salamander2

BEWARE of half.com As a seller. that place is a mecca for fraud buyers! Sure I sold my SEALED SALO DVD for 250 bucks, mailed it out with a DC and insurance, thought no problem, a month later, half says they will deduct the fee of SALO out of my account for the bidder claimed they never recieved it! i emailed half, saying that the DC shows it was delivered, I even bought insurance, and their canned reply was "thank you for your info. unfortunatly, since the buyer did a charge back to us, we have to deduct the fee off your account"! BS! I tried to contact the buyer, to ask him to at least sign the post office insurance form, but he never responded back! I am out of SALO!

Oh, get this, I had a sealed WILLIE WONKA when it was OOP, the guy bought it, then WB announced the reissue of it, then TWO MONTH later, I get half.com deduct that fee, saying the buyer filed a complaint saying i didnt sell gim the item of stated quality. I said it was nw, unopened, what more they want? Half said the buyer was upset it was used and damaged. I asked them to tell the buyer (there is no real commun ication between buyer and seller there), to send the DVD back to me, and guess what, the DVD WAS opened (it was sealed when I sen it) and it had skid marks ALL OVER the disc, like a cat played with it or something.

Or get this. I was selling anchor bays cheapo version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST DVD. The image and the description on half.com's site, as well as my description clearly stated it was NOT the disney one, but the anchor bay one. so guess what? someone buys it, and 2 weeks later filed complaint, saying I LIED in my description that it was Disney. I told them to mail the item back, BUT I NEVER did, nor did the site and the picture of the DVD in half's site stated it was disneys. The person never mailed the dvd back, slapped me a negative, called me a crook and a liar (??!!) and I told half her comment is wrong, your site even states this is NOT the disney one, but they said "customer has a right to file chargeback if unhappy with product"!

I stopped selling at half for things like this happens once too many often. Lost packages despite DC showing otherwise, New items being returned as damaged/opened. That place is the worst for sellers!At least ebays, if a scam artist try to pull something, and since I only take money order, all they can do is give me a negative feedback, but I know that honest buyers positive feedback will always push that down.

So becareful at half when you sell that are OOP dvd of SALO or ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. You may never see the payment, and you will be out of a OOP dvd that you could have sold at ebays instead.

CaptDS9E

Youve had a bad streak. Glad i havent had that

capt

boc4ever

I had a situation happen to me recently that made me sour as a seller on half.com too!

I sold a sealed copy of a Young Ones video for around $15. The confirmation came through as the Young Ones video, and I packaged it up and sent it to the person. All was fine and well until I got a "complaint filed" e-mail saying I sent the wrong item. For some reason they thought they were supposed to receive the "Are you being Served" box set for $15, which retails for over $100.

I never had the box set they were trying to purchase, and I find it hard to believe they didn't notice when the confirmation came through for the Young Ones tape. I was quite annoyed because I hadn't done anything wrong, and this person obviously was confused. I thought maybe there was a technical error on the part of half.com, so I replied that "I sent the right item" and called half.com to tell them what was going on.

They seemed empathetic to my situation and recognized the person had made a mistake. To make a long story short, I offered to grant a refund if the item was returned to me in the condition that it was sent. Next thing you know, I received the item back (fortunately in same condition), and half.com sent me an e-mail warning me of my "blunder" and to "be more careful" in the future. They did deduct the shipping cost, so I had $13 deducted from my checking account.

The seller admitted at one point that they made a mistake but refused to discuss the situation with me. He/she just kept pushing for the refund. This is the part that didn't sit well with me. I had never had a problem prior to that, and I was concerned I'd get negative feedback, even though I didn't do anything wrong.

Cheddarmuff

Thanks again for the free copy of SALO




Sounds like you are consistently on the short side of the stick..I would take these items up with you credit card company (for items they are deducting for).

Funk

That f'n sucks. I didn't think they would do that. I thought that selling through half.com was safe. This means that, to me, Half.com is just as dangerous as PayPal. They will deduct money from your checking account at their leisure.

Time to get rid of that direct deposit. I knew I shouldn't have changed it but that $1.50 check fee sucks. Guess I'll box up the rest of the books I have listed and drop them off at the local hospital book worm. At least then I know our checking account is safe.

huzefa

Screw half.com, just use ebay. That way you get your money directly and don't have to return it for dumb reasons. Never leave any funds lying around in your paypal acct either.

Easy

That won't help you. I once authorized a refund for an item damaged in shipment but they had just sent a check and I had not sold anything else. After a period of time (I forget exactly how long) they just charged my credit card for the amount. I think they require you to list a credit card - even if you only sell.

Eric F

I buy and sell on half.com. Yes, sometimes you lose, but that's the cost of doing business on there.

The policy isn't all bad. For example, I ordered a game from someone (with a high rating) well over a month ago and never received it. He claims he shipped it, I have no reason to disbelieve him, but he refused to offer me a refund (why? I don't know). So now I filed a claim, using up 1 out of the 3 over a $15 item.

Over a $250 purchase I can understand why you'ld be hesitant, but over a $15 item? Just refund the money (this guy does alot of business off there too). Now it's just going to take longer for me to get a refund and they're going to deduct it from his account anyways, and get a bad rating from me to boot.

spyzdope

I disagree with that. If a buyer does not choose insurance, it is not the seller's fault if the item is lost in the mail. If I were to sell something on eBay, and then the seller declines the insurance option, , I would be pretty pissed if the seller tried to get a charge back from an item that was lost in the mail. If I had proof-of-mailing, then the buyer would have no argument what so ever.

Of course, you're not talking about eBay. I don't think half.com even gives a seller the ability to list insurance as an option. It would help if half.com would allow you to offer people more shipping options than media mail and expedited. I can't understand why they don't make it easy to offer first class, and insurance options with your items. Especially since first class usually only costs 50 cents more than media mail for regular DVDs.

Funk

Excellent point. I deleted my credit card information too. They don't require a credit card. However, who knows if they actually delete the card information or just 'hold on to it for safe keeping.'

Anyway, credit card is still safer than linking to a checking account, in my opinion. I'd rather fight a credit card charge (that I never authorized) than try to get back money from our checking account that was deducted.

The funny thing is that I have no intention of screwing anyone on half.com or ebay.com -- I have 430 feedback with no negs/neuts. I just absolutely refuse to trust eBay/PayPal/Half.com's with my money. Way too many horror stories.

Eric F

It's not up to the buyer to "choose insurance". It's completely up to you as the seller to either buy it or not. Having proof of shipment means nothing as well, because there's no guarantee anyone actually received it. I do think it's despicable of ebay/half to chargeback your account if you have proof of delivery like a signed receipt, but if someone claims damage there's really nothing you can do. It's stated right there in their policy. That's why I don't sell anything very expensive on there, and if someone asks for their money back I give it to them.

If you don't like their policies, don't use them.

spyzdope

True, on one hand I want to say that it's not the seller's fault that it was lost in the mail, but on the hand it's not really your fault 'cause you were never given the option to buy insurance.

Half.com's shipping policy is awful. If they would just add the option to buy insurance, then the seller wouldn't be responsible for lost items. As it is now, the seller must pay for insurance out of their own pocket if they want it, and that really hurts because they only reimburse you $1.89 for standard shipping (which isn't even to cover postage sometimes).

For eBay auctions though, I put it all on the buyer. I give the buyer the option to add insurance for $1.30, and clearly state that I'm not responsible for lost mail, if they don't pay for insurance.

Edit: By the way, I looked around at half.com and I could not find a description of their policy on who's responsible for items lost in the mail. For the most part, the half.com website seems to ignore the fact that mail is sometimes lost.

The closest thing I can find is: "It is strongly recommended that sellers purchase a tracking service and insurance to protect themselves against loss. Half.com reserves the right to make adjustments to a seller's account balance in the event of a member dispute, fraud or seller non-performance." But that still doesn't say anything about lost mail.

jarsim

Perhaps I am doing a bit of reading between the lines, but from what you've quoted it appears that the ultimate responsibility is left to the seller. They are doing a bit of double-talk, but basically it appears they are saying that if you do not insure and/or do not track and it is "lost" (whether or not the buyer is honest or not), they have the right to make adjustments to your account. In other words, dishonest buyers could really exploit this system.

Easy

I have no idea what the hell this means. The OP claims he had both tracking and insurance but he still got screwed. I was under the impression the cooperation of the person who receives the damaged goods is necessary to make an insurance claim with the USPS.
Salamander2 says:So what good does it do to buy delivery confirmation and insurance?

Eric F

Apparently on half.com it's worthless because you can't pick your buyer. That's why I don't sell anything too expensive on there. Items under $100 are about as high as I'd go.

Ebay is another story. It's easier to back out of the deal because you can see the ratings of the person.

I've been doing business on both for many years. This is the first time I haven't received an item from a seller. I know the mail is bad, but when you sell on Half or Ebay you're essentially running a business. If something goes wrong (at least it's my policy), the customer is always right. I. Maybe I'm a bit naive, but for a $15 item I think most people wouldn't take the effort to rip somebody off.

I still don't understand why someone with 215 positives and 0 negatives wouldn't want to refund me my money. Well he'll have one negative now. Too bad for him.

DVD DVD DVD

People, I think someone should delete this whole thread. Posts within this thread contain information that could be used by potential fraud sellers and buyers to defraud more honest sellers and buyers on ebay/half.com

Dear moderator, please take note of this. Someone should delete this thread.

AZRyeCatcher

I think this is perhaps the most ironic post I have ever read considering your signature!

spyzdope

Whenever I make a sale on half.com the first thing I do is to go to the eBay feedback lookup so I can check out the buyer's feedback. If I see someone that has no feedback or poor feedback, I know I need to be careful.

At the very minimum, I need to make sure I use delivery confirmation (note: I always do anyway, because it's only 13 cents extra if you use stamps.com or the USPS Shipping Assistant software). If I really have a bad feeling about a buyer, I can just not confirm the sale or report a problem to get out of the sale.

spyzdope

Since I use Delivery Confirmation with all of my sales, I have proof-of-delivery (assuming it is not lost in the mail). If someone tries to scam me by saying that they never received it and the delivery confirmation says it was delivered, I will fight it with half.com and I'll try my best to have them prosecuted for it (sadly, there is probably a slight chance of them ever being prosecuted).

I think this applies here, although it is specifically about trading, here is a quote from the Exchange Forum Guidelines:

If All Goes Wrong And Nothing Can Be Done To Solve It:
If you've tried to resolve a bad trade on your own and failed, then report the bad trade to us. If we are unable to resolve it, then there are some resources which you can use to take your resolution to the next level.

If you've been truly defrauded (and the person used the US Mail to send or receive goods) then you can file a report with the USPS Mail Fraud division. Bad Trades are Mail Fraud which is a FEDERAL OFFENSE! Here's a link to the reporting form: http://www.usps.com/postalinspector...udComplaint.htm . As a federal offense, you can also report it to the FBI (click or paste this link into your browser -> (http://www.fbi.gov/links.htm) and click on the Internet Fraud Complaint Center link. Finally, you can contact the local law enforcement agency of the town the person you've swapped with lives in - That's right, a Bad Trade is also theft, another legal offense.

[NOTE TO BAD TRADERS - ask yourself: is defrauding someone out of a DVD worth time in jail???

Eric F

I don't see why anything here should be censored. It's not like it's any big secret, it's all stated in Ebay/Half's user agreements.

We're just talking about personal experiences.

icondude

I agree with the above posts that say if the item is cheap enough then it's OK to risk it with half.com because the risk is very low that someone would try to rip you off over a $15 item.