Bad Ebay seller has struck again (Klicic1986)- Ashlyne's update

[Marlin]

Oh wow... again my enormous gratitude to you all for your support!


You know, the daft thing is, I actually asked her TWICE about shipping... the first was asking if she would be happy to ship abroad, and how many ponies could she post for how much if she would? She replied along the lines of 'I can put buy nows on...'   At first, I thought she thought I was stupid or something, asking how much I could buy her ponies for (as though I didn't know how the auction process worked or something). I eventually sent her another message which is the one I posted here earlier, asking about reducing postage cost.  Now I think, in reflection of her first answer, she was just avoiding the whole combined shipping query completely. Perhaps I am reading into it too much, but it makes it feel all the more duplicitous.


I'm also tempted as you suggested Bagheera, to point her in the direction of this thread, but I had my final say in my last message to her, and I think it would probably just throw more oil into the pan... I think I'd rather just leave it alone now. Maybe she is a member here, and will ultimately see this. That would be some sweet justice in itself perhaps, to see how others think of her actions.


Annnnnyway...


But you know what I AM happy about? Despite the ugly cost, I got three little lovely ponies who I now know have a good, NICE home! They've been cleaned and shampooed and brushed (Twisty Tail had some serious tangle issues!), and I'm sure they'll have a lovely time making friends with some kiwi ponies     And thank you too, you guys for the reassurances about continuing to buy on ebay. I'm sure there are some terrific sellers out there. It was just unfortunate that I came across a dud whilst inexperienced to shipping costs etc. I'm the wiser now, thanks especially to you lot!

[bagheera86]

Yeah ebay is great, do continue to use it. But if the shipping price is too high just avoid it or compare the cost of buying instore. Alot of hong kong sellers offer free shipping world wide (I paid $1 for a 12 pack of hair curlers!) but they can also have dodgy products and sometimes you get what you paid for.

BUT they can be the nicest people to deal with it, I ordered sew and sew and thistle whistle and it took two months and no ponies. So I emailed them and they sent new ones! then three days later the ponies came and I emailed back asking if they wanted them back and they told me to keep it for my trouble.

...Which was a good marketing ploy because I went back and bought more things from them xD!

[ButtercreamDream]

Wow, that's REALLY shady!  Her shipping costs aren't that bad for one pony, but I would never expect to be charged that much for EVERY pony.  It really sounds like she was purposely trying to deceive you, the way she answered your questions.  I will definitely not be buying from her.

I'm sorry she charged you so much, but I'm very glad you are happy with your ponies.

[TokiBear]

Thank you so much For sharing your story. She doesn't sound like anyone that I want to deal with. I'm also going to avoid her and her shady business practice. Her replies to you were so rude! 

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Thanks for the warning -  I am sure that her sales will be affected enough that we don't need to jump up and down with flashy lights to direct her that people are not pleased by her attitude or behavior. 

[Marlin]

oooohh... an interesting update


Just had a peek at klicic's feedback to look at other sales around the time I bought from her, and she just received her first negative feedbacks - and one concerned shipping. Looks like I'm not the only one shafted by her!

[ashlyne]

Ugh. I wish I had seen this earlier     Same seller klicic1986. 

I got a "combined" shipping charge of £20 for some ponies, and they too came bunched up in a plastic mailer, no padding or anything.   The postage price?   £6.48.   I naively assumed my shipping charge was going to go towards a nice roomy box with packing supplies to keep the ponies from rubbing against eachother, maybe some insurance or signature delivery.   

But nope.  £20 paid for a £6.48 stamp.

I did ask beforehand about combined shipping and she agreed, although there wasn't a set amount since I didn't know how many ponies I would end up winning.   After I won a few auctions, I asked if she wanted me to wait to pay since there were more I was planning on bidding on later in the week. She said to wait till those auctions ended.  So through the week, I ignored ebay's reminders to pay for those first items.

The last auction I was bidding on ended at 4am USA time, so I set up an autosnipe.   Four hours later, first thing in the morning, I'm taking care of my ebay winnings on the computer and there was a message from her:

"hi hun im still waiting for you to pay for your items,i really need topost
asap.let me know of any problems,regars XXXX"

.....and four Unpaid Item Cases opened against me on those first auctions I won from her.   

I promptly reminded her that she told me to wait to pay for those and since the last auction I won ended overnight, I hoped this was just a mistake. I also promptly paid for them.  She responded "hi hun sorry i got confused,yhats absolutly fine ill post them now.regards"  The cases were closed.

I was relieved that was settled amicably, but combined with what's happened with Marlin, future buyers might want to keep in mind that this seller may not have it all together. 

Fast forward, I get dirty (but repairable) ponies in a very expensive plastic baggie.  I also notice I got a pony I didn't order, and was missing another.

The auction showed the UK Sweet & Spicy pony in the photo, but the description said "Blackberry Pie sweetberry pony".   I did not get the UK pony in the photo; I got the unicorn Boysenberry Pie (which is the US name for Blackberry Pie, I just found out).  I will be contacting her soon about pony mix up, but hope people can help me out here with a couple questions:

1.  Do I even bother bringing up the combined shipping issue, in light of her uncooperative response to Marlin? 
~Separately, the auctions would've cost me £4 each in shipping (total of £28 for 7 items).   She dropped it to £20, but sent it at the cheapest rate of £6.48 with no protection.  On one hand, she did lower shipping a bit; on the other hand, she's still cutting corners / overcharging to pocket A LOT of people's shipping money.   

2.  Do I have a case to file an Item Not As Described, if she refuses to do anything about Blackberry Pie? 
~On one hand, her description is actually accurate; on the other hand, her photo is misrepresentative.  I usually rely on the photos since people's information can be innaccurate, especially when it comes to the hundreds of ponies out there. She does have a negative for sending someone something that was different than the auction photo already. 

[Marlin]

Oh my goodness!!! I'm sorry this has happened to you too!!! 


This REALLY makes me wish I hadn't placed feedback on her when I did, because she totally deserves to be exposed on her ebay account. If what someone on the arena told me here is right, she can't place bad feedback on you, so there's no stopping you outting her awful actions through placing some honest feedback that will also help caution other future buyers.


My ebay experience is so limited, I honestly don't know what to recommend, but I'm going to edit the title of this thread to try and attract the attention of the awesome people here who helped me, to see if they can help you 

[ClosetAvalanche]

if she refused to work with you, you can file an item not as described. You'll have to pay return shipping but she will have to refund the entire amount including original shipping, so all the extra she made on overcharging for shipping will be returned to you. Hope it works out for you in the end... I hate people like this.

[ponylady]

Ashlyne, I am sorry you had to deal with the same PITA seller. 
 
 I would not think twice about confronting her about the excessive shipping charges.   But it seems by her past behavior on the matter you are going to get nowhere. 
 
But you can report her to eBay for abusing the shipping and handling costs.  Click the following link and Report the Seller to eBay - scroll to the bottom of the page where it says "Contact Customer Service" - report the seller for "excessive shipping" or "circumvention of eBay fees".
 
Also, yes you can open an item not as described case if she refuses to work with you.  The picture was not the same as the description.  Good Luck and I hope it all works.  If not I would most certainly leave appropriate feedback.

[ashlyne]

But you can report her to eBay for abusing the shipping and handling costs.  Click the following link and Report the Seller to eBay - scroll to the bottom of the page where it says "Contact Customer Service" - report the seller for "excessive shipping" or "circumvention of eBay fees".
 

Thanks for the info, ponylady.  I'll keep that in mind. I sent her a message about the switched pony.  The auction I won states the pony was made in Hong Kong and the Boysenberry/Blackberry pony I received was made in China. This means there are errors in both the photo and description -- good support for my case.    Also, I noticed there was paint transfer from one pony to another, most likely from the poo-poo packaging job they did, which weren't there in the photos.  I let the seller know I wasn't happy about this, when I sent plenty of money to have those ponies shipped safely.  We'll see where that goes.

HUGE UPDATE: I've been doing some pony detective work tonight.  It appears to me, in my opinion, that this seller had an alternate ID that bid on her own auctions. That's right folks.... shill bidding?   This is LOOONGG but could be important information.
 
I wanted to see if my Nice & Spicy pony (the one I should have received) was accidently sent to someone that was expecting the Boysen/Blackberry pony I got by mistake.  Looking at klicic's past auctions, I saw pretty much the same auction (same title) but with a photo of the Boysenberry I received.... same braided tail with yarn tie, same folds in the hair: 
EARLIER BLACKBERRY AUCTION - ENDED
The winner of this auction, katiew1992 (13), is no longer a registered user. So I'm thinking, they got booted because of not paying on the auctions they won, right?   Well, here's the odd thing:  katiew1992 and klicic1986 both left eachother positive feedback for this pony.  katiew1992 said "excellent got item quick just as described!!"    Now I'm suspicious, since how is it that I have that pony now?!
 
I look deeper into katiew1992's feedback (a feedback count of 13).  From her account opening through June of 2011, it looks normal, different people left different feedback.   But all the feedback after that has been from klicic1986, a total of 29, from klicic's auctions in December and this February. 
 
I began listing all of katiew1992's winnings from klicic1986, the ones they both left glowing feedbacks for each other.  I notice that two of the ponies, Tulip & Majesty, are also ponies I bought from klicic recently. The older auctions don't have photos showing anymore though, but if anyone knows how to look up cached pages for old auctions, I'd be REALLY interested in seeing if the ponies I have were the same ones bought and sold by these two.
 
It's not just my ponies showing up in these set of old auctions either.   Of the 29 completed listings between the seller klicic and buyer katiew, at least 18 of those ponies were resold in February. 
 
I got REALLY curious at this point, and started comparing the wording, spelling and phrasing of these two to see if there were any similarities. 
EXAMPLES OF katiew1992's SPEECH PATTERNS (her feedback left for seller klicic)
EXAMPLES OF klicic1986's SPEECH PATTERNS (her feedback left for katie1992)
Also, excerpts of messages klicic sent to me: 

hi hun thats fine just wait until you have finnished bidding then pay at the
 end.thankyou for your message.regards katie x

hi hun im still waiting for you to pay for your items,i really need topost
asap.let me know of any problems,regars katie x

hi hun sorry i got confused,yhats absolutly fine ill post them now.regards katie
x

Among other similarities, there's little to no capitilization, the misspellings, the running together of words and punctuations, and the usage of "thankyou" as one word, and adding "x" to the end of phrases.   Not to mention, klicic signs her messages "katie".
 
It's my belief klicic1986 and the now unregistered katiew1992 were the same person, and the alias was used to bid up auctions back in December. I have yet to see if / how many auctions katiew bid on but lost out -- I only know she's technically won those 29 ponies and it seems at least some of them are being resold.   
 
I did notice that another bidder, who ID is still scrambled by ebay (k***k (13)), bid on 8 ponies from klicic in mid February, won 6 of them and 4 of those ponies are now being sold again. Unfortunately, this buyer and klicic have not exchanged any feedback, so I don't know their full ID or any other details such as when they opened their account, their country location, or their speech patterns. They have bid on other seller's auctions though in the past 30 days.  They could simply be a non-paying bidder, unrelated. But I would exercise caution and possibly keep watch on this seller and her buyers. If you get any second chance offers on an auction you lost, check to see who the winning bidder was. 
 
I'll update if I learn anything else.  I'm not expecting any cooperations from this seller in straightening out my auctions, but at least I won't feel guilty about leaving appropriate feedback and ratings if she doesn't.   I'm going to see if this katiew1992 also bid unsuccessfully on other auctions. If so, that's a big no-no and the pony community should know about it.
 

[Ringlets]

  oh noes! I'm so sorry to hear you had problems with her too  ashlyne  - that really is a very high shipping amount   and the wrong pony sent as well ..
I agree with ponylady - report her to ebay for the high shipping - and also if she will not work with you as regards the wrong pony being sent then you can open an "item not as described" case
 
ETA: eesh! that does look like shill bidding and some definite dodgy dealings going on there   good research!   definitely this person needs reporting to ebay, and appropriate feedback left too!

[fingerpaints]

This situation sucks - at least her star rating is starting to actually show her true colours, however, it isn't always a good indication that the seller is truely bad, because uneducated customers leave whatever they wish with stars without actually giving sellers a chance first.

This chick sounds like a real pain though, that isn't just a small mistake, its a huge overcharge, and she should refund the difference.

I personally try to refund any overcharges before any parcels arrive at their destination, but at times when I do a larger post out, may skip over one and not notice the overcharge, so I message all my customers and let them know that if I have overcharged, to let me know so I can resolve it immediately.

I had one of my customers message me the other day for a smaller overcharge of $4.20AU, I refunded the difference immediately. I did not however deliberately overcharge, or try to pocket the difference. It was a completely honest mistake and the customer understood this and was happy once they had their refund.

This is how it should be with all sales. A small handling fee is fine I think, I don't charge it myself, but anything over probably $3 - $5 (that is if they have used a post office box, bubble wrap etc.) should be questioned in my opinion. $12 is ridiculous. I will be sure to steer clear of this seller, I am so sorry that two of our lovely members have been caught in this mess

[Maniah]

That is some super detective work! I'll bet that if that new name is also her, then she isn't leaving feedback because she doesn't want to get caught. Someone might have caught on before.

Are you going to alert Ebay?

[ponylady]

Great detective work Ashlyne visitors can't see pics , please register or login

 
It looks to me that it pretty much all adds up to that.  I would definately report it to ebay, along with the excessive shipping overcharge  and being sent the wrong pony.
 
Boy, you have your work cut out for you today.