Silk Road forums
Support => Customer support => Topic started by: nwusr1 on April 11, 2013, 04:03 am
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So I am not going to call this vendor out by name yet, but i did an order and half of it was damaged upon arrival. In keeping with the SR culture I gave him a 5 star because of stealth, speed, quality (of the undamaged part) and the fact that i didnt realize half of it was damaged and so not what was advertised or promised.
I then notified him that there was a problem and he happily agreed to reship half of the order. A week went by and nothing showed up. He said to wait a couple more days. I did and still nothing. He said he must have gotten my reship mixed up with another and would ship it out this past Monday (April 8th) and to message him again if he hadnt sent me tracking info. Well now there is still no reship showing up and no response to my messages and he never sent tracking info.
It sucks because he was really polite. It also sucks because the culture here is to 5 star which is obviously flawed. If you dont five star people even when they mess up, whats the point? Especially since we can go back and change that rating to a 5 star later on when they make right.
So I see in the FAQ that if you finalized then the SR staff says it is up to you to get the vendor to make it right with you. Does anyone (especially senior moderators and experienced vendors/buyers) have any advice for me?
I have been buying for almost 6 months now and this is the first time something like this has happened. Ive basically told him that if he doesnt get back to me I am going to assume he isnt planning on making it right and that I will edit my rating...but then i worry other vendors wont want to do business with me...because I will have deviated from the normative standards here. See...im so not wanting to out this dude that I havent even mentioned his vendor handle yet.
Any advice for me? Is it worth asking the SR staff to step in or should I just edit my rating down to a 2 with a lengthy explanation for others to see that he isnt willing to correct his mistakes? One other piece of relevance: I have an email trail spanning two weeks with his promises and my polite follow ups that SR staff could see. Thanks to anyone that has input!!
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It might be broken, but if the product is usable (like pills) does it really matter? Him making it right means he might be breaking even so yeah a vendor is going to be a little slow.
If you change to a 1/5, the vendor can blacklist you personally (for his own records) or also to other sellers and when you order again, he/they can cancel your order with even bothering to tell you why.
Why would they blacklist you? Because you waited a while to make the claim. It looks like a buyer scam. Had you made the claim on delivery day (because you inspected your package), not finalize, and before auto-finalize you took it to resolutions, that would be another thing. When you take it to resolutions, it means that you really feel strongly about your issue since you're willing to ruin your purchasing stats with a bump in refund rate over it.
You can contact the vendor again. But it nothing comes of it, just walk away. This isn't Amazon or eBay. It's the underground. And vendors risk life and limb so we can get what we want.
I get broken pills every now and again. So what? I usually end up breaking them anyway to adjust dose. But if you're reselling them, you should have noticed day 1 that half were broken.
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Thanks to both of you for your feedback. Looking back at my messages with this vendor, I actually let him know before I finalized that it was broken. And by broken I mean capsules all shattered and a real loss of substance. I let him know I was giving him a 5 star anyways since that is custom and he did try his best to get it to me (it clearly got smashed in transit). He replied a day later saying hey i am happy to reship half. And then it never came. Then like I said a week later he claimed he accidentally never reshipped and would do it the following day and send me a dcn, which never happened. I am going to change his rating. Not to a 1 because he doesnt deserve that. More like a 2.5 And then call it a loss. Because i dont expect anything at this point but you are right too in that the auto 5 star culture is not good and i wont make that mistake again.
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The auto "5 star culture" came about for two reasons:
1. The algorithm for anything less than a 5/5 is seriously messed up. A 4/5 is effectively a 1/5 considering the damage it causes to a vendor's rating.
2. You end up on the private vendor blacklist.
What happens when you end up on the blacklist? Some vendors will cancel your order on the spot. Others who don't cancel, will unload their bottom shelf product on you knowing that if you go to resolutions you won't get more than a 50% refund. Usually if the package arrives and DCN comfirms, SR resolutions gives you nothing. Why? Too many dolts complain about quality, stealth, receiving less than orderes or other such things which can't be substantiated. Buyer scammers ruin it for you. Those who forget that this is a black market and think leaving less than 5/5 is just like leaving negative feedback on ebay ruined it for you.
5/5 if you received your order. You then use the comment portion to describe what happened. If other buyers come along and don't bother to read, screw 'em.
@nwusr1 - you can also try using this tactic - say, you're looking to place future orders but you're worried about getting more of the same service. You can buy again until this matter is cleared up and taken care of. If a vendor feels that he's lost your business, they sometimes give up trying to win it back. Presenting yourself as a possible repeat customer makes a vendor calculate that his loss will be made up on your subsequent orders.
@festivalia. LOL @ the vendor for accepting another order from you. He has no one to blame but himself for his (2) 1/5s from you. However, I wouldn't say that your 1/5 made others "speak up." Rather, it gave them the opportunity to try rating blackmail most likely. Also competing vendors are known to buy from their competition once they see a 1/5. Why do they wait until they see a 1/5 or maybe a few? Because then their 1/5 won't look like a fluke. Buy scammers pull the same stunt.
The general rule is, if you have to go to SR resolutions and SR resolutions has to decide, leave a 1/5. If you have to take a hit on your stats, then so should the vendor. If you and the vendor come to an agreement which avoids a refund, then leave a 5/5.
The 3 other rating in between are for professional use only. :D
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You may have finalized but you can still change your feedback if you are so inclined, just go into edit feedback. Try to work things out with the vendor first though, they get a lot of blackmail attempts with buyers threatening to leave bad feedback, hopefully the vendor will resolve the matter, if not post appropriate feedback.
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hey thanks again everyone i really appreciate the candid feedback and diversity of opinions. in the end, though the vendor never communicated with me, the re-ship showed up. so i sent the vendor a message apologizing for sending him daily emails asking where we were at (which could have been avoided by the dcn he promised but never got back to me on) and then i edited my review with the commentary on the situation without changing the rating. that way i get my chance to give honest feedback (which was mostly positive except for the lack of communication) and didn't screw with his ratings.
@festivalia - i struggled with whether to follow your advice and decided in the end that since he came through i would not change his rating but give very honest feedback. i dont feel as empowered as you but perhaps the longer i stick around the more i will. but thanks for trying to empower me! much appreciated.
@BenJesuit - thanks for explaining the culture in a way i hadn't thought about. while i dont 100% agree i understand it.
@SSBD - thanks for advice!
thanks again you three - issue resolved - life goes on ;)
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Great to hear it was resolved! I'll lock the thread now. :)