China Ebay sellers are defrauded by FCL suppliers of Fanstoys Transformers toys!

[boinger5]

Hello to any ebay buyers of Fanstoys Transformers toys!

I couldn't find the forum listing for ebay buyers, so I"m posting here in hopes that my post will be moved to the right place.

My story:

April 14, 2020, I purchased a FansToys Transformers FT10X FT-10X Phoenix Metal color Skyfire limited edition 
from ebay seller who has 92% feedback and was selling this toy at a fair price.

May 15 Arrived at my local Canada Post and I picked it up on May 23. 

May 28, I finally opened up my Fanstoys Transformers Phoenix (Skyfire) FT-10X.  The official Fanstoys tape was secured on both sides and the box was in mint condition! I opened the tape with an exacto knife.  I noticed that sytrofoam bits were every where in the box and started to wipe down the box with alcohol sanitzer and baby wipes.  Then I flipped over  the box and slid out the styrofoam inner container.  The 4 pieces of Fanstoys tape was also securely holding the two halves of the styrofoam together. And then I saw this big, charred, melted  hole on one side of the sytrofoam that went clear into the stryofoam inside where the toy is.  I wore gloves and a a mask to carefully open the two halves of the styrofoam.  Inside the styrofoam container was an unknown toy packed with dirty newspaper wads and a metal belt buckle.

I washed my hands, took pictures of this unknown toys, packaged the toy and styrofoam back together and washed my hands again and everything else that might have come into contact with this toy from China. 

I submitted my ebay form to my seller and had a long discussion about how ebay sellers of China might not issue me a refund if the only way I get I refund is to ship this toy back to my seller and hope he will give me a refund.  My ebay representative kept going back to her script about waiting for the June 4th date and refused to answer me 4 x why Ebay considers a "full" refund to be $82 US less than than the original purchase price.

I don't blame my ebay seller; the China supplier FCL is the most likely culprit who rips off China ebay sellers by putting garbage in official Fanstoys boxes with intact Fanstoys tape and nobody would know until someone actually opens up the box!

My ebay seller refunded me the partial, not the full, refund today and I gave my ebay seller a positive feedback and asked him to get a new supplier!  I also informed my fellow Fanstoys Transformers Facebook members about FCL being a rogue Fanstoys Transformers supplier!

So, why is ebay rep. not telling me why I don't get a full refund?

I asked her directly 4 x and she would go quiet for a minute and then start reading out her script again.

Anybody else know or have experience about partial refunds and not full refunds  like my $82 US refund discrepancy?

Thanks for listening,

Patrick Fontaine

[boinger5]

Update:

I did get my full refund from ebay seller.  Ebay service rep. did help me out. Thanks!   Ebay seller says FCL toy supplier is not the problem, but cannot explain why I received a damaged toy in a FansToys box.  I give up on buying Fanstoys Transformers from ebay.

[reallynicestamps]

No telling if it was your seller or his supplier defrauding you, but 92% is a bloody awful FB score.

Most buyers won't touch anyone with less than 98% (less than 99% if the seller is in China).

There probably was no need, and you may have slowed things down by dealing with a human being instead of the Resolution Centre Robots.

This was a pretty straightforward Not As Described dispute, and the seller , even from China, is required* to send Return Shipping before refunding in full.

Good to know you got all your money back.

I'd probably not worry too much about the venue, buy from North American sellers**, pay the higher costs , and avoid sellers with less than 99%FB.

Also READ the negs and neutrals before buying. While some customers cannot be satisfied, a pattern of complaints about NADs slow delivery or poor communication can be useful.

*There are quirks to this. But a 92% seller is not going to have TRS or PowerSeller status and perks. No Returns does not mean No Refunds. And generally overseas sellers will abandon the product rather than pay Canada Post rates for Tracked International shipping.

** Is there a comic book shop in your area that also deals in collectibles? Or a gaming store?