As some of you may already know I sell used books on Amazon and Half.com it is a business I have been doing for 5 years now. Over the summer I had a couple of customers just out and out rip me off. They claimed they didn't get their orders, but I know for a fact that they did. But there was nothing I could do about it. Amazon does not back us sellers up at all and I had to send them each replacement books at my expense. I am sure what they were really hoping for was to get their money back and to be able to keep the book, but I don't play that. If you order a book from me you get a book from me. I know that sometimes things get lost in the mail and if the post office loses a book of mine I will get another book to the customer to replace it at my expense. It is part of the business and it is something that I expect to happen a few times a year and I even write it off on my taxes, but the two people that lied over the summer I had verification from the post office that they did get their books.
Now I just got a message from Amazon saying that I sent the wrong item to a customer. Ok, I am human and I am sure I make my fair share of mistakes but I know this was not a mistake and that I sent the correct book. They are trying to fool me with a title. The book is The Lost Valentine, and they are claiming that I sent them a book called the Last Valentine. Now here are how many ways I know they are lying. I have never had a book called The Last Valentine in my inventory so how could I send a book called the Last Valentine if I never had one? Two my books come out of specific boxes each of these books have only about 20 books in them and the book was pulled from a specific box. It is hard to mess up and send a wrong book out of just 20, and the odds of a box with just 20 books in it having 2 books with such similar titles is pretty slim to none. The real kicker though is that I mailed the order just a couple of days and I have only had about 6 orders in the last week, business has really slowed to a crawl. It is not too hard to remember a book that I just sent out 3 days ago especially when it was the only book I sent that day, and the cover looked exactly like the cover on Amazon, very distinctive with a rose on the cover. So is this person trying to tell me that I not only sent them a book with the wrong title but with a picture that looks just like the picture of the other book. Oh please. Do they really think I would forget what a book looks like that I just sent 3 days ago?
It doesn't matter though. I am going to have to eat this. And I am going to have get this woman another book or refund her money which is a pure loss to me either way. My profit on this book was literally .16. I know what she really wants is the money back, she wants the book for free. I am so mad right now, but I have no re-course. I can't even tell her I know she is lying because then she can give me a bad rating and ruin my perfect rating.I other words if I call her out she can report that I was rude and my business suffers yet she can just rip me off with no consequences.
Sorry I am just really angry and I need to rant. Thanks for tolerating it. And for anyone who is thinking of ripping off an Amazon Marketplace seller please keep in mind we make very little money and a lot of the money goes Amazon not us. But when you claim you didn't receive an item that you did receive or you claim you got the wrong item or an item that was damaged when you received the right item or an item that was not damaged at all you are taking money from our pockets because we either have to take our own money to give you your money back or we have to pay money to replace a book for you and mail it out to you. Postage is not cheap people. Because I am an honest business person I will replace books that the post office loses even though it is not my fault and for a legitimate customer I don't mind doing it, it is a downfall of the business, but when people just flat out rip other people off it is wrong, and it could also be considered mail fraud if you get caught, so think about that.
Sorry for the rant. I also am not meaning to yell at anyone on Gather but perhaps one of those dishonest people might happen upon this on the internet and maybe they will think twice before stealing from someone who is trying to make an honest living.
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Comments: 25
I do buy lots of stuff on Amazon.com.....especially books......I got the Amazon Prime, which makes buying new books cheaper than used ones on there, considering how high postage is. It really is a shame, though, that people have to be so crooked and do that to you. With postage going up yet again, I was going to ask if it's really worth it, with all that hassle.
So sorry you had to go through all that.
Then send a report to mail frud. Sp?
The last time I went to HPB I took a box of 20 books published within the last 6 months and they offered me $5 for them. Said no thanks, went home and checked the amazon trade in value for them, did all the printing in shipping in two hours and had $40 in my amazon gc account by the end of the week.
Money back? If she wants her money back so badly, ask her to send you the book back, and that the moment you get the book, you'll instantly paypal her the money.
Ratings? Doesn't that work both ways? If she gives you a nasty one, can you not give her one? I have bought off of eBay from people who had an 85% to 90% rating, but have THOUSANDS of feedbacks. The way I see it is that everyone makes a mistake now and again, and/or this almost-perfect seller has probably had an incident like the one you describe, and that's why they don't have a 100% rating.
As for wrong packages, that happened to me at Christmas.
I ordered about 15 different packages from about 15 different people, and because of the stupid post office, it meant I'd have to take about 15 trips to the PO to pick all this crap up. So I get an e-mail from a seller on eBay, saything that while he sent me my package, he also sent me someone else's package by mistake, and would i pleas mail it back to him. I explained my predicament with the post office, that if I got this package, it would cost me an extra $15 to get there and back. He said he'd gladly pay for the mistake, and I thanked him. Then the package arrived, but so did another package I was expecting. I went to the PO, got mine, and mailed his back. Then I e-mailed him, and said not to worry about reimbursing me, because had his package not shown up, I'd have had to go to the PO that day anyway. I would have only followed through with the request if I had to go to the PO ONLY to fix his mistake. I am glad I did the honest thing instead of making an easy $15 off of someone else's stupid mistake.
You can even promise to send her a refund for her shipping back the book, with the "right" book.
I don't think that you will hear from that woman, Amazon will not find any fault with you, it happens all the time. Your obligation towards Amazon is to offer the right product, or to refund the money, at the client's expense if they changed their minds.
You should start sending the books with tracking, and charge accordingly. If they don't want to pay for the tracking, they should not buy from you. If you have constntly, you should open an account at FedEx ground and the cost will be cheaper, besides, they always track the shipments.
This particular person is not only dishonest, but she is a stupid one on the top...
It's small comfort but retail stores routinely throw their employees under the bus publicly in front of the customers.
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