I ordered a car part through eBay motors and paid within seconds of winning the auction. Four weeks passed with no communication and no shipment. I emailed the seller to see what was going on and they replied that they didn't have the part in stock and that I could wait a couple more weeks or just get a refund. I accepted the refund and dealt with my car issue.
The seller didn't process my refund and when I inquired about my refund a week later, they ignored my inquiry. Then, before I got a chance to contest my payment for nondelivery through Citibank / PayPal etc., the clever and unscrupulous seller sent me the product which I no longer needed, effectively leaving me with no claim for the refund they'd promised.
Here's where it gets unfortunate: I left well-deserved negative feedback for them on eBay and they then attempted to extort a mutual feedback withdrawal from me by leaving me negative feedback, saying that I didn't communicate despite my having initiated communication at every step of the process and my having responded promptly to each one of their emails. I filed a complaint with eBay, but they don't care about my no-longer-perfect feedback rating--CosmoDynamic / K2Motor are sellers and eBay takes home a percentage of every one of their shady transactions. Looking through K2Motor / CosmoDynamic's feedback, I noticed that others have filed complaints about these guys and that they often try this trick of extorting mutually withdrawn feedback from any victimized buyer who dares to tangle with them.
The email string between me and K2Motors / CosmoDynamic is below, for your perusing pleasure:
RE: 140187697260
From: Steve Chiu (tevesay_iuchay@hotmail.com)
Sent: Wed 2/13/08 10:18 PM
To: karen@k2motor.com
Karen,
I purchased an intake system for my automobile from K2Motor / Cosmodynamic. I paid for my item promptly. I received no communication until I emailed you 4 weeks after I had made my purchase. When you replied to my email, you finally admitted that you had sold me an item that you did not have in stock and that I had the option of receiving a refund or waiting 1-2 additional weeks for the item. I accepted the refund offer. Another week passed without any communication and I was forced to initiate contact again to inquire about my refund status--you ignored this communication. Finally, you reneged on your refund offer and instead sent me the item, which I no longer needed since I had taken care of my air intake needs in another way. (In case you've forgotten, I've attached the entire email record below for your review.)
The negative feedback I assigned to your handling of this transaction was more than well-deserved. I don't know exactly what you can do to give me a positive impression of your operation, but a good start would be for you to process the refund that you promised me and to arrange for the return of your package--as I said, I no longer have any need for the item and the package remains unopened. You can send me a postage-paid mailing label and I will affix it to the package to be returned to you, once I have received my refund.
Regards,
Steve C. Chiu
> To: tevesay_iuchay@hotmail.com
> CC: cosmodynamic@gmail.com
> From: auction.messages@channeladvisor.com
> Subject: 140187697260
> Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:19:56 -0500
>
> Dear Customer:
>
> Hi my name is Karen and I am the human Resource of Cosmodynamic. I notice you have left us a negative feedback on ebay. I would like to get this problem resolve with you. If you can please contact me at 626.369.2580 Ext. 109 or email directly at karen@k2motor.com, I would greatly appreciate it.
>
> Thank you
> Karen
> Human Resource
> Cosmodynamic
>
>
> -----
> This email was sent using ChannelAdvisor marketplace management software.
> Visit us at http://www.channeladvisor.com
>
To Jacky Lau at CosmoDynamic and Karen at K2Motor.com:
I recently received a request to retract the following piece of negative feedback that I left for your company:
Item title: 95 96 97 98 99 NISSAN MAXIMA V6 COLD AIR INTAKE +FILTER
Feedback you left: Negative feedback rating Wk 4: No ship, no communication. Wk 5: Offered refund. Wk 7: Reneged on refund. Reply left by cosmodynamic: Please contact me at karen@k2motor.com to resolve problem!
Feedback you received: (No feedback comment has been left.)
Message from seller: Please remove this feedback and we will be glad to assist you further. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you
Date/Time: Dec-11-07 17:20:58 PST
Regarding the transaction and feedback above, I have contacted you repeatedly and given your company ample opportunity to rectify the situation. For you to now leave instructions in the form of "Please contact me at karen@k2motor.com to resolve problem!" is completely disingenuous as it makes me appear to be the uncommunicative party. The email history below shows that I have initiated communication regarding this situation on at least three separate occasions: in response to your nondelivery / failure to communicate; in response to your failure to honor your refund offer; and finally in response to your delivery of the item at issue after I had already stated that I would prefer a refund instead.
I hope you understand why I cannot retract the negative feedback that I left for your company and why I consider the leaving of negative feedback to be the mildest of the many options I had at my disposal.
If you truly wish to resolve the problems created by the way in which you handled this transaction, you have my contact information.
Regards,
Steve C. Chiu
From: tevesay_iuchay@hotmail.com
To: cosmodynamic@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Your payment has been received for Item # 140187697260 - 95 96 97 98 99 NISSAN MAXIMA V6 COLD AI
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:02:36 -0800
To whom it may concern:
I received a package from CosmoDynamic today containing what is presumably the product whose previous nondelivery is at issue. As the email string below demonstrates, on January 9th, a CosmoDynamic agent by the name of Karen offered me a refund for the failure to deliver. I promptly accepted the refund. As you may or may not know, an offer by one party and an acceptance of the terms of that offer by a second party constitute a legally-binding contract.
This communication represents my final attempt to convince CosmoDynamic to act in a professional manner and to immediately issue the full refund that was promised. If CosmoDynamic is unwilling to comply with the terms of its own agreement, I will be forced to initiate enforcement and/or sanctioning proceedings with eBay, PayPal, Citibank (my credit card company), and/or other relevant parties.
I will gladly return your product, but it is your responsibility to arrange for its delivery.
Please let me know how you wish to proceed,
Steve C. Chiu
From: tevesay_iuchay@hotmail.com
To: cosmodynamic@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Your payment has been received for Item # 140187697260 - 95 96 97 98 99 NISSAN MAXIMA V6 COLD AI
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:34:28 -0800
Dear Karen,
It has been over a week since I accepted the refund you offered to compensate me for the late / nondelivery situation re: Item # 140187697260. The refund has not yet posted to my PayPal account, nor have I received the confirmation of the refund--which I requested.
I am writing to obtain an update on the refund situation, hopefully some form of confirmation of the refund, or some action regarding the processing of the refund.
Thank you for your attention to this matter,
Steve C. Chiu
From: tevesay_iuchay@hotmail.com
To: cosmodynamic@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Your payment has been received for Item # 140187697260 - 95 96 97 98 99 NISSAN MAXIMA V6 COLD AI
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 19:05:38 -0800
Thank you for your honest communication--I appreciate it.
I would like to receive a refund on the item. Please give me confirmation of the refund or let me know if I am required to do anything to receive the refund.
Thanks,
Steve C. Chiu
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 17:26:17 -0800
From: cosmodynamic@gmail.com
To: tevesay_iuchay@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Your payment has been received for Item # 140187697260 - 95 96 97 98 99 NISSAN MAXIMA V6 COLD AI
Dear Customer:
We apologize regarding this delay. The item that you have purchase is currently out of stock at the moment. Please let us know rather you would like us to process a refund for you or you should like to wait for the item. The estimate time of the item arriving is one to two weeks.
Thank you
Karen
CosmoDynamic
On Jan 8, 2008 11:23 AM, Steve Chiu
To whom it may concern:
It has been four weeks now since I made my payment in full for Item # 140187697260. I have neither received the item nor have I been contacted about the status of my order.
Please reply immediately regarding the status of my order so that I will not be forced to A) contact my credit card company to challenge my payment for this item, B) contact the administrators at eBay regarding this transaction, and C) leave negative feedback for this transaction.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter,
Steve C. Chiu
> To: tevesay_iuchay@hotmail.com
> From: auction.messages@channeladvisor.com
> Subject: Your payment has been received for Item # 140187697260 - 95 96 97 98 99 NISSAN MAXIMA V6 COLD AIR INTAKE +FILTER
> Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:37:06 -0500
>
> Body:
> 95 96 97 98 99 NISSAN MAXIMA V6 COLD AIR INTAKE +FILTER
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140187697260
> I will send you another email when I ship the item.
>
> Thank you !
>
