problems with Ebay seller engeika

[Liessa]

Dear all,

I've purchased two pens and a bottle of ink from generally-well-reviewed Ebay member engeika. This was halfway through April. I received a tracking number but the parcel never showed up here. Instead it was returned to Japan, presumably by Dutch customs. Final delivery according to tracking was 5 May.

On the 7th, I sent a message to the email address included in their tracking number email to which I never got a reply. Then I sent a message through Ebay on the 13th, and then I got (on 14 May):

I will let you know when i get the package and also will contact the post office to let you know the reason.Please wait for few days

Then on the 28th of May I sent a message that it was well beyond 'a few days' now. On the 29th I got this message:

Sorry for the late reply.
But the post office reply is very late in japan as there are many procedure to follow and lot of emailing and phones has to be done. This hows ths systems works here.
We had sent your parcel properly but the post office of your country said that your address was invalid and thus they returned it back to us.
if you want us to resent it again to you please give your proper name, address, telephone number in English to us
I hope this helps and solves everything

Immediately I sent then them my correct address and phone number, assuming they would indeed (re)send my items. I was a bit surprised I didn't hear anything to that effect but the parcel could arrive any day now right?

On June 18 I send a message saying "I still have nothing please let me know what is going on".

To that I got a message "Thanks for your mail.I had already sent you items.Here is the tracking number.<>"
As I went to check I found that this was the old number, from the failed shipment. Nothing new seemed to have happenend!

The message I then sent was this:

That tracking number shows a parcel that has been returned to Japan. We discussed this issue already. Something went wrong with delivery. You asked me to provide my address and phone number, which I did. Here it is again:
[..]
As far as I can tell nothing new has happened since, and I don't seem to be closer to receive the items I have payed for over two months ago.
Please send me my items asap.

And got this:

Thanks for your mail.The item was sent to your following address,
<incorrect address>
I will check with post office and will let you know the situation when i get the package.
With regards,

At this point I was really fed up:

<explanation of how my address was wrong (house number was missing) and how it should be - inclusion of previous email mentioned above>

I then mailed you my address and told you I am still looking forward to receiving the items. I assumed you would then send the parcel to the correct address I supplied, but apparently nothing has happened since.

And now you are telling me I have to wait while you do the looking-into-process AGAIN?!

This is really abominable service. I trust you will make clearing this up your highest priority.

I have not heard from them since. I have asked for my money back

Clearly I have been too patient, as I now found that Paypal/Ebay can't help me with transactions that old, but is there anything I can still do?

Any tips welcome.

PS: I also emailed Ebay helpdesk because I can't give feedback on old transactions anymore either. That is a HUGE problem because it skews the data - anything that takes longer than six weeks and maybe never gets resolved automatically gets filtered?! Woah.

[jar]

Hang in there. All will work out. Sorry things did not work perfectly the first time.

[dannzeman]

If your Paypal payment was funded by a credit card you could try contacting their fraud department.

[Liessa]

Jar: turns out you were right - I did get my money back
That is, if you consider that 'working out': I'm still quite sad that I won't be getting the Tsuki-yo pen

Dan: not this time, but I'll change my settings to that effect. Thank you

I guess this was just the simplest way for them to get it over with, I understand that. Still I'm unsure what I could have done differently. Yes maybe 'jump on it, sent emails every day', but in my experience that's the ticket to 'this person is so annoying they are now banned to the bottom of my todolist'. At least I'm more aware of ebay timelines now.

You live you learn right?

[Paul-H]

Is that the guy that sell all the sailor pens, I tried a couple of times to contact him with queries about some of his pens and never once got a reply. Didn't risk any of my money after not getting any replies.

Paul

[Tony Rex]

Engeika is a volume seller. He pumps out Japanese pens online like no other. He would reply to questions like "How much is shipping for half a dozen Iroshizukus, two glass bottles and the rest in plastic bottles. Thanks" almost instantly. And at times he would delay sending you revised invoice with combine shipping calculated for days if you don't ask. IME... You cannot just click "ask for invoice", you need to email him via eBay messaging.

I'd buy from him no problem. Recommended.

PS: he has no control of your or any other country's customs.

[gwgtaylor]

Totally agree with Tony. I've had all my inquiries replied to in a timely manner. Taizo works very hard and provides pretty good customer service considering the volume he works in. I would buy again and have no reservations about recommending his ebay store to others. Think I've made seven or so purchases all a pleasure.

[youstruckgold]

Ditto above . Never a problem.

[Laura N]

I too have had a bad experience with Engeika. As have others. My experience is that if everything goes well, he's absolutely fine. But if there's a problem, then his communication and customer service do not measure up, in my opinion. There are other reports about this online, where they are allowed. His prices are good, and most transactions work out perfectly, I'm sure.

I'm saying this only to let the OP know that she is not alone.

[nico]

There is a piece of truth in every post. Taizo really is a volume seller. I think he is even selling more than he can manage to. You, who are contributing with your "no problem" experience, things are not that simple. You just did not buy enough times from him. You probably had no problems because you just experienced a seamless trade. The problems arise when you hit a faulty pen or something. It is basically not the same kind of situation. If you can say that you had to send a pen back and you got a new one with no questions a week later, it would count.

I have bought more than twenty pens and a lot of other stuff from Taizo. We become a sort of friends over the years. We were in contact when the tsunami hit Japan and we also offered him a financial help. I know it really does not matter. I just want to point out that our relationships were above standard. Taizo was always nice, communicative, posting packages on time. Prices were friendly including the excellent Japan postal service.

Everything was just perfect until the first faulty pen. It was a PG. The threading inside the cap was faulty and too short. It could not be completely screwed on leaving a big gap between the pen body and the cap. I wrote him about the problem. No reply. I wrote again. He could not understand the problem. I described it again with more details and examples, attached photos. No reply. Writing again. I was told to send the pen back, so I did. Long time no reply. Asking what is going wrong. I was told that it is not a problem but a common thing for Sailor pens. I told him, you saw the photos first, you understood the problem and you told me to send the pen back. I also have twenty other Sailors from you and no one has the same problem. If I try a cap from another pen, the problem disappears. There must be a problem with the cap threading. Did you really let me send the pen back just to come up with this? Well, what do you think was next? Right, no reply. When we got back in contact, the communication was going the same way. As other posters stated here, he kept forgetting previous communication. I do not believe he really could forget about me and this problem. Anyway, we were definitely moving in circles.

I asked him to send me the faulty pen back in the end. I thought better a faulty pen than nothing. To my biggest surprise, he did not even send the faulty pen back to me. It virtually took several months of waiting and writing to Taizo to get the pen posted.

When I got the pen after many months, it was a new pen so the problem was gone. I think the faulty pen had been lost somewhere in the process. It was a kind of happy end since I got a flawless pen. On the other hand, I lost a friend and a reliable pen seller. I feel I lost more than I gained.

[hari317]

There is a piece of truth in every post. Taizo really is a volume seller. I think he is even selling more than he can manage to. You, who are contributing with your "no problem" experience, things are not that simple. You just did not buy enough times from him. You probably had no problems because you just experienced a seamless trade. The problems arise when you hit a faulty pen or something. It is basically not the same kind of situation. If you can say that you had to send a pen back and you got a new one with no questions a week later, it would count.

I have bought more than twenty pens and a lot of other stuff from Taizo. We become a sort of friends over the years. We were in contact when the tsunami hit Japan and we also offered him a financial help. I know it really does not matter. I just want to point out that our relationships were above standard. Taizo was always nice, communicative, posting packages on time. Prices were friendly including the excellent Japan postal service.

Everything was just perfect until the first faulty pen. It was a PG. The threading inside the cap was faulty and too short. It could not be completely screwed on leaving a big gap between the pen body and the cap. I wrote him about the problem. No reply. I wrote again. He could not understand the problem. I described it again with more details and examples, attached photos. No reply. Writing again. I was told to send the pen back, so I did. Long time no reply. Asking what is going wrong. I was told that it is not a problem but a common thing for Sailor pens. I told him, you saw the photos first, you understood the problem and you told me to send the pen back. I also have twenty other Sailors from you and no one has the same problem. If I try a cap from another pen, the problem disappears. There must be a problem with the cap threading. Did you really let me send the pen back just to come up with this? Well, what do you think was next? Right, no reply. When we got back in contact, the communication was going the same way. As other posters stated here, he kept forgetting previous communication. I do not believe he really could forget about me and this problem. Anyway, we were definitely moving in circles.

I asked him to send me the faulty pen back in the end. I thought better a faulty pen than nothing. To my biggest surprise, he did not even send the faulty pen back to me. It virtually took several months of waiting and writing to Taizo to get the pen posted.

When I got the pen after many months, it was a new pen so the problem was gone. I think the faulty pen had been lost somewhere in the process. It was a kind of happy end since I got a flawless pen. On the other hand, I lost a friend and a reliable pen seller. I feel I lost more than I gained.

Thanks for sharing. Like you I have purchased from Taizo several several times.

I remember the days when I would win a Pilot and request him to send me a specific nib of that model, he would happily oblige. I think the operations are too big now. I used to buy nearly one pen a day from him in those days. I miss the old Taizo.

[nico]

Yes, Taizo never had a problem sending whichever nib size I asked for. In fact, it would have been a good strategy to bid on a B nib, which usually end lower, then ask for M or F.

[Tony Rex]

You, who are contributing with your "no problem" experience, things are not that simple. You just did not buy enough times from him. You probably had no problems because you just experienced a seamless trade.... Snip.... On the other hand, I lost a friend and a reliable pen seller. I feel I lost more than I gained.

Welcome to FPGeeks. I respect your input regarding Engeika in your first post here. However, this forum is for both negative and positive, and more importantly about the subject, not rubbishing others poster's experience. I invite you to read the forum rule. I hope you'll stay around beyond this thread on fpgeeks. That, I really do. Cheers.

Tony

[dannzeman]

You, who are contributing with your "no problem" experience, things are not that simple. You just did not buy enough times from him. You probably had no problems because you just experienced a seamless trade.... Snip.... On the other hand, I lost a friend and a reliable pen seller. I feel I lost more than I gained.

Welcome to FPGeeks. I respect your input regarding Engeika in your first post here. However, this forum is for both negative and positive, and more importantly about the subject, not rubbishing others poster's experience. I invite you to read the forum rule. I hope you'll stay around beyond this thread on fpgeeks. That, I really do. Cheers.

Tony

I don't think nico is "rubbishing" others' posts. I think he's trying to draw similarities and point out differences in circumstances and I think he does a good job doing it.

[Tony Rex]

Fair enough.

A few more remarks that I forgot. Taizo-san tends to "hide" the name of the item, perhaps to prevent research, but he always put the model number in the description. People need to really look into the real specs from the manufacturer before buying. For example, he listed the Platinum Hayakawa reissue Pencil as Solid 925 sterling silver although it isn't, and even put a comparison with GvFC sterling which is about four times the price.. and obscure stuff like Sailor emperor tab vs Nagahara vs naginata could cause confusion... And since he isn't ace answering noob questions, if there is even the slightest doubt you need to ask around first.

[nico]

Thank you, dannzeman. Of course, I did not want to "rubbish" opinion of anyone and I believe I did not do so. I agree that seamless trades make up majority. I wrote that I bought over twenty pens from Taizo myself. Always without any problems. I have no reason to offend others saying the same.

I just wanted to point out that an experience from a seamless trade is something different in comparison to the discussed issues. My repeated positive experience had nothing to do with the bad one I had to face in the end.

I am sorry if I offended anyone.

[Tony Rex]

Mate, none taken whatsoever.. And again, I do hope you stay around!

T

[Inginkpen]

I have purchased pens from engeika and haven't had a problem. However, I don't purchase a high volumes of pens And haven't had a problem like a defective pen.

[john]

I've purchased a few pens from Taizo, without any problem with him and the shipping is very fast. Within a week I can get the pen. He responses the inquiery very fast too.

[VertOlive]

Has anyone had recent experience with this seller? He seems to have the best price on a pen I want, but I'm not looking for headaches!

Thanks!