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Hi good people of the scavenge,
It’s been awhile since I posted and it’s a bummer that this won’t be good news, but I hope it will help someone from getting burned in the future. I want to alert people about a prop house owner. Her ebay Member id is andreaprops. Unfortunately, she is abusing the system and a liar. I don’t say that lightly. It’s sad when you are confronted with people like this, but they are definitely out there. I recommend placing her on your block list, but it is of course up to you. Here’s the story:
She contacted me on a Tuesday afternoon:
Hello,
We are a TV show in [REDACTED] filming season 2 of [REDACTED] this films on Friday. I want to purchase but I am wondering if you will send standard overnight using our Fed ex account number?
We need it sent tomorrow for Thursday arrival.
Thank you
AndreaI said no problem. I knew it might not get there on time if I shipped it as she requested, so I actually took time off of work and skipped eating so I could get it to FedEx within a couple of hours, after which I immediately uploaded tracking to ebay.
The next afternoon I get this:
Hello,
Do you have tracking? I really need this to arrive by tomorrow.
Thank you,
If not please cancel this order…Ok, as we all know, this is suspect. Not only was the tracking instantly available to her on ebay, it was instantly available to her through her FedEx account, and most likely by email notifications. And it had been available for almost 24 hours by that point.
That gave me a bad feeling, but I just messaged her that it was shipped a day early – a couple of hours after she bought it – and told her that the tracking was available on ebay and through her Fedex account.
She messaged me back:
Thank you!
Calling Fed Ex now.I didn’t hear from her again for a couple of weeks – until I got a return request. She selected, “item did not fit.” She commented that the item didn’t work out for the scene and that she had to order one from L.A. Well, I didn’t believe her – and the listing said no returns. She knows what that means. C’mon.
Also, it was an antique large hard good, So INAD? I don’t think so. Also, I do not accept returns on items like that, because it is a massive packing job and antiques can be fragile – and with items like that, people sometimes like to take a part they need and then return the item. Anyway, I didn’t and don’t need a reason – it was on the listing! I protect myself as much as I can, but I’ve taken returns before on items I didn’t offer returns on when I think the buyer is acting in good faith.
Well, we know this buyer was not acting in good faith. Ebay didn’t make me take the return because I didn’t offer returns for that item. Makes sense. When I declined the return the form asked me to fill in why, which I did. I thought about reporting the buyer, but for some reason I thought I should wait.Well, today (a couple of weeks after declining the return) I get a negative feedback from ol’ andrea:
“Seller claims they accept returns but they don’t. Beware”
So, there it is. She’s a straight up liar and a so-called business person acting in bad faith.
I guess I’ll wait until Monday to call ebay and try to get the feedback removed. I tried to report the buyer but the drop down menus don’t offer this situation, so I guess I’ll do it when I call, if that’s even possible.
Many years of selling and I’ve always had glowing 100% positive feedback, because I go out of my way to provide great service – just like I did for this…person…
Well, I hope this wasn’t too long, but I definitely wanted to let people know the whole story so they could judge for themselves. It will be interesting to see if the item ends up in the series. If so, that will truly be despicable. I don’t watch the show, so I’ll probably never know. Sorry I redacted the show name, but I don’t want this to end up on a search engine. I guess I should try to broadcast this info far and wide, but in the scheme of things, I’m already trying to forget it and move on.
I’ll try to remember to let people know if I get the feedback removed.
– Cheers
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Sorry to hear this happened. We’ve always had good luck with prop companies, but there are always bad actors. Maybe a new prop artist who doesnt know the courtesy way of doing business.
We did have a fancy NYC wedding planner buy a horse saddle from us. Probably a prop for a country-themed wedding. After purchase, he started a return a couple weeks later. I assume the wedding happened and then now he wanted to get his money back for a $70 saddle.
Thankfully he didnt say it was an INAD so we said mail it back. He didnt because he realized he’s be responsible for shipping costs both ways.
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I know who this is. She is a good person and very busy and probably made a mistake. I will see what I can do to have the negative feedback removed.
I think I even know which prop this is. Wooden Gun case I think?
TV and Motion Picture production is very rushed, and very stressful and people don’t always have time to read all the descriptions. Thats not an excuse but it’s a reality of doing business.
Let me see what I can do.
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Ryanne: Thanks. I will definitely try.
Jay: Thanks. That is typical of you try to see the good in other people. 😉 I had exactly your thought up until the attempted return – and I gave her the benefit of the doubt all the way up to the point of the negative feedback and lie. I know it shouldn’t matter, but I’m not a big seller and dropping me under 100% feedback with a message telling buyers to beware that I lie could affect a few sales – and that would be significant for me. Also, starting with the very first red flag message she has caused me a fair amount of stress. I can’t chalk up all of the bad behavior to just inexperience. She has a bad, entitled attitude, doesn’t do business in good faith, and she’s a liar. Sad but true. Maybe she’ll be forced to change, but let’s face it, this society sends people like that straight to top.
debitendcredits: I disagree – and no, that’s not the item. I’ve sold to many, many prop companies and have never had a problem. Thanks for your offer, but I’ll handle it myself. I do not want her to know about this forum. It’s for sellers. I know your heart is in the right place, but no thanks.
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Sure, I like the to see the best in people, but more importantly we just cant let the rare grumpy/dishonest buyer ruin our business. Ive seen too many sellers get burned out or suddenly change their entire business because they now think all buyers are out to get them.
Before eBay standardized the listing pages, you’d see sellers with pages of multi-colored, multi-font diatribes and warnings to anyone buying from them. Their fear and resentment of people was clearly visible. I assume they sold very little.
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Jay: I agree. I know you’ve made this point over the years. They may not be flashing in javascript anymore, but there are still a number of sellers with fairly strident “notes” on their listings – especially on stereo equipment, because I think there is a higher percentage (still not a lot by any means) of, shall we say, less than honest buyers in that category.
I still sell vintage stereo equipment – and I still list it with no returns accepted – and I do briefly explain why I can’t accept returns. (And as I said before, I still take returns on no return items if I think the buyer is acting in good faith.) Ironically, I always direct potential buyers to view my feedback, which I can’t do at the moment because of lovely andrea…
Anyway, I will continue to sell and people will continue to be people. As some New Yorkers say, whaddayagonnado? 😉-
Thats fair. But I always remember that Bad Actors are problematic because they dont care about notes, rules, convention, or courtesy. So there’s really no way to protect ourselves against people who will do us wrong.
All we can do is be open to the 99.99999% of normal good buyers + know the rules well enough to handle the Bad Actors when they pop up.
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Jay: Couldn’t have said it better myself.
For me, after years of experience, I decided to buck the free returns trend. I offer returns on maybe half of my items, give or take. It hasn’t affected my sales, my return rate has always been minuscule – and I’ve never had negative feedback. So, I guess I found what works for me.
This particular issue is totally new to me and I felt it was bad enough to let you all know about someone I felt was worth looking out for. I made sure to tell the whole story though so people could make up their own minds. I wasn’t happy about the negative feedback, but it was the lie and telling people to “beware” that made me come here and post. Hopefully the next post will be better news. I’m going to listen to your inventory blues podcast here in a bit and maybe I can contribute something helpful if you’re still wondering what your exact course of action will be.
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Hi all,
Quick update: The negative feedback has been removed and they said they would review her account. I imagine they won’t find much. It turns out she doesn’t really leave feedback. I guess the only other proof would be logs of other seller’s issues with her. At this point, I’m happy to block her and move on. I imagine not many on the forum saw any of this post so maybe it wasn’t worth the effort, but I tried to get the word out. To those that saw it, thanks for the support.
Wishing you all a happy and prosperous season,
– Cheers
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