EDIT: This topic took another turn, the first post on page 3 is important if you are thinking of dealing with Wilmersgirl:
www.mlparena.com/Forum...rt=30.html

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...if you purchased MIB Princess Baby Buggy with Baby Princess Sparkle for USD 150.00 + USD 20.05 postage + USD 7.00 Paypal fees and you received it in a shoebox with no protection at all and just a little tape around it and the seller refused to send it because you didn't pay the Paypal fee while she confirmed total payment was USD 170.05 (playset + postage).

It happened to me and I don't know what to do. It wasn't an eBay transaction. It was someone from a MLP forum and she wasn't very friendly even though she has perfect feedback.

Postage wasn't even USD 20.05 but USD 12.80 so I paid USD 7.25 too much (even more than the Paypal fee I had to pay). She didn't refund me the difference. It was an overseas shipment and as everyone knows a lot of packages arrive damaged, so protection is very important. On top of it al I have to pay EUR 37.08 (USD 47.28) for customs fee because she didn't mark the item as a gift on the Customs Declaration.

It was the first expensive pony I ever purchased and I had to work a month for this amount of USD 170.00. Now I also have to pay the customs fee. I feel so sad and wish I had never purchased it.

When I sell a MOC pony I always send them in a much bigger packaging with a lot of protection. You can ask anyone who ever bought from me.

What would you do?

Thanks for reading this!

[Moving to Trader Support as per your request --- LadyG]

A bit of packaging could have helped but it does look lik it is okay?
What are you wanting the refund for? the overcharge on shipping?

The customs fee is you're own responsibility i am afraid.

It looks like it got to you okay at least, but that's a real concern. If she won't do something (even apologize) to make ammends--- if there are any well-used good trader/ good seller / not-good of either lists around, I'd suggest making some notes of it.

So sorry you ran into someone who wasn't nice. Don't let it spoil your special pony item though- Baby Princess Sparkle and her carriage are a real delight, and well-worth enjoying!

That box looks ok, I would have sent something like that in it if it fit so snug like that.

And the customs fee is just unfortunate. You should have asked her to mark it as a gift, instead of just assuming. Afterall, the seller wasn't lieing when she marked it as merchandise and not a gift.

I agree though, she should give you the extra postage back.

I'm sorry is happened to you, I would've packaged in that box too, considering it fits just right, but I would've padded the box all the way around it, to protect it, I know how rough the postal workers can be. Seems like you got lucky and everything arrived undamaged, but I would be dissapointed too about all those fees, I would ask her politely about a refund on the shipping, and if she refuses, I would just take in consideration next time I see her selling another item.

I sure am very lucky the box arrived undamaged, considering a lot of boxes get damaged along the way. I'm sure a lot of collectors will agree, also considering the buyers I sold to, that this kind of packaging is unacceptable (especially for such a valuable MIB set).

And now I also know that from now on I will always ask everyone to mark the item as a gift (even though up till now everyone did that without asking).

I will ask for a refund on the shipping again. I didn't get a respond on my previous PM when I asked her when I could expect the package to arrive because it was taking much longer than she told me.

I'm grateful it arrived (better late than never) but I will never buy from her again. I want to give her negative feedback, but as a lot of you might already know, than she'll give a negative feedback in return (while I didn't deserve it).

Looks like you got lucky. I received ponies in a similar way, only they didn't fit perfectly in the box... no packing material at all, needless to say they were severaly damaged.

I think this should be moved to the Trader Support forum

That is so terrible. To me, that doesn't even make sense to mark it as merchandise unless you own a company. Otherwise you mark it as a gift, just in case stupid crap like this happens.

I probably would have used the shoebox as well, but I would have wrapped it in bubble wrap several times, tapped the box completely around several times to secure it shut, and wrapped the box in plain brown paper and tape it around several times as well. But then again, I'm very paranoid about the items I ship moving around in the packaging even the slightest

I once bought a MIB G3 Winter Series 1 Mittens from someone, can't remember who, and they shipped her, MIB mind you, IN A BUBBLE ENVELOPE. What kind of stupid packaging is that?!?! VERY luckily though, she was in perfect shape.

Hope everything works out for you!

@ Kitty_Meow_Meow_Head

Yeah, I remember buying a G1 Plushie from you and even though you might think nothing can happen to a plushie, you packed her very safely

BTW if you miss her, you can see her here: Glory

Just a note that marking "gift" means that the threshold is higher when compared to the "merchandise" section, but does not exclude customs fee totally. If the item goes over the threshold, it means that you have to pay the fee if you want the pony. I recently bought an item and I had to pay £33 in customs fees, even though the seller had ticked gift.

Unfortunately the customs fee is your responsibilty - if you did not want to pay, you should have emailed the seller, and asked for a refund minus shipping when the item was returned to her.

I am so glad it arrived to you safely, that was really lucky! I would definitely see about a partial refun for the shipping, I could understand if it was a dollar or two but not $7. Hopefully they will get back to you on it.
I have received a moc pony in a plain envelope before, I have no idea what the sellers are thinking when they do that, luckily mine wasn't damaged either.

Stargaze wrote:

@ Kitty_Meow_Meow_Head Yeah, I remember buying a G1 Plushie from you and even though you might think nothing can happen to a plushie, you packed her very safely BTW if you miss her, you can see her here: Glory

Oh yaaaay! I'm so glad she went to such a wonderful loving home

garej wrote:

Just a note that marking "gift" means that the threshold is higher when compared to the "merchandise" section, but does not exclude customs fee totally. If the item goes over the threshold, it means that you have to pay the fee if you want the pony. I recently bought an item and I had to pay £33 in customs fees, even though the buyer had ticked gift. Unfortunately the customs fee is your responsibilty - if you did not want to pay, you should have emailed the seller, and asked for a refund minus shipping when the item was returned to her.

I learned a long time ago to ask what the threshold was, so I make sure to mark things under that. Unless someone is buying insurance for their item, I don't think it really matters if you mark a package as worth $20, vs $70. Honestly, what do they care? They are looking for their fees, but they have no idea what things are really worth. Insurance, you have to declare the honest total, in case you have to claim something as lost or damaged. Otherwise, I'm sure I've had people get their packages and say, "But I paid over $50 for this! Why does it say $22?" I do that so they don't have to pay the customs fees...

On topic, I would NEVER ship a MIB in a shoe box! I don't ever ship in shoe boxes, PERIOD. They aren't made for mailing, they are only made for storing shoes. I don't care how "snug" it fits in there, in reality it isn't much better than just wrapping the pony box in brown paper and mailing it that way! Mind you, I have had things shipped that way, but not something worth almost $200, all said and done! For that amount of money, I will find a nice, sturdy box and ship in that. I will cut the box down if it's too big, but thicker cardboard will still protect a lot better.

You said this was someone not on eBay? Then don't worry about a negative. Honestly, people need to know when there are problems, and when you can state your case, and clearly say what it was that wasn't good...ie, poor packaging, poor responses, over charged shipping, rude comments (if you get a neg from them!), that would give others a fair chance to decide on their own if they want to deal with this person. And it just may get them to change a few things to make future transactions better. Not a guarantee, but it might. Those of us that read feedback really need to know the WHOLE story, not just the good parts. If there are issues, they need to be out there for us to know about.

when i bought 3 mib G3 fakies from a seller, she wrapped them in giftpaper (all 3 together)

needless to say that the postal workers bashed the life out of the package

Well, it is an actual U.S. law that it is illlegal to mark it a gift on customs forms if money was exchanged. That being said, unless it gets insurance I mark all of the values low so that the receiver won't have to pay outrageous customs fees. The only way I will mark something a gift is if it is a trade.