The following is a comprehensive list of communications I have had with “eojig71” a.k.a. Matt Lucero. On March 20th I purchased a “Lego Slave 1”:1 from the seller. I paid that day but unfortunately I paid via my checking account rather than using a credit card. As such, it takes time for the payment to “clear”. My fault, not the end of the world. This precipitated the first message from the seller inquiring about the “uncleared” payment on March 22nd:
bq. _Just a heads up I don’t know if you know this but your payment is pending through paypal. As far as I know on my side my paypal is totally clear and unrestricted. Email me back and let me know what is going on. Thank you._
I wasn’t aware of the issue and was grateful for the information. I wrote back the same day (March 22nd):
bq. _Hi,_
bq. _Yeah, I noticed that. I think it’s because I payed from a bank account. PayPal expects it to clear on the 24th. I guess I should have used a CC. 🙂 Anyhow, as long as it’s here by the 29th (my son’s birthday) it’s all good._
bq. _Thanks a lot for inquiring._
bq. _Regards,_
bq. _Pat_
I didn’t hear anything from the seller and assumed it would ship on the day the payment cleared so on March 29th I wrote:
bq. _Hi,_
bq. _Just checking to verify the Lego set shipped. The payment cleared on 3/24 and I haven’t heard from you since._
bq. _Thanks,_
bq. _Pat_
I heard back from the seller:
bq. _Hey, friend I am sorry to say I have not shipped it yet.Your payment did not show that it cleared on my side till friday afternoon.My shipping days are friday before lunch. All regards for your son’s birthday as this will not be shipped until this Friday the 31st when I ship off another load of Ebay stuff.I have specific days for shipping becuase I have fridays off and otherwise I would live at post office everyday._
It turns out the item had not shipped yet and would not for a few more days. Apparently he only ships on Fridays. This is the first I had heard of this policy of his so I wrote back:
bq. _Hi Matt,_
bq. _Yeah, well, the 24th is a Friday so that’s understandable why you didn’t see that it cleared… Would have been nice to know that you only ship on Friday’s (not in your emails or in the auction description), but what’s done is done. Please let me know when it ships._
bq. _Thanks,_
bq. _Pat_
Time rolled by and I assumed that the item shipped on the 31st as he said it did. On April 7th, there was still no package and no message from the seller. I decided it was time for another follow-up:
bq. _Hi,_
bq. _The item still has not arrived yet and it’s a week after it should have shipped. Can I get a status please? How was it shipped and when? Got a tracking #?_
bq. _Thanks,_
bq. _Pat_
The 7th was a Friday so it was understandable that I might not get a response until after the weekend. The weekend came and went and I checked to see if he had been online. He had since he posted new auctions on Sunday (the 9th.) I figured I’d send a message again to try and get a follow-up:
bq. _Hello,_
bq. _It’s been over 10 days since I last heard from you regarding the status of my purchase. If you have not shipped the item, please refund my money immediately and I will purchase through other means (which in retrospect is what I should have done in the first place.) If you have shipped the item, please give me details about the shipment (method, date shipped, tracking number, etc.) According to your last message (on the 29th) the item was set to ship on the 31st of March and I’m inclined to believe that it should have been delivered by now._
bq. _I’m looking forward to a response and am curious why you didn’t respond to my inquiry from April 7th when you have obviously been online since then since you posted new auctions yesterday._
bq. _Regards,_
bq. _Pat_
In retrospect, I probably could have phrased the above a bit more nicely but I think the response I got was way out of bounds:
bq. _Listen up friend, I told you that I sent it, it’s flat rate shipping not priority, that was listed in the auction. When you go flat rate shipping it takes up to 10 days and it has not been the 10th day yet. I want you to remember, Iam not 100% on ebay for nothing. I will also add that you’re pending paypal payment did not clear till Friday and you wanted the item the following Wednesday for your son’s birthday! What were you thinking? I have specific shipping days for as much as I sell otherwise I would be living at the post office every day. If you want to make idle threats and say you should of went with someone else’s auction then I will tell you this don’t bid on another one of my auctions. Iam not responsible for what the usps does. Your money is insured through paypal. I have nothing to fear, you’re going to feel silly when you have the item in your hands in a couple of days if not today. I just want to remind you of one thing friend, don’t get any fancy ideas about leaving a negative because a negative only gets a negative. Sincerely, Eojig71 100% on EBAY!_
To which I responded:
bq. _Okay, so, that’s a nice response._
bq. _First, your last message to me was on March 29th. In that message, I requested notification of shipment (which you stated in the message on the 29th would be on the 31st.) No message was forthcoming. I then sent a message on the 7th which went unanswered. No biggie. I thought you might be out of town on the weekend. If you have documentation of another message to me, please provide it because I never got it._
bq. _As for the screw-up w.r.t. the payment, I acknowledge that is my problem. I did not make idle threats about going with another person’s auction and I don’t know how you get that. If I had known about the payment I made taking time to clear and if I knew that you only shipped on Fridays I would have done something different. However, what’s done is done and here we are._
bq. _I’m not quite sure what to say about your threat of retaliatory feedback…_
bq. _Look, I wanted information. I got it. Thanks. As for the rest, whatever._
bq. _Pat_
The package arrived today (the 11th) and Jacob was totally stoked. Here’s what I wrote to the seller:
bq. _Hi,_
bq. _This message is too large for ebay’s response system so it’s being split into multiple messages…_
bq. _First off, I just wanted to let you know the package arrived today. The item was in great shape and as described. My son was very excited and has been excitedly building it all afternoon._
bq. _What I find really interesting is the fact that the postmark on the package says that the package was shipped on April 3rd (a Monday) rather than March 31st (a Friday) when you said it would be shipped. Also, I’ll remind you that in a message to me you stated that you can only ship on Fridays due to work constraints. Now, I don’t really care. What’s a few extra days when it was already past the date that I was hoping it would be here. But it does beg a few obvious questions that I won’t bother to ask… Just to recap. Payment cleared on the 24th (at 9:26:21 PST) and the item shipped on April 3rd._
bq. _What I do want to know however is why you weren’t straight with me about when you shipped it. If you forgot or couldn’t for some reason that would be fine. All you had to do was give me a status. Yet what I got was threats of retaliatory feedback. I’ll have you know that as a seller, I ALWAYS leave feedback for the buyer after payment is received. My 100% feedback is legitimate. I can’t be so certain of yours._
bq. _So, in closing, maybe your having a bad day or a bad week. Maybe there is some circumstance going on in your life that would explain the tone in your last message. I don’t know — only you do. And if that’s the case, let me know if you so choose. But what I really want to know is WHY I should not leave you anything other than positive feedback (despite your threats) as I feel that you have not been entirely straightforward._
bq. _BTW, just so you know, I’ve got all of the correspondence between us posted at:_
bq. _http://www.patsoffice.com/ebay/eojig71_
bq. _That link is nothing that is public, but will be used as an explanation if necessary._
bq. _Regards,_
bq. _Pat_
Again, I could have probably phrased things a bit more nicely but there is the nut of it… Yeah, the dig about the feedback was a little cheap, but oh well.
[1]http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6044391683
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