POINT OF "NO RETURN" EUGENIA: Read How Ebay and Paypal Are Protecting A Thief!

This story is a sad one…so get ready cause it can happen to YOU TOO! Last month, I had a wonderful time at the Integrity Convention in Chicago. I was lucky enough to have my partner Peter go with me and therefore was able to get an extra convention package. I thought to myself,”This is a wonderful opportunity to help make back some of the cost of the flight, hotel and miscellaneous expenditures (aka: room sales dolls) that I will most definitely be incurring.” I started my process by selling one of my convention packages to a friend from Flickr named David East. He is an awesome, sweet guy and I was happy to do this for him. He was the first person that I had ever dealt with selling to internationally and that process went so well, I decided to open my eBay sales to International Bidders. Now, I’d never sold to anyone Internationally so I did not know all the “ins and outs” of the process, but I figured,”How hard can it be!”  Famous last words.

                The first issue was caused when the items that were prepaid by the conventioneers did not arrive in their homes until 2 weeks after the convention. Many other people choose to fly with their dolls in their luggage. I figured it was safer to ship them back. Many of my eBay buyers, of which 90% were international bidders (lucky me) understood that I didn’t have the items in hand and was waiting for them to arrive from Integrity Toys. Trust me, I was as anxious to get my stuff as they were!

All was going great, until I got the nastiest email from an individual in China that won my “Point of Departure Eugenia Giftset”, I got a bad feeling in my stomach. My gut instinct was letting me know that this person was an ASS! Well, first he asked me to lie about the customs amount (which I refused), then he asked for a type of mailing but did not want to pay for the extra service because he had already paid $40 and said it was my mistake not his….and he must have asked for the tracking number 20 time. Each time I politely let him know what his options were and that seemed to appease him. Finally, his package went out. I had a sinking feeling.

A couple of weeks later, I receive an “open case” email from Ebay from this sociopath who insists that he did not receive his package. Wow! What a coincidence right. The ONLY international package that was not received WAS HIS! Well, without so much as batting an eye…and although I provided all the information needed (aka tracking number..etc) eBay decided to put a hold on my Paypal account for the amount of $300! I was in shock. This person literally just stole $300 from me and according to ebay and Paypal there is nothing I can do about it. All because the buyer (who had obviously done this before) didn’t pay for the signature confirmation method of shipping required by eBay for anything over $250…..his item went for $260! I just got screwed out of $300 over $10! AMAZING! Now, I’m out the cash and the product and I cancelled all my ebay auctions until this whole debacle is resolved.

                What has this lesson taught me you wonder?

1-      DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH INTERNATIONAL BUYERS.

2-      Ebay and Paypal will ALWAYS defend the buyer.

3-      Karma is a bitch….and I hope this idiot gets what’s coming to him in spades!

Ok….I think I feel better….not really! ;-(