System 13

Earlier this month, I placed an order for a used book, New French with Ease, from an “Authorized Seller” via Barnes and Noble (bn.com). Little did I know that this order would set into motion a month full of waiting (and waiting, and waiting), and ultimately, the uncovering of a lie.

I ordered the book on the 1st of September. Authorized sellers at BN.com are required to ship the book out within 2 days, and so I received a notification from the seller that it had been shipped on the 3rd. Cool, I think; I should have it in a week or so, if my experiences with Media Mail can be used as a gauge.

Well, 6 or 7 days went by, and I had yet to receive the book. I tossed the fellow an email, double checking that it had indeed been sent, because I knew from my mailing and receiving books through Book Mooch that typically, Media Mail did not take that long. He sent me an email letting me know that he was sure it had been mailed on the 3rd via Media Mail, which could take anywhere from 4 to 14 business days. Okie dokie, I say, and go about my business.

Fast forward quite a few more days – to the 20th of September, in fact, day #14 since shipment. Still no book. I emailed him again, asking if I’d be getting a refund if the book never appeared; oh yes, yes, he said, you’ll get a refund. He asked me to wait until Monday to see whether the book arrived, and if it didn’t show up on Monday, he’d issue my refund. Sounded good to me.

On Monday, there was no book in my mail to be seen, so I tossed the guy an email letting him know that the book hadn’t shown. I also, at that time, placed a new order at amazon.com for the book – seeing as it had been that long, I assumed that the United States Postal Service had swallowed my book. It happens.

Of course, the seller never got back to me Monday; in fact, he didn’t get back to me until Tuesday, after I had emailed him, basically saying, “Um, hey – refund?” Oh, he says, BN.com is down to sellers right now, so I won’t be able to issue  your refund until tomorrow. Err – okay! However, it turns out that our mail on Tuesday was running extremely late, because at around 5PM, the mail arrived – with my book in it.

The odd thing about the package, however, was that it had a date on the postage which the seller had printed from Stamps.com. Indeed, the date was actually quite prominent, and it didn’t say September 3rd. Instead, it said September 13th. In other words, the chap lied to me not once, but twice. He lied the first time when he informed me that the package had been shipped on the 3rd, and then lied about it again when I asked him about it. Indeed, when he told me that the package had indeed shipped on the 3rd, the package actually hadn’t been shipped at all. Grrr!

I emailed the guy and told him to not issue my refund, as I had received the book; I also (in polite terms, mind you) tore his ass for lying to me. All is well that ends well, I suppose, and I did get the book, which is in great condition. But this whole experience makes me wonder – why didn’t the guy just tell the truth? Why didn’t he email me and say, listen, I’m running a bit behind, and I’ll be shipping your book soon? I would have been fine with that. I had a copy of the book from OhioLINK, and so I was in no mad rush to receive it. If he’d told the truth about when it had been shipped, it would have saved me and him a good deal of time. I wouldn’t have been wondering where the book was, and I wouldn’t have been emailing him. Furthermore, if he’d planned on lying to me about it, he could have at least tried to cover up the date a bit. It was a bit stupid, really, to tell me it shipped on the 3rd, and then have in big, bold black letters on the package, September 13th.

As the cherry on top of the cake, he responded to the email I sent him about his lying. His response was… nothing. He said “thanks for your order, glad it got to you safely, have a nice day.” He didn’t even acknowledge what I had said.

Sigh. I really don’t understand people sometimes.