Extremely poor packaging of expensive MOC G1 = wrecked. Very long post.

[Sea_Breeze]

Sorry to see that Dollhands I hope you and the seller can come to some arrangement. Yes its lacking proper packaging but the fact that the box is FAR to small for the item is a pretty major error in judgement.

A little OT but now days I take pictures and email them to my sellers to confirm that they are happy with how I have packaged my items if they are MIB/MOC. I recently posted a vintage playmates ceramic figure to the UK. Imagine how worried I was that this thing was going to be cracked, chipped or worse !!! It took me almost 30 mins to package it. Took pictures sent them to the buyer who said 'yep looks great'.. Pony arrived within 4 days without a scratch. Had the pony been cracked that would be a different story but as far as I was concerned my buyer was happy with the packaging at the time of sending as was I.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Sorry to see that Dollhands I hope you and the seller can come to some arrangement. Yes its lacking proper packaging but the fact that the box is FAR to small for the item is a pretty major error in judgement.

A little OT but now days I take pictures and email them to my sellers to confirm that they are happy with how I have packaged my items if they are MIB/MOC. I recently posted a vintage playmates ceramic figure to the UK. Imagine how worried I was that this thing was going to be cracked, chipped or worse !!! It took me almost 30 mins to package it. Took pictures sent them to the buyer who said 'yep looks great'.. Pony arrived within 4 days without a scratch. Had the pony been cracked that would be a different story but as far as I was concerned my buyer was happy with the packaging at the time of sending as was I.

This is a great idea!

[Ringlets]

Sae Breeze I agree with that too . While I don't always message the buyer to ask if they approve of my packaging (you have to fight your way into my boxes anyways there is so much packaging lol) , I do take pictures of every stage of the packaging- especially with anything MOC/MIB/ especially rare or expensive. I had to do it with a rare MIB doll I sold last week. In fact ebay advised me to do it as well 

[ponylady]

I am seriously having a love/hate relationship with the PO right now, so please forgive me. I am super sorry dollhands, it is an unfortunate situation for both you and your seller.

I am going to address the packing first of all since it is the first thing you have brought. While I do believe your seller could have protected the MOC in a much better way (much, much better), the fact remains that the boxed was crushed due to irresponsible postal workers. Was this packaged insured? If not is there any sort of coverage, even if for a small amount? I see you paid £18 so I am going to assume it was Royal Mail and I am going to assume that it does in fact have some sort of coverage. I could be wrong  Can someone confirm this for me?  My suggestion is then for you to return it and have your seller cover that portion, then she can go after Royal Mail to recoup her loss, at least on the return shipping.

Then you are at the fact that the pony was not as described(yellowed bubble) this would be a whole different story for me and the deal breaker of sending her back for sure.

The choice is obviously between you and your seller and entirely up to you. I do hope though you are able to resolve this in a manner that leaves you both happy in the end. 

[ponycake]

I think what's important to remember is it's not just postal workers gingerly picking up boxes and placing them somewhere else. These things go through sorting facilities on conveyor belts with thousands and thousands of other packages. You can't use a flimsy box and expect things to be okay. It's not all human work. It's the system and you have to protect your package.

[ponylady]

I completely understand how the postal service works.  There still are workers involved in the process, none the less. The point I was trying to make is as I already said, yes more adequate packing should have been used but the fault to be fair is not solely all on the seller.  I mean seriously if the package showed up not crushed then we wouldn't be here in TS right now. It's about looking at the situation from all aspects. I want to be fair but I don't think in this situation that 4 lbs of bubble wrap and three boxes that this package was not going to endure the beating it received.

I am looking for a fair resolution for both buyer and seller. And without all the facts such as if the package was insured or not it's hard to advise the folks involved on what fair resolution is.

[Sunlight]

Out of curiosity, did the bubble become unsealed at all when it was crushed?  If so, this may have caused the yellowing.  I once had a MOC that came to me intact, and then I made a mistake and cracked the bubble (you can imagine how I felt about that!!).  After it cracked, the bubble yellowed (although I don't remember how long it took for that to happen).  I don't know if it has to do with being exposed to air from the outside or what, but it did happen to me.  Just a possibility.  Or, it is certainly possible the seller used a photo of someone else's MOC, which is a whole other can of worms.  What a crappy situation

[ClosetAvalanche]

So sorry you're going though this. I have to say, I don't believe the seller is completely at fault. Yes, she should have added more padding, but from the look of that box, no amount of padding would have saved it. For expensive purchases, I recommend insurance. If there is, start the claim. Hope it works out in the end. Also, remember that sellers are not required to offer partial refunds. Looks like you may have to return it for a full refund.

Huh? So then use the appropriate box and use padding and support. How the heck is that anyone's fault but the sellers? If you want to talk about fault of the buyer the only possible thing would not be how it arrived but what they can do after with insurance. The seller's packaging was disgusting and it could have been prevented absolutely.

Why would you twist my words like that? I never said it was the buyer's fault. The fact remains if the buyer wants a refund they will have to return it. Hopefully, it was insured.

[ponycake]

Why would you twist my words like that? I never said it was the buyer's fault. The fact remains if the buyer wants a refund they will have to return it. Hopefully, it was insured.

I didn't twist your words, I questioned whose fault it was then. Which I guess was the post office's. The damage looks like a direct result of the choice of flimsy packaging to me. It probably got confusing when I then addressed what others were saying so I should have separated that. Minimizing the fault of the seller in this case really puzzles me.

[ponylady]

Why would you twist my words like that? I never said it was the buyer's fault. The fact remains if the buyer wants a refund they will have to return it. Hopefully, it was insured.

I didn't twist your words, I questioned whose fault it was then. Which I guess was the post office's. The damage looks like a direct result of the choice of flimsy packaging to me. It probably got confusing when I then addressed what others were saying so I should have separated that. Minimizing the fault of the seller in this case really puzzles me.

While, as I have said before the packaging could have been more substantial but the fact of the matter is the box has been completely crushed by the PO. The fault in my opinion lies on both the seller and the postal service. The seller does and always will hold the responsibility on making sure the package arrives undamaged,. It doesn't mean though we have to make a huge ordeal over her being unreliable.  I mean seriously look at the crushed box??? Do you think the seller did this on purpose?  Yes, she could have better protected it but honestly look at that box? I want to know exactly what adequate packaging would have honestly completely protected this from damage? It's crushed from both sides. I am only trying to make a point here that not to jump to conclusions on a seller. Yes, her packaging was super poor but let's look at it from both points of view and work on resolving the issue.   

I am going to ask again to the OP..Was this package insured?

[dollhands]

Thanks again everyone! Sorry I'm not replying to you all personally I'm just feeling like I can't think straight to reply properly.

I just want to add.. that as far as I know the package has insurance. I asked her how much shipping was and she told me 18 euro, so I paid it. Maybe I should have said "does this come with insurance?" but I forgot to. Or "please make sure you pack the pony well", but she's been a seller and collector in the community for 10+ years! I thought I could trust her.

I agree that the pony had NO chance of arriving to me in the condition I bought it and that is mainly due to her packing it into a box that was nearly a third smaller than the size of the card. If she'd packed it into a reasonably sized box, wrapped the card in bubble wrap and then securely packed it inside... then I reckon it would have been okay cause I personally think NZ Post is very good and I've never ever had this happen to me when I received mocs and sent mocs (cause I make sure to pack it well, I sometimes spend an hour packing it). Sure the post office is to blame somewhat, but I'd say by only 10%. The box was susceptible to weight due to all the empty space in the box, of course a half empty flimsy box would get crushed.


UPDATE, finally heard back from the seller since she read my message 32hrs ago. She said this:

Hi you can retour Sunbright and i refund you.this is a normal procedure in comparance to paypal transactions.
Or if you want to refunded and keep Sunbright,i want to suggest 65euro to refund

Just let me know

I was thinking of counter offering for 70 euro refund, mainly cause I want this out my hair!

What makes me really sad and a bit annoyed is the seller still hasn't acknowledged her mistake and has not said sorry

[ponycake]

Thanks again everyone! Sorry I'm not replying to you all personally I'm just feeling like I can't think straight to reply properly.

I just want to add.. that as far as I know the package has insurance. I asked her how much shipping was and she told me 18 euro, so I paid it. Maybe I should have said "does this come with insurance?" but I forgot to. Or "please make sure you pack the pony well", but she's been a seller and collector in the community for 10+ years! I thought I could trust her.

I agree that the pony had NO chance of arriving to me in the condition I bought it and that is mainly due to her packing it into a box that was nearly a third smaller than the size of the card. If she'd packed it into a reasonably sized box, wrapped the card in bubble wrap and then securely packed it inside... then I reckon it would have been okay cause I personally think NZ Post is very good and I've never ever had this happen to me when I received mocs and sent mocs (cause I make sure to pack it well, I sometimes spend an hour packing it). Sure the post office is to blame somewhat, but I'd say by only 10%. The box was susceptible to weight due to all the empty space in the box, of course a half empty flimsy box would get crushed.


UPDATE, finally heard back from the seller since she read my message 32hrs ago. She said this:

Hi you can retour Sunbright and i refund you.this is a normal procedure in comparance to paypal transactions.
Or if you want to refunded and keep Sunbright,i want to suggest 65euro to refund

Just let me know

I was thinking of counter offering for 70 euro refund, mainly cause I want this out my hair!

What makes me really sad and a bit annoyed is the seller still hasn't acknowledged her mistake and has not said sorry

Agree with you. It was crushed because it was an inadequate package period. Some flimsy empty thing will be crushed by bigger packages, you can pretty much bet on it. If it was an adequate box and was crushed some then sure, obviously post office's fault. But this would be a very different scenario than what we're seeing with this inadequate box.

Sounds like it's moving in the right direction though. Hope it gets resolved to a point that you're satisfied with. Honestly I'm not surprised she hasn't apologized if she doesn't have the sense in the first place to package things decently. :\

[rebm19]

I'm so sorry! That's just awful

[Tigerlilyx]

The photos are so frustrating to look at... especially since i've been wanting Mummy Sunbright too!  I agree with all the comments here and i'm so sorry for your unfortunate package! I do hope this will blow over soon and that both you and the seller will arrive at an agreeable conclusion 

[Ringlets]

I'm glad that your seller finally responded   Have a think about how you feel about the pony. There's only 5 Euro difference in what your seller wants to refund you and let you keep the pony and what you wanted  (she said 65 euro , you said 70, right?)  . You *could* try and ask her for 70 Euro instead but I'm not sure she'll go with it since it is such a rare pony to find MOC and she could probably still resell for a good price if you decided to send the pony back for a full refund   It's up to you in the end. I know you want to be finished with this and hopefully you and your seller can now work something out soon to resolve it quickly 
At 18 Euro I'm not sure whether there would be insurance or not. I would imagine that this parcel was insured but it depends on the country your seller is based in.  They could claim some money back from the PO for the damage if the parcel was insured (again I would have thought so based on the price but more so on the value of the pony)