help w/ damaged goods!

[Astonia]

Help me please, what should I do? My problem is this:

A while ago I sold my carnosaur on ebay to a guy in the Philippines. I offered him free shipping(cause I could ship from my boyfriend\'s work), but that didn\'t include any insurance, and he agreed with that after seeing how expensive the shipping+insurance wuld be otherwise. I have never had any problems with sending stuff to the EU, UK or USA like this before, no one has ever complained but rather the opposite. I had also really tried to wrap the carno and the saurus tightly in lots of bubblewrap in a plastic box, and the wrapped the box in even more bubble wrap to protect is as much as I could.
Now I get an email and the carnosaur\'s tail has come off as well as the arm of the saurus riding it, and this also happened to an extra \"banner thing\" I had attached to the mini. All of these parts have come off in the joint, so it\'s possible to glue them back on (I hadn\'t pinned them because I haven\'t been able to buy a drill yet, but I will as soon as I get my student\'s loan). The big problem is that the tip of the tail of the carnosaur has been bent and (apparently) there are some cracks in the paint. I couldn\'t see that in the photo he sent me though, but I asked for a better pic. There is also a small piece missing from an extra plastic spear I had attached.

I have now offerd to fix the paint damage if he send me the tail or the whole carnosaur back, and I will pay postage from Sweden back to the Philippines, OR he can send me the carnosaur back and I will refund his money.
My question:
Is there any \"rules\" on how to handle things like this? What have you other people done if this has happened to you? I\'m really sad cause I spent so much time on this mini, plus I don\'t want a customer that isn\'t pleased and I also feel sorry for him to have paid a lot of money and then get it broken.

I had also included a HE spearman in the shipment that i had painted for free as a sample, cause he\'s interested in me doing a whole HE army for him (at a really really low cost...), should that count towards the damage on the carno? I\'m sad and a bit confused. What should I do?

Thanks,
Anja

 

[Sturmhalo]

Well, he knew the package wasn\'t insured and if you packed it the best you could he hasn\'t got a leg to stand on. However, offering to fix the figure free of charge if he returns it is good for customer relations. I\'d do that.

 

[Valander]

Astonia, I think you\'re being very generous. I\'ve done commission work, and I\'ve come across this kinda thing a couple of times.

Basically, it prompted me to make sure to include an invoice type thing, with a disclaimer that \"I am not responsible for any damage to the model caused by the shipping process.\" I take pictures of the models before I pack them, so that I have a record of what they looked like.

Tammy, if I recall, had a similar (though more problematic) issue not too long ago.

When you\'re trying to build your name up, I think it\'s good to offer to fix minor things for free. However, you do not want to get into the habit of this, because it will quickly eat away your earnings; there are those who are very petty, and will intentionally do small damage to their minis to try to get a refund or free repaint.

Personally, if/when this happens with any of my customers, I usually tell them, \"I\'m really sorry, but you should have gotten insurance. I\'ll fix it for you, but you will have to cover postage (both ways) and it will cost you a percentage of what the original model cost, depending on how much damage there is.\" I had to do this once already, and they were actually pretty understanding (and did send it back).

Welcome to the wonderful world of painting on commission!

 

[Astonia]

Thanks guys! It\'s hard to know what to do, but hearing that these things happens to others as well makes me feel better, and more secure when dealing with the customer. I do think I will be using a disclaimer after this though.

 

[Legacy Account]

Invest in a drill ASAP! Pin EVERYTHING. Double or triple pin heavy stuff. Reinforce with greenstuff if possible. I worked in my local sorting office one summer and know how stuff gets treated...... As for the broken Carnosaur - send him a tube of superglue and a pot of paint!

 

[t_haye2]

i indeed had a similar problem, although that WAS a lot more porblematic. I\'d say, offer to repair the damage free of charge,it\'s the only thing you can do really. If he is not happy with that, make sure you only refund the costs wwhen he has sent the whole modle inlcuding sample back, i\'m sad to say there are persons out there that will try to keep the model, and get the money back, nad then repair the model themselves.
Also, send with insurance, it\'s not worth the hassle of not being able to claim anything back from the post office due to mistreatment.( I found that out the hard way)

 

[Skrit]

That\'s too bad! Next time just do insurance on the package as with breakable miniatures there is always the risk of breaking.

 

[U4-Welcome]

Message original : Spacemunkie
Invest in a drill ASAP! Pin EVERYTHING. Double or triple pin heavy stuff. Reinforce with greenstuff if possible. I worked in my local sorting office one summer and know how stuff gets treated......

Seconded. My drill is now my best friend - I don\'t do commission, but I do tend to move a lot.

 

[Ritual]

Agreed! Owning a drill is imperative! I bought mine at GW and it works nicely. I pin everything that is pysically possible to pin, i.e. everything but arms on female Rackham minis . I use pieces of metal paper clips for pinning, since I for some reason always have heaps of those and don\'t need them for anything else.

/Anders

 

[Astonia]

Yeah, I can\'t wait \'til I get some money so I can buy one.

 

[Legacy Account]

Arms on Rackham ladies.....

Miniscule is not a fitting description. I ALWAYS drop a model at least once whilst painting, and these things know about it!lol

 

[Ritual]

I have a couple of Drune lanyph minis that are just ridiculous!! I think I\'m going to bulk their arms up a little with green stuff, otherwise they are going to look like anorectics...

 

[supervike]

sounds like you have done everything in your power to prevent it, offered to fix it, gave free stuff....

I cannot see how any customer would be disappointed.

BTW: when you folks are talking about \'drills\' are you referring to just a handhelp pin vice, or an actual power (dremel-type) drill?

 

[Ritual]

I\'m talking about the handheld pin vice that GW sells. I don\'t think I would dare use a dremel on my minis, especially not since Finn shared his experiences with such a tool in another topic.

BTW, this is my 100th post and, thus, I\'m a Member. Yippee!

/Anders

 

[TAB Studio]

Astonia
Feel free to send me your mailing address I will send you a hand pin drill and bits your painting is too good to not pin and it will save you some problems and waiting time.
TAB Studio@tampabay.rr.com

 

[KatieG]

It\'s a tough situation but you have to be ready to deal with these sorts of things when you\'re mailing models. Like everyone suggested, get a pin vice! Another recommendation I would make is to get insurance on everything. It protects you more than your customer. There are places online that you can get insurance from that are cheaper than the post office, you might want to look into them, especially since you can insure international packages without having to send them the super-expensive way. If the cost of insurance bothers you, include it in the price of the model when you make a quote. I also would recommend you have a refund policy up front - return item to me and you get full refund. Some people will try to claim damage and want a partial refund, stating item must be returned for a full refund usually keeps these jokers away (you may need their cooperation for insurance purposes as well, so you want to keep them happy). Unfortunately there are people out there that are less than honest and you have to protect yourself against them. On the other hand, customer service is also important, so you have to weigh these two things when a stuation like this comes up. In this case I would suggest that you try the following - see if customer can get someone local to repair it for him - after all by the time he ships it to you and you ship it back - that\'s a lot of money. If he can get you a good picture showing the damage, I would give him a partial refund of a few $ for his trouble. If he can\'t get someone local to fix it then I would ask him to split the shipping costs with you (he pays his way you pay to send back). Anyways, that\'s my two cents for what it\'s worth.
--Katie G.

 

[Braveheart712]

Originally posted by TAB Studio
Astonia
Feel free to send me your mailing address I will send you a hand pin drill and bits your painting is too good to not pin and it will save you some problems and waiting time.
TAB Studio@tampabay.rr.com

Agreed, if you have a Paypal account I would gladly send you the money to purchase a drill since I think you have incredible talent as well.

As for you dissatisfied customer, it does sound like you did your best to package this item as well as possible. If I were the buyer, I would invest in some superglue (about a $1.00 to $1.50) and repaint whatever damage shipping caused. I think you have been more than reasonable in your solution to solve this problem. A suggestion from auctions that I have seen on eBay is a disclaimer that \"Due to shipping some pieces may come unglued. Seller assumes no responsibilty unless shipping insurance is purchased\". Maybe that might solve any further problems? Good luck.

 

[slidedog]

I have to say that I have been buying insurance and delivery confirmation on just about everything, in my own self-defense. Even if the buyer doesn\'t want to pay for it, it is a little piece of mind for me. Haven\'t had any trouble with minis being damaged, but had a buyer claim they never received the item 6 months after the fact and PayPal let her get away with it, because I had no proof of delivery. That won\'t happen again.

Most of the mini and ebay community are great to deal with, but there are some bad apples out there. And NEVER, NEVER, NEVER accept COD for payment. Way to many people with NO money try to get you to send them stuff and then see if they can figure a way to screw you out of it... puff,puff. Sorry had to get that one off my chest

 

[WurzagUdUraZahuba]

Originally posted by Ritual
I\'m talking about the handheld pin vice that GW sells. I don\'t think I would dare use a dremel on my minis, especially not since Finn shared his experiences with such a tool in another topic.

BTW, this is my 100th post and, thus, I\'m a Member. Yippee!

/Anders

Why not! Electric is the greatest, and it allows you to drill really deep holes. Hell I use an 18volt cordless drill!

 

[torifile]

I prefer Paypal when someone is sending me money so it can\'t \"get lost in the post\". If they can\'t/won\'t use Paypal, I always insist on insurance with delivery confirmation when someone buys from me, if not for damage, then for possible loss. Otherwise I state that I am not responsible for an item after it has left my possession. (I like the idea of taking a picture of it before it ships!). And tell them to keep all of their receipts! I had a client who owed me $250 for an order, and he kept coming up with reasons why he couldn\'t pay. He finally sent me an email that said \"Did you get my money order? I sent it over a month ago and haven\'t heard from you.\" He said he sent the money order with insurance and delivery confirmation, and the post office said it was delivered to me. Since I know my mail deliverer personally, we know he did not deliver it to me. When I asked for insurance claim numbers and the money order reciept number, he claimed to have thrown all of that away. Now, who in their right mind would purchase insurance and toss the reciepts and claim tickets???? The order went unpaid for over a year (yes, I was a bit TOO patient on that one!), then sold his stuff on eBay after informing him of my intentions. I gave him a certain amount of time to contact me with a valid address if he wanted the money back for the unpainted models, but he chose not to respond. I checked with his service provider to make sure he was recieving his email, and he was. I guess he was too embarrassed to deal with it after his attempt to get his stuff for free backfired.