Hello!
To use the forum, login or register above.
(If you are already logged in above, please click here)
Powered by Vanilla
To use the forum, login or register above.
(If you are already logged in above, please click here)
Comments
Shipments to some countries in the world take that long every single time.
It is a requirement in the EU for B2B or B2C sellers (aka professional sellers), not for private sellers (C2C, or consumer to consumer sellers), as the transaction is strickly 'private', even if a proffesional buys from a private person, it is still a private transaction, as the seller cannot offer a bill or VAT deduction (if applied). Unfortunatly many buyers do not seem to know the difference and request the same services from all sellers, and sites do not offer a clear indication of this either (the 'type' of seller should IMO be displayed on storefronts and during checkouts). It might be good in the long run to 'add' this on BO. The additional problem is that buyers here on BO don't actually have to read/accept anything when they place order, as there are no storeterms pages showed during checkout (another requirement btw, particulary in Germany, and the rest of EU will follow).
For buyers, right now, every seller on BO is the same, while both types of sellers exist: the professional sellers and the hobbiest (private) sellers, but both don't need to offer the same kind of services. 'returns' is another one of those services, proffesional sellers in EU must offer this, private sellers do not... So these kind of details need to be in storeterms a buyer needs to 'accept' when checking out, but such doesn't happen on BO...
You might wanna take that in consideration for the further development of Brickowl ;-)
After all it's a third party screwing things up for a transaction that involves two parties equally. And I mean, if one party be considered trustworthy, it's usually the seller, given their usual track record of succesful transactions.
What I always do is ask the buyer how they like to solve it. I sometimes resend part of the order, for example. Or we split the damage. If the buyer considers a full refund to be the only fair solution, then I give a full refund without discussion. But as a buyer I wouldn't ask this from a seller, I personally think splitting is fair.
Also, I think it's good to wait a while before taking any action, at least 3x the time it usually takes for the order to arrive. Because once something is out of the ordinary, it really might get any random amount of delay. And also if an order is being checked by customs, or the package is damaged and the postal service repacks it, or if the order is returned to you for some reason, then it will take extra time before it resurfaces.
The seller can seek recompense from the agent even if they didn't pay for insurance, and it's only right that the buyer can seek recompense from the seller. Waiting the statutory period for the agent to accept the parcel is lost before refunding is in my opinion a reasonable request, though almost all retailers will refund or replace much earlier than that to ensure no loss of goodwill.
The issue of insurance again makes this all a bit weird. In the Lego selling world it's typically something we leave to the buyer to decide, which is a bit odd if it's the seller's risk. And even if the seller is the one who decides, then it's still weird, because he decides this with the buyer's money. So either someone decides for someone else's risk, or someone decides with someone else's money.. :P
I do not explicitly offer insurance. Shipping cost is what it is. If the shipping does not include tracking or insurance normally, then I decide for myself if I want to insure it against loss. This would be *my* loss, not the buyer's. If it's like a $400 order, I am almost certainly going to insure it. This is a cost that I bear, which is not passed on to the buyer, because they aren't the ones benefiting from it.
--
Marc.
Even the smallest value stamp usually comes with insurance and the limits are specified within the T&Cs. Adding insurance on top is if you want to pay for more protection. It's only weird because it has become the norm within this little community to make insurance an optional extra that buyers must pay for. It's a little silly that any buyer has ever paid for it - they're already protected by law whether they're buying from a private individual or a business. The only difference is how to assert their rights if/when things go wrong.
I have placed over 300 orders for Lego parts, and not a single one went missing. I would rather risk an order being lost, one day, than having had to pay extra for insurance on all these 300 orders.
Of course, I also appreciate being able to choose paying for insurance when I prefer to do so.
I fully understand that the law protects the customer, and if not, then Paypal does. But I still really like being able to choose "I trust this seller" and save a few bucks.
If you've received 300 successful orders, none of them lost in post, imagine all of those came from the same seller. If the 301st went missing the seller should be in a secure enough financial position to refund you in full, irrespective of whether or not they or you paid for insurance. If, over 300 orders, they haven't made enough profit to cover the 301st should something go wrong, then they shouldn't be in business. The cost of insurance - whether by paying the carrier an extra fee or otherwise stumping up the cash when things go wrong - is a cost of being in business, and those who sidestep their obligations are operating from an unfair (and in the EU, illegal) position.
The way I see it, by opting out of insurance, the customer agrees not to enforce his legal rights to a refund in the (very) unlikely event that the order would be lost. He is still legally entitled to ask for a refund if he wishes to do so, in breach of this informal agreement.
Of course, customers in breach of this informal agreement could be prevented to select non-insured shipping methods in the future, or these methods might only be available to "trusted" customers with feedback-(100*ONR) > 10 for example, or each seller could set their criteria for each shipping method to be available. But this is overkill, overcomplicated and would lead to a ton of new issues.
if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
This point, I don't really get why that would be strange... To me, it would be very strange if both orders didn't arrive. Things can get lost in the mail, the chance is super small, but it is possible. For two shipments to get lost would be beyond coincidence for sure.
It is strange because that means you shipped out two packages to me on the same day when they could have been combined into one package. It is strange that I got my second package first and have not received the first ever. I've been a buyer for years and never had this problem, yet you claim the same but only 127 sells were on your site at the time of my purchase. I would have waited longer but I saw that your store closed down as I stated earlier. As for waiting time here it is Oct and no items. So how long should someone wait. To insinuate that the seller is the most trustworthy all the time is not a fair claim when this situation right here smells shady.
It's very unfortunate that a package would be delayed (or perhaps even lost), but I believe Teup's integrity should not be in doubt.
I have placed about 300 orders and shipped about 1400 myself (on various websites). So far, I have never seen a package disappear, as a customer or as a seller... but I certainly have seen orders take 1-2 months to reach their destination! It's rare, but it happens.
The rest were UK. 1 was Fraud and another turned up weeks later.
I've posted all over the world. Just a few of the countries. New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hong Kong, China, Singapore.
I was expecting more to go missing when I first started.