ashowyouwantit
ashowyouwantit sent mixed signals throughout this situation regarding a purchase that was made from him, going from very impatient on payment, to hard-assed, to pleasant (when he realized I've had to deal with sellers like him before), back to being a total prick after he got positive feedback. In the end it was like a stab in the back, a fake pleasant personality only to get positive feedback (knowing that I would filed a claim against him if he canceled the order early), even knowing that there was still interest in items in his list, he cut us off as soon as he got what he wanted & wasn't interested in getting any further sales out of it.
On 6/14/2017, an order was made for Bonk's Adventure on the NES for $485 (plus $5 shipping):
Only 8 minutes after the order was placed, I got a message from the seller showing just how impatient he was:
I responded to him 42 minutes later (1:34 PM Mountain Time) when I saw the message (not seeing it immediately as I was getting something to eat) with the following response:
He responded again at 3:22 PM, this time threatening an early cancellation & re-list:
This was expected to go the same route as what happened with barrtubwel0, so I reiterated on when it was expected to be paid & cautioned him in a message sent at 2:59 PM of what will happen if he does cancel it early (using the information I got from eBay when I complained about the last early cancellation we had to deal with & giving some details about it in this response).
His next response (sent 4:45 PM) was just short of a threat (as far as I'm concerned) reiterating his point that he would cancel it early regardless of circumstance:
It seems that he may not have read the entire message however, stopping after the first paragraph before sending the last message, later taking the time to read the details regarding what happened with the last seller & what I stated about eBay policy, trying to smooth over the response he had sent previously in another response sent at 4:54 PM:
In all honesty, I consider 72 hours too long, I was considering where I wanted to state this to him or not, actually had started writing a reply that did state it, then decided not to send it. I instead followed up with the following reply at 6:02 PM:
At this point it seemed I had calmed him down a bit & he wasn't in the hurried fashion that I was expecting him to be in to the point of a total meltdown of the order. He responded with the following at 6:06 PM:
The order ended up getting paid at 10:01 AM the following day, sending him a followup message at 10:05 AM:
I got a response from him at 4:40 PM, making it seem like everything was cool:
He stated something seemed off, expecting I was going to stiff him, however this never happens on my part if I can avoid it; even in cases where I ordered something I couldn't use due to lack of device (back in my college years, a Game Boy Color light & magnifier...which was bad quality I might add, thinking I was getting a Game Boy Color instead), I still paid for it, but I was careful to make sure what I was purchasing in further orders. Something was definitely off however, not on my part, I just didn't realize how off it actually was until his final response after (I thought) everything had been squared away (this will be detailed later).
I sent him another reponse stating the following after his reply:
He replied with the following response at 5:45 PM:
I got an email on 6/17/2017 at 2:36 PM stating that the order had been shipped, getting a follow up email from him at 2:40 PM stating:
My doorbell rang on 6/19/2017, I had to get my shirt back on to answer the door, it appeared to be the package I was waiting for. By the time I got to the door, the mailman was already driving away, I found the package left on a chair next to my door (without getting a signature, as was stated by the seller & in the tracking number). I contacted the seller back to let him know the situation that they didn't request a signature & left this nearly $500 purchase out on my front porch with the following message:
He replied with the following message at 6:31 PM:
He was apparently in a hurry to get feedback (I later found out why, his "small request" was a limiter on how quickly he could get rid of me), as I had been doing this entire time when the seller was contacting me, I was keeping the buyer (my position in this sale being a middleman) in the loop, letting him know when the seller was in a hurry for it to get paid, in a hurry to cancel & re-list the item & in a hurry to get feedback. I responded with the following detailed response to let him know why I didn't have the option to leave him feedback just yet:
A bit more detail regarding the claims stated before had to do with sellers leira921 & coach-hines, where both tried to play the card that the item was switched to avoid having to pay back returns. leira921 in particular not only manipulated the seller protection policy with eBay, he also committed insurance fraud with USPS, so that one in particular should really be sitting in jail, if not just avoided by ebay buyers altogether... In one case I had a seller that actually turned out to be a good one, we didn't have to return the package, apparently it was covered by both buyer & seller protection by eBay, where we both got paid & the item didn't have to be returned; that seller was happy he got his money back (after a temporary hold), but a little peeved we got to keep the game and get the money back, so I sent him back part of the money (approximately a 3rd of the price, I kept a small portion from what was given back to the buyer seeing as he hasn't been paying me markup fees since I started doing this for him & he had the game to resell anyways) directly through Paypal after eBay had completed their part on the return. In one other case, things got stalled & eBay forced a return of the money from the seller; I felt guilty that the stall on my part caused it to happen & I paid back the seller the entirety of refund & gave him positive feedback, as the item did still come late, but it was originally reported as not getting received.
Ashowyouwantit responded at 7:09 PM with the following message:
One of the reasons why I kept pushing the buyer to give me feedback so I could leave feedback is I noticed the tracking number on this order never updated from being "out for delivery" & the buyer stated that the seller might have a hold on getting paid based on tracking data, so I kept pressuring the buyer to give me the heads up on when I could give him feedback, as this should clear up the situation. I contacted USPS through their online contact form on 6/20/2017 (probably around 5 AM, before I went to bed) with the following details:
The package with tracking number [censored] was delivered on 6/19/2017, but because the mail handler did not request a signature (despite this being indicated on the tracking number & told to me personally by the eBay seller that sent the package), the tracking number hasn't updated yet & I expect the eBay seller that sent the package may have a hold of nearly $500 for the purchase of the item that eBay isn't giving him because the tracking number hasn't updated to say it was delivered. It was left on a chair at my front door, the mail truck was driving away as I answered my door, I could even provide a video from my video surveillance system on when he arrived & left if needed (it won't show me answering the door, however, it doesn't cover that area). I have already contacted the seller over eBay to let him know the situation.
I received a response from USPS via email at 2:07 PM stating the following:
Dear Shane,
Please accept my apologies for the frustration you are experiencing.
A suggestion would be to start at the lowest level where employees are held accountable by contacting both the local branch manager as well as where the mail carriers launch from; they are separate. Allow adequate time for management to address the issues he is presented with. Mail carriers launch from a nearby distribution center so you may have to get that from your local post office. If things continue, then there is also our Consumer Affairs Department should things need further escalation.
Consumer Affairs and Claims Office. Phone numbers for local Consumer Affairs and Claims Offices are listed in your telephone book with other U.S. Postal ServiceŽ numbers.
Below, I have included the mailing address of the main office:
United States Postal Service
Policy and Program Development
USPS - HQ
475 L'Enfant Plaza SW
Washington DC 20260-0004
The highlight you are seeing here was actually in the email itself, pretty well stating that I had to go to contact another office to file the complaint. I didn't follow through with this as I haven't had luck in filing complaints in the past (about not taking outgoing mail unless they had mail to drop off & ignoring the flag on my new mailbox I purchased because they were ignoring whether outgoing mail needed to be picked up or not; this complaint had been filed twice in only a couple months of each other since I moved to this location) & in all honesty, didn't expect this one would go anywhere either, where the response pretty well proved that.
I continued to contact the buyer every day since he came to pick it up to get a statement from him that it was okay to leave feedback. It took him 2 days to test it to make sure it worked, stating that it needed a good cleaning before it would work because putting it in the first time just gave a "blue screen". He stated he wanted to open it up & make sure everything was in place, I told him he had already seen the photos provided, he said he still wanted to make sure. I called him the next day & while he hadn't opened it up yet, he stated it was fine to go ahead & leave feedback for the seller.
I left the following feedback for the purchase in the afternoon of 6/23/2017:
After I had left the feedback, I contacted him (for what was supposed to be) one last time to let him know the transaction should be complete & he shouldn't have to worry about it anymore. I also gave him details regarding the complaint I filed to USPS about the mail carrier not getting a signature so he could follow up on it if he choose to, considering the tracking number for that package still is reading that the package hasn't been shipped yet:
I originally misread the response from USPS, so the statement of contacting my local postal office was actually incorrect, but it was pretty obvious that the contact through the online form didn't really get me any closer to getting that tracking number updated as delivered & they were going to make me jump through some hoops, which probably wouldn't have gotten me anywhere anyways. I'm considering exporting the video from my video surveillance system & adding it to my Postal Antics (unlisted) playlist on YouTube.
Of course after I sent my final response, this is where things get interesting & the green-eyed monster that had been hiding itself made itself known. I got a rather odd, mixed-message response from him at 3:57 PM:
As if that wasn't enough, he throw one final taunt in an additional message sent only one minute later at 3:58 PM:
So as stated before, he was waiting for the feedback only so he could cut loose & throw his attitude in my face. It was at this point I contacted the buyer to let him know that I was going to have to place the seller on my blacklist, he obviously wanted to get some further items from this seller, but I pointed out that even if I didn't have him on my blacklist, the block put in place by the seller (while I haven't checked this, I think it's pretty obvious it's happened, so I'm not going to bother checking) wouldn't allow me to purchase from him anyways. This goes back to the complaint I filed with eBay regarding one of the other problem-sellers on eBay, where this constant shit is slowly making my account lose it's purpose & I'm getting near to the point I'm ready to close it anyways (the only reason I still had one seeing as I don't do much on eBay myself is because I do occasionally purchase from Half.com, however lately I've been purchasing more from Amazon and both of these details were stated in that complaint).
UPDATE: I sent him one final message (at least I hope a final message, won't be if he retaliates to it, nor will this be the last update), stating the following to show my opinion about his quick change in attitude & apparent deceiving nature, staying pleasant until he got his positive feedback:
UPDATE: As I expected, he did reply again, however his response was more professional (if not somewhat abusive) & less taunting/retaliation that I was expecting. His reply set at 7:58 PM was as follows:
He does have some points here, these people really should be purchasing these items themselves, they shouldn't be relying on a middleman. What a lot of people don't realize however is a lot of businesses are middleman for their products purchased off of sites like this. Barnes & Noble is one in particular I know this to be the case, as I asked them about this when I was asking about ordering video game strategy guides from them, they stated they find a copy online, have it ordered, shipped to the store, then later transferred to actual customer; this was what made me determine that ordering through them really wasn't worth it when I could do the same thing myself (provided I could track down what I was looking for). I would also expect Home Depot does the same thing, however rather than going into full details on the matter, I'll just link to the review I published about it.
So what's the difference between me & these stores when it comes to being a middleman? Perhaps the only viable difference that really counts is the fact that I don't hide the fact that I am taking part as a middleman, although you could also point out minor details here & there about professionalism, articles getting published for orders turning rotten (which I think is what some of my buyers actually like about using me as a middleman) & the fact that I try to give my buyers some lenience in the purchases they are having me order for them, however I still can't have them walk all over me, which is why I started imposing restrictions & stipulations if they wanted to continue ordering under me.
What that last response does show is that ashowyouwantit won't knowingly deal with middlemen, so unless you're hiding that fact, that's going to cut out importation of items he's selling to companies & individuals like myself to customers that either don't want to mess with sites like eBay or don't have the ability to due to lack of internet or understanding to do so (trust me, there are people that don't; my parents are still messing with AOL dial-up & Windows XP, where they can't do most stuff online, getting me to do it for them). You might say he's only going to be hostile towards those that are being middleman, but how are you sure he won't just accuse you of being a middleman whether you are or are not? The best bet to those who are reading this would be to avoid purchasing from him over eBay entirely (and other sites if you know his other online profiles, not all sellers stick to just eBay), as he's already made his attitude towards his sellers known (or at least I'm making it known by making his statements & actions public), regardless of whether the shoe fits or not, so if you choose to take your chances & purchase from him, just keep in mind that I posted this article for a reason & I tried to warn people of what could happen if they do decide to purchase from him after reading this.
One other thing to point out is he's got me blocked for being a middleman, meaning if I were purchasing for myself, I still wouldn't be able to. Of course after what happened with him, I can guarantee I wouldn't; you don't continue purchasing from people that have shown this kind of attitude unless you're actually itching for abuse... Even if it weren't for the block, I would still let my buyers know that I wouldn't purchase from him, as I have not only the public blacklist on this site, but also a private one that restricts buyers (as well as I follow it myself) from being able to order through me from those sellers (the private list contains a number of seller names that don't show on this site, mainly because I have lost the details regarding why those sellers I will no longer purchase from).
Then shall we get into the matter of honesty? ashowyouwantit thanked me a few times for being honest, however my honesty only kicked me in the butt when he decided that being a middleman took more precedence over being honest. Consider the fact that the postal office did not get a signature from me & the tracking number never updated, what was stopping me from just reporting to eBay that the item never came? If I had known ashowyouwantit was going to pull this, would have I just filed the claim that it never came because USPS screwed up, didn't get the signature & that left me the opportunity to take advantage of their lack of commitment to do their jobs? No, I wouldn't have. As much as I would have liked to knowing that this was the response I was going to get for being an honest individual, I would not have & that's because I was brought up to be an honest person & will tell the truth even if the truth would get me in trouble. I get enough abuse from my father for being straightforward, not leaving out details & offering information upfront; seems he'd rather I don't offer any information unless it's absolutely necessary, but even when I do attempt to take his example, it always bothers me (I would assume my father lacks a conscience). As much as I could have taken advantage of the situation & used the fact that USPS screwed up their tracking system by not getting a signature, even if I knew this was coming (which to some degree, I still expected it; seems I was right, even if I tried to look past it & give the seller the benefit of the doubt), I still wouldn't have lied about it & perhaps this is what sets individuals such as myself from others that would hide the facts that could effect how people see them in the world or online. What I can say is I wouldn't have given him positive feedback if I knew this was coming.
My honesty apparently gets a number of eBay sellers not wanting to deal with me (which isn't surprising when you look at these reviews, but you'd be talking about the dishonest ones in this case, because they wouldn't get on this list if not trying to pull a fast one), so you have to wonder what statement this makes on those sellers when they take one standard over perhaps a more reputable one that most people find a quality (my experience however is that my honesty is more of a hindrance). An argument that you might hear from most people is that you can not be too honest, however those like myself that have been judged for their standard of not holding back information might say otherwise. In some cases these situations where those who are too honest may consider that it is not worth it anymore & lose their will to continue being the honest person they once were to avoid situations where the truth would have them judged, others might hold fast to their morals & continue being honest regardless of what is thrown at them. I for one am not going to lie & have considered whether the path of full-honesty is really worth it & should I consider changing that, it hasn't been enough to deter my morals & conscience from continuing my path to stay an honest person...however I do expect one of these days it's going to get me killed...
Last updated 6/13/2018
Last update includes certain messages that were sent/received that I lost the
notifications on, added them to the review when they were located