BlytheLife.com opened in July 2010 and is a blog and resource hub for all things Blythe!
Protecting Yourself Online – Transaction Tips
Written on May 13, 2011 at 12:00 pm by MichelleFiled under: Article with tags: online protection
It always seems that BDDs (Bad Dolly Deals, for those in the dark) revolve around people who send payments to sellers as gifts on Paypal and then they regret it after and talk about how they knew that they shouldn’t have done it. Yet people still do, and despite the best of intentions of sellers, things can happen and someone ends up with no doll sometimes.
How can you protect yourself in an online transaction (especially when it comes to that expensive NRFB Goldie purchase)? Here’s some tips!
- Be truthful in your Paypal transaction – do not pay as a ‘gift’ because it’s not a gift. It’s a payment for goods. You cannot file a claim with Paypal if you state that your payment is a gift.
- Talk to the seller, find out what shipping methods the person will be sending your doll by. Will there be insurance? How long will it take? Will there be tracking available? (Keep in mind, some countries have much higher costs for postage than others. Canada Post, for example, is a lot more expensive than the USPS.)
- Document, document, document. And save all of your documentation. Even though it’s ‘just the purchase of yet another doll’, it’s still your money and it is still a transaction.
- Both parties should be open to communication. Let the buyer know when you’ve sent out the doll (keep your receipts!). Let the seller know when the doll has arrived.
- Be truthful on custom forms. Undervaluing an item being sent through the post is fraud (and illegal) and I don’t recommend undervaluing dolls at any point in time (after all, these are $100+ dolls, not a mass-produced paperback book). Make sure that both parties understand what it means if you do undervalue the doll and who’s responsible in the event that the doll is damaged or lost.
Blythe is a fantastic hobby and it’s a great way to meet people online, but it’s definitely not fun when a transaction goes sour due to miscommunication or sending something without tracking. Always talk to the people that you’re doing business with and send those dolls packaged nice and protected!
I have been lucky when buying dolls online. I have only encountered one “Bad Dolly Deal” when I bought a Petite Blythe from someone on LiveJournal. The seller was honest and friendly, and she was very good about keeping in contact with me, but I didn’t know how small Petite Blythes were until I got mine in the mail. I was kind of disappointed, and I thought the doll was over priced.
Happy shopping, and thanks for the tips.
Thanks for the tip about the “gift”. Sometimes I see sellers saying that in their write-ups. I used Hobby Link Japan and everything went fine. FedEx on the other hand, was something else. My dolls arrived in Richmond, BC, flew to Anchorage, Alaska then down to Memphis and finally back to Vancouver. They have more frequent flyer points than I do!
Sounds like she just got bounced around in the system!
I’ve never had a package (of any sort) come via FedEx, but I do have experience with regular post (and EMS, comes on the Canada Post trucks) and with UPS. Most of mine just come via Richmond and then get sent mostly directly to where I live (can’t believe it went bouncing around in the US before getting back!).
I have noticed some sellers in BK Sundries almost demanding buyers select “Gift” in the PayPal payment. I didn’t realize that this could result in a loss of rights to the buyer.
Alternatively, if you use a credit card (via Paypal), you can file a claim with your credit card company.
But the whole basis of ‘gift’ payment via Paypal is that you’re *giving* someone a gift. Like with gifts offline, you can’t really ‘demand’ to get it back, which is a huge problem. Sellers should be the ones responsible for paying for Paypal fees, not the buyers.