In case of a potential upcoming issue (missing half my pony order)..

[STLGusty]

On December 12, I purchased a lot of 4 petite ponies from a seller on eBay.  In the description it noted that the seller only ships 1 or 2 times per week, so I assumed the shipping would be a bit slow.  No big deal.  I kept waiting and waiting... it was finally shipped out on 12/21 (9 days later but...whatever).  I know things can get hectic, especially this time of year.

Well, it came in today wrapped in a tiny envelope...and only two petites were in it.  One of them was not even the petite I bought.  I took a picture of the petites that came in the mail and sent the following to the seller:

"Good afternoon! I received a package from you today, and I believe I received someone else's order. My lot should have had four petites, and I only received two (one is a pink earth pony with curly hair and one is the blue earth pony with pink hair). The blue earth pony is the one in the picture, and the pink earth pony with curly yellow hair is not in the picture at all. Please advise within the next couple of days on how you recommend proceeding.
Thanks!"

(Reading back my message now, I meant to put "I may have received someone else's order" - but oh well - too late now oops.)

Now, again, I know it's a busy time of year - and things can get crazy and misplaced (I'm pretty easy going with stuff) - but just IN CASE things do not go smoothly... 

What should my timeline be?  Wait for a couple of days for a response... then hopefully the seller will realize the error and send me the rest of my items? 

If she is being difficult for some reason, what is the time limit on opening a claim? 

Thanks for the help!

[flying_narwhal]

I am sorry to hear you didn't get all of your items, that is so frustrating Hopefully it was just an honest mistake on the part of the seller.

I would give the seller at least 2 days to respond, maybe even 4 or 5 given the time of year (as many people are out of town for the holidays and may not have normal access to the internet or their inventory at home).

As for how to continue once the seller responds, it will depend on how agreeable they are. Ideally, they will apologize, realize their mistake and send along the other items (hopefully shipping out of their own pocket due to it being their error). Otherwise, this is how I would probably handle the other possible scenarios:

1) If they no longer have the items for whatever reason and are not likely to be found,  I would request a full refund. Whether or not you get to keep what was sent to you as a courtesy is up to you and the seller.

2) In the event that they were mistakenly sent to someone else and they receive them back by some chance, I would either ask for a refund or if you really want the items have them reship them to you at their cost.

3) If the seller is especially disagreeable/defensive and refuses to work with you from the start I would open a case right away. No use in having your money held up. You may have to send back the items you did receive depending on how ebay handles it (and unfortunately sometimes the buyer has to pay this cost- it varies from case to case, sometimes ebay will refund your return shipping costs as a courtesy).

As for timelines, I believe you have 30 days from the latest delivery estimate to open a case. You can read more about ebay's policies on cases here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.html

I hope everything works out for the best!!

[lunar_scythe]

If the seller is apologetic and says they don't know what they should do, suggest they contact the person that should have got those 2 petites right away, since they probably got your order and may think the extra petites were a gift from the seller. 

If both you and the other buyer agree to it, the seller can send each of you the money and adresses to ship directly to each other; that would be a lot less out of pocket all the way around!

[STLGusty]

I just heard back from the seller and she says she did accidentally send the wrong petites to the wrong person.  She said she has reached out to the other buyer but hasn't heard back yet.  I suggested a few different options, so we'll see what she says.  At least she is trying her best to work this out so far!  Fingers crossed for an easy resolution.

[Ringlets]

I just heard back from the seller and she says she did accidentally send the wrong petites to the wrong person.  She said she has reached out to the other buyer but hasn't heard back yet.  I suggested a few different options, so we'll see what she says.  At least she is trying her best to work this out so far!  Fingers crossed for an easy resolution.

good to know it was just an honest mistake   I hope your seller hears back from the other person soon and sorts it out for you. There is some good advice already in this thread about what to do next depending on how the other person reacts but please do let us know how it goes

[STLGusty]

As of yesterday evening my seller had not yet heard back from the other buyer.  She said she would refund my money in full (and she did today), and she also suggested to me that I keep the two petites sent in error. 

Aside from not having the petites I originally wanted, everything worked out in the end in terms of getting a refund and good communication between the seller and me. 

There are good sellers still on eBay   Mistakes happen, so I'm just happy we were able to come to a peaceful resolution!

[Vintageg2]

Glad everything was solved in a good way!

[Ringlets]

[slj84]

I had a issue where I mixed up two twilights on eBay.  Both the same but one with bangs and one without.  I accidentally swapped them in boxes and the buyer of the one with the bangs was sad that they got the wrong one.  I contacted the other buyer to see if I could either have them shipped both back to me or to each other at my cost of course.  The other buyer also never responded to me, super frustrating.  I did look for another twilight with bangs to replace the misent one, but ebay sellers had them listed way higher then mine sold for or I felt she was worth.  I ended up offering the same thing to that buyer as you seller offered you.  The buyer wasn't too happy (which I understand they really wanted that particular variant if her) but I had no other options.