First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a warm and wonderful new year! Its been busy here and of course, we had a huge storm that took out the power, but was really very exciting.

I usually go off on unscrupulous sellers but I this time I have a few buyer and seller issues on my mind. Lets see…where to start…Before Christmas, I sold a lovely, aka expensive, Tiffany diamond ring. Paypal sent me the much loved message, “You have funds.” Two weeks after I shipped the ring, paypal sent a message I have never seen,”You have a reversal.” The buyer somehow scammed paypal and paypal took the money from my account. Its been a month now and even though they say I am covered by a sellers protection policy, I have yet to see the funds. They did deposit $50.00 in my account as a way to say they are working on things and I am a priority. Hmmm… Still waiting. The buyer has my Tiffany diamond ring and paypal has the funds. Not happy.

As you know, Marc has been working hard taking all of these gorgeous photos. I am finding other sellers using Marc’s pictures that they copy from my ebay listings and website. I have complained about this to ebay, but they keep telling me that these are stock photos in the public domain. I don’t think so. There was one seller using a picture with a ring on my finger! How is my finger public domain?!? All this time I could have been working as a hand model. I pointed out to ebay that they are contributing to the selling of counterfeits by not cracking down on these sellers (not to mention being party to violations of US Copyright law). They want use to use a watermark on our pictures. Thats the next project. So, sellers. lets all complain to ebay when someone steals our pictures.

Another issue that’s come up recently is buyers making up stories about pieces they’ve gotten to cover up their buyer’s remorse. I feel that the most important thing when buying jewelry is that you love it. If you don’t love it, return it. I give full refunds, just as long as you tell me within a few days. I don’t need to hear any stories nor do I enjoy threats and lies. We can all  be cordial and professional. This goes for buyers and sellers. I don’t think anyone needs threats of undeserved negative feedback (ie extortion) or tall tales when dealing with honest humanistic sellers. What has happened to good manners???? If you are buying on ebay, use paypal and make sure the seller will take returns and give you a full refund. Restocking fees for ebay? Don’t be silly. Sellers get the listing fees back as long as the buyer agrees. So, offer that you will agree to this. Lots of sellers, like myself, take returns because we’re happy when out buyers are happy, even if they’re happier after returning a piece. We understand and don’t need threats and lies to motivate us.

And lastly, on this rant of things hurting us sellers, is a recent glitch in eBay’s searching system. Maybe not many noticed it, but eBay’s been having problems in reporting search results. They’ll say there are thousands of items matching a search, but only report the first few dozen. Does anyone appreciate eBay charging listing fees for items that can’t be found? I called eBay about this and after a long, agonizing phone call got it out of them that it’s a problem they know about but decided to not tell anyone about. No listing on their support forums, no notice to sellers putting items up that there’s a chance no one would be able to find their inventory. What’s that called when a company charges for a service that they know they can’t deliver? Oh yea, fraud. eBay told me that the reason there wasn’t a notice on their forums was because they didn’t think the problem was important enough to be reported to sellers. We’re paying to have these items visible to people who want to buy them (the sole purpose of ebay) and a problem that stops this from happening isn’t important to us? That’s exactly what we’re paying for! How is it unimportant to us? Is anyone else tired of eBay acting like they’ve got a Papal Order and can do no wrong?

I think its time for a glass of wine and a wind down. Vito is already in Italy dealing with our obnoxious neighbors. I am going to try to go for a few weeks. Marc will be listing and shipping everything, so there will be absolutely no interruption for Valentine shoppers. I know plenty of you give and receive fine jewelry for these romantic holidays. Last year, I got a new leaf blower from my Valentine Funny thing, I really love my leaf blower…And I know, I’m not shy about buying jewelry.