sometimes ebay.....

[Arcadian]

so much anger and energy expended for a $100 stone?! life is too short.

while i can understand the OP's frustration, i still see it as all part of the eBay experience. personally, i don't have the time, energy, or inclination to put myself through this type of thing and while some may have their reasons to do so, it would seem reasonable to expect and accept that this may happen periodically and just move on.

MoZo

Mozo, with all due respect, to you it may just be a 100.00 stone, but that isn't the case for someone else.

I think its important to put time an energy into what a person deems to be important. What may be important to me is not going to be important to you and vice versa.

I've asked for a fair transaction nothing more than that. If I'm putting forth a fair effort I just expect that from the seller too. Buying stones on ebay DOES take energy. You better know your sh8t from shinola because if you don't do the due diligence, you can end up with a ton of fakes and some empty pockets.

Am I angry at the seller? I'm ticked he wasted my time, yes. I'm even more miffed I'm being called a liar of which I'm not.

Again, I ask for a seller to be upfront and fair. I do the same. If they can't I don't bother with them, simple. But I do expect them to tell me this up front prior to me bidding. After the sale stuff like what this seller has done does make me pretty unhappy. I don't know anyone that wouldn't be.

-A

 

[Arcadian]

CCL, the ebay policy of something not being as described totally covers what you're saying there. Basically if not as described, then refund or come to an amicable resolution. Sometimes if there's a dispute, ebay makes you send the product back and once they get the product, ebay refunds the money to you.

I tend to keep the language simple because english isn't the first language for some of these sellers. So unless I KNOW them and have bought from them, I don't bombard them with a whole lot in the beginning.

Even if I purchase from LOGR (considering they make up most of my collection ) I'm straight to the point, because these guys aren't about pleasantries, they're trying to make a sale and they don't want their time wasted.

So my boilerplate message does work for the most part. It tells them of my interest, and it also tells them what I want. I do change the labs around depending on location. Its been a handful of times times it hasn't worked so well and even then, I try to come to an agreement with the seller, sometimes just canceling the sale completely. I don't leave them feedback and they don't leave me any.The ones that have and they've ticked me off with a lot of shenanigans like this one, they have gotten a neg. I can count on one hand how many times thats happened.

I've had a seller tell me "no, we don't do that" to my initial email and like I've said before thats cool! Heck that saves me and them plenty of time.

In my experience, foreign sellers generally do not want you to send them a paragraph they have to read, the less the better. Too wordy, and they don't answer.


I've had Tan take a while to get back to me, and I generally just lose interest and go to someone else. if he popped back up, then cool. Realize that this is prior to the sale. Had it been after the sale and he took a week to get back to me I would have been pretty damn hot, and thats no lie.

I take after the sale conduct seriously, because its where a lot of things can go wrong. Its the reason why I ask my questions up front prior to even bidding because I don't want my time wasted, nor do i want to waste a sellers time.


-A

 

[movie zombie]

[quote="Arcadian
Mozo, with all due respect, to you it may just be a 100.00 stone, but that isn't the case for someone else.

I think its important to put time an energy into what a person deems to be important. What may be important to me is not going to be important to you and vice versa.

I've asked for a fair transaction nothing more than that. If I'm putting forth a fair effort I just expect that from the seller too. Buying stones on ebay DOES take energy. You better know your sh8t from shinola because if you don't do the due diligence, you can end up with a ton of fakes and some empty pockets.

Am I angry at the seller? I'm ticked he wasted my time, yes. I'm even more miffed I'm being called a liar of which I'm not.

Again, I ask for a seller to be upfront and fair. I do the same. If they can't I don't bother with them, simple. But I do expect them to tell me this up front prior to me bidding. After the sale stuff like what this seller has done does make me pretty unhappy. I don't know anyone that wouldn't be.

-A[/quote]

Arcadian, i'm not saying that due diligence isn't warranted for a $100 stone. what i'm saying is that there is a lot of anger and energy invested in a $100 stone that could be harnassed and utilized in searching with other vendors for a stone.

i do understand that 100.00 may be like 1000.00 to another buyer. i applaud your doing research and learning. however, to expect that eBay vendors are going to have the same investment in a 100.00 stone as a 1000.00 is imho unrealistic. as in all things, time = money and sometimes we buyers need to cut our losses and not continue to invest time and energy when the vendor isn't expending time and energy.

buying color stones is like a relationship: it takes work on both parts. if the other side isn't meeting your expectations, well, that's life sometimes. you did the RIGHT thing in being upfront about your need for certification. its obvious your needs aren't being met. realize that you did all in YOUR power to make it a good sale.....but its time to walk away and chalk it up as another learning lesson: no matter how much you express your needs and desires and no matter that you receive assurances that your needs will be met, there is no guarantee that you will have those needs met....just like in a relationship.

this is just one less vendor that you will do business with in the future: their loss......and the bad publicity here may cost them other sales. that is their choice. however, you can decide to let the anger go and move on with your hunt for an affordable emerald.

MoZo

 

[partgypsy]

Arcadian, I understand your point, but this seems like a really cumbersome way of getting a gemstone, with low likelihood of results. Looking at the view of the vendor who probably sells a ton of low priced stones, there is no upside for him. Say he pays for a report and it ends up being an untreated emerald he could sell for a lot more. But he has to sell it at the priced of the ebay sale, a sale really based on the idea the gemstone has no cert. On the downside he has spent time, money and effort to get a report for the stone, and who knows what in that report would cause you to say, sorry not only am I backing out of the purchase, you have to eat the price of the report. You would say that if it was a cz or glass. What about if it was heavily treated, or colored, or something else that made you feel it was not worth it? He has all the risk. You are not paying for anything up front!
I sympathize with you. Six, eight years ago I tried to buy a couple emeralds off the internet and returned both of them. Emeralds are especially tricky to purchase. I realized if I ever did get around to buying an emerald, it would either be in person, with a trusted vendor, or both.

If that is your comfort level, go with a vendor you can trust or stick with gemstones with reports.

 

[Allison D.]

personally, i think this is par for the course and just one of those things one takes in stride in dealing with eBay......not worth much drama.

Agree with MZ here. Admittedly, we all know that there are very few true "bargains", but those who like the thrill of the chase may still find it worthwhile. If I were in this camp, I'd set my expectations for professional behavior pretty darn low based on the venue, so something like this wouldn't surprise me. As long as you don't have $$ out of pocket on it (which it sounds like you don't), I'd probably put the energy into just moving on.

 

[T L]

Once you get a good relationship with a trusted ebay vendor, this rarely happens. It's only when you start out with a new vendor in my experience. That's why when I'm testig the waters with a vendor, I start out with something small and not expensive. I find he cost savings I get on ebay for some stones to be exceedingly worth my time and trouble, and rarely am I duped. However, you have to do your homework, know about gems, and understand all the pitfalls with various vendors and what to look out for. I think Arcadian did all of that, and as a result, she's the winner here, IMO. No money lost, and hopefully someone exposed to the ebay powers that be as a fraud.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us Arcadian.

 

[Lee Little]

Hi Everybody,
A real mess for all concerned. That vendor should have let the customer go and agreed to cancel the transaction as this mistake at trying to please and continue the transaction yet not being able to do it has cost them dearly with a potentially deadly negative. Certainly they have lost a large amount of their revenue as now many people will not buy from them. Not a big deal that they lost money on the eBay fees in that incomplete transaction plus lost all the time spent trying to make the deal but devastating for them that they got a negative out of the ordeal.
Part Gypsy has good business sense. Why the vendor would agree to get a report for a customer on an auction of a gem being sold as having no report is not logical. They were not even to get paid for getting the report but were only to invoice for the actual cost they paid the lab plus the price of the auction. Most labs do not accept mail in gems so that means they had to drive the gem to the lab then drive back again to pick it up, all for free on an auction they likely made very little on and possibly even lost money on to start with. To add to it they were going to lose more when Pay Pal and eBay finished eating about 15% that was not figured in.
Was that vendor in Thailand? The Thai people are generally very gentle natured and are far from being business savvy. When I was new here and started building a house I needed a truck to haul materials and the locals would drive me around if I just paid them for the gasoline burned and a tiny amount for their time, never considering their wear and tear on their truck. I knew they were losing money but they were happy to get paid for their time driving around. I would always tip heavily to try to compensate for their error in figuring actual cost. Eventually I bought my own truck just for peace of mind even though it would be way cheaper to continue to just use theirs nearly for free. Best regards, Lee

 

[Arkteia]

Hi Everybody,
A real mess for all concerned. That vendor should have let the customer go and agreed to cancel the transaction as this mistake at trying to please and continue the transaction yet not being able to do it has cost them dearly with a potentially deadly negative. Certainly they have lost a large amount of their revenue as now many people will not buy from them. Not a big deal that they lost money on the eBay fees in that incomplete transaction plus lost all the time spent trying to make the deal but devastating for them that they got a negative out of the ordeal.
Part Gypsy has good business sense. Why the vendor would agree to get a report for a customer on an auction of a gem being sold as having no report is not logical. They were not even to get paid for getting the report but were only to invoice for the actual cost they paid the lab plus the price of the auction. Most labs do not accept mail in gems so that means they had to drive the gem to the lab then drive back again to pick it up, all for free on an auction they likely made very little on and possibly even lost money on to start with. To add to it they were going to lose more when Pay Pal and eBay finished eating about 15% that was not figured in.
Was that vendor in Thailand? The Thai people are generally very gentle natured and are far from being business savvy. When I was new here and started building a house I needed a truck to haul materials and the locals would drive me around if I just paid them for the gasoline burned and a tiny amount for their time, never considering their wear and tear on their truck. I knew they were losing money but they were happy to get paid for their time driving around. I would always tip heavily to try to compensate for their error in figuring actual cost. Eventually I bought my own truck just for peace of mind even though it would be way cheaper to continue to just use theirs nearly for free. Best regards, Lee

Interesting commentary about the nature of Thai people. What I quickly learned was that in business transactions with Thai or Chinese vendors humor does not work. Treating things humorously is in American's nature. However, when I bought something on ebay from a Chinese vendor and was trying to communicate in a laidback style, it did not work at all. Then I tried it with Thai vendors and the answer was very interesting, "please do not be angry with us". I felt very bad.

Sorry, it was a little bit off-topic. I just looked at e-bay emeralds... I mean, Serenity Emeralds may not be the cheapest place to buy, but a good reference for the prices of good-quality Colombian emeralds. 1.34 - ct. emerald, NR? Auctioned? Starting bid $ 1.00? Sounds too good to be true...

 

[chrono]

Crasru,
It’s not that humour does not work with the Thai or Chinese during a business transaction – it is that their style of humour is different, hence they do not understand American humour.

 

[T L]

Sorry, it was a little bit off-topic. I just looked at e-bay emeralds... I mean, Serenity Emeralds may not be the cheapest place to buy, but a good reference for the prices of good-quality Colombian emeralds. 1.34 - ct. emerald, NR? Auctioned? Starting bid $ 1.00? Sounds too good to be true...

Joshua actually has fair pricing for such quality. Emeralds of the quality that Joshua sells are rarely found on ebay, and when they are, the prices are not 99 cent auctions. When people ask me where to shop for emeralds, I never mention ebay, but I do mention Josh's store (serenity). It is very difficult to find nice Colombian material at fair pricing, let alone with the ability to obtain AGL reports. He's just down the street from the AGL. Joshua also understands the treatments and the pitfalls to buying emeralds, so I highly recommend him to my friends. I just recommended him to someone I know looking for an emerald the other day.

For spinels, and other kinds of gemstones, I do recommend some ebay dealers, but for emeralds, that's a different ball of wax.

 

[Arkteia]

Agree, TL, I hope people understood my comment in the right way. I actually was eyeing Joshua's emerald the other day, and almost beat myself on the head, because I bought some things at an auction which (together) cost the same amount of money. I wish I spent it on his emerald!

I was using his prices as a reference. These are prices for good stones.

Chrono - I know what you mean, sometimes I myself do not understand my own humor, but the assumption of Asians being more serious during business transactions, is, in fact, an observation of a very interesting Chinese man. He was born and bred in China, then married an American woman and moved to the US and is wedged between the two cultures. He also knows many Russians, has great power of observation, and told us many interesting things.

He may be wrong as well, like I may be wrong about my compatriots. In fact, it would be interesting to know the attitudes/behaviors/priorities of different cultures in business negotiations.