Some People Have ALL the Nerve!

As you may or may not know, we sell used video games over eBay. We get them from all over, all sorts of different places. We’ve been dealing with one company for about two years, I think, and it’s been…exasperating, to say the least.

The current head cheese over at this place, we’ll call him “Buddy”, is apparently very, very busy.

Here are some examples of our past experiences:
Ordered some Playstation 2 and Xbox games, and many old Nintendo game varieties many different times, many different orders.
Received some games with the cases literally falling apart in our hands.
Plastic sleeve missing from case, artwork scotch taped to case.
Game discs looking like they’ve been attacked by an angry, hormonal feline.
Received some wrong items.
Some items missing.
Looks like someone spilled soda on it and never bothered to wipe it off so it coagulated like dried, sticky blood.
Game labels torn, ripped, stained, or completely missing (identified by a piece of notebook paper taped to game with game title scrawled on it)

Ok, that’s just a sample.
It doesn’t even BEGIN to cover the problems we’ve had.

So why do we keep buying from this company? Because they’re cheap. ‘Nuff said, I think.
Have we complained when we received a messed up order? Yes, and with politeness. Do things ever get corrected? Sometimes.

So what’s my beef that I’m writing about all this today?
Why do I keep talking in questions and then answering them? Because my skivvies are in a knot and I thought you might find this absolutely hilarious if you can stand the length.

When Shawn placed the last order, he asked Buddy if he could pick out only the decent looking games and sell those to us. We received the order with a LOT of stuff messed up. You must understand, that the bigger the order, the more is messed up. This was a huge order. Sigh.

We got games missing labels, torn, stained, etc, etc.
We ordered WWF Attitude for N64. We got WWF War Zone.
We got a few games that we didn’t order, nor had we paid for them because they weren’t on the friggin’ invoice!

So Shawn, being the honest cat that he is, told Buddy about the extra games we got and commented on his disappointment about the quality of some games we received. (One game even had a hole drilled into it! A hole!!)

Buddy said to ship the games back to him and he would send us our WWF Attitude. Shawn said it would be cheaper for us to pay for the extra games rather than returning them at our cost. (that’s what these people expect, trust me)

So Buddy sent us a new invoice for the total of the extra games we had already received and shipping for those games!!

Shawn and I had had it. He told Buddy he wasn’t paying for shipping on games we had already received since it was a result of Buddy’s mistake. Shawn made it pretty clear he wasn’t paying for Buddy’s mistakes anymore and let loose on the gut a little. Shawn was also upset that Buddy ALWAYS says, “I’ll check your order personally” and we end up getting thrashed games. I actually had to preview Shawn’s email and edit it a bit before it was sent.

Buddy emailed back and tried to come off as though he giving us a deal because the price of these particular games had just went up and he was charging us the old price. He said he didn’t appreciate Shawn’s tone, that he was very professional about it and that if could find games this cheap, well, go ahead.
That got me a little fired up. Shawn wasn’t totally professional, no. But neither is Buddy. Here is the email that I sent to Buddy:



I am the wife of this team. My husband, Shawn is the one you normally talk to in emails. I realize his tone must seem harsh, however, we expect a little professionalism from you as well.
We have been loyal customers of gamers for quite some time and repeatedly, things get messed up. We have received game cases falling apart, broken items, wrong items, etc. etc. It's very frustrating on this end. Last time, Shawn asked you only for N64 games in decent shape, otherwise, we didn't want them. We received many, many with severely ripped labels, stains, some were missing their labels entirely. One actually has a small hole drilled into it. Even at a cheap price, it's not really worth it when it's totally unusable to us.

As customers, we expect to be treated with respect, especially when we are being so honest about a mistake. I've always believed that a customer should be treated like the only existing customer and in our business with your company, we have very much received poor customer service.

I do not want to discontinue our customer-seller relationship, nor our business. However, you must understand where we are coming from.

I would like to ask that when we say we'd like x amount of games, that you could make sure there are x amount of games that would be good enough to sell in your own stores (or give as a gift, etc) If there are games in the stack that you wouldn't feel good about selling, don't sell it to us. I believe that is a reasonable request.

When a company makes a mistake, it's understandable. It happens. But when a company makes the customer pay for that mistake (as in, shipping the wrong item back to you, or paying for extra shipping) that seems a little unfair.

I will apologize for my husband's language. Though I would like to ask that you place yourself in our shoes. Imagine that you ordered something from a catalog and all these things had happened to you....repeatedly. Eventually you feel as though you too were at the end of your rope.
I do not expect to be punished for being honest.



Ok…and here’s the email that Buddy replied with--my personal responses to Shawn only are in italics. I’ll break it up so it’s not all one paragraph:




You are right I shouldn't have charged you shipping on that order. I wouldn't have even thought twice about it if it hadn't been for past experiences with your husband [so he’s charging Shawn for being a jerk. If I could charge Shawn for being a jerk, I’d be rich and he’d be homeless]

(at least that is who I assume the emails were all from since many were not signed). This last time isn't the first time that I have dealt with his angry emails. Perhaps it would be wiser to not use ALL CAPS and end each sentence !!!!. We have sent thousands of orders out to customers. Many have said thank you. Most don't, and that is fine. We have had our share of mix ups and mistakes too (as you are already aware of). You are the only one of our direct sales clients that complains in such a rude way though. [because we are the ones who buy the most!! And NOTHING EVER gets corrected!!]

People are much more willing to help you out if they are shown a little courtesy. Again, I apologize for the mix ups on your orders. I will personally go over any future orders that you place. [heard THAT before]

I did mention to your husband that there may be some games that have cosmetic defects on them, but they all should work. I said that I would do my best to get the best looking copies of games. However, if you ordered all of one title I was unable to pick and choose. [didn’t order all. Ordered what was in decent shape. Buddy failed to review and sold us all]

From now on only the games that have good looking cover art will be pulled and quantities will be adjusted accordingly.





Buddy charged us only for the price of the extra games, no shipping on them and I paid for them. We received the games a couple days ago.
Out of twelve games, four or five were somewhat grungy.


Are there other companies we can buy from? Sure. Will we continue to do business with Buddy? Most likely. It’s give-take relationship. Buddy takes our money and gives us grief. We take the games and give him grief.

Sigh.