Christmas Present

It finally arrived, I bought some Amber on Nov. 16th, 2007, in plenty of time for Christmas. I used a Buy-It-Now button from a seller from Lithuania that had a very good feedback score with lots of sales. If you remember from a previous post, my Husband told me that I was nuts to buy something from Lithuania. Around a week later the seller contacted me to let me know that it had shipped. So, I waited and waited.

I finally contacted the seller right before Christmas and he told me that it can sometimes take as much as a month to arrive in the U.S., I should get it in a few days. Christmas came and went and no package from Lithuania. He finally gave me a registered mail number and told me to check at my local Post Office. The Postmaster told me she would check the number and call me back, which she did within a few minutes, it had not come through their office.

Sometime in January I opened an "Item not received" dispute at eBay. All this did was cause the seller and I to communicate which we were already doing. I would complain and he would tell me to be patient, back and forth.

I kept checking the reg. # at USPS.com and it always said the same thing "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment LITHUANIA 12/05/07, We have received notice that the originating post is preparing to dispatch this mail piece." Finally around the first of February the USPS.com website no longer had information on my number because it's online time limit had expired, I had to email them and ask that the tracking information be reinstated and they did but it still said the same thing.

I next told the seller that I wanted my money refunded and he said that he wouldn't do that unless the package had been lost in the mail or was returned to him. So, he could not do anything about this until Feb. 28th. Which was conveniently long past the 90 day cutoff time for me to leave him negative feedback or report him to eBay. This was the last straw, I knew what he was trying to pull. So, I told him that if he didn't refund my money that day, I would report him and leave a negative.

It must have really scared him because he just ignored me and of course, I didn't do what I said, I just kept waiting. Then I received a notice from eBay this morning that my 90 day limit for the dispute was about to expire. It said that if I didn't file a complaint with them, the dispute would be closed and the seller would not be disciplined. I knew I had to do something right away and then the mail came and the beat-up package was here. Of course, Christmas was long gone.

The moral of this story is: Don't buy Christmas presents from Lithuania or expect your package in one month. I am still waiting for a billfold that I ordered from Lakeside Collections, they must be waiting on it to arrive from Lithuania.