It all started from here: http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/10743-What-is-a-reasonable-price-to-pay-for-a-PFM-today?p=121681#post121681. For the longest time I wanted to get my PFM and could not find one, so recently I saw this PFM auction on for one. I did a couple of bids, and it was the first time I tried out some sniping software and accidentally became the highest bidder. I sucked it up and decided to honor the deal and chalk it up to me not knowing about sniping software. I was looking forward to enjoying the pen. Little did I realize that the story was just beginning. Since the pen had the description “Crud buildup on nib”, I decided to send the pen to Grandmia pens for repair which I mentioned clearly to the seller. When grandmia pen's emailed me a days after I found out:
- Pen was stuck at customs and I had to pay additional 32 pounds
- The nib of the pen was bent and seems to have been adjusted.
Needless to say I was a bit peeved, look at the photo below of the nib:
pfm nib 003.JPG
I sent an email to the seller of the pen using the email she used as paypal email telling her of the extra costs I had to pay and I got no response. I was really unhappy so I left her a less than stellar review on eBay and here is the response I got:
Dear kianseong,
The correct way to handle this was to let me know what happened before you left the unfair feedback. So unfair. I am no expert on this item and I took the pictures of all angles. Where was your responsibility in asking about these concerns Before you placed bids? I reported this action to eBay to have them try to remove this negative towards me. I would have worked with you like I had before when you asked me to send this item to another country other than your own. It should have been shipped to you first so you could have saved yourself extra fees for having it repaired. How old are you?
- vintiquestateservices
and my response was that I did send an email to her first but I got no response, plus what had my age got to do with anything and she responded:
Dear kianseong,
Okay, I never received any additional emails from you after you asked me to provide tracking info. I just went back to check any deleted messages I might have inadvertently deleted, but none there. You wrote:
"On the shipping if you check your email it actually cost me more as I got taxed."
Now how would I possibly know this would happen? I do not ship overseas that much and I do not know about these additional taxes and fees as I am still learning. So, again, I feel the feedback you left was an unreasonable action. If you had taken the time to read my feedback history, you might have came to some kind of realization that I might not be that person you are trying to make me out to be. I would have returned all fees and given your money back if you were dissatisfied with the results. If you had read my policy it states "money back guaranteed after 14 days".
This makes me not want to open my auctions to overseas clients because of this. It's not worth it as I pride myself on my feedback rating and so do any potential clients that may bid on any of my futue auctions.
The age reference? Yeah, I thought you might of been too young to realize that people in the real world tend to make genuine mistakes and an adult might have known this and to ask questions about any concerns before being too ready to defile somebody's integrity. Enjoy your pen.
Kind regards,
Judy Heyerly
dba Vintique Estate Services
I wrote back saying this:
Dear vintiquestateservices,
This is the email that I sent, which I retrieved from my mailbox:
Pen stuck in customs
Low Kian Seong <lowks@lowkster.com>
Mar 18 (2 days ago)
to heyerlyr
Hi,
Just to let you know the pen is stuck in customs in UK and needs an additional charge of £34.00 because it was not labelled "For Repair". I am going to pay for the additional charges imposed by customs.
Thanks.
The email used is: heyerlyr@msn.com
Did I get that email wrong ? I assumed that personally trying to reach out to you in your personal email would get a faster response.
You know what, I just felt bad because 2 things happened:
1. It reached UK and it got stuck in customs because the repairer claimed that the box was not marked as "For Repair", so I had to pay an additional 34 pounds for the customs.
2. The nib was slightly bent and this too I had to pay extra to get repaired. You said I did not bother to ask. I would argue how am I supposed to ask for something which I don't know about. You don't know what you don't know. I believed from your 100% reputation that I did not have to ask this although the picture was not really clear. This is the picture of the nib that the repairer sent to me. You can see from the nib picture that the nib was bent and adjusted.
I hope that you can understand the frustration too on my side, as I had to fork out additional unanticipated cost. That being said, if this is your livelihood, I am willing to forget everything and chalk it up my own bad luck. Kindly let me know if I can change the rating and I will change it to something less damaging and I will do it. I don't want to be responsible for other potential overseas customers loosing out. I am just an unhappy client that's all.
Thank you.
- kianseong
where in finally I got:
Dear kianseong,
Again, I never received this email. I have no reason to lie. I would of replied immediately. But you wouldn't know that just like I wouldn't know about how customs work. This is why I am now done with International buyers through eBay because their policy only works for the buyers and they don't support the sellers. It's wrong because people like me who only want the best for their clients go unnoticed their hard work and are considered the "bad guys". Look, it's already done. I would have worked all this out with you in the beginning of the problem if I had known. I must suck as a seller for not knowing all this.
I will have to live with this "hit" from you and just hope my future clients will realize some people just can't be happy no matter how you try and fix it.
Judy
- vintiquestateservices
Wow, that is my first time buying a fountain pen from EBay and that is probably going to be my last for a long long time. She insisted that I should have asked about the nib which I explained to her how was I supposed to ask about something I don't know plus she had a very good reputation. It's seriously just too scary out there.
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