How do I get my $$ back from Half.com?

[Diademed]

So back in august I bought a textbook off Half.com, to the tune of $60. About a week later, I noticed the seller was no longer a registered user, and his most recent feedback was a 'did not ship' type negative.

After 22 days passed they FINALLY allowed me to file a claim, since they supposedly offer $750 insurance against this type of thing. Anyway, long story short, I filled out their claimform, and tried to contact their CS through their webform, and I've heard jack from them.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Is there any way to make this a smoother / (safer) process?

Thanks,
-Dia

 

[sswingle]

Give it time. Anything needing human interaction from Ebay or half takes a while.

 

[imported_hscorpio]

I always try and only buy from the big sellers on half that have several thousand feedbacks to avoid this. Hopefully you get reimbursed, but my gf got ripped off on ebay in a similar manner and never saw anything come from filing a claim.

 

[bigrash]

same thing happened to my sister. she bought a book in August from a "reputable" seller and never received anything. She filed a claim last week but didn't get an answer yet.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

I also filed a claim for a book, I posted about it here before. I filed on the 19th of september. They say it can take up to 30 days, if you don't hear anything within 30 days you contact half.com again. But don't expect the money soon so go buy the book somewhere else.

 

[nitsuj3580]

same thing happened to me just recently. My first bad online experience

 

[ViviTheMage]

ive had my claim with half.com open for about 2 weeks.......

 

[Diademed]

Okay. At least nobody so far has posted 'not' receiving their money.

Back in mid-september I ordered it from ecampus.com. Still waiting. I'm going to be super-pissed if I get burned twice on the same damn book.

From here on out, I buy exclusively from Amazon / ebay (100+ feedback).

Welcome to the eWorld, I guess.

 

[cHeeZeFacTory]

happened to me last year, i got reimbursed by half.com after disputing it. Took 2 months though.

 

[TheGizmo]

looks like a lot of you guys got reemed by these half.com sellers, all of you in fact.. that sucks, thanks for the heads up though, now I know not to buy from sellers without a decent feedback rating... afterall they are mostly poor college students selling the books, so it makes sense

 

[imported_hscorpio]

Originally posted by: Diademed
Okay. At least nobody so far has posted 'not' receiving their money.

Back in mid-september I ordered it from ecampus.com. Still waiting. I'm going to be super-pissed if I get burned twice on the same damn book.

From here on out, I buy exclusively from Amazon / ebay (100+ feedback).

Welcome to the eWorld, I guess.

Just check the feedbacks so you know they are legit. A lot of people prop up feedback with tiny purchases that are essentially a way of buying positive feedback.

 

[shoRunner]

hopefully you were smart and paid with a CC, so you can then dispute it.

This has happened to me before, half.com wasn't very happy about it since I didn't use their dispute process but instead of waiting 2-3 months to get my money, I had it back the day that I called.

 

[DaWhim]

same thing happened to me this year. the seller turned to "not registered user" on half after about 2 weeks with a few negs. half.com wants me to wait till 9/21th before I can file a claim.

I said to myself, screw you, I filed a dispute around 9/16 with amex. I knew they are slow for proccessing the claim. they can eat the chargeback fee from amex.

 

[amdskip]

I think I'll file a claim with my CC company tomorrow. Half has been taking their sweet time processing my claim. The sent me some generic checkup email that was like by any chance did you get your book yet?

 

[imported_hscorpio]

If you use a check/debit card with visa or mastercard logo to pay can you still do a chargeback?

 

[DaWhim]

Originally posted by: hscorpio
If you use a check/debit card with visa or mastercard logo to pay can you still do a chargeback?

depends on the bank, but most likely SOL. Then you will be at the mercy of half.com.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: hscorpio
I always try and only buy from the big sellers on half that have several thousand feedbacks to avoid this. Hopefully you get reimbursed, but my gf got ripped off on ebay in a similar manner and never saw anything come from filing a claim.

Wrong strategy. Yo ushould buy from people who have a few hundred (like 100 - 200) of like 99% positive feedback or better. The ones with thousands can drop to 98%, and 2% is what.. like 400 orders when you have 20,000 feedback? That means they can skip on a lot of orders just because they do so well overall. The people with 100 or 200 probably only get negative because they ran into an idiotic buyer, but these small sellers are a lot more concerned with single feedback than a large seller is.


Edit: OP: Can you tell me which seller this is? I'm in the same situation as you are, and I'm guessing you're buying books for college? I got 2 books off Half and only 1 came. I've bought all my books on Half in the past and this is the first time..

I'm stuck with this idiotic seller named collegebooksnmore who hasnt shipped my books yet

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

BTW, I have yet to pay my CC bill.. should I just file a claim with Half.com or should I also file a charge dispute on my CC (AMEX).

Oh and I just found out the user is no longer registered... GREAT... I basically will never get my book, so I don't know what to do... I filed a claim with Half.com, but what about my CC?

 

[imported_hscorpio]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: hscorpio
I always try and only buy from the big sellers on half that have several thousand feedbacks to avoid this. Hopefully you get reimbursed, but my gf got ripped off on ebay in a similar manner and never saw anything come from filing a claim.

Wrong strategy. Yo ushould buy from people who have a few hundred (like 100 - 200) of like 99% positive feedback or better. The ones with thousands can drop to 98%, and 2% is what.. like 400 orders when you have 20,000 feedback? That means they can skip on a lot of orders just because they do so well overall. The people with 100 or 200 probably only get negative because they ran into an idiotic buyer, but these small sellers are a lot more concerned with single feedback than a large seller is.

Well its worked for me so far but I only make a few purchases per year. The big guys are usually the ones that have more to lose since its their business.

Basically if there are two guys selling the same item at near the same price I'm going with the 99% @ 20k over the 99% @ 200 everytime unless the last months feedbacks are all neg or something. Plus you have to figure that 20k guy has run into way more idiot buyers than the small fry, yet he still has 99%.

Also the seller that ripped off my gf and about a dozen other people had around 200 good feedbacks before he decided to sell some more expensive items and disappear with everyones money.

 

[imported_hscorpio]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
BTW, I have yet to pay my CC bill.. should I just file a claim with Half.com or should I also file a charge dispute on my CC (AMEX).

Oh and I just found out the user is no longer registered... GREAT... I basically will never get my book, so I don't know what to do... I filed a claim with Half.com, but what about my CC?

From the earlier replies here I think you should call up your CC company and do the chargeback thing rather than wait on ebay forever.

 

[Kelemvor]

I"d just go straight for the CC company and file a dispute there. Probably get handled much faster and since you haven't heardb ack on your claim, I'd say you have every right to do that.

 

[sswingle]

Surprisingly, or maybe not so suprisingly, the process is horrible from the other end too. I sold a CD for a whopping 3.00 including shipping. I shipped it, but the buyer said they never got it. They left negative feedback and filed a claim the same day. As soon as I saw the negative, I issued a refund via my half.com account, and updated the feedback stating that I did so. 2 WEEKS later, I get an email from half thanking me for issuing the refund and taking care of the problems. 2 MORE WEEKS after that, my account gets suspended, because I supposedly didn't take care of the problem. I sent them multiple emails letting them know that I did indeed credit the buyer, to please look at their own system because I used it to credit the buyer, and it takes them about another 2 weeks to get my account turned back on.

Bastages.

I'm buying from Amazon marketplace now.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: DaWhim

Originally posted by: hscorpio
If you use a check/debit card with visa or mastercard logo to pay can you still do a chargeback?

depends on the bank, but most likely SOL. Then you will be at the mercy of half.com.

Thats how I pay for my book. I was thinking of calling my bank to see what they can do.

 

[Diademed]

Originally posted by: hscorpio

Originally posted by: DLeRium
BTW, I have yet to pay my CC bill.. should I just file a claim with Half.com or should I also file a charge dispute on my CC (AMEX).

Oh and I just found out the user is no longer registered... GREAT... I basically will never get my book, so I don't know what to do... I filed a claim with Half.com, but what about my CC?

From the earlier replies here I think you should call up your CC company and do the chargeback thing rather than wait on ebay forever.

If you do the chargeback, you forfeit all your claim to half.com's insurance policy.

 

[doze]

Do a chargeback, it's been over a month.

Edit, and yes any card with a visa or MC logo can do a reversal of charges. My bank actually sent me a form to sign and return before they processed mine.