Furbrications

[furlic.livejournal.com]

6/14/10 I won Furbrications' auction for the realistic canine head....after shipping, it was $315.
Here's the auction page: http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction/item.pl?item=232356223

communication at first was great; she was getting back to my messages and emails fairly quickly, and sent me her paypal address. That same day, I paid her in full. After that, things started to go downhill...very quickly!

On the auction page, it said that, after full payment, the item could be shipped out that tuesday (the auction ended on a sunday). I waited for several days, and near the end of the week I asked if she was able to get it shipped out. She replied by saying that my address got buried in her emails, and that she needed it again. Fair enough. I sent her my address and waited....she then told me that, now that AC was over, she would ship it out in monday (6/28/10). That was over a week ago.

A few days ago, on sunday, I believe, I sent her a message asking if she had shipped it yet. My primary concern was that I had stumbled upon numerous things here written about her horrible customer service, right about the same time I entered an unavoidable economic situation. I also asked if it would be possible for her to consider giving me a refund...$315 is ALOT of money, and right now I need every penny I can get. (might I also point out that at the time of the auction, I could afford the head, which is why I bid on it and paid her in full on time.) It's now wednesday, and she hasn't replied. I have heard that communication with her is difficult, but if you are selling things that are so expensive, you should make sure to have constant communication with your customers. This is getting rediculous. No matter what the situation is at home, customers should be the first concern. They paid for something, and most likely want to receive it as soon as possible.

I'm beginning to regret bidding on that wonderful head (it's pretty amazing, unfortunately the seller seems to be a bit of a speed bump).
I don't want the head anymore; I just want my money back. I don't want just the $305 from the auction; I want the full $315 back.

EDIT: Here's the screenshots of emails/messages.

1. The first email, immediately following the email from Furbid that notified me that I won the auction. It's a response to me simply asking about the final price and shipping cost (hence the subject of the message):



2. Original message is attached; this was the email at the end of the week she should have sent the head.


3. Another followup; I sent my address and name, then she promised to ship it out on monday (6/28)



That's all I have, since she didn't reply to a couple of my messages (one asking if she shipped it yet, the next asking about the refund and if she had shipped it yet.)

For those of you who glance at the comments and think "omg tl;dr"....I can't file a paypal dispute because of the type of payment I was told to send it as.

Comments

[genkigami.livejournal.com]

Seems like a lot of people have been having problems with Brio lately!

Do you have screencaps or links? It would be helpful so we can see exactly what is going on. :3

[synviver.livejournal.com]

"Seems like a lot of people have been having problems with Brio lately!"

I was just thinking this myself. Three posts in less than three days? That CAN'T be good for this person's business. D:

[furlic.livejournal.com]

screencaps are up :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_patches_/]

Dang, this person seems to be in deep doo-doo judging by all the entries about them. =/
Hope you get your money back.

[jurann.livejournal.com]

The wonderful thing about Paypal is that you CAN get your money back - right now! And you don't even need the seller to do that, you get it back yourself by filing a Payment Dispute quickly and easily on Paypal's site. On FurBuy Sellers only have 14 days to send you your items after you've made payment, if they fail to do so within that time frame (and didn't note that it may take longer in the auction, which is a MAJOR red-flag by itself) then they have technically breached their contract with you. Leave negative feedback on FurBuy, file a Paypal Dispute on the payment (you'll get your money back immediately) and let the admins on each site do their investigating. Or if you really want your item(s) and not a refund, threaten to do these things if you don't get a shipping tracking number within 72 hours. Paypal gives you 45 days from the time payment is made to file a dispute, and FurBuy gives you 180 days from the close of an auction to leave feedback. HTH

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, it is a bad idea to threaten to dispute funds paid. It gives the other party ample time to pull the money from their account... leaving you with nothing if Paypal sides on your behalf. Paypal can only force a refund if money is present.

Also, a dispute only flags the transaction. You have to file a full claim, and Paypal has a process to do this.

First, you file the dispute, which opens communication between yourself as the buyer and the other party as the seller. You state your case for the issue, and the other person has the chance to reply. The 45 day rule applies here.

Then, if you the buyer have attempted in good faith to negotiate with the seller, and there has been no reply within a reasonable time frame... or there is supporting evidence to indicate avoidance or deliberate acts of blocking communication, the dispute can be escalated to a claim. Be careful! The 45 day rule does NOT apply here! There is a 20 day rule to this, and if the dispute is not resolved or escalated and the 20 days pass, Paypal will automatically close the dispute unresolved, close the case and the buyer will not be refunded. On Day 21, the buyer will NOT be able to open a claim on the transaction.

If a claim is opened, any money that may be involved is put on a temporary hold. This only goes into effect if the money is present in the seller account. If the seller has no money in the account, Paypal will restrict the seller's ability to transact, but not completely cut them off.

During a claim, Paypal will request supporting documentation from buyer and seller. If a seller does not respond, Paypal may find with the buyer. At that point, if there is money in the seller account, the payment will be reversed in a) either the amount in full, or b) whatever the seller has if not the entire amount.

If there is no money in the seller's account, Paypal will not reverse the transaction. They'll send the buyer this lovely little letter:

After careful review, we have concluded our investigation of the Buyer Complaint described below.

We have decided in your favor, however, we were unable to recover any funds from the seller's account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recovery of funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed.

Please know that we will make our best effort to recover the funds in question if they become available in the seller's account in the future and will take appropriate action against the seller. Such action may include issuing a warning, a temporary restriction, or terminating the account.

(All that means? Is that they'll wait for the seller to come back and put money in the account. Which may not happen.)

If you do decide to file, furlic, please don't just take our words for it, go read Paypal's Terms and read the help files posted there so that you know what to do at the appropriate times. And let the dispute via Paypal be your warning note so that any of your money that might be present in her account can be held in need of refund.

Yes, I've been burned by warning in advance.
Yes, I've filed disputes and had to escalate.
Yes, I had Paypal find in my favor with no money to retrieve.
Yes, the seller had to refund me before she could use Paypal again.
Yes, I had to do a lot of work to get my money back, but I did.

[kerijiano.livejournal.com]

agreed with this comment!

[sketchkat.livejournal.com]

At the moment what you're doing is confusing her :/
You gave your address twice and after only a week you're expecting a refund

Shipping does take some time in itself you know

[raggedyhatter.livejournal.com]

If she actually shipped it; I've got a friend that is still waiting on a badge that was supposedly shipped not long ago, but long enough to where it really should have been here by now.

[meleeisgood.livejournal.com]

Well, considering the other two people who have posted about her say they ordered things months ago, I don't think it's really bad that this commissioner just doesn't want to bother with getting the product. As much as it sucks for the artist, commissioners DO have the right to cancel commissions if something comes up such as "ended up not being able to afford it" or "Heard bad things about said artist and wants to cancel". Which is exactly what's happening here.

[chesshiress.livejournal.com]

I've also been waiting on a badge from FWA this year & haven't recieved it. And my character is pretty simple, too!

[grandioze.livejournal.com]

Furbrications claimed that she "would ship it out [on] monday (6/28/10)." That was 10 days ago; long enough for it to have arrived if it were in fact shipped that day (assuming this isn't international shipping). Either way, Furbrications should have replied with a tracking number or something if it were shipped, but it sounds like the commissioner hasn't heard a thing since that last email. :/

[kadaria.livejournal.com]

Considering the amount of cash involved I would want to make sure that it was actually shipped within that 10 day time period since you only have a short window of time to file a claim through pay-pal.

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

she could have just shipped the damn thing when she said in the first place. She got the money very soon after the auctiuon ended and claimed it would be shipped within 2 days. Two weeks later *she hasn't sent it yet*. Screw AC, I know what deadlines are like, if she didn't have time to ship it she shouldn't have made the auction. What if the OP had wanted it FOR AC?

The head belongs to the OP. By not sending it, she is deliberately depriving someone of their property.

Additionally,. she only responded with new shipping dates when the OP chased it up. Including "I lost your address"; honestly, how can you LOSE an EMAIL? almost all email systems allow you to search for keywords, even the free online ones like hotmail. If she lost the address then putting "furbid realistic canine" in the search box would almost certainly bring the right emails up instantly

[wolf-goat.livejournal.com]

I appreciate there's a lot of problems with her lately, but really, demanding a refund after one week sounds bad.

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

the auction was won on June 14th, and paid promptly. It's been over THREE weeks, the seller isn't responding to emails (but was responding extremely quickly before she had been paid), has promised to ship several times then not done it, and there's no confirmation it has been shipped this time.

I think a refund is reasonable

[uozlulu.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. When we send our Christmas packages to family it takes two weeks sometimes for them to arrive. If for some magic twist of fate, she did ship you your things and now you're asking for a refund, that could be part of why she hasn't answered yet.

Also since Paypal gives you 45 days, I know you need your $315 now but you do have time for wiggle room in case she is trying to take you for a ride.

I'd wait to hear back from her about the refund before disputing unless it gets too close to the 45 days for comfort.

[claytronic.livejournal.com]

Good grief a lot of people are having problems with this "Furbrications" eh?

I'm sorry and I hope you get your money back. ]:

[fuzibuni.livejournal.com]

Oh man... I commissioned a foam base from her a while ago... Here's to hoping I don't get screwed over :( She seems nice, and I bought head on furbid from her with no problems at all previously.

[furlic.livejournal.com]

oh man....good luck; communication is horrendous to say the least, but hopefully you'll actually get it this time around...maybe you got lucky when you actually received what you bought from her. You're one of the lucky few :)

[frazzled-niya.livejournal.com]

:( not a great sense of business goings. I hope things work out for you.

[obsidianwolfess.livejournal.com]

Off topic a little - I'm curious to see what the head looks like. :x

[furlic.livejournal.com]

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz146/Yarineko/Kai.png

[phoenixsrequiem.livejournal.com]

The "new" FA account is no longer there apparently, the sakura one listed up in the tags. It's a darn shame you have to go through this. Its a beautiful head >.>
People like this is why I stopped commissioning alltogether for a while there. I'm still having issues with a past commission and thank god for Visa.

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

I don't care if it means they take a cut because of fees, but if I bought goods from someone online I send my PayPal payment as "goods" and leave it at that. If she is trying to get around having to pay fees to PayPal, they will freeze her account in a heartbeat so you might as well e-mail PayPal and see what they can do to help you out. Include your links to the auction, screen shots, e-mail correspondence, etc. It never hurts to try!!

Good luck...!!

[furlic.livejournal.com]

this is what I got after letting them know that Furbrications is impossible to get in touch with:

"Dear ---------------,

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

I have checked your account and I saw that you are referring to a
payment made to Anne-Marie Smith and send it as a Personal payment,
which is not covered on PayPal's protection policy.

In this situation, you may find ways on getting the funds refunded to
you. While the vast majority of online transactions are completed
without complication, fraudulent activity can occur. If you feel you
have become a victim of Internet Fraud, there is help available.

Below are options that can be used outside of PayPal.

1. File an internet complaint report against the other party.
o National Fraud Information Center
o Internet Crime Complaint Center
o Better Business Bureau Online
2. File a police report against the other party.

I'll be glad to hear from you if you need clarification and we will do
our best to give you immediate answers. Thank you for choosing PayPal
for your online payment needs. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Rex
PayPal Resolution Services
PayPal, an eBay Company"



what now? :(