Getting screwed by Half.com
 

I received an email for a sale I made almost 2 months ago requesting proof of delivery from the post office because of a chargeback. The reasons were either the buyer had insufficient funds or claimed to not receive the item. I always keep receipts but never for more than a month or so. This was a $40 DVD (Cloverfield Steelbook) which is OOP. I tried contacting the buyer but didnt get a response. Do post offices usually keep records of this? I've been selling on half.com for about 10 years and have never had this problem before.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

If you shipped it with a tracking #, did you try plugging the # into package tracker?

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Half.com only reimburses for the bare minimum, I dont even think there is an option to ship with a tracking # or delivery confirmation

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

If it's an item over $15, I always spring for delivery confirmation & if it's an OOP item or over $50 I usually do signature confirmation. It has covered my butt a couple of times. I'd say you're SOL.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Although they only reimburse the bare minimum, you can enter the tracking number for each shipment. When you mark an order as shipped, a little popup screen appears and it has a space for you to enter the tracking number. It sends the buyer the tracking number and also saves it for future reference.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

This is bullshit. I've been a member since 2000 and have bought/sold over a 1000 items with over 500 pos feedbacks. The buyer has been a member since 2009 and has 28 feedbacks. Basically, every time I buy from an ebay member from now on even if I receive the item i can claim i did not and get it for free? I'm not even sure what the problem is here. They are telling me the buyer either didnt receive the item or had insufficient funds on his credit card. If they dont know which it is how can they take the funds from ME?? I contacted the buyer 3 times with no response.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

anyway, heres the guy that wont pay.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000056991757
They already charged me the $40 for the item. I still cant understand how they expect sellers to buy a tracking number or insurance when items are shipped when the dont reimburse for that. I also dont understand how they can hold the seller at fault if the buyer has insufficient funds to cover the cost. I called half.com's customer serv. number and got a recording so I called e bay and they were no help whatsoever (they told me to email half.com again). Does anyone have advice?

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Well you have all his information you need there. Contact all his family and explain the situation. I'm sure he'll pay up then!

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Looks like a shady asshole. It only takes one or two scumbags to ruin things, even if you've had hundreds of positive transactions.:johnwoo:

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Look at it this way, you have a 99.9% success rate.

That said, it's easy to get burned by shady buyers since the auction/sales sites expect you to offer the same level of customer service that they do, which is liberal return policies and an attitude of "the customer is always right."

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Looks like he got laid off by Blockbuster a few years ago. When you list your big employment as a former store manager 3 years ago, things can't be going good.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

I actually looked up the number for the blockbuster he worked at and called looking for him then relized he hasnt worked there since '08 lol.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Probably a long shot, but you can contact the Dublin, Ohio police and report a theft of your Cloverfield Steelbook by Tyler Healy.

And try to find his phone number - he's just ignoring your emails.

If you still don't get anywhere - you can send some weird things to his house. Does his street address begin with 5811?

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

I'm not trying to :crap: on your parade, but I don't see that you have much room to be outraged.

Sure, the guy may be screwing you ... or somebody at the post office may have stolen it. You have no way of knowing. I had it happen to me many years ago. Some OOP version of Army of Darkness - the buyer said he never got it. I refunded his money because I couldn't prove otherwise. I complained to the post office and they laughed. About 6 months later I received the empty box back from the post office. It was beat to hell and stamped "package damaged in transit, received with no contents." Bullshit - had that happened they would have easily caught it and either fixed the box or labeled the item somehow so that it could be claimed. That DVD was on some postman's shelf. My fault for not taking insurance or paying for a tracking number.

If you have been doing this for ten years and have never had an incident, then you are damn lucky. It doesn't justify you being cheap, cutting corners, and then trying to be the victim. It is a cost of doing business. If you aren't willing to spring for the tracking number when you ship, that is on you.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

True, or it got misplaced somewhere in transit. These things happen, however seldom, but how do you excuse the unanswered emails? If he weren't a miscreant and a thief, he would have had the common courtesy to contact the seller and explain that his item hadn't arrived.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

I sell on a few different sites but they all say the seller is responsible for the item until it arrives at the buyers address. The only way to know when it arrives is to send it with some form of proof of delivery like Delivery Confirmation or Signature Confirmation. If you accept Paypal you are required to use DC up to $250 and SC for anything over $250 or else any claim against you will result in a refund to the buyer.

If you buy your postage at the post office DC on a first class package is $0.80 and on Priority Mail it's $0.75. If you buy your postage on-line DC on a first class package is only $0.19 and is free for Priority packages. That's a small price to pay to make sure someone can't file an Item Not Received claim against you.

How would you feel if you bought something and it got lost in the mail? Would you just shrug is off as not being the seller's responsibility, since they said that they did mail it but can't prove it? You would want your money back since you never received what you paid for. It would then be on the seller to provide proof that the item was delivered or they would have to either refund your money or provide a replacement item.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Right. Theres no way he didnt receive the DVD. When you dont receive an item on half.com, you report it as item not received (or something like that), not a charge back. He wasnt able to cover the cost with his credit card, so he ended up gettng to keep the DVd for free, and I ended up paying for it.

Anyway, I tried resolving this issue through email with half.com...

Other > Other Questions? > Contact Customer Support

Message: regarding item 67769678101

I am outraged. I have been selling on half.com for 10+ years and not
ONCE have I EVER needed to purchase a tracking number or insurance when
shipping items. Half.com does NOT reimburse for these shipping options
so why would I offer them? I do not even understand WHY this
"chargeback" happened. I assure you I shipped this item within a week as
I always have. I contacted the buyer three times and never got a
response. I tried calling half.com's customer service number and just
got a recording. Is this how you treat your longtime sellers/buyers? The
last email I sent to you I asked for a phone number to contact a
representative directly instead of going back and forth using e mails
and instead of getting a response I got an email saying my account has
been charged for this item that I sold (but the buyer had insufficient
funds to pay for). This is totally unfair.

From: Half.com Customer Service - service <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: HF%B00029 Contact Customer Support [#US 100770T ?01 ] (KMM49298541V73295L0KM)
To: [email protected]
Date: Friday, July 29, 2011, 9:50 AM

Dear jz120376,

Thank you for your response to our request to provide tracking
information for shipment of the following transaction.

? Order Number: 6452711012
? Transaction number: 67769678101

Our records show your Half.com seller account was credited for this sale
after the order was confirmed.

Half.com reversed this transaction because you were unable to provide
verifiable tracking information showing merchandise was delivered to the
buyer.

If a buyer files a credit card chargeback and the seller cannot provide
valid tracking number from the shipping carrier, Half.com reserves the
right to withhold payment or charge the sellers credit card account (or
debit your bank account) to recover for the loss of the item purchased.
At this time we recommend you contact the buyer directly to attempt to
resolve this matter.

My last message to them..

If you had the common courtesy to read my ENTIRE email then you would know I have tried contacting the buyer numerous times with no response. I also tried requesting his contact information to call him over the phone by searching on ebay with the transaction number and for some reason the trans number is not valid.
You mentioned charging me back for this item because I was unable to provide a tracking number but as I already said you only reimburse for MEDIA MAIL WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE A TRACKING NUMBER.
Isnt it listed in the buyers FAQ's that if an item is not received then the buyer should contact the seller? I was NEVER contacted from the buyer. You arent even able to tell me if the buyer claims he didnt receive the item or his account had insufficient funds to pay for the item. I will be disputing this charge.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

I agree with everything you said, however...
I am 100% certain the buyer received the DVD and was unable to cover the cost with his credit card.
Paypal is not used with half.com BTW.
Half.com does not reimburse for a tracking number or delivery confirmation as I said. I sell hundreds of DVDs on there, if I paid the extra $ to get a tracking number or DC it would add up very fast.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Ultimately, the choice is up to you, whether to pay for delivery confirmation on every order or to take a loss if/when somebody tells Half.com they didn't receive their order.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

I once had a buyer write me numerous times in one day claiming he did not get the item I sent him. I checked on the tracking number I had for the Delivery Confirmation and it showed that the item had been delivered to him. I wrote him back with this information and never heard from him again.

Sorry, but all the excuses in the world don't cut it with me. If the item you sell is over $15, you should always get Delivery Confirmation. Think of the money you are now losing, plus all the time and stress you have had over this and then think how it all could have been avoided by spending 80 cents. Really, at some point, you have to stop fighting common sense.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Thanks for all the input from everyone, but everyone seems to be overlooking that half.com is saying "either the buyer did not receive the item or had insufficient funds available to cover the cost of the item".
How do these two situations even relate to each other? How doesnt half.com know the cause of the charge back?
I am not fighting common sense. Yes, I should have paid the extra money for DC or a tracking number. Out of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of CDs and DVDs I have sold on that site over the years I have never done that once, so maybe it isnt common sense. At the same time, how would DC or a tracking # help me in this situation if the buyer didnt have the funds available to pay?

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

If the buyer didn't have sufficient funds you should not be out any of the money you received for the sale until and unless the item is returned to you. If Half.com has a policy that says otherwise, maybe it's time for you to stop selling there. I would never even think of using them as an outlet if they are penalizing YOU for a buyer's blatant mistake. It's not only unfair, but unethical. I doubt if Amazon would ever exercise such poor business practices and they are inherently pro customer. In fact, in a similar situation, though not the same, Amazon backed me up as a seller in a dispute which ended with me having the item back AND getting the full purchase price, which was hundreds of dollars.

As for using DC on items that are over $15, I stand by my statements that it is common sense to do so. Of course you are free to disagree, but if your penny pinching comes back to haunt you, don't expect to get a lot of sympathy from me! ;)

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

You got a form response. The two conditions are either a chargeback on the card, or insufficient funds. In either case, your response would have been satisfied if you had a tracking number. Because you don't have a tracking numbers, you're SOL.

I looked through all of Half.com's policies, and they don't seem to have very good seller protection. If you don't like it, sell somewhere else.

It does say on that you should get tracking and insurance:

http://pages.half.ebay.com/help/policy/shipping_p.html

You keep saying that Half.com doesn't pay for tracking. This is incorrect characterization of the shipping process. Half.com doesn't give you specific shipping services. Half.com gives you a shipping allowance. How you spend that allowance is up to you (within the constraints of the services selected i.e. standard vs. expedited, etc.). They specifically say, if the allowance is not enough to cover the shipping costs of the item, you should build the additional cost into the price of your item.

If you choose not to get tracking for your shipments, you bear the risk of something going wrong with the shipment. That is what has happened in this case.

In the future, I'd recommend that you print your shipping labels via PayPal.

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

Delivery confirmation on Media Mail and First Class parcels is only $0.19 through PayPal, and free for Priority packages.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

I don't find Half.com at fault here. Half can't control whether or not the guy defrauds you.
I would try to email the buyer a few more times, and if you don't hear anything from him, put his name, address, and details up on ripoffreport.

Re: Getting screwed by Half.com
 

Whenever I've sold things on half.com (which has been a long time since last sale), I used the shipping feature linked to paypal. DC is 19 cents and required, i believe.
I've had a similar chargeback issue occur once, and once i gave half.com the DC#, they ruled in my favor.

If you usually ships things from the post office, paypal is a better option - even if just so you don't have to wait in line to pay.

Bottom line - Half.com isn't at fault. They received a claim from buyer or his credit card company most likely saying he didn't receive the item and now they are asking you to prove it. It's not out of the question that the item was actually lost in transit.