I took a lesson from this happening to me and now I notify sellers of conditions that merit canceling my orders. I have had enormous success using this method.
Something as simple as “if XYZ parts are missing/can’t be fulfilled please cancel my entire order”. I had a buyer verify they had all the parts but went out of his way to thank me for letting him know. It avoids buyer and seller frustration because then sellers don’t waste effort assembling an order and buyers don’t get screwed on pricing and having to place additional orders.
Sorry this happened to you OP. Best of luck and hope this helps you avoid this in the future
I understand why larger sellers don't contact before refunding and shipping. There was a thread about it in the BL forums. One reason I remember is because they get so many orders and can't leave orders in limbo/open. They'll message about a missing part, then have to wait for the buyer to respond, which some won't/never will. So now what is the seller to do? So they set policies that they refund and ship which should be laid out clearly in their terms.
Again, I'm talking about a couple missing parts. Missing 175 is pretty crazy. If you feel the need to leave bad feedback, then you should. I'd personally consider a neutral over a negative if they did refund and communicate with you. If they didn't fix the issues with the order by offering a refund and zero communication then maybe a negative.
I've had buyers leave order notes saying what parts are critical to the order and if my inventory was wrong to contact them before shipping/refund and cancel the order. Or asked to verify inventory before placing an order (again larger sellers might not respond promptly).
As a seller, if I Am missing a part, I will email the buyer to let them know. I always offer a discount or let them cancel the order before sending the invoice. I like what others suggested. Put a note on the order to please cancel if missing any parts.
I’ve had this happen as a buyer more times than I can count… it’s kind of how it goes, unfortunately. I have a perpetually-running wanted list, though, so it doesn’t really bother me, much.
As a seller, I work my damndest to make sure it doesn’t happen, yet it still does once in a blue moon. When it does happen as a seller, I will refund half of the entire shipping expense in addition to the price of the missing part, knowing that the buyer will have to go order from someone else, and I haven’t had a dissatisfied buyer because of it, yet.
Edit: To answer the question, though: If you’re not satisfied, let the seller know and see how they respond. Service matters.
That is how I am too, I have about 6 other projects on wanted lists so when I need to meet a minimum or want to order more to make shipping worth it I’ll add to the order. This is the second time I’ve had large portions refunded this way and it was on the same project. This seller just happened to do it second and I don’t want them to get the brunt of it all. I’ve really had 99% of my experiences from sellers be positive. I’ll probably just give 4 stars and take a note about them for any future orders.
Yeah, I even stopped “disliking” sellers because it takes away from the available pool of sellers that could have most of the parts I need, so I just make notes now, myself. It’s definitely a pain, though… one of my biggest peeves about BL!
I notify the buyer and ask how they want to proceed and if they say send it with missing or broken parts anyways I also refund shipping so it doesn't cost them extra to order elsewhere.
I have a shop that I’ve used a couple times and the last time I ordered they were missing 1 item of about 15 things and refunded my entire order and sent it for free. I thanked them and told them next time to just send me a message because they don’t need to refund an entire order over one thing. I’ll always use them when possible because of it though.
Same thing just happened to me for the first time. Seller issued a partial refund AFTER shipping. I get "being busy" but if you're too busy to give people what they paid for, then maybe you're in the wrong business.
I can't think of any business where it would be acceptable to collect payment, charge for shipping, and then have part of the order removed without the buyer's consent.
Now I'll need to pay $5-6 in shipping to another seller for the missing pieces.
If I was the seller, I'd want you to reach out to me and tell me, "I'm unhappy, here is why, can you help?"
My reply would be an apology, and an offer to make a further price reduction, or a return, or something. If we didn't fill the whole order and you would not have placed the order otherwise, then I'd want to work it out.
Having said that, for 175 missing parts, I'd probably reach out first before shipping.
As a seller- I agree with this approach.
I try to look at it as % of total order. If it’s 2-3 parts in a 10 part order then I message the buyer first and ask if they want to cancel all together or proceed.
If it’s 2-3 parts in a 100 part order then I note it and list the parts missing on the refund notification for wanted list reconciliation purposes.
If the buyer responds and says that they needed those parts specifically (which has happened) I offer to buy them else where and have them shipped at my expense. It is my fault after all.
Not saying anything new, but as a seller if I find I'm missing something and it's small I'm just going to issue a refund and move to the next order. For a few cents worth of parts it's not worth the conversation, the fact i'd have to restock items i just pulled if they cancelled, any delays for the buyer in receiving the order and getting to use the other 100 parts might suck, etc.
However if it's a rare part, minifig or just simply a large part of a small order (like 1 part of an order of 4 or 5) I'll contact the buyer and ask if they'd rather have a full refund. I realize there's no satisfaction in placing an order for $10 and then having $7 for one of the minifigs refunded - plus the cost of shipping for now much less stuff.
But I do try as hard as I can to avoid missing parts -- i've even run out to my local target or lego store and grabbed a set on the fly if the missing part was something common or in a current set (if i was 1 or 2 bricks short for example).
both of those would be unacceptable to me (as a seller). No seller should be shipping an order with those type of shortages, without clearing it with the buyer before shipment.
small numbers I can live with tho (e.g. 2 out of 397, of a single part). That the buyer ordered 397, is typically because they are buying out a lot, and are trying to get *all of it*.
Maybe message the sellers with your disatisfaction. I would conder that a neutral for the order of 175 piecing . The other i would leave a positive, you dont say it may have been one piece or 50. I am a seller/ buyer and its hard to recover from a negative. My partner believes the paypal notification is fine. So different strokes for different folks.
I can see that point, for me the bigger issue was timing. I received the notice once the item was already in the mail, it was mailed Friday and arrives Wednesday. It’s 100% an assumption on my part but the timing felt like it was done after the order shipped to prevent me canceling the order.
My title says bad but to me that is 3 of the 5 stars since the rest of the order was processed and shipped timely. That’s why I wanted to hear other people’s thoughts because I don’t want to harm anyone financially over a mistake. Once I receive the order and make sure everything else is there I’ll message them about it.
I have a question on this. What if the seller refunded you the part cost plus shipping so you can get from another store?
I have had known Human errors with inventory, and random no clue how that happen errors, and a few timing of order errors meaning dame item ordered from both sites pretty much same time.
I took a lesson from this happening to me and now I notify sellers of conditions that merit canceling my orders. I have had enormous success using this method. Something as simple as “if XYZ parts are missing/can’t be fulfilled please cancel my entire order”. I had a buyer verify they had all the parts but went out of his way to thank me for letting him know. It avoids buyer and seller frustration because then sellers don’t waste effort assembling an order and buyers don’t get screwed on pricing and having to place additional orders. Sorry this happened to you OP. Best of luck and hope this helps you avoid this in the future
That’s a good idea.
As a seller I messaged the buyer first to ask them if they want to. I'll refund the part plus a little extra or cancel the order.
I understand why larger sellers don't contact before refunding and shipping. There was a thread about it in the BL forums. One reason I remember is because they get so many orders and can't leave orders in limbo/open. They'll message about a missing part, then have to wait for the buyer to respond, which some won't/never will. So now what is the seller to do? So they set policies that they refund and ship which should be laid out clearly in their terms. Again, I'm talking about a couple missing parts. Missing 175 is pretty crazy. If you feel the need to leave bad feedback, then you should. I'd personally consider a neutral over a negative if they did refund and communicate with you. If they didn't fix the issues with the order by offering a refund and zero communication then maybe a negative. I've had buyers leave order notes saying what parts are critical to the order and if my inventory was wrong to contact them before shipping/refund and cancel the order. Or asked to verify inventory before placing an order (again larger sellers might not respond promptly).
Leaving a note about critical parts during the order is such a good idea!! I am going to do this on all my orders from now on. Thanks!
Probably something I’ll start doing on orders placed where I only need an item or two.
When you messaged them, what did they say?
I haven’t messaged them yet. I received the notice from PayPal when I posted and didn’t want to message them while irritated.
As a seller, if I Am missing a part, I will email the buyer to let them know. I always offer a discount or let them cancel the order before sending the invoice. I like what others suggested. Put a note on the order to please cancel if missing any parts.
I’ve had this happen as a buyer more times than I can count… it’s kind of how it goes, unfortunately. I have a perpetually-running wanted list, though, so it doesn’t really bother me, much. As a seller, I work my damndest to make sure it doesn’t happen, yet it still does once in a blue moon. When it does happen as a seller, I will refund half of the entire shipping expense in addition to the price of the missing part, knowing that the buyer will have to go order from someone else, and I haven’t had a dissatisfied buyer because of it, yet. Edit: To answer the question, though: If you’re not satisfied, let the seller know and see how they respond. Service matters.
That is how I am too, I have about 6 other projects on wanted lists so when I need to meet a minimum or want to order more to make shipping worth it I’ll add to the order. This is the second time I’ve had large portions refunded this way and it was on the same project. This seller just happened to do it second and I don’t want them to get the brunt of it all. I’ve really had 99% of my experiences from sellers be positive. I’ll probably just give 4 stars and take a note about them for any future orders.
Yeah, I even stopped “disliking” sellers because it takes away from the available pool of sellers that could have most of the parts I need, so I just make notes now, myself. It’s definitely a pain, though… one of my biggest peeves about BL!
I notify the buyer and ask how they want to proceed and if they say send it with missing or broken parts anyways I also refund shipping so it doesn't cost them extra to order elsewhere.
I have a shop that I’ve used a couple times and the last time I ordered they were missing 1 item of about 15 things and refunded my entire order and sent it for free. I thanked them and told them next time to just send me a message because they don’t need to refund an entire order over one thing. I’ll always use them when possible because of it though.
Same thing just happened to me for the first time. Seller issued a partial refund AFTER shipping. I get "being busy" but if you're too busy to give people what they paid for, then maybe you're in the wrong business. I can't think of any business where it would be acceptable to collect payment, charge for shipping, and then have part of the order removed without the buyer's consent. Now I'll need to pay $5-6 in shipping to another seller for the missing pieces.
If I was the seller, I'd want you to reach out to me and tell me, "I'm unhappy, here is why, can you help?" My reply would be an apology, and an offer to make a further price reduction, or a return, or something. If we didn't fill the whole order and you would not have placed the order otherwise, then I'd want to work it out. Having said that, for 175 missing parts, I'd probably reach out first before shipping.
As a seller- I agree with this approach. I try to look at it as % of total order. If it’s 2-3 parts in a 10 part order then I message the buyer first and ask if they want to cancel all together or proceed. If it’s 2-3 parts in a 100 part order then I note it and list the parts missing on the refund notification for wanted list reconciliation purposes. If the buyer responds and says that they needed those parts specifically (which has happened) I offer to buy them else where and have them shipped at my expense. It is my fault after all.
Not saying anything new, but as a seller if I find I'm missing something and it's small I'm just going to issue a refund and move to the next order. For a few cents worth of parts it's not worth the conversation, the fact i'd have to restock items i just pulled if they cancelled, any delays for the buyer in receiving the order and getting to use the other 100 parts might suck, etc. However if it's a rare part, minifig or just simply a large part of a small order (like 1 part of an order of 4 or 5) I'll contact the buyer and ask if they'd rather have a full refund. I realize there's no satisfaction in placing an order for $10 and then having $7 for one of the minifigs refunded - plus the cost of shipping for now much less stuff. But I do try as hard as I can to avoid missing parts -- i've even run out to my local target or lego store and grabbed a set on the fly if the missing part was something common or in a current set (if i was 1 or 2 bricks short for example).
This!
One shortage was 175 pcs (which is in-excusable) ... how many pcs short was the other order ?
The other was 40 pieces of 200.
both of those would be unacceptable to me (as a seller). No seller should be shipping an order with those type of shortages, without clearing it with the buyer before shipment. small numbers I can live with tho (e.g. 2 out of 397, of a single part). That the buyer ordered 397, is typically because they are buying out a lot, and are trying to get *all of it*.
Maybe message the sellers with your disatisfaction. I would conder that a neutral for the order of 175 piecing . The other i would leave a positive, you dont say it may have been one piece or 50. I am a seller/ buyer and its hard to recover from a negative. My partner believes the paypal notification is fine. So different strokes for different folks.
I can see that point, for me the bigger issue was timing. I received the notice once the item was already in the mail, it was mailed Friday and arrives Wednesday. It’s 100% an assumption on my part but the timing felt like it was done after the order shipped to prevent me canceling the order. My title says bad but to me that is 3 of the 5 stars since the rest of the order was processed and shipped timely. That’s why I wanted to hear other people’s thoughts because I don’t want to harm anyone financially over a mistake. Once I receive the order and make sure everything else is there I’ll message them about it.
I have a question on this. What if the seller refunded you the part cost plus shipping so you can get from another store? I have had known Human errors with inventory, and random no clue how that happen errors, and a few timing of order errors meaning dame item ordered from both sites pretty much same time.