Feedback on traders
None of the main booksellers' sites publish customers' feedback, though the auction sites do. The feedback on the auction sites consists mainly of glowing tributes, and it does work up to a point; people want to keep their feedback profile clean, so they do their best to earn good feedback. Makes sense. But it has its weak points too. The system can be abused. Feedback is mutual, and people often seem to give fabulous feedback even if they're only moderately pleased, partly perhaps because anything less than "supergreathighlyrecommend!!!!****" seems almost like an insult, and partly because they want good feedback in return. Also, no one who's really burned someone is going to post feedback for that person until they've seen what feedback they get. If the purchaser realises he/she's been conned and posts negative feedback then they'll get negative feedback themselves.
Of course, that's an abuse, and auction sites are aware of it - eBay, in particular, deals with a lot of potential problems of this type under its "Safe Harbour" menu (click on services from the eBay main page). But I know from my own experience that rather than get into a dispute it's easier just to walk away and forget it (especially if the item was only a few dollars, or if you spotted the pitfall in time and declared a no sale). So I would say feedback profiles aren't necessarily a good way of finding out about a trader.
Making a complaint
It's so easy to get branded as the troublemaker when you make a complaint. I should know - a bookseller that pocketed my money, patently breaking its own conditions of sale (not to mention the law), turned round and threatened to take me to court when I protested! Whether any solicitor would actually bring their case or not, I don't know, but suddenly I am the one who is being pushed onto the defensive.
So, how does one get one's due in a situation like this? With hindsight, the first thing I'd say is that I should never have got into the situation. This was my second internet purchase, and I was pretty green. These days I pretty much grill traders over every detail of a prospective purchase (see the section on questions to ask traders). That would probably have weeded these traders out. Even if it did not, it would have given me a much better e-mail record on which to base my complaint.
The first rule of internet trading has to be to keep all the e-mails sent to and received from the trader on file. Don't delete anything - the e-mail record is your only proof.
The second thing is that, no matter how slow, sloppy and offhand the service is, one has to remain patient and polite at all times. Don't fire off angry e-mails to someone who's just itching for an excuse to get into a confrontation. Don't threaten litigation, just act as if you have total confidence in the other person's good faith.
If that patently doesn't work (I'd say give it about a month), take your grievance to the administrator of the web site the seller was operating on. Go for e-mailing a human intermediary, rather than posting up feedback. Send them the e-mail record, outline the situation, and leave it in their hands. Tell them to ask the trader not to contact you directly from now on, but to send everything through the web site administrator.
Give the matter a couple of weeks, or more if complicated negotiations have to be entered into, and then if the web site administrator doesn't seem to be getting his/her act together, you could try Complain.com. You have to pay them, but it's cheaper than going to law.
Going to law just has to be the last resort - read your Bleak House! Even if you have right on your side, it's likely to cost a lot of money to prove it. I guess that's what a lot of rogue traders bank on.
Do all this, and you'll be doing as I say, not as I actually did ! But if I ever get into a similar situation again I'll definitely be taking my own advice!
One thing you need to be aware of is the extent to which you have the right to go naming publicly people who have given you cause for complaint. Libel laws in Britain, for example, are stricter than in the United Sates, and tolerance of abusive language is lower, too. Some of the comments I've seen posted on internet sites - "ignorant shit," "cowardly scum," and suchlike - might lead to a successful action against the perpetrator.
If you've got a case, though, even British law allows for something called "fair comment", and in the case mentioned above I am would be quite within my rights to name the traders online and say that they failed to fulfil their own conditions of trading in refusing to give me a full refund on an item which they sent me which they themselves admitted was in a much less satisfactory condition than their description of it suggested (I do have the complete e-mail record). However, I am glad to say that the story has a happy ending. Six months later the disputed money was refunded!
If you want to read or give feedback on specific traders, click here.
