Time Deposit: Part Three

I love looking for gadgets online. LOOOVVVEE it to death.

Online shopping is the IN thing nowadays. I'm a bonafide eBayer (member id: onegearshop) and I do buy and sell stuff online. It is the quickest, most consumer friendly buy and sell shop online (better yet, in the P.I.). Until recently.

One of my buyers requested that I post my item: a Nikon D40x (which was originally on eBay.ph) in Auction.ph, another online selling shop. Seeing that their site was ok, I agreed. He asked me to split the item into 3 pieces because in Auction.ph, every Php 10,000 worth transaction entitled you to a discount coupon worth Php 1,000. The transaction was completed March 19th, with confirmed receipts of the deposits from him and two of his friends.

After waiting for the first (of three) transactions, I emailed auction since they never notified me.

Here is the horror that followed.

after I emailed auction why there was a delay, one of their customer service agents, Lysette replied:

Dear onegearshop,

Thanks for the information.

After the confirmation of delivery from the buyer, the completed transaction will be forwarded to the Safe and Trust Department for further checking. This process will verify the validity of the said transaction. Management implemented this process in order for us to ensure that a healthy and safe business environment exists in Auction.ph. In addition, this will help us determine bogus sellers who are involved in creating fake transactions to take advantage the system.Please provide us a copy of the delivery receipt for these transactions. You may send the scanned copy of delivery receipt to helpdesk@auction.ph. Documents are required from the seller to confirm that the transactions are valid. If proof of delivery cannot be presented, the seller should provide an explanation about how the transactions were completed. Please be reminded that this in line with our efforts to make sure that safety and security of transaction is observed in Auction.ph. Should you have any clarification on this matter, feel free to write to us anytime. Sincerely,

Lysette
Customer Service Representative
www.auction.ph
Best buying and selling on the web!



To which I replied:

Hi,

My name is Carlo Soriano, Auction.ph seller id: onegearshop.

I have sold three items on the 19th of March and the 2 buyers deposited online and 1 paid thru bills payment. The bills payment transaction is supposed to be released today however the two online payments are still on hold up to now (3/27) and i've been waiting for a week.

Actually I had these item for sale on eBay since I'm originally an eBayer. (feel free to visit my store @ http://myworld.ebay.ph/onegearshop) However my buyer inquired if I could post them in Auction.ph since he said that he had discount coupons. Since Auction.ph seemed like a credible online auction site, I decided to post them there. The buyer later on paid for the items:

Namely:
1. Online Payment thru BPI (ON HOLD, worth P 20,000)
a. Nikon D40X Extras! – Item Number 11013532
b. 18-55 Lens for D40X – Item Number 11013533

2. Bills Payment thru RCBC (RECEIVED, worth P 10,000)
a. Nikon D40X Body – Item Number 11013534

The buyer then marked the items as payment sent, so I delivered the items to the buyer in person. Later (on March 19th) the buyer confirmed that the item had been sent and since then I had been waiting for the payments to be confirmed, other than the transaction which was paid through Bills Payment in RCBC (Item Number: 11013534)

I've already emailed you yesterday (3/26) and waited the whole day for a reply, to no avail.
Seriously, is this the way you treat people who've been hassled by your so-called "verification process for safety and security of transactions aka Escrow System" whose payments are being delayed (for more than 1 whole week after the item was shipped, then confirmed as received) without even an explanation prior to holding the payments, least, an e-mail? All I saw on the "my account" page was a big "ON HOLD".

I don't care who I need to talk to, I'll even go to your office in Clark (since I only live here in Pampanga) to complain about this lousy customer service you are providing. Does this mean that if I hadn't written a letter to your helpdesk I wouldn't have ever gotten my money?

I've tried to be nice and all however, I need this money NOW and I cannot afford more delays as I've said it's already been a week and cannot wait much longer. Trust me, if this is not resolved ASAP. I'll badmouth you to every online seller I know and possibly make this public.

Please consider this my written explanation and reply ASAP with an actual resolution and not a script. Attached herewith are the pictures for the sale of these items (seller in blue shirt)

a. Nikon D40X Extras! – Item Number 11013532
b. 18-55 Lens for D40X – Item Number 11013533
--

Carlo Soriano
OneGear Shop
eBay Philippines
mobile: +639159693896
mail: onegearshop@gmail.com

this email is in response to this message (dated March 26, 2008) from one of Auction.ph's customer service agents, Lysette.


to which, she then replied:

Thanks for writing.

As part of our efforts to maintain security and fairness of transaction done within Auction.ph, verification for all completed transactions was implemented. As part of the verification process, we follow certain conditions to determine if a transaction is valid or not.

If a transaction is found to be questionable in duration, amount, etc., transactions are put on hold and documents are required to verify the validity of the transaction.

If there was no proof of delivery, an explanation from the seller is required. Other documents to back up the explanation may also be requested.The transaction you had was with 2 different persons. These transactions were done almost at the same time. You mentioned that you met with these people to hand the item personally.

However, you also mentioned in the latter part of your email that you ‘shipped’ the item.

Furthermore, you said that you only registered with Auction.ph to sell these items to your buyers. Record shows otherwise. Based on what we have in our database, you registered two more accounts with Auction.ph on 2006 and 2007.

Therefore, we would like to clarify if you met your buyers at the same time? And did you sell your items separately? In addition, for such high ticket items, we would assume that you have issued official receipts which include the serial numbers of the items you sold. If you have that document, you may also send it to us.

Also, the pictures you've shown could mean a number of things but does not necessarily prove that your transaction is valid.

We would want to resolve this matter (really?) as much as you do and release the money due to you. Your cooperation would be appreciated.

Until today, I haven't seen a cent of my money.
Fuck Auction.ph.