolutely worst experiences as a buyer on ebay have been with transactions that were fulfilled by casual sellers who might have had good intentions but no sense at all when it came to packing an order for shipment. Crushed, missing... once thrown into a pond from what I could tell. 

[jdj53]

Lesson learned. I will be far more selective, and watchful of the feedback on sellers from now on. Plus I think I shall keep my business to Canadian, American and UK sellers from now on. This seller from Austria has been using Google Translator, and it is very difficult to understand his messages to me.

[momcqueen]

I know, it kind of takes the fun out of it. But I just got tired of the stress of having to deal with the issue you face here. 

Google Translate has its place, certainly, but it takes a bit of finesse. It's not enough to type something and then hit the translate button. I always take the first translation and translate it back to English to see what is lost. There have been some unpleasant surprises, usually due to specific word choice. English is full of double-meanings and colloquialisms that make NO sense whatsoever in other languages. And contractions! Don't use these, I've learned the hard way. Hahahaha. 

[jdj53]

The seller just refunded for the broken jugs plus the one missing jug. I am finally done with this horror show. Any suggestions as to what kind of feedback I should leave? Negative for the broken jugs, neutral for the missing jug, and what for the jugs that arrived in one piece, most simply by a miracle of luck?

[momcqueen]

Oh boy. Provided that you're not on the cusp of the 60-day deadline, don't act in haste. It's been a horror show for you and the seller both, as he has learned a very costly lesson. If it were me as the buyer, I'd probably consider positives and whatever appropriate DSRs for the ones that arrived intact. With a vague sort of 'good product' and that's about it. I don't know what to say about those busted ones plus the one missing on arrival.

Anytime that I've ever had to leave less-than-positive feedback, I have a look at the Rules for Feedback first just to make absolutely sure I don't accidentally contravene one of the many rules as to what a buyer is allowed to say about any given transaction. It would be disheartening to act in error and have your well-thought sentiments removed. 

As it has been said on the boards by more experienced ebayers than I, the best feedback is calm and factual. 

[pierrelebel]

"Any suggestions as to what kind of feedback I should leave?"

Yes.

Enjoy Canada Day.  Then the weekend.

By next Monday or Tuesday you will be able to properly give adequate and factual feedback (some may be neutral while others may be negative - your choice). 

More importantly will be the DSRs you leave for every transaction.  And make sure to leave DSR for every transaction.

[jdj53]

I'm well within the 60 days. I think I'll take a day or two to think about it, read the feedback rules, and then decide. You're right about it being a very expensive lesson for the seller... 400 euros worth. No sense kicking him when he's down, but there needs to be heads up for future buyers who deal with him. I still think he tried to sell too much at once, got overwhelmed with the amount of packaging and shipping, and tried to cut corner.

You have been a wealth of great information. When my children give me some grandchildren, I'll definitely be buying some of your great listings. Thank you so much!

[jdj53]

Thanks, I'm going to do that. I will make sure the DSR's are factual. If I had read his more closely, I might have saved myself some time and headaches. Thank you so much!

[pjcdn2005]

I agree that you should wait a while.

I would think carefully about giving a neutral and/or negative for each broken jug. I don't know how the sellers are rated in Germany but getting that many neutral or negatives could put the seller below standard and possibly make it impossible for him to sell on ebay at all. I might give a review per box instead of per item....but to be honest, I don't know what I would do for sure if I was in your position. I also think that it is important to consider how the seller handled the problems.

On one hand, you want to give buyers a heads up but on the other hand, the seller will hopefully not let the same thing happen again.

I know...I'm being wishy washy about this. lol

[jdj53]

I had problems with the seller with the first box. I had to finally take it to the point of ebay asking him to send me a return shipping label before he saw sense and refunded. To his credit, with the last two boxes, there was no hesitation. He refunded for the broken jugs, the missing jug, and the percentage of shipping. Perhaps he realized he was just going to go through the same process as he had from the first shipment. I will probably not leave anything worse than neutral on a few of the transaction, but will be truthful when it comes to the DSRs.

[pierrelebel]

"... I don't know how the sellers are rated in Germany..."

Same as here.

Multiple negative feedback left the same week count as one only in the feedback rating.

If a buyer had three transactions in a week and the buyer leaves one positive, one neutral and one negative, they would all offset each other and the seller gets away with it!

As far as DSRs are concerned, similar situation.eBay will average the DSRs received from the same buyer within a week period (Monday-Sunday).  For example, two "2" and two "5" will average as "3.5"

[momcqueen]

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@pierrelebel wrote:

"... I don't know how the sellers are rated in Germany..."

Same as here.

Multiple negative feedback left the same week count as one only in the feedback rating.

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Do you mean left or purchased? If the former, that means a buyer could more detrimentally affect a seller's feedback rating by leaving one negative per calendar week (for as long as feedback was allowed) than if they left all eight within the same calendar week. 

[pjcdn2005]

But we aren't really rated on our feedback percentage or DSR averages. I was referring to the defect rating.

For the OP's information, this is how sellers are rated:

• The defect rate is simply the percentage of a seller's successful transactions that have one or more of the following transaction-related defects, the top predictors that a buyer will leave eBay or buy less:
  • Detailed seller rating of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described
  • Detailed seller rating of 1 for shipping time
  • Negative or neutral feedback
  • Return initiated for a reason that indicates the item was not as described
  • eBay Money Back Guarantee (previously known as eBay Buyer Protection) or PayPal Purchase Protection case opened for an item not received or an item not as described
  • Seller-cancelled transactions
• Starting with the August 20, 2014 evaluation, to meet eBay's minimum standard, sellers can have up to a maximum 5% of transactions with one or more transaction defects over the most recent evaluation period. A maximum 2% will allow a seller to qualify as an eBay Top Rated Seller.

A transaction is a purchase from a listing. If a buyer purchases two or more identical items from the same multi-quantity listing, or purchases the same items in different variations such as color or size from the same multi-variation listing, that is considered one transaction. If a buyer purchases items from four different listings from the same seller and combines them into one order, that would be counted as four transactions. Note that the defect rate will not affect your performance rating until you have a transaction with a defect from 8 different buyers (5 different buyers to affect your Top Rated Seller status).

I'm not 100% clear about  this but I think that if the seller has defects from less than 8  buyers right now, only one defect from the OP would count. But if the seller has defects from at least 8 buyers, then each pitcher purchased would count as a transaction so any defects given would then count. 

But something I just thought of...if the OP already opened a request for a return because an item wasn't as described for each item, then I wouldn't think any more defects for the same transactions would count. Does that sound right?