Seller's Beware! January 25, 2007, 03:01:57 PM I don't normally do this, but this guy is rediculous. Do NOT under ANY cirspoogestance sell to "ccstud16" from Chicago, IL. Real name:Craig Meseko from Tinley ParkHe is cheap, a jerk, and incredibly rude. He only pays for stuff as cheap as possible after talking to you about for a month then expects magical overnight deliveries on the week before Christmas. See him drag me through the mud here:http://www.turboford.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=000899I was 100% in the right and because he did not LISTEN he wanted his money back, so I refunded it immediately. And that was the thanks I got. Save yourself the headache. Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #1 – January 25, 2007, 04:06:01 PM Now that is some slow Christmas shipping.I also enjoyed his CAPS LADEN rant.I've got a question regarding shipping policies. Why don't you require buyers to purchase a tracking number?If a part is "lost" (legitimately or the buyer just claims it never came) without a tracking number, the seller is up sh*t creek, not the buyer - correct? I'm pretty much a buyer, so I don't have a lot of experience. Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #2 – January 25, 2007, 05:00:00 PM OK question.Since when do you not get a tracking number w/ UPS Ground Shipping?Is that a policy they changed in the past few months?EVERY time I have shipped something UPS Ground, it had tracking number. Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #3 – January 25, 2007, 05:41:21 PM 100% with Jeremy B on that...Regards, Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #4 – January 25, 2007, 06:00:44 PM UPS Standard Ground from Residential/UPS Store to Residential does not automatically come with a tracking #. It's been like that since at least June 06 and it's also cheaper (about $5 average). When I give quotes on any large items (such as a radiator) I tell them Standard Ground, Tracked Ground, 3-Day Select, 2-Day Select, etc. and let the customer choose. The sender is not up a creek, as we still have all of the UPS Paperwork showing a box was shipped. If no truck made a delivery to the address we can still claim the insurance. It save quite a bit of money on large items, especially cross-country. Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #5 – January 25, 2007, 06:02:26 PM Then it is something "recent". I stopped using UPS for my mounts about that time. Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #6 – January 25, 2007, 06:40:35 PM Man, you just can't get a break, can you?This was one of the main things I was worrying about when I was thinking about parting a car. It kinda killed that idea.People are stupid (me included sometimes:hick:). Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #7 – January 25, 2007, 06:55:46 PM No, I can't catch a break. It sucks. Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #8 – January 25, 2007, 07:57:46 PM Oh, Michael, don't even get me started on impatient fvcksticks that can't comprehend that buying something online does not make it magically and instantly come out of their printer. The following rant is likely to talk me in circles, repeat itself, and simply reek of my frustration at human beings:I now send absolutely nothing without a tracking number and delivery confirmation. It costs more, but it's more than paid for itself several times over by thwarting people's attempts at fraudulent chargebacks via PayPal. You think it's hard selling stuff, Michael, try selling it from Canada to USA, where the US customs office (NOT the Canadian customs office, NOT Canada Post) introduces delays. I do not even offer a "no tracking number" option anymore because no matter how many times you tell them directly, and no matter how many times you say it in an auction or advertisp00get, the very first thing they ask for after NOT paying for a tracking number is, you guessed it, a tracking number.I could send things faster AND cheaper by using airmail, but experience has taught me that customers do not appreciate this fact at all. They want a tracking number, dammit, and the cost and slower shipping method (Expedited surface parcel) required to get one. I do not use UPS or FedEx because they charge the receiver what amounts to daylight robbery for a "brokerage fee" (anywhere between $20-$60 and up for more expensive items) for anything that crosses the border, so my options are limited to Canada Post. I do offer express shipping, which is much faster and also includes tracking, but nobody ever buys it (well, maybe 5% of my customers do). They pay for basic services and expect premium returns. They buy something on Dec 20th, pay for surface postage, and expect it for Christmas, then write me on CHRISTMAS DAY telling me that I ruined everyone's Christmas by not having their package there in time. My eBay inbox is literally CLOGGED with this bullshiznit from about Dec 20th to Jan 1st. And absolutely NONE of it would be necessary if people would just read the auctions and the emails I send them as soon as they purchase before writing. In 8 years of selling online I have had exactly two parcels legitimately go missing. One disappeared without a trace, the other was sent to Lithuania and after about 8 months (I had forgotten completely about it) it showed up in my mailbox, stamped "Undeliverable" in Lithuanian.For the past three years in a row I have had people attempt chargebacks on Christmas Day because their recent purchases weren't there in time to be under the tree. All three were thwarted when I proved to PayPal a few days later that the packages were indeed received, but people don't understand (or care) that when they file a chargeback on somebody, right or wrong, PayPal screws up that person's account for WEEKS. Then, to add insult to injury, PayPal charges ME the $10 fee to cancel the chargeback, saying they worked hard in my favour to prove the person got the item, even though it's ME that must do all the work (provide tracking number, inform PayPal when item arrives, etc).I tell you, between people being absolutely retarded when it comes to shipping expectations and people being absolutely retarded when it comes to reading the instructions provided with a sequencer (this is mainly Mustang guys, more on that in a bit), and people writing demanding that I sell them an item for half its advertised price because they don't want to pay more, I often wonder whether this whole thing is even worth doing. I have not checked my email once in about 5 years without getting at least one "where's my item" email. I actually have a form email I send back. If any of you have bought from me and wrote soon after buying, this will look familiar. If it does, shame on you :[quote = Carmen's Form Letter]Hello xxxxxxx...As I told you in the email I sent you on XXXXX, and as stated in the auction, your item is being shipped from Canada to USA. This results in shipping delays as the item must pass through USA customs. Your item was shipped on XXXXX, as promised. As you were told, the normal shipping time for the shipping method you chose is 7-14 Business days (business days do not include weekends or holidays, and "normal" means just that - "normal", not "guaranteed"). Faster shipping was available but you chose the slower shipping method. So far it's only been X business days, so your item is not "late" yet.[/quote]Starting around Dec 1st I usually add this just before the "faster methods were available" bit:[quote = More of Carmen's form letter]As I'm sure you are aware, the postal system is currently in its annual state of "Christmas Constipation", meaning that things move very slow during the holidays. Because of this your delivery time will likely be toward the long end of the normal standard, if not even longer.[/quote]To make things worse, even after sending that form letter, about 50% of the people that receive it write back two days later with "I'M STILL WAITING FOR MY ITEM. YOU HAVEN'T CONTACTED ME SINCE I BOUGHT. PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY OR I WILL REPORT YOU TO EBAY, BEAT UP YOUR MOTHER, KICK YOUR DOG, FLATTEN YOUR TIRES, AND (the most dreaded of all,) LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK.No form letter would be able to project my anger when I receive these ones, so they get answered personally (and believe me, I can get personal).Now, as for the ones that can't follow instructions: Up until recently I had a sequencer kit especially for 96-04 Mustangs. Part of this kit was a pair of wire "pigtails" to insert into the factory innermost sockets in order to give the car the required three lights per side. Problem is, it seems that Mustang owners as a whole are entirely incapable of properly inserting this wire, and of the very few that do get it right, many are incapable of realizing that there may be corrosion or casting flashes inside the factory socket, and that the only cure is a new socket. They stuff the wires in, connect the sequencer, and voila - the inner lights don't work. My sequencers are designed to delay the center and outer lights, creating a sequencing effect. They have no control whatosever over the innermost lights. If the innermost lights are not working it is absolutely, positively, not the sequencer's fault. The sequencer does, however, require that inner light to be working in order to work itself (this is actually a limitation of the Mustang's turn signal flasher, not the sequencer itself).Tell this to a customer when their sequencer does not work the way they expect. In fact, don't bother telling them. I already have - the entire second page of the Mustang-specific instructions, before the actual installation instructions even begin, is dedicated to this problem. In red ink, bold letters, huge font, and everything. And about 99% of the people with the inner socket problem don't see it. The other 1% write and say "I read the second page but I don't think that's my problem". Even though the page clearly states that if the inner lights don't work that's the only thing that COULD POSSIBLY BE the problem.So they either A) Try to adjust the sequencer to fix a problem that isn't with the sequencer, usually resulting in overturned/stripped adjuster screws and subsequently a destroyed sequencer, even though this is warned against in big, bold letters in several places in the instructions, or B) Write me and hound me for two weeks insisting that the sequencer is the problem before they finally decide to try new sockets. That in itself then leads to three possible scenarios: A) They expect me to pay for their new sockets which would kind of be like expecting a camshaft company to pay for your new pushrods because installing the cam didn't fix the bent rod you already had, B) The system now works great, or C) The inner lights now work, but the sequencer doesn't because the installer destroyed the sequencer's trimmer screws by trying to adjust it for something it couldn't compensate for.Seriously, the Mustang guys got so bad I stopped including the wires and now require them to find their own sockets.Anyway, enough ranting. People suck. Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #9 – January 26, 2007, 12:02:23 AM I printed your rant and framed it in my office! I can't even imagine how frustrating that is. It's bad enough when I have to explain that a custom decal is just that, CUSTOM. I have to MAKE it first. I agree 100 million percent, people suck! Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #10 – January 26, 2007, 09:53:24 AM Quote from: Aerobird Motorsports;125811I printed your rant and framed it in my office! I can't even imagine how frustrating that is. It's bad enough when I have to explain that a custom decal is just that, CUSTOM. I have to MAKE it first. I agree 100 million percent, people suck!That's another thing people don't seem to understand: I am not some big multinational conglomerate with a million of these things in stock. I make 'em one at a time, after the order has been placed. Sometimes I will "d" a few sequencers when sales slow down, but with my LED lights (that now outsell the sequencers) I cannot do so because of the custom colour combinations I offer. I can't stock up on red/blue because I might have a run on amber/white orders.I also don't keep the car running, waiting for me to jump into it and rush to the post office as soon as the customer clicks "submit". The post office is a 20 mile round trip from here, and that's just the rural drop-off place. If I need actual services (such as if, for some reason, I can't use online shipping tools) it's a 60 mile round trip to the nearest full service office. I generally make two trips to the rural post office per week, and one to the full service one.The worst, though, is the fact that these people can't understand that I have a life outside of my computer and eBay. They write 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, to ask questions that were already answered for them, and get upset when they don't get an immediate response. Far too often I'll get 10 emails (getting progressively nastier or more desperate) in the run of 10 minutes from one person, two or three days after they ordered, asking why they haven't gotten their parcel yet and why I haven't returned their emails.This is why I do not provide my phone number. I used to, but several years ago I axed that idea right quick. I simply got tired of the phone ringing at 3:00AM on a Sunday or holiday with a Mustang guy saying "My inner lights don't work". Maybe some day if this ever becomes lucrative enough to have an actual office, I'll get a dedicated phone line, but I can guarantee the thing would be turned off every evening at 5 and not turned on again until 9 the next morning.I reiterate: People suck Quote Selected
Seller's Beware! Reply #11 – January 26, 2007, 10:20:56 AM I get emails all the time asking what my phone # is. If you can't see it at the top of EVERY PAGE on my website, I don't want to sell you parts. The Post Office in my town isn't even open Saturdays. My biggest pet peeve are people that will call 3 times in a row and won't leave a message. That drives me bananas! Quote Selected
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