Tales of Listia: A (Drawn Out) Success Story!

I've talked about Listia a number of times on my blog.  Sometimes it's a good story - you know, you find a great deal for a paltry number of credits and the seller ships things quickly.  Other times, it's a bad story - the seller never ships or things are damaged...  Once in awhile though, you get all the makings of a bad story that ends up good.

So goeth today's tale.

I won the auction that you are about to see on November 30.  Unlike most Listia auctions, this one had a shipping fee (which stunk but what do you do?).  After waiting a couple of days for the seller to provide his/her PayPal address, I emailed the seller.  Three days later I get a response.

At this point, it's been six days since the auction closed.  The seller claims that after a week of no payment, he/she has the right to keep the item.

Unfortunately for me, I never received the email from Listia stating that the seller had finally provided their PayPal email address and so I didn't check the site until Sunday, December 8th.  This was the weekend following the final week of teaching for the semester so things were hectic (not to mention I had to prepare finals and grade term papers).

A few hours after sending payment, the seller responded with:

You do realize the auction ended Nov. 30th with shipping payment due with seven days from that date? You messaged on Dec. 8th that payment was sent and I have no payment showing from you via PayPal. 

Obviously, I wasn't happy...especially since it took SIX days for the seller to get his/her email address to me (there's nothing automatic about that with Listia).  It seems like you need to give your buyer seven days from the time you provide the necessary information...otherwise why not wait until 11:59 PM on the sixth day of the deadline before emailing the address and then unless that person can pay you within a minute, you get to keep your item and the credits.

After a bit of back and forth between the seller and I, I finally get this:

You will receive notification when this items ships, Thanks

*Phew!*  Except the potential drama didn't end there.  The email with the previous message was sent on December 8.  I didn't hear anything from the seller for another six days...then I get this:

Your auction item had to be forwarded, please update your Listia Verified address. Not having your current address verified has caused a delay in delivery, I am not responsible for this. Thank You

Oh man.  I'll be honest, at this point I thought the seller was trying to screw me over...especially since I've only ever had one mailing address since I started using Listia (and that portion of Listia IS automatically generated for the seller).  Even worse, I've received plenty of items from Listia this year - all by using the provided mailing address.

I was convinced that the seller was trying to pull a fast one on my in an effort to keep the credits and shipping fees.  Luckily (since I mostly try to avoid confrontation at all costs), I kept my own cool and calmly replied saying that maybe the post office made a mistake since I was sure my address was correct.  And then I waited.

Two days later I get a message from the seller saying "Merry Christmas."  There was no other information in the message - nothing about the item that was supposedly stuck in Harrisburg being "rerouted" for eternity.  At this point I did have the tracking number for the (supposed) item but it was clear it hadn't left the Harrisburg, PA facility.

Later on, the same day as the Merry Christmas message (which I replied to saying thanks and back at ya - and by the way the item still isn't here), I get:

I hate this! I don't want it lost! :/

So now the seller has completely reversed her stand (I also now know the seller is female) and has become incredibly nice.  I become cautiously optimistic that maybe the seller really did send the item...and maybe the post office really did screw up...and maybe, just maybe I'll get the item eventually.

So I continued to wait.  Another couple of days rolled by with no change to the tracking information (and no correspondence from the seller).

And then what happens?

A Christmas miracle.

The item arrives in my mailbox.

The tracking was never updated (and my mailing address on the envelope from the seller was 100% correct).

Why did it happen?  How did it happen?  I have no idea.  I've had the worst luck with the post office this year (I'm still out that $200 card that I sold on eBay - neither eBay nor the post office will refund me).

However, at least this story has a happy ending.  And so, you may be wondering, what was worth all this heartache and pain?

Well...I don't know if "worth" is the right word - but here she is in all her plastic-y glory.

That's the Alien Villainess from Series 8 of the LEGO Collectible Minifigure line.  This particular figure is only important to me in the sense that it was the final figure that I needed from Series 8.

I know have Series 5, 7, and 8 complete (with a few of the other sets close to complete).

I guess all's well that ends well, at least when it comes to Listia and the post office!