Ebay seller debacle

If anyone is contemplating buying anything from christian_brothers_ltd, DON'T DO IT! I'm in the middle of a hassle here from an ebay purchase.

Here's what happened:
I purchase a 1943P Walking Liberty Half, advertised as "1943-P Walking Liberty Silver Half Dollar UNC!!" for $19 including shipping. They only take Propay, which I'm new to, but no biggie. It looks safe to me, and I don't think there's a problem here.
I get the coin, and it is very obviously CIRCULATED. There's wear from Liberty's breast to well below her knee, so that you can't make out her left hand or the skirt lines crossing over her left leg until you get to the bottom of the skirt. On the reverse, there is wear on the top of the eagle's wing, breast feathers, leg feathers, and head.

I would grade it XF, very low AU max. I'll try to get some pics up later.


Anyway, I contacted the seller multiple times, trying to negotiate something. I don't wish to send the coin back, and I'd rather not leave him negative feedback and have paid too much for a coin, so I provide him with some links to Walker grading sites and then to Numismedia for prices on Walkers. At this point, I tell him I believe that a partial refund would be fair. He responds a week later by telling me to send the coin back, very rudely. He labels me as "one of those people that tries to sweeten the deal after getting the item". I remind him that he falsely advertised the coin as uncirculated, and that I didn't mean to upset him if I had.

So here I am, wondering what to do. Do I leave negative feedback? Do I send it back? I'm not sure if he would agree to pay for shipping: he's been very rude throughout this dilemma.

Thanks for your input,
Peter

 

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You paid by paypal. File a not as as advertised claim. They should back you up and issue a refund after you prove return delivery.

Then , it is up to you to decide feedback that you'll leave. If deception and outright misleading description was used, leave appropiate feedback by all means. If just a grade opinion, think about it.

Negs are permanant. Be sure you want to leave that. If fraud, by all means , do leave a neg in CAPS.

 

I don't know how you handle this one. With PayPal, you can open a dispute, which is always recommended prior to sending a coin back, so I would contact Ebay and ask them how to proceed.

Ribbit

 

here are some pics, sorry about the obverse....harder to capture apparently.

 

Not Unc!

Contact Ebay to find out how to proceed when using ProPay.

Ribbit

 

I don't know much about grading coins but to call that uncirculated is just plain deceptive. Ice

 

Thanks toad, but when I open a case, doesn't that just send the message straight to the seller? I've already contacted the seller, what's different about this?

 

Never heard of propay. I assume it works similar to paypal, in that you can send the item back as something like... "Description does not match item received" and you should be able to get a full refund, except for the shipping you have to pay to ship it back to him. Negotiating some kind of partial refund would probably not be something advocated by propay (definitely not paypal).

I think you are going to be stuck with it unless you send it back for a full refund, since the seller is obviously not very agreeable.

 

It needs to be documented, so cover your butt. Think about it? What's to keep the seller from keeping the coin and not refunding your money?

Ribbit

 

probably a smart move, I just sent the notification.

 

Contact ebay and complain. He is not a reasonable person. They will yank his site if he doesn't cooperate from what I understand. I know there is ebay phone support but you have to be issued a special # to use it I believe.

 

As I understand it, Propay takes payments through your credit card. If the seller doesn't respond to your requests, file for a charge back through your credit card company.

Make sure you have made copies of the original listing and all emails involved. Keep the coin in the holder you received it in.

 

Thanks Boss, hopefully it won't require calling them up, but I'll do what I have to do.

Davidh, you're right about Propay (take payments through the credit card). That's a good idea also, but hopefully it won't come to that either = \
And excellent idea about making copies, I just emailed everything to myself to have it on hand. Thanks for the great advice!

 

Here is your protection (straight from your auction);

And here is your penalty;

I don't know just how much of a hassle you wish to go through, but the only recourse I see is to go through you credit card company. A pain, time consuming, but will likely work eventually - probably less your shipping and maybe the 10% to boot. Were it me, i would lick my wounds and take my losses. Yes, I would neg him, but not until after any claim I filed was settled.

 

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

they're trying to make sure they get a profit any way they go. maybe ebay will see this?

 

Peter, don't worry about the seller or their feelings. Its not like you are ever going to see this person or even deal with them again. The facts are that he misled you to believe you were buying an UNC coin and this clearly does not appear to be UNC. Do what you have to do to get your money back. Your right, sometimes it is not worth the headache and it is easier to walk away and chalk up the loss to a learning experience. I have done this numerous times. But there have been a few times when I felt that I was so wronged that I asked for a return or credit and I have never had any problems. Remember, keep things polite and civil. I have been on ebay now for a long time and have only left 2 negative and 2 neutral. The negative were for those disputes that could not be resolved and the 2 neutral were for disputes that were resolved, but at great hardship. Don't feel bad for giving the seller what they deserve, you are only helping those who follow in your footsteps. Good luck and keep up posted.

 

Not sure about propay but I do know that I have had to dispute a payment on my AMEX before, and the company involved stated they wanted a 10% resocking fee, AMEX held the entire payment, and when I sent them copies of the coraspondanceI had with the compay, they AMEX charged back the entire amount back on my card. I did get stuck with the return shipping and handling though.

Dave

 

Just playing devil's advocate here....

The auction says: ".....in Uncirculated condition as pictured."

The photos you have posted show that you definitely got the coin pictured.

So it boils down to whether the word "Uncirculated" is deceiving because the picture in the auction seems to accurately portray the coin.

Finally, he apparently has agreed to take the coin back. That's what would normally happen if you're unhappy with the purchase.

Dunno. Just throwing this around a bit.

 

that's a good point, but the pictures I posted are the ones I took, not his. His are way too small to distinguish between F and MS.

 

Luckily this wasn't a HUGE purchase, otherwise I'd really be furious. Thanks for the advice, like I said, I really don't want to have to resort to negative feedback.