REALLY aggravated, what would you do?

[Elle]

I won an Ebay auction a while back for 120 "oversized" skeins of variegated chenille. It feels WONDERFUL and everyone that I made shawls for out of it LOVES them. The problem is this... There were 10 skeins each of 12 different variegated colors. They were supposed to be pull skeins, but I noticed that they didn't pull, they got all clogged up. It turns out the REASON they got clogged up is because most of the skeins, instead of being full skeins, had the centers "stuffed" with PIECES of yarn! Each of probably 3/4 of the skeins had about 1/3 of the skein that was pieces of yarn, not even tied together, just balled up and stuffed into the center of the skein. It was virtually useless unless I wanted to have a knot every 15 feet in the yarn, which I didn't. Considering the amount of yarn there was supposed to be, the price was great, I paid $125 for the lot. The thing is, about 1/3 of the yarn turned out to be unusable. I wrote to the company and told them about it, and all they did was write back to me and tell me that they were sorry that I was not satisfied with my yarn, and that they would "check their supply to see if there was a problem with any of the other yarn." That was it. What would y'all have done? Do you think I should pursue this in terms of getting a partial refund, or maybe trying to get them to send me some more yarn to make up for it? I don't want to sound petty, but I'm disabled and on a fixed income, and $120 is a lot of money for me to lay out on one batch of yarn. I'm mad as a wet hen about it but I don't know where to go from here. Opinions? Thanks!

 

Elle

[Lisaizme]

Do I understand that you have already used the yarn to make shawls? If so, there might not be much that can be done.. but I would go into the community section of ebay and ask advice on one of the answer boards there.

 

I do hope you paid with paypal and/or a credit card.. that will offer you some buyer protection.

 

I'm glad you haven't posted feedback yet, don't do that until you have this straightened out with your seller.

 

But if you have indeed used the yarn, unfortunately, you might be stuck with it. I hope not.

[mythunderbird]

i am very sorry, that is wrong and the seller should give you a partial refund as that only seems fair.... i hope they do whats right by you:(

[snugsmontreal]

i would notify ebay about the deception that they listed and include copies of emails you sent and received from them. that is probably your only real hope since they dont sound willing to help you any. goodluck

[Elle]

Do I understand that you have already used the yarn to make shawls? If so, there might not be much that can be done.. but I would go into the community section of ebay and ask advice on one of the answer boards there.

 

I do hope you paid with paypal and/or a credit card.. that will offer you some buyer protection.

 

I'm glad you haven't posted feedback yet, don't do that until you have this straightened out with your seller.

 

But if you have indeed used the yarn, unfortunately, you might be stuck with it. I hope not.

 

Unfortunately, the only way I found out was by using the yarn. On many of the skeins, there was no pull tab, so I ended up having to use it from the outside in. It wasn't until I got to the interior (which I thought was just knotted up) that I found all the little pieces tucked inside. See, even on the ones that didn't have all the little junk inside there was difficulty using it as a pull skein, so it's not like I could tell from the get-go that any particular skein was a problem. And by the time I figured out that there were as many "bad" skeins as there were, I was halfway through the yarn. I still have about half of it. Another drawback to my being able to recoup my loss is that I purchased this months ago, but who sits and crochets through 120 skeins of yarn one right after the other unless they're working on a HUGE project? It has taken me this long to use what I have used and discover the problem. I'm just really disappointed in the whole mess - in the faulty skeins, in the attitude of the company, etc. I know that I should have let them know right away, but as I said, there was no way I could have discovered the problem right away. And I wasn't going to kick up a fuss over one of two bad skeins that I discovered right at the beginning, because if it was just a fluke and they were the only bad ones out of 120, it would have been silly to complain. But since I didn't complain early on, now I'm out of luck it seems.

 

Elle

[Elle]

i am very sorry, that is wrong and the seller should give you a partial refund as that only seems fair.... i hope they do whats right by you:(

 

 

It doesn't seem like they want to do anything to help. That's why I brought up the subject here, because I was wondering what the good folks of C'ville would do in this situation. The name of the company is ThreadArt out of Houston, TX. Just for curiosity's sake, is anyone familiar with them?

 

Elle

[Elle]

i would notify ebay about the deception that they listed and include copies of emails you sent and received from them. that is probably your only real hope since they dont sound willing to help you any. goodluck

 

This is a very good idea. I purchase a lot of stuff in general from Ebay, not just yarn. I never thought to involve them in this, because the transaction itself went very smoothly and I usually only involve Ebay if I pay and don't get my merchandise or if the seller is exceptionally difficult to deal with. Tomorrow when I get home from work in the afternoon I will notify Ebay about it and include a copy of my email to them, along with their "gee, that's really too bad. Oh well..." type response. Thanks for the idea.

 

Elle

[lhasaapsolady]

Some sellers just don't care about customer satisfaction. It is a shame that they will not at least offer you a partial refund, or even a few more skein.

[Trafor0729]

Elle, I would get Ebay involved in this. If the item description SAYS center-pull skeins, and they were not, that is falsely describing the item, and sellers are supposed to be careful about that.

Does the listing say anything about a refund policy? Some of them do at the bottom of the listing.

Either way, I would contact Ebay support, take pictures of the insides of the skeins, and request a FULL refund. That's what I would do. I don't know about you, but $125 would be a lot of money to me!

Good luck.

[RoseRed]

The whole purpuse of using an auction house is for your protection as a consumer. There are many companies that are unscrupulous and unforetunatly it sounds like you found one of them.

 

If all else fails - I'd plaster their names everywhere and warn others of their business practices. I would wait until the matter is settled tho.

 

Just my 2 cents worth.

[just me]

...most of the skeins, instead of being full skeins, had the centers "stuffed" with PIECES of yarn! Each of probably 3/4 of the skeins had about 1/3 of the skein that was pieces of yarn, not even tied together, just balled up and stuffed into the center of the skein. It was virtually useless unless I wanted to have a knot every 15 feet in the yarn, which I didn't. Considering the amount of yarn there was supposed to be, the price was great, I paid $125 for the lot. The thing is, about 1/3 of the yarn turned out to be unusable.

If 1/3 of your purchase was unusable, you should be reimbursed 1/3 of the sale price. Plain and simple.

 

If the company refuses to do so, I would certainly file a complaint with ebay and let them know that this company refuses to make good on a bad purchase. They may not have known prior to your emails that there was a problem (give them the benefit of the doubt), but when they found out, they should have offered to make good, even if it was to send you more yarn. (Unless the lot was sold as "as is" with no guarantees as to what you were getting?)

 

In any case, future potential buyers need to know what kind of company they might be dealing with.

[Lisaizme]

I've not dealt with ThreadArt.. but looked them up on eBay. Take a look at their "about me" page:

 

http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=threadart1

 

No mention of a time limit for returns.

 

If you paid with paypal, I'd contact them and see if you can file a "significantly not as described" claim.

 

I also looked them up on Toolhaus:

 

http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=threadart1&v=60

 

Looks like you got alot of company, for whatever comfort that is worth.

Good luck.