Bricklink shipping time - is this fair?

RevBlues

I'm new to Bricklink. I made an order with a seller on 13 January. 53 lots, 350 pieces in total. He invoiced my three days later and I paid within minutes. Yet he still hasn't shipped my order. That's not reasonable is it? Is it fair to say it's time I messaged him and asked where my goods are?

oldtodd33

That's too long. I would at least ask when he shipped it because if he did ship it and didn't mark it so, it could be lost in the mail and you wouldn't know.

ColoradoBricks

^ +1, also check their store term, some sellers for example will only twice a month. Heck, I am still waiting for an order from Oct 6th to be invoiced... (yes I gave up and ordered somewhere else)

lilmonster777

I personally don't think that's fair ,I placed an order on jan 6th with seller HouseOfLogos and it still has not shipped,tomorrow morning I'm going to open a paypal claim and leave negative feedback for the first time ever

ecmo47

Check his feedback. If no negative, I'd inquire as to the delay. If there is recent negative/neutral feedback then file a claim with Paypal.

akunthita

I don't know where the seller is, but there was an alert on BrickLink earlier that due to the huge snow-storm in the North East all transportation stopped, so be understanding with sellers from that area. So if your seller is in the US North East area he/she may simply not be able to ship, or even communicate. Of course if they are somewhere else the reason could be something else.

Pitfall69

lilmonster777 said:

I personally don't think that's fair ,I placed an order on jan 6th with seller HouseOfLogos and it still has not shipped,tomorrow morning I'm going to open a paypal claim and leave negative feedback for the first time ever

I have never had a problem with them. Maybe something happened beyond their control.

Basta

@lilmonster777 I am pretty sure HOUSE OF LOGOS is known for their extremely lengthy shipping times. They do state "All newly paid orders will now be shipping in APPROX 5-10 business days" being they are in Minnesota they probably have to sled to the post office :smile: So I would guess it could take up to 20 days from the time you actually paid for the order to get to you.

Not trying to defend them, nor have I ordered from them. Just letting you know what I have heard and that there is potential for it to take as long as it has.

The only thing I would suggest is that you contact them before you do the PayPal claim (Assuming you haven't already).

CircleK

I've placed a few orders with House of Logos. They are slow to ship and even slower to leave feedback at times but my stuff always makes it eventually.

lilmonster777

@basta order placed and invoiced and payed jan 6th,it's been 23 days,I read the splash page and agreed to wait 5-10 days to ship (we all have busy lives right?) no problem,23 gimme a break,also made contact with seller 3 days ago who assured me items would ship soon? wtf is soon lol another 3 weeks? I honestly hate to leave negative feedback but I feel it's just?

DadsAFOL

@lilmonster777, the best thing to do is file an NSS (non-shipping seller) under the "Problem" tab. Don't leave feedback yet, and you have 45 days for the PayPal claim. The NSS will be the best tool to get you a response.

natro220

Basta said:

@lilmonster777 I am pretty sure HOUSE OF LOGOS is known for their extremely lengthy shipping times. They do state "All newly paid orders will now be shipping in APPROX 5-10 business days" being they are in Minnesota they probably have to sled to the post office :smile: So I would guess it could take up to 20 days from the time you actually paid for the order to get to you.

Not trying to defend them, nor have I ordered from them. Just letting you know what I have heard and that there is potential for it to take as long as it has.

The only thing I would suggest is that you contact them before you do the PayPal claim (Assuming you haven't already).

I know you are joking, but we only have about an inch of snow on the ground here in Minnesota right now. So they can't use that excuse.

madforLEGO

HOUSE OF LOGOS IS horrible at shipping times. However, they generally have good prices, and despite delays, I always have gotten my items.
I always encourage people to not fly off the handle by leaving neg feedback without first contacting the seller. Too many people are impulsive like this IMO. I would only leave feedback if they never respond and take my money with no product received

RevBlues

Thanks for the advices. I didn't think that was right - especially since two other orders (including one of similar size) both reached me four days after I was invoiced. But I wanted to check.

There's nothing on his page that mentions shipping delays or long lead times, and he has had only three neutral and zero negative reviews in the past year. Occasional positive comments mention quick delivery, but not in the last few weeks. I've sent a polite email asking if he is able to give me an estimated time of despatch.

CCC

It is a fairly regular complaint ...

http://www.bricklink.com/messageList.asp?v=c&max=100&q="house of logos"

binaryeye

RevBlues said:

There's nothing on his page that mentions shipping delays or long lead times, and he has had only three neutral and zero negative reviews in the past year.

Are you looking at the same feedback profile I am? I see two neutral and six negative this month, and 73 neutral and 37 negative for the past year.

rancorbait

binaryeye said:

RevBlues said:

There's nothing on his page that mentions shipping delays or long lead times, and he has had only three neutral and zero negative reviews in the past year.

Are you looking at the same feedback profile I am? I see two neutral and six negative this month, and 73 neutral and 37 negative for the past year.

I'm seeing the same thing. I usually like to stay away from sellers with this much negative feedback :/

TheLoneTensor

If you peruse through the feedback jungle, anytime HouseofLogos gets a bad feedback, you will see them fire fire right back with a negative of their own. While generally I don't like the inability for ebay sellers to leave negative feedback, that system does prevent jerks like these guys from creating such a hostile environment that they, themselves create.

I ordered with them once, and never again. A few pennies saved is not worth supporting their terrible customer service for me.

TarDomo

From who did @RevBlues make the order? He didn´t mention HouseofLogos, did he?

cheshirecat

^No indeed, that was the other poster.

I too have a negative because I was audacious enough to leave a negative feedback pointing out that shipping took too long -something that other buyers might want to know and sellers might want to improve on. Bang I get a negative right back, even though I paid within 5 minutes of the invoice being sent. I have to say, Bricklink doens't half get a lot of absolutely petty stupid sellers, which is a shame because a huge chunk of them are amazing often sending parts that get to me the next morning. Trouble is because everyone seems so scared of leaving feedback its less easy to differentiate between a good seller and a bad one. Sometimes it doesn't matter if it takes two weeks to get your parts, but othertimes you want them asap and unless the sellers say in their terms that shipping might take a while, how do you tell.

Chubbles

Are the sellers allowed to refuse a sale if you have poor feedback as a buyer? I'm assuming if you pay fast they have to accept the order no?

CCC

Chubbles said:

Are the sellers allowed to refuse a sale if you have poor feedback as a buyer? I'm assuming if you pay fast they have to accept the order no?

You cannot force anyone to sell to you, even if you place an order. You can of course leave (negative) feedback saying they refused to sell to you, but there is no way of forcing the sale.

Farmer_John

The best way to get a seller's attention is to file a complaint with PayPal. In the cases where my emails have been ignored, they ALWAYS respond (albeit with some lame excuse) when I file a PayPal complaint. For me, a reasonable amount of time for the item to be shipped is about a week (at which point I attempt to contact them to check the order's status). If they can't ship an item within a week (unless otherwise noted), then they shouldn't be selling to the public. Interestingly enough, I've only had a couple bad experiences of this type with sellers on BrickLink.

My biggest complaint is the exorbitant shipping and handling prices some sellers charge. I mean...$5 S&H for a minifigure shipped within the same country? With these characters, I make a note never to purchase from them again.

It all may sound a bit over the top, but I expect to be treated as I would treat others.

TheLoneTensor

^ Yeah, but that will also get you an instant negative feedback from ahole bricklink sellers.

If there wasn't a fear of retaliatory (and unwarranted) negative feedback, houseoflogos would have dozens, if not hundreds more negatives.

DadsAFOL

One tool that BL has that you should definitely use as a buyer is the "least favorite store" flag. If you use this, along with "my note on user (seller)", you can build your own list of stores to avoid. When searching wanted lists, you can choose to ignore these stores in the results.

We buy a lot from other stores for our projects, so we have a list with comments like:
- "Smoker" - ugh - If you smoke, don't sell Lego. The ABS absorbs it like a magnet.
- "Unibagger" - seriously, zip locks cost $0.01 so use them. If I have to spend an hour sorting your order, I'm probably not coming back
- "Motherstacker" - if I'm buying NEW Lego from you, what makes you think I would like it in a solid block of ABS that I have to use a brick separator on?
- "Cereal killer" - only used this once, when we received our order in an Apple Jacks box with a label on it.

Sorry, tangent. Anyway, if you buy a lot, its easy to find the stores you like. As @Farmer_John said, if you are a seller, try to treat others as you would like to be treated. For most sellers, its a hobby but that's not an excuse to do a poor job of it.

CCC

DadsAFOL said:

- "Unibagger" - seriously, zip locks cost $0.01 so use them. If I have to spend an hour sorting your order, I'm probably not coming back

I had the opposite with one seller. Every single lot was individually bagged, and many of the lots were a single piece, and then they used a large wad of heavy duty freezer bags for padding. Not only did it take me hours to unpack all the lots, I ended up overpaying on shipping costs due to them putting in all the freezer bags.

cheshirecat

@DadsAFOL which is fine, but doesn't convey problems to other potential sellers, that then end up with stinking lego, or lego in a packet of cereal. Thats what the feedback should be, sellers just need to man up and accepts feedback (unless its completely unwaranted) and be honest with their feedback not retaliatory. @TheLoneTensor point that "If there wasn't a fear of retaliatory (and unwarranted) negative feedback, houseoflogos would have dozens, if not hundreds more negatives." is exactly it, and because of it a load of unsuspecting buyers have a bad experience.

As a buyer i dont particularly mind about getting negative feedback so will always give the feedback i think it deserves, but if I was selling as well I can see it would matter.

Another bug bear of mine is sellers who always wait until i leave feedback, rather than doing it as soon as I mark the sale as complete. Although again, its related to retaliation presumably, why else wait.

Farmer_John

TheLoneTensor said:

^ Yeah, but that will also get you an instant negative feedback from ahole bricklink sellers.

If there wasn't a fear of retaliatory (and unwarranted) negative feedback, houseoflogos would have dozens, if not hundreds more negatives.

Yep...I used to feel that way when eBay allowed sellers to provide negative feedback to buyers (even when the buyer did their part and paid promptly). I got hosed a few times and ended up just writing it off as a bad experience and not neg'ing the seller for fear of retribution. But frankly now really don't give a hoot about my feedback because I know I'm right and I can live with the consequences.

Feedback as a seller is MUCH more important than feedback as a buyer. If I want to purchase something from a seller with less than 98% positive feedback, I always take the time to review what is said in the seller's negative feedback. Sometimes their neg is as a buyer; sometimes it's as a seller. It's usually pretty easy to cull the scumbag sellers from the good sellers that sold to a scumbag buyer.

As a comment related to my culling process, sellers only do themselves a disservice by getting nasty with their comments regarding buyers. I don't think sellers have any idea how many sales they lose by getting all emotional with their comments towards a buyer (whether the buyer deserved it or not). I expect a seller to be professional, and as such, to be professional with their comments (negative, neutral, or positive).

Sethro3

Selling is always tricky. I live by the golden rule...I think selling fits under that.

With that said, any one can have great or poor customer service. I've had issues with LEGO's customer service, even though they have been great many other times. With that said, I don't vouch for anyone other than myself, but I've ordered multiple times from House of Logos and everything was received in a timely manner. They do state they expect to ship out by certain number of days, so you are aware of the delay from the start.

With other sellers, who knows. If it talks about delays, then it makes sense. If they don't mention delays and then have a long delay, I'd message them multiple times to see what is up.

CapnRex101

I find that bigger stores like Gizmocom and Yellow Farm Bricks tend to provide the best service. I have ordered from both of those many times and on the one occasion there was something missing from one order (one lot out of about thirty I believe) they sent it in a separate package as soon as I contacted them with a 20% off voucher for next time.

TheBigLegoski

Heeey!
I have bought some Lego once from House of Logos on bricklink, almost a year ago. I had no problems with them or her. I gave positive feedback and received it. Yeah House of Logos is located somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. I remember checking it out on googlemaps and streetview etc. So indeed, that is right you people from Minnesota, you all live in the middle of nowhere! ;)
Anyway they had to ship it all the way across the Atlantic ocean to me here in NL. I just checked, as I happened to have saved the order and all communication with her in a worddoc, from ordering to receiving the shipment took about three weeks.

Just contact the seller before you start giving feedback (negative or positive), she was very friendly, and informative on what when and how.
(anyway that is my advice)

krklint

I used to live in middle-of-nowhere MN. Guess what, the post office still delivers and picks up at people's homes every day. They are just slow.

Crowkillers

I was told that some of these stores that are taking forever to ship are actually working out of set boxes and not sorting their parts... I had problems with HOL last year taking a month to get parts to me on several occasions and when I left a negative I received numerous emails demanding I explain why the negative was left... They kept talking about their 5 to 10 business day policy to ship out orders on their splash page and and blah, blah, blah.. That still doesn't explain why it takes 3 weeks or longer to ship an order out.... They ended up refunding me the entire small $20 order and I removed the negative...

Pitfall69

CCC said:

DadsAFOL said:

- "Unibagger" - seriously, zip locks cost $0.01 so use them. If I have to spend an hour sorting your order, I'm probably not coming back

I had the opposite with one seller. Every single lot was individually bagged, and many of the lots were a single piece, and then they used a large wad of heavy duty freezer bags for padding. Not only did it take me hours to unpack all the lots, I ended up overpaying on shipping costs due to them putting in all the freezer bags.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I will usually bag printed parts and Minifigures to keep them safe from scratches. I also bag individual colors and important special parts, but I don't overdo it.

Here's an example of a set I'm doing inventory on that I'm mailing to a buyer. Not done yet, but you get the idea.

Pitfall69

I really think sellers are definitely getting lazy and are just not sorting their parts. I mean, they are buying 10 Detective Agencies and just listing the parts in that set ×10 without sorting the parts.

Crowkillers

Pitfall69 said:

I really think sellers are definitely getting lazy and are just not sorting their parts. I mean, they are buying 10 Detective Agencies and just listing the parts in that set ×10 without sorting the parts.

I don't doubt it at all...

If you are a large store and get 20 orders in a day, wouldn't you hurry up and at least knock out all of the small ones immediately so you don't piss off all 20 people..?

If I order 100 of the same part, there is no reason why a store can't get those packed up in under 10 days... Unless they are working right out of set boxes...

When they told me that they were backed up on orders, I told them if that was the case, then they should close down for a week and get caught up... If you are not going to take selling seriously, then you shouldn't do it... And adding a bunch of B.S. to your splash page and using that for every excuse is pathetic...

Seriously, how can you constantly be a month behind on everything..? There are larger stores working with a crew just like you and they get orders out in 48 hours and less...

Chubbles

^ I agree, it's a business deal, they aren't doing a favor for people

Crowkillers

Chubbles said:

^ I agree, it's a business deal, they aren't doing a favor for people

Exactly.. Once currency exchanges hands, it has turned into a business transaction between 2 people and it should be taken seriously and treated as such... Throwing in that 5 to 10 day crap is just an excuse to hold up orders and take as long as you want to ship them...

Being a seller is not "A Hobby" as some people like to claim...

cheshirecat

i think a lot of sellers think that they are.

CCC

Pitfall69 said:

I really think sellers are definitely getting lazy and are just not sorting their parts. I mean, they are buying 10 Detective Agencies and just listing the parts in that set ×10 without sorting the parts.

That's actually what I do, but I'm small time, only really do 1-3 orders an evening and mainly minifigs as I keep most parts myself. It takes up much less space, and I find I can still get orders out with 24 hours of payment. It does work for small stores, but I cannot imagining it scaling well.

I also bag minifigs, then probably about 20 parts per bag.

Crowkillers

^^^ That may work for really small stores like you said, but no way a store with a million parts could operate like that... My wife has a 40k part store and there is no way in Hell she could work out of set boxes.. It would take forever to pick orders...

She would have to add a 5 to 10 business day stipulation on her splash page... XD

RevBlues

Not talking about that seller @binaryeye - I haven't named the seller I'm having problems with. Though I will if I can't resolve the problem to my satisfaction.

No response to my email to him yet. I'll give it another 12 hours. His feedback history shows him trading in the last few days, so I know he's active.

It's outrageous that sellers don't have to leave feedback before buyers. If I've ordered and paid, you have the information you need to review my part of the transaction. The present system obviously leaves it wide open to abuse.

Crowkillers

RevBlues said:

Not talking about that seller @binaryeye - I haven't named the seller I'm having problems with. Though I will if I can't resolve the problem to my satisfaction.

No response to my email to him yet. I'll give it another 12 hours. His feedback history shows him trading in the last few days, so I know he's active.

It's outrageous that sellers don't have to leave feedback before buyers. If I've ordered and paid, you have the information you need to review my part of the transaction. The present system obviously leaves it wide open to abuse.

I kind of agree, but then again you don't know if the guy who is buying from you is completely legit...

My wife recently had a guy who bought parts from her in which she required that 2 of a certain item needed to be purchased at a time (x2) Well he thought that meant he was supposed to get 2 for each order he placed for that part, so when he ordered the required 2, he thought he was supposed to get 4 of them... When he got his order and only got 2, he wasn't happy... Not her fault

Another guy placed a $200 order and used his wrong name(used a nickname instead of his birth name) for his APO address... When it arrived to it's destination, it was denied because of the improper name... The order got mailed back and forth and all over and it took several weeks until it came back here and the package was beaten and tattered and had holes in it along with things falling out of it.. Once again, not her fault..

It takes more for a buyer to just pay and deserve an immediate positive feedback because there are still other variables on the buyer's end that may not make the seller's experience with them a positive one...

TheLoneTensor

In the seller's view, it may take more from a buyer than to plunk down the money and expect the world, but as has been the case since humanity first invented commerce, if you don't provide good service as a seller, even when it's not your fault, people won't come back, and you fail. You'll have your principles, but you'll still fail.

RevBlues

Are sellers allowed to respond to or challenge negative feedback?

cheshirecat

Yes

Pitfall69

In the US "Hobby Seller" does not mean that you aren't a business. How do you tell the difference, especially when the business involves buying and selling stuff, something that many people do as a hobby--such as selling coins or Lego on eBay and Bricklink; breeding cats, dogs or other animals; making arts and crafts for sale at craft shows; publishing a newsletter; participating in various kinds of home party sales where your main objective is to get discounts on the products; and other activities where your primary objective is personal satisfaction rather than economic gain. If you are selling Lego for economic gain, you ARE a business and just because it is a hobby doesn't mean you aren't held to the same standards as any other business.

Pitfall69

I didn't mean to go off on a slight tangent. Selling Lego is a business and should be treated as such, but that is for the "Reseller" thread. Every state in the US is different and I'm sure every country has their own laws about businesses and collecting taxes. I think we should revisit this particular topic again soon :)

My point is, just because Lego is your hobby, when money is exchanging hands, you are bound to a contractual agreement. The seller is just as responsible on their end as the buyer. Taking your sweet time filling orders because it is a hobby is not how the world operates.

Basta

I think that some people just don't get "it", they still have the buyers mind set i.e. "The customer seller is always right" which doesn't work. Some people just shouldn't be in business.

Vindic8ed

I made 11 orders on BL a couple of weeks ago. Some of the orders I made last are coming in before the first ones because of handling time. Shipping has been an entirely different wait period, and slightly frustrating. I didn't realize this until today though that aside from taking a while to go through customs, a lot of stuff is probably getting backed up in NY because of those huge snow storms that have been hitting the east coast. One of the few packages that had a tracking number on it said it had been sitting in NY for three days, and three days ago said it had left NJ with no information after that.

It's not entirely relevant to the topic of this thread but another factor to consider, especially when ordering internationally (I still want my parts yesterday! :wink: ).

111ins

not sure if it was mentioned in all the replies but it is possible that the order was shipped and just not marked as such on BL. Once you receive the order, you can see the postmark and then make final judgement.
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