Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: metacontxt on September 16, 2013, 04:44 pm
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(Long post, sorry! If you can't be arsed reading through it all, read the first and last paragraphs :D )
So I currently have an order in the resolution centre and I wonder if any of you older hands can give some advice about what happens when the resolution process hits a wall.
The order was placed with (what appeared to be at the time) one of the largest SR vendors, with a close to unimpeachable rep going by the feedback they received. I had bought from them before - the first transaction was effortless, product acceptable and cheap, took less than two weeks to get halfway round the world - and stealth was really something else. I thought these guys were real pros.
So I bought from them again - a larger order (although still not of an especially high value). The order took several days to ship, vendor posted on their website that there were sourcing delays, they only get the best gear etc etc. I didn't care, wasn't in any hurry.
A couple of days later, the vendor posted a note on their page saying that lots of stuff they'd sent to my country had been intercepted by customs lately. Hmm. Still, ok, no probs.
A few weeks passed and the order was about to auto-finalise, yet I hadn't received the goods and no love letter, either. Without contacting the vendor, I proposed a 7 day extension. No red flags yet; I just assumed it was still in the mail. The week ran out, the vendor proposed a 50% refund while messaging me that the order could take 35 days to reach me. So I extended the deadline by another 15 days. I still wasn't suspicious; they seemed like a really solid vendor going by their page, their feedback, and my previous dealing with them. I sent them a note saying good to hear it could take up to 35 days as I was sure the package hadn't been seized (customs in my country are psychotically zealous - there's no way I wouldn't have at least received a letter from them if they intercepted what I'd ordered) and I highly doubt the mail got lost from there to here (from one reliable postal service to another). I was happy to wait as long as required.
Next day they send me a note saying something like "been getting notes from people in your country that staff in your postal system are notorious for stealing mail and it's really unreliable". OK now I'm suspicious. Shit I don't live in Tanzania. I live in a rich developed country with a postal system of bulletproof reliability, and of course the staff don't steal mail. (And even if they did - which they don't - the vendor knows how he mails his gear. No way it would attract the attention of an opportunistic thief. If you had to guess what was in the envelope by looking at it, you'd say a bunch of brochures. Very good stealth.)
So I sent a message back saying I've never heard anything like that before, never lost an item of mail in my life, and I'd be surprised if the postal system in my country was even marginally less reliable than that in his. I pointed out that I doubt the postal system of any developed country would be unreliable or employ theft-prone staff, and that the way he mails his stuff would be extremely unlikely to attract the attention of a thief anyway. I was careful to word the message so that they wouldn't think I'd started to become suspicious. Within a few hours he messages back one line "I can copy paste the message if you like."
Shit, I hadn't even suggested they'd done anything untoward, why act so defensive? And "message"? I thought there was more than one. Let's ignore the fact that a purported copy paste of a message is not exactly irrefutable evidence of authentic correspondence.
I sent back a note saying no I don't need a copy-paste, and it's just common sense that a first world postal system isn't infested with thieving employees. Guy messages back, says something like 'well I start to believe it when I keep on hearing it lol [bullshit you do!] and oh here's the link to our new page you can buy from while we sort out our issues with SR admin'. WTF?
So they have a new page, new name, their recent feedback is dominated by 1 star reviews claiming non-delivery of goods, and I just did a search through the forum and there's a fair amount of chatter about this vendor being a 'selective scammer'. Incidentally, there's no tracking number for the item; the vendor charges a small amount for regular postage and a ridiculously huge amount for tracked post - ie. it's more expensive than most of the products they sell - and now I can make a pretty good guess at why they discourage buyers from using tracked mail.
Ironically, prior to the vendor redirecting me to their new page, I would have accepted the partial refund and probably bought from them again. It wasn't a huge amount of money lost, maybe the package did get lost along the way. Stranger things have happened.
But I know the package hasn't been seized (I'd have heard about it for certain). And considering the pretty damn suspicious correspondence I've had with this vendor, coupled with the fact that I've just learnt their rep isn't nearly as solid as it first seemed, I reckon it's much much more likely that the package was never sent in the first place as opposed to being lost in the mail. So much so that I'm not really willing to accept a partial refund anymore. To me that sounds like them getting something for nothing and me getting screwed.
So what's the deal once resolution period isn't extended (it's already been extended by over a month)? Should I enter a resolution asking for a 100% refund? Surely the SR people would know this vendor's problematic.
Much obliged for any help you can provide.
Oh, re my bona fides - well I'm not an SR veteran, but I doubt many (or any) vendors would look at my buying stats and payment history and be the slightest bit concerned. This is the only time I've had a problem on SR.
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If the vendor's account has been demoted by SR, request a 100% refund from resolution. Even if they haven't been demoted, you can still request the 100%, if you and the vendor do not agree on the resolution, admins will step in and decide what will be done.
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Just send it to resolutions. I am baffled as to why you haven't done so yet.
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It's already with the resolutions centre. Or did you mean something else? If so, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't just "send it to resolutions" - you either have a choice of delaying the finalisation date (which I've done several times) or asking for a refund?
The vendor has a policy of giving a fixed percentage refund in the case of non-delivery, but as I said above I now have serious doubts that the package was ever sent. I'm not really willing to give the vendor the benefit of the doubt (as I normally would) in this case, and I want a full refund. Just wondering what happens if the buyer and vendor are unable to agree on a resolution. I haven't been here with a buy before.
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Just ask for a 100% refund on the resolution center, but make sure you explain everything, so the admins can read it and have a the full story.
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When the next resolution period is about to expire and you aren't willing to extend it anymore, ask for a 100% refund. Give SR support all the info about this order you can (original send date, number of extensions, any conversations you had with the vendor) and if the vendor does not agree to the 100%, then SR will make a decision.
If other folks are/have been in the resolution center about the same vendor with the same problem...Maybe it tilts your way. If not, maybe the vendors way. Can't predict what the final resolution will be, though.