Sick & tired of careless sellers! Tell me your stories...

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Strat-Mangler, May 29, 2018.

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  1. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto
    Bought not one but *two* Monarch pressings of an album in NM condition from a single seller. Contacted him to confirm they are Monarchs of those respective pressings. He confirms they are and even writes the LPs say "MO" in the runout groove. I buy them and guess what?

    They are clearly Presswell pressings as shown on the label and the runout groove. Would've taken anybody who knows their stuff 5 secs to identify those pressings as being anything but Monarchs. The albums also sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies, something quite obvious to anybody plays them for a few seconds.

    His comments for each album listing were "ORIGINAL APPEARS UNPLAYED". Yeah, right.

    I've mentioned to the seller how extremely upset I am that he wasted our time, effort, and my money for his junk that he voluntarily misrepresented in more ways than one. The ball is in his court but I'm requesting a complete refund. It was $18 shipping included for both LPs but it's the principle of the thing.

    A week after I placed the order, a negative review appeared on that seller's profile indicating he misgraded an LP as being in NM condition when it was close to G, it took 17 days to get a refund which the seller refused to issue even after contacting Discogs and showing the seller their policy.

    No idea why people pull this sort of stunt, thinking the buyer will be happy. Beyond ridiculous.
     
    Panama Hotel and zphage like this.
  2. Dave

    Dave Esoteric Audio Research Specialistâ„¢

    Location:
    B.C.
    :shrug: Self serving butt heads everywhere. Just glad I'm not one as my feedback clearly represents. Sorry for your troubles Matt.
     
    Strat-Mangler likes this.
  3. PeppersOnWax

    PeppersOnWax Active Member

    Location:
    New England
    Bought a new sealed 7" from a seller who just happened to be in my state. It came in a padded envelope.. Ended up being fine, but I was furious to find it pushed into my mailbox that way.
     
    Strat-Mangler likes this.
  4. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    One lady, not versed with selling records (as it turned out), sent me a record from the use wrapped in brown craft paper and nothing else. No padding no nothing. How it arrived with only one corner (severely) bent is a miracle. I emailed her about the packaging and she said that she didn't realise how delicate it would be. lol She was nice though. I didn't ask for a refund but she gave me one.
     
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  5. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I can accept there is a grey area when it comes to grading but certain things like "Are you sure this is a Monarch pressing?" has no grey area IMO. It either is or isn't and if you are going to claim it is you better make sure you know what you are talking about.
     
    Jrr, Strat-Mangler and Dave like this.
  6. johnny q

    johnny q Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergen County, NJ
    I too, have unfortunately experienced the same crap that @Strat-Mangler articulated in his OP. One recent experience: I purchased via Discogs what was supposed to be an original 1960 Living Stereo, Indianapolis pressing of an Elvis Presley record. I emailed the dude and asked him to confirm. His reply, "Yes it is." when I received it, I knew instantly from the cover it was a later repress and investigating the label and the deadwax, confirmed it was a repress from the late 60s. I emailed him calling him out and his reply?

    "Thanks.":realmad::realmad:
     
    Strat-Mangler likes this.
  7. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto
    He knew enough to reply back that each album has "MO" in the runout groove. My message to him included a sentence that read something akin to "You realize people like me are on Discogs especially because we want specific pressings, right?" The logic of outright lying and then hoping I don't notice a label and runout groove showing entirely different info than what was confirmed by the seller escapes me.

    Request a refund and send it back if need be. Contact Discogs and go through PayPal. I believe you have 3 months to do so. Therefore don't let it go or these sellers will never learn.

    I always ask for specific info such as the barcode identifier for a sealed album or the full matrix info for LPs which aren't sealed. This was the first time I was blatantly lied to but otherwise, I've always gotten either the requested info or complete radio silence which tells me they either can't be bothered or are aware of their info's inaccuracies.
     
    eddiel, Dave and johnny q like this.
  8. sennj

    sennj I'm slower than I look...

    Location:
    Muskegon, Michigan
    Just got my first ever negative Discogs buyer rating from a seller who sat on an order for a full workweek with no communication. After the sixth day of waiting I gave them a message asking whether there was a problem with my order--still no response. The next day I cancelled the order and left (appropriate in this case) negative feedback stating that they had zero customer service.

    Lo and behold, the next day I had negative feedback simply stating "zero." (I've asked it to be removed using the same sad tale above.)

    A-hole sellers are everywhere, folks...
     
  9. HearHear

    HearHear Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Florida
    I'm fairly new to record collecting, and started buying vinyl from Discogs. Most purchases have been legit, but about 30% are not as advertised, which is a huge disappointment. Just two examples:

    1) I purchased what was supposed to be a 1961 original pressing LP, original release. When it arrived, it looked suspicious. You can just "tell" sometimes, gut feeling. Sure enough, after some very basic research, I learned to my disappointment that it was a 1965 re-issue. I didn't bother sending it back, as I don't want to waste the time.

    2) I purchased what was supposed to be a 1963 original pressing, original release vinyl 45 in mint condition. I asked seller about it to be sure before purchase. Seller said it was mint, paper sleeve was original and also mint. He said he never saw a finer example, and it came out of very long storage. OK, so I receive the record. First off, it looked brand new, as in made within the last year. It smelled brand new, none of that old "vanilla" smell you get with older records. It had no smell whatsoever, which is very strange for a 55 year old record. The paper sleeve had absolutely no yellowing, no wrinkles, or marks of any kind. It was fresh and white. And if it was vinyl, it was the thinnest vinyl I had ever seen- almost paper thin, light as a feather and stiff. So after examining it carefully, although I have no way to definitively prove it, I firmly believe this record was manufactured within the past year. This was certainly not from the year 1963. There's no way to get my money back, all the numbers and labeling looked correct on it. But it was obviously a recent copy, it was actually a glaring fake. This seller had "99%" positive feedback- well, whatever, he lost me as a customer.

    Honestly, I very often have bought better records on Ebay than Discogs. Reason- with Ebay at least you can very often SEE what you're getting right off without having to go back and forth with a seller.
     
  10. melstapler

    melstapler Reissue Activist

    As honest buyers in a world of careless and sometimes dishonest sellers, I've come to the sad conclusion that we need to lower our expectations. Having been victimized may times by carelessness and deception (whether intentional or not), I've given up the fight for justice and correct product representation. Expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised when a mint or near mint copy arrives.
     
  11. MARTHY

    MARTHY Forum Resident

    I haven't purchased more than a dozen titles from Discogs in, say, two years, but I've been fairly lucky. If I've asked a question of the seller, and get no response, I write the seller's name on a list and never --*never* - purchase anything from that seller in the future. As a previous poster said, either the seller is too busy to bother, doesn't want to make any effort, or he's trying to sell an incorrect item. Also, if I do get a response from a seller that tells me the item has been listed incorrectly, I always let the seller know. I then keep an eye on the item and that seller; if the seller doesn't make the correction (which also tells me the seller is either too lazy or is intentionally misrepresenting the item), then that seller's name goes on the list as well, never to be purchased from in the future.

    Question: Is there a place in the Discogs forums where we can post these crappy sellers (with backing data, of course)?

    If I have good success with a seller, I will always purchase from them again (as I have on one occasion); unfortunately, I don't purchase that many items, as I have said, from Discogs, and thus it's extremely rare that any one such seller will have another item that I want in the future.
     
  12. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Naming and shaming publicly is not allowed on Discogs. If you do it, the post will be deleted or edited and if you do it often enough, you'll probably get banned.
     
  13. Paul_s

    Paul_s Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    My only bad experience was with eBay last year... paid over £900 ($1200) for a pre-amplifier that was sold as tested/good but turned out faulty. Took Paypal around 3-weeks to refund after the shipper collected via their own shipper.

    I felt extremely lucky because they refunded via e-Cheque (which can be hit and miss) although i originally paid via credit card.


    Never had any problems with Discogs thus far.
     
  14. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto
    For #1, you should mention it to them. If it's a low cost item, some will even just refund you and ask you to keep it anyway, reason being it'd be a waste of their time to relist it.

    For #2, I'd bring it to the attention of the seller. Most have a good return policy and again, no reason you should be stuck with it.

    eBay has pics, sure. However, they're almost never helpful in any way. They're blurry or don't show the labels or matrix info, so you do need to ask questions. Once in a blue moon, I'll encounter something with all the necessary info with the pics to prove it but it almost never happens.
     
  15. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto
    The rating speaks for itself Unfortunately, even sellers with an average rating of 40% still get orders, so not much anybody can do about this.

    When a seller has many hundred transactions and has a lower rating than 99%, I skip them entirely. Not worth my time to gamble.
     
    Dave likes this.
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