Buyer Beware- DominoDingo

[brobama.livejournal.com]

 EDIT- Received head today. There are some issues with it, but at least I got it. Still would not recommend doing business with him unless you're willing to wait a couple of months for your item.

As much as I hate to post on here, I think it's now necessary.

On May 22nd I won a fursuit head on Furbid, the original auction can be found here: http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction/item.pl?item=232356026

and the sellers FA page can be found at http://www.furaffinity.net/user/dominodingo

At first he was quick to respond to my emails, but it went quickly down hill. He told me he would give me the shipping cost BEFORE that following Monday, but didn't until a few days later (only after I emailed him multiple times asking.) I finally had sent the payment, and this was REGRETFULLY a money order since my Paypal was not working at the time.

After not having any contact with him for a week or so, I emailed him again asking if he had received my money order- apparently it had been damaged due to the rain, but he ended up getting the cash anyways. He said he would have it shipped out ASAP, and this is on the 6th of June.

Another couple of weeks pass, and on the 21st I get a response to an email I sent him asking if he had ever gotten around to shipping it, and requesting a tracking number. Another excuse was made, quote "I've had problem after problem with my internet connection and switching to my new laptop. Now that everything is situated, please, send your address again so I can send the head out ASAP" followed by an apology about the wait and saying in another email sent shorty after that he'd have it out tomorrow (June 22nd.) This, of course, did not happen.

I email him again on the 28th making sure he sent it, and then the next night he said he had finally shipped it (So it went out on the 29/30th, NOT the 22nd.)

I've emailed him again regarding this issue and have not had any reply- It's been nearly ten days later and it is STILL not here, and I'm honestly afraid that I got ripped off.

Am I just being impatient, or does this sound fishy to the rest of you? Is there any way I can get refunded for this? :/

Comments

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

They didn't give you a tracking number for shipping?

[brobama.livejournal.com]

No- I sent him an email a few days ago asking if he had gotten one but there I haven't gotten a response yet.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I don't know if you can get tracking on some of the slower/cheaper methods of postage, but it seems bizarre to me NOT to track any item that's over $10

[brobama.livejournal.com]

Same, let alone $270. :|

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

If he sent it parcel post (which he quite likely did, it's the cheapest way to ship something that size) it can take up to 10 business days. Which means two weeks, since weekends don't count. So... yes it sounds fishy, and no you're not being impatient, but there's some hope it might still turn up.

As for getting a refund... good luck, but I doubt it. There's a reason scammers like money orders so much. The only way to get your money back is to convince this guy to voluntarily send it to you, and the odds of that are slim to none.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'd give it at least another week to arrive--the mail is beyond the control of lesser mortals. (I don't know if you had to go across international lines, in which case give it even longer!)

And frankly, a week or two delay in shipping a big item out...well, life happens, and that's really not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, particularly since it seems to have come with apologies--I've had delays that long on shipping myself, particularly on oversize items where somebody had to build me a crate or something.

At this stage, if he doesn't have a prior history (and I don't know one way or the other) it all still sounds like it falls into non-malicious negligence territory. I'd give it a little more time to arrive before believing that he might be scamming you.

[brobama.livejournal.com]

Thanks for replying! I guess I might just be extremely paranoid, the money was a birthday gift from my now ex-boyfriend and I'd feel awful if it was basically used for nothing.

[protocollie.livejournal.com]

honestly, if the work's already done then it should be a matter of putting it in a box and mailing it. It shouldn't take a month to mail a single, already finished item. That IS bad, you're not in the wrong, even if it's possible it's still on its way to you - it shouldn't have gotten to that point.

[brobama.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. The guy is EXTREMELY nice and everything and I understand he has life issues at the moment, but when you pay almost 300 dollars for something you sort of expect it not to take over a month to get to you...

[brobama.livejournal.com]

Oh and I forgot to mention, a couple other winners of his item had also contacted me shortly after I won the auction I posted above asking if I had any problems. I guess they're having the same issues as me, although I'm not sure if they have received their items yet.

One person said that they were going to post something on here about it but I don't think it happened.

[brobama.livejournal.com]

items*, sorry, I'm not used to typing on this keyboard.

[redrottie.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was me but...I chose to not be my usual self and was nice. I guess I should not have been.

He used a good many excuses. He doesn't drive, his boyfriend didn't want to drive him up there, he forgot....and there were other excuses too.

[brobama.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey there! You did finally receive your item though, right? I've been so swarmed in mail that I can't remember. :/

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Well, if it's happening to other people, that's definitely a concern. On the other hand, if there was a dead laptop, that could certainly explain a swath of delays.

I generally believe "Don't ascribe to malice what you can chalk up to incompetence" though, so he may just be disorganized or really swamped as well. But yeah, keep an eye out if there are other people having problems as well.

[cesarin.livejournal.com]

I agree.. shipping for example from US to MEX is a pain in the ass.
the US service reaches the border in less than 3-4 days, but then it can take up to a month or two for the Mexican service to deliver it., so always better be careful with the shipping service and where they ship it D:

[jibacoil.livejournal.com]

I shipped an item not too long ago that ended up taking almost two weeks to get to the commissioner. It was kind of a shocker because everything I'd mailed up until then had taken under a week to reach its destination.

So yeah, there's still a chance it's caught up in the mail. Hopefully that's the case here and you'll get your item soon.

[artic-dragoness.livejournal.com]

Hrm. If it can take easily 10 business days, it makes sense that it might take a while. Add in that the 5th was a federal holiday, and that can tack on another couple days.

There may be foul play, but like everyone said, I'd say give it a little longer.

[claytronic.livejournal.com]

I'd give it another week.
I've had internet go out for weeks to a month at a time, it could be that.

After a week, email him again politely asking if he mailed it out.
Mail can take from days to weeks to a month to arrive sometimes.

[joecifur.livejournal.com]

Doesn't sound like a scam, just sounds like lazy. Probably just kept putting off shipping it, if he even has yet.

Though if he did and used parcel post, yeah, it can take ~two weeks.

[collie-fluff.livejournal.com]

I really do not understand why it would take someone this long to mail out something. I can completely understand if you paid with a check and he was waiting for it to clear, but even then that will take up to 3 weeks (giving one week for it to arrive in the mail).

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

2 weeks for mail, actually.

[completly-naked.livejournal.com]

I can tell you the guys a flake, and someone new every week. Not to bash, but he lived on my couch for three weeks, with several different accents, stories, names, ages, etc... all I can say, is good luck!

[redrottie.livejournal.com]

You didn't get the toony version of the head? That's just plain silly!

FYI, no, he doesn't do parcel post, he does UPS because I got the realistic head from him. He missed his promised deadlines for shipping me my head umpteen times too, so I contacted the winner of the other head (the OP ) because....I wanted to know if we shared the same problem of little contact and broken dates. My head, via UPS site itself and the date on the package only took two days to get here.

I think the only reason he actually sent mine was because I used paypal and was thinking of getting a refund....and it was mainly because my dog got attacked by a stray as soon as I went outside sometime like..a week after the last missed shipping date and his vet bills were insane for some stitches. I told him about it and that I was seriously thinking about a refund. Lo and behold, two days later I've got my dingo head.

Keep on him about it, ask Beastcub if she can offer any help, she's a real decent sort. Maybe she can get a hold of him and prod him into sending it?

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

Beastcub's awesome, but I don't think it's a good idea to contact her about this, since she's got nothing to do with it. That'll put her in a weird spot, you know?

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

Just what I was saying. This has nothing to do with her.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I don't recommend bothering Beastcub about this. She isn't Domino's keeper and her relationship with him only goes as far as having made his costume, as far as I know. Dragging her into this is silly, stressful, and rude.

[redrottie.livejournal.com]

Meh, didn't mean for it to come off that way. Perhaps she knows a better way to contact him was all I meant really. I just noticed how I messed it up there. Mmm..I won't use the excuse that I am sick and didn't catch it in time to fix the sentence before sending. I'll just say I was too lazy to re-read first like I usually do.

I did ask Beastcub about how he was as a customer, hoping maybe it would shed some light on our situation here. I had contacted her in the first place myself only to talk about getting the head modified and eventually after...well, having a good amount of emails between us and still no head, I was getting very unsettled and asked her how he'd been business-wise with her and she'd said he was very good and very prompt so...I dunno?

If you go into his FA and look at the pictures he has in scraps of him in the masks as a partial, those there were my main reason for wanting it to be changed into not an albino dingo. X3

[brobama.livejournal.com]

And I did the same thing as above, just asking how he was business wise- I'm thinking about emailing her for a custom airbrush job, because I had plans to modify the suit I won as well.

[brobama.livejournal.com]

I already contacted her, asking if she would put the warranty on the head longer for me if I ever did get it. She is super nice :)

[borderdog.livejournal.com]

It's nice that people are giving him the benefit of the doubt here with shipping maybe just being slow or whatever, but there is no reason why he can't provide proof that it was shipped.
Aside from the fact that he should have gotten a tracking number on this type of item, you also get a receipt! It has the date it was shipped and where it's going.
Scan it/take a picture and email the receipt info.
PROBLEM SOLVED.

If he can't do that, or at least respond to your emails about how and when he shipped it and give you an estimated delivery date, then I wouldn't believe it has gone out yet.
At this point, your concerns are perfectly reasonable.

[brobama.livejournal.com]

He replied to me last night saying the ETA was Friday. How he knows this I have no idea, but I'll give it until then before I ask for a refund (although I'm really not sure what good that would do at this point.)

[redrottie.livejournal.com]

I hope you get it.. I was very angry that he never would listen to me when I asked for a scan of the receipt. I even told him it wasn't about the price of shipping, it was for knowing when it would be here. I even said he could scribble out the price in mspaint if he wanted.

So...yeah. You will just get ignored on that subject. I wish you the best of luck though and yes, Beastcub is awesome nice.