Shipping Damage and contents missing from box Ebay Buyer Protection Question

[mikeur86]

So I ordered a lot of 6 LEGO sets and when the box arrived it had a hole in the bottom which was covered with bubble wrap and taped. When I opened the box inside one of the sets were missing(the second most expensive set) and one of the bags was opened to the most expensive set and some pieces were floating around.

 

I took a dozen or so pictures and contacted the seller(who had a no return policy) The response I received was:

 

"Hi, I do apologize for how you received the package. And no the package was sealed and intaked when the post man picked it up I have that on video as I have a security camera on my porch and I look when packages are picked up. I make note that if buyers wants insurance on a package to request it before paying. I'm not responsible for how the post men handle packages as it clearly states on the selling page of all my items I sell on Ebay. However I can understand your frustration and disappointment that I can offer a refund of 40.00 dollars. Please let ne know if that is acceptable into this matter thank you."

 

I spent 250.00 on the auction and 35.00 on shipping. So they are trying to basically just refund my shipping. In my initial response I requested to ship the items back and receive a refund as stated before the second most expensive set was missing and the most expensive could possibly be missing pieces.

 

eBay has buyer protection but what does this do for me? Has anyone ever had an experience like this before? What happened? I know its not the sellers fault because I seriously doubt they would have shipped this to me the way it came.

 

I contacted the Post office and they stated that ebay has a complimentary 150.00 worth of insurance on all packages. Is this true? I had never heard of that.

 

Anyways what would you guys recommend?

[Fcbarcelona101]

I have not read the new insurance policy, but Buyer Protection should refund you all if you open a SNAD case and ship the items back.

[mikeur86]

Yeah I think I'm gonna have to do that. I've never encountered a issue like this before. It's very unfortunate. Some post man out there is putting together an Imperial Shuttle

[chinothegeeko]

I'd try my best to work it out with the seller first. Last resort open a case and you will be covered. 

[justafrog]

Yes, if you can't work it out with the seller, open a Significantly Not As Described (SNAD) case through eBay. DON'T return it until either the seller agrees to the return or eBay forces them to accept the return - you have to go through the steps.

 

Insurance is to protect the seller and is NOT a requirement for the buyer to pay, in spite of the many uninformed eBay sellers who try to say it is the buyer's responsibility. eBay will not accept that excuse - it's the seller's job to get the item to you intact, and their delivery company failed to do so, it's on them.

[metsrock507]

can you upload some pictures of the damage to the boxes? i'm curios to see, because it would be pretty easy to tell the difference between a faulty box and a tampered box. however my gut feeling is that the seller is trying to screw you.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Yeah - the seller is responsible for this. Its not always fair, but my thing is: If you are a responsible seller, you will have insurance on your stuff. You can't ask for the buyer to take care of it.

 

I am dealing with the same thing pretty much right now - a seller not wanting to do anything about it. 

 

Also, USPS is a bunch of frickin retards. They marked on my shipping tracking that a notice was left. No notice was left - they delivered another frickin package the same DAY!

 

USPS told me... sorry? I am pretty sure my postman stole it. I have had tons of problems with them leaving notices about stuff when I am home in my living room. They are just too lazy to get out of the truck and set it on my doorstep or ring the doorbell.

[mikeur86]

Here are some photos of what it looked like. Its hard for me to believe that anyone would ship a box like this. 

[justafrog]

Wow, that's really amazingly bad. I'd love to blame the post office, but when they damage something and notice it they don't try to cover it up with bubble wrap and hope you don't notice. They're actually pretty good about admitting it - they generally slap a postal form right to it saying, "We're sorry, the tiger we keep in the basement got hungry and ate your package" or something like that.

 

That's a weird one. Doesn't change my advice on what to do, though - the seller was responsible to get the items to you, it didn't happen, it's their loss (you may have to pay the return shipping to him through the eBay claim, but if you ask eBay does sometimes pick up the tab on that for non-problem buyers.)

[mikeur86]

Yeah its a shame. Hopefully it all goes through smoothly

[Qaz]

Your seller needs to understand that once you tell eBay that your purchase was Significantly Not As Described - SNAD - he's SOL.  I'm surprised he sent $250 worth of LEGO sets via USPS without insurance.  Especially if he charged you that much for shipping.  Based on his feedback, have other buyers had problems?

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Your seller needs to understand that once you tell eBay that your purchase was Significantly Not As Described - SNAD - he's SOL.  I'm surprised he sent $250 worth of LEGO sets via USPS without insurance.  Especially if he charged you that much for shipping.  Based on his feedback, have other buyers had problems?

 

Sending Anything via USPS without insurance is asking for problems.

[justafrog]

Sending Anything via USPS without insurance is asking for problems.

 

I shipped 3100+ packages to domestic destinations via USPS last year on one eBay account alone, and insured none of them.

 

I had two damaged packages - both of them taught me I wasn't packaging QUITE well enough, we changed our procedure in both cases, and have had neither of those problems again. I refunded both buyers with my apologies. Cost me about $50 total if I'm recollecting correctly. Insurance on 3100 packages would have cost me, hold on, let me carry the 9... yeah, a LOT more than that.

 

Once you know how to package, it's hard for the USPS to damage things. Not impossible (one seller I know had them jam a forklift blade through something she sent - even my packaging probably wouldn't prevent that   ).

 

I did insure a few overseas packages against loss before I signed up for the GSP in January. Naturally, none of those packages were "lost in the mail", only the overseas ones I didn't insure.

[Diabolos80]

I insure anything over $150. It costs like 2 bucks through ups, and ups is usually cheaper anyway for Lego worth $150+. You know, cuz the boxes are huge.

But anything small goes USPS w/o insurance. Also, usps has changed some services recently, and domestic priority now includes $150 insurance. International priority now includes insurance, too, but I don't remember how much.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

I shipped 3100+ packages to domestic destinations via USPS last year on one eBay account alone, and insured none of them.

 

I had two damaged packages - both of them taught me I wasn't packaging QUITE well enough, we changed our procedure in both cases, and have had neither of those problems again. I refunded both buyers with my apologies. Cost me about $50 total if I'm recollecting correctly. Insurance on 3100 packages would have cost me, hold on, let me carry the 9... yeah, a LOT more than that.

 

Once you know how to package, it's hard for the USPS to damage things. Not impossible (one seller I know had them jam a forklift blade through something she sent - even my packaging probably wouldn't prevent that   ).

 

I did insure a few overseas packages against loss before I signed up for the GSP in January. Naturally, none of those packages were "lost in the mail", only the overseas ones I didn't insure.

 

Oh I am not worried about them damaging stuff - flat out loosing it is more like it.

 

Also we have a rep from USPS at work. She told me putting Fragile on the box means the USPS postal workers throw it harder.

[justafrog]

Oh I am not worried about them damaging stuff - flat out loosing it is more like it.

Same 3100 plus packages, zero losses. Had there been a few of those, however, still much cheaper to pay for them myself versus buying insurance on thousands of shipments.

[justafrog]

I should add, there's nothing wrong with choosing to purchase insurance in some cases, but I do challenge that sending "anything" without insurance is asking for trouble. Insurance is most intelligently used on items we can't self insure through, not for every package. In my experience, of course, but I do have a lot of that to draw on.