To begin, I have been a member of EBay for over 4 years and have 100's of positive feedback. I decided to try half.com, a website owned by EBay to sell a school textbook.
I purchased the textbook for $250, and figured I would list it at $125 and give someone a great deal. Well the book sold almost instantly, and as always I shipped it the same day along with delivery confirmation.
Half.com gives you a fixed shipping price... Which for this textbook they gave me $3.07.By the time I paid for the padded mailer, media mail, and delivery confirmation I had spent $8.67. (One ethical problem I have is, I noticed that half.com charges the buyer $4 for shipping and handling... Then takes 93 cents off the top as profit.)
But the real problem came when USPS "lost" the textbook in the mail. I e-mailed half.com and said they need to make this right. They gave me $3.07 for shipping... And expect me to pay for the insurance as well? That would have cost me about $12 in all to ship. So now they are telling me I have to refund the buyer's money 100% and I am out of the book.
I said that is crazy and they either need to charge the buyer for insurance or give a fair amount of shipping money. They sent me back the rudest e-mail basically telling me tough crap if I don't like it don't use them. I responded and haven't heard back in a week.
Meanwhile I feel terrible for the buyer... And the post office told me to hold out "hope" that my book is found and delivered before I refund the money.
Half.com is extremely rude and unprofessional. They make billions a year and nickle and time every user. Especially someone who has been as loyal as I have.
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