I had a similar scenario happen last year with a wrench set. Purchased it [BIN] and never got a tracking update or reply to any of my messages/emails [tried both]. Finally i had to file a dispute, again the seller never responded to it to defend himself, time lapsed on that and paypal gave me my money. A couple days went by and the wrench set finally arrived postmarked on the day the dispute ended. I think it was about 10 weeks after i had actually clicked the BIN button and paid. I shot the seller an ebay message that i had gotten the set, was horrified at the complete lack of communication and had of course resent the payment and finally got a reply back that 1 wrench was on backorder and they had emailed me long ago [never saw any communication before this]. You'd think electronic communication was difficult with the way some people act.
wchamberlain never had to file a dispute with me... he PM'ed me, and we worked it out just fine outside of paypal.
Something that you folks commenting don't know, is that these aren't the only two packages that wchamberlain has had go missing, and myself and the ebay seller aren't the only two that have had to foot the bill until the package turned up. It's pretty obvious there are some problems with the USPS system between here and there. Maybe it just has to do with inspection for Homeland Security or something.
Please keep in mind, I'm not saying wchamberlain did anything wrong by filing the claim, but the sellers didn't do anything wrong either.
Saying multiple sellers in a row lied about shipping their packages is quite a stretch IMO. A much more plausible explanation is that there are some serious problems with shipping from USA to wchamberlain's APO address.
I don't see anything nefarious here, just a need to require insurance and premium shipping, no exceptions. That way, both the buyer and seller are protected. I was just giving friendly advice, not trying to criticize wchamberlain on the transaction.
Once he responds back to the thread, I'm sure he'll agree that all of our communications were superb and there was no problem getting me to agree to a refund.
Now that wchamberlain knows there are some serious repeated issues getting his packages reliably on time due to USPS delays, it's probably a good idea to warn sellers in the future of what they may be in for, so arrangements can be made if there is to be another delay, and the sellers know the importance of using premium shipping, so that it is easy to track the packages, and file insurance claims if there is a loss.
The moral dilemma here for me is, do we hold the seller solely responsible on every occasion that a package goes missing? If the seller pays extra for tracking and insurance and can prove the package was dropped off, do they still hold liability financially, while the buyer holds no liability at all?
I have trouble agreeing that is fair. On the other hand, I feel that if someone pays for an item, they should recieve that item. The problem here is that the waters are muddied when it's two private sellers on the used market. If all of the sellers were retailers, there wouldn't be a shadow of a doubt... but I think we can all see why so many shy from shipping to APO addresses.
I didn't have a single problem refunding wchamberlain, because I was smart enough to insure the package, so no sweat off my back, only a little lost time... my question is more philosophical than related to this specific transaction.
