Buyer Beware of a Different Sort

Posted on 28 February 2017 by Side Quest Publications

A couple of notes to prospective buyers.

I am not (technically) asking you to buy my stuff and leave good reviews on my profile.
Rather, as it is a recent problem I had as a seller that reminded me of the situation that prompted this post, it is my personal experience that I am using to illustrate the problem.
Though I would certainly appreciate it if people would buy my stuff and give me some positive feedback to improve my ratings…. 😉

*Ahem*
Buyer Beware of a Different Sort.

Point One: Read Listings Carefully.

When you’re buying something from an individual seller–which is to say, not an actual store (although if you’re buying stuff online, you should follow this advice even if it is from a “store”)–please, please pay careful attention to the actual listing.
Not just the product page, but anything and everything that the seller actually says about the item.

This is especially of concern if you’re buying from Amazon–the product page, as created by Amazon, really only exists to direct you to the general item you’re looking for, whereas the seller listings attached to that page are the things responsible for identifying the condition, etc of the specific one that you’re buying. This includes brand new items offered by Amazon–those have their own listing, just the same as anything I might sell.
On eBay these things are one and the same; every individual sale has its own product page, and these pages disappear a certain amount of time after the listing has expired or the item is sold. Not so on Amazon; the product page exists until Amazon takes it down (and I understand they are working to merge and eliminate duplicate pages for identical products), and it will be the same page, with the exact same description and exact same photos, no matter how many seller listings and conditions are attached to it.

So if an Amazon seller clearly states that the item they’re selling is used and without original packaging

condition

Excerpt from the packing slip, cropped to censor buyer details….
Screenshot contains exact text used in the original listing.

but the actual product page makes no mention whatsoever of condition…

amazon

Actual product page

No, the seller did not misrepresent that item.
If you bought it expecting a brand new item…. that was your mistake for not reading the listing.

That being said, if the buyer had acted like a decent human being about it, I would have been happy to simply assume that it was an honest mistake and deal with it accordingly… and even waive the restocking fee and include the shipping cost in the refund without another word about it.
I mean, with the timing of the purchase, I could easily have decided that it was meant to be a Christmas present and they were disappointed with the purchase on that basis alone…. if they had been polite from the beginning and had said something of the sort.
But when this buyer chose to be completely rude about it from the start (which I would gladly post a screenshot of if I could find the original message) and refused to acknowledge a single one of my attempts to resolve their misunderstanding (up to and including the fact that, since they were rude from the very beginning, I told them up-front that as the purchase was a buyer mistake I was not required to refund the shipping cost, and yet they’re accusing me of hidden fees), and, well… The buyer got exactly what they bought, and got refunded exactly what I told them I’d refund. Everything else is on the buyer.

FYI, “collectible-very good” simply means it is a used collectible item that has been well taken care of.
My assumption that anyone buying a bundle that includes a pair of used headphones would want to make sure they are clean before wearing them, and the fact that I suggested disinfecting wipes in the original listing, does not change the condition or make it any less accurate. Nor does it require that I include the original packaging that I very clearly stated was long gone.

Point Two: Leave Positive Reviews.

The other point, of course, is to consider leaving a review when you have a good experience. (And, yes, even when you have a bad experience, but to return to the previous point, please try to make sure that the bad experience is actually the seller’s fault before you go hurting their statistics.)

Now, I haven’t sold a ton of things on Amazon (or eBay, for that matter), but I’ve sold enough that, assuming the lack of any feedback amounts to a good experience, I have plenty of satisfied customers.

listings

Order history for the last 365 days, cropped to censor buyer information.

But here’s the problem: To a prospective buyer, lack of feedback doesn’t mean a good experience… it means those other sales might as well not even exist.
Instead, prospective buyers have only this to contend with:

feedback

My feedback ratings.

Five customer reviews out of a total of thirty-five sales. (Well, a titch more than thirty-five; I’ve a very few sales from before that 365-day mark, back when I had very little stuff to sell.)
And while four of those reviews are great–five stars all around–the one up top is the problem review. The one that did not read my listing, did not reply to a single message I sent their way, and yet blamed me for the fact that they got exactly the product and service I clearly stated I was offering instead of whatever they had decided I was offering.

The result?

An at-risk account.

at-risk

No late shipments, no pre-fulfillment cancellations, no claims agains product authenticity or product safety, no A-to-Z or chargeback claims, none of these problems at all.
Or at least not within the timeframe that Amazon retains those kind of details to influence my account health. (I did have one other refund from way back when, before I got in the habit of insuring all of my shipments, because the tracking showed that a book had gotten as far as the customer’s local post office but nobody knows what happened to it after that. That one I gave a full refund, shipping and all, without even being asked.)
But because I have one single negative feedback… my account is at risk of being suspended. All because one person did not read the listing and refused to actually let me resolve the problem.

Question is…. assuming nobody else buys from me and/or leaves feedback, how long does my account remain at-risk?
Or, since the number of “problem orders” is based on a certain timeframe, it seems the percentage of negative feedback would go up as the older orders drop from that timeframe before that last order finally drops…. does that mean, with no more orders to fulfill, I’ll actually become more at risk before that one single bad review finally drops from my history? All the more reason that I need more sales and more positive feedback, and soon, to balance out that one bad review.

Update

Huzzah! Amazon has removed the negative feedback!

Feedback removed

Now there’s just the matter of my account still being listed as at-risk. Is that due to the original feedback (and removing it has simply not yet been reflected in my stats) or is it due to the original “not as described” return request that started this whole mess?
Either way, I need more sales soon. Pretty please?

Update Times Two:

Not even an hour later, they put the feedback back…. but they did not restore the option to reply to it, so the whole “prospective buyers can see that the customer said this but they can’t see that I said that” is still an issue.

Right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing?

Question for the readers

Question for the sellers out there. How do you handle that kind of negative feedback? Keeping in mind that, while I consider their feedback rating to be an abuse of the system, Amazon does not; it doesn’t fit any of the criteria for Amazon removing negative feedback, so apparently it’s stuck there until someone in charge agrees that it’s an abuse of the system (not likely at this point) or until the buyer realizes their mistake and removes the feedback themselves (even less likely).
I will say I made the mistake of removing my response to that one–my own instance of not reading things carefully, as I didn’t realize that I couldn’t edit my response after the fact, and when I tried to remove the response to post a corrected version…. I also missed the pop-up that said that I would not be able to post a new one. That one is obviously entirely my mistake.

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Self Care Chronicles–Feb 1-7 2017

Posted on 17 February 2017 by Side Quest Publications

About half a month late.

I got the idea of doing self care chronicles from none other than Wentworth Miller’s Facebook page. (That would be where the “half a month late” comes in–I started reading these on his page at the beginning of February.)
These, like his own, are going to be small snippets of things I’ve done for myself. They will not be fully detailed blog posts of their own.
Sometimes I will link to something (or several things) I’ve found on social media, sometimes I will post what I’ve done for myself or what I think I should start doing for myself… and sometimes I will post both, particularly if what I’ve seen other people doing happens to be related with what I’m doing or trying to do.

(Sep 2017 Update: Due to Wentworth Miller’s decision to “unpublish” his page in the near future 😦 copying the text is a necessity, though I’ll keep the links in as long as they are valid. Thus there will be duplicates while his page remains visible.)

And let us begin.

These days it feels like self-care is the last thing I have time for… So today self-care looks like starting a self-care chronicle for the month of February.

What did it look like for you?

posted 1 Feb 2017 on Wentworth Miller’s official Facebook page

This, of course, is where I should’ve begun the chronicling.
As I’d replied to Went’s post, self-care for me usually means laying in bed with a good book or working on my writing. Sometimes it means dabbling in other creative pursuits.

Today self-care looked like clearing space on a cluttered shelf. No idea what will go there. But I’m ready. What did it look like for you?

posted 3 Feb 2017 on Wentworth Miller’s official Facebook page

This I definitely need to do…. again. And again, and yet again.
I don’t know how many times I’ve cleared off my dresser but it just seems to attract all the clutter. Especially when someone decides he needs to display his toys on the newly-cleared area.

Today self-care looked like asking for help. I’m putting together a playlist of funny videos to watch when I’m in need of a lift. Links welcome. 

What did it look like for you?

posted 4 Feb 2017 on Wentworth Miller’s official Facebook page

*cough–shameless plug–cough*

My “puppy” trying to do everything except the trick she was asked to do, all to earn that treat.

Today self-care looked like taking a walk, in the woods, in the snow, and a moment to remind myself that yes, “the world is mysterious and amazing.”

What did it look like for you?

http://www.rookiemag.com/2016/02/self-care/

posted 5 Feb 2017 on Wentworth Miller’s official Facebook page

No woods to be found hereabouts, not unless I’m willing to drive a ways for the sole purpose of finding a good place to walk, but walking up and down my road isn’t bad.
And depending on the weather I can always get some decent pictures… yes, I can even find new things to photograph in the same familiar surroundings.
Like my first-ever Instagram upload:

 

I think a week’s worth of belated posts is good for now.
More progress of my social media searches and my own self care to be posted later! Now back to the YouTube backlog and migrating some other travel pics over to Instagram.

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Book Review: Grave Beginnings by RR Virdi

Posted on 20 July 2016 by Side Quest Publications

grave beginnings

Grave Beginnings, a Grave Report novel by RR Virdi
(Amazon smile link with affiliate code included)

In compliance with the Federal Trade Commission (see paragraph about “material connections”), I hereby disclose that I have received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Now that the obligatory disclaimer is out of the way, on to the much-belated review.

How much-belated, you might ask?
Well…. Just for starters, I started writing this review back in 2015 and only just now got around to finishing it.

Then there’s the matter of when I actually read the book….

virdi amazon purchase

virdi goodreads read

Yeah…. I need to work at that just a bit.

But I’m going to write this review, dangit! In between those moments when a child barges into my room to ask me to look up three million other things for him, of course.

Anyway, you wanted the honest review, not my rambling.
In the interest of that honesty, I should point out that I have not read detective fiction in ages. And I have a strong preference against big city stuff.

So if I’d come across this book while browsing generally, I most likely would have passed it by. Such a decision says absolutely nothing about the book, by the way, and a great deal about me; there are far too many worthy books out there, and far too little time to read them all, that even the most avid of readers is forced to make this choice now and again.

However, I thought the premise was interesting enough that, when I was asked if I was willing to review it, I could easily find the time to give it a go.

Ah, who am I kidding? I practically jumped at the opportunity!

And thus, review it I will.

*ahem*

Synopsis

Vincent Graves is not your normal detective. He is, in fact, a paranormal detective.
He is recruited to investigate odd deaths with even odder causes; if there is even a hint of the supernatural, he’s the man to call. He has solved a total of thirteen such deaths in his career, each within a day or two of taking the case.
The only death he has been unable to solve is his own.

That’s right. Our esteemed detective has been dead for some time. But he is not a ghost, per se. At least the reader has never encountered him as such. No, he possesses the bodies of his clients, the supernaturally deceased, to investigate their deaths, and this entire first novel is told while he is roaming around inside one Norman Smith… whose name Vincent doesn’t actually discover until near the end of Chapter One.

This particular lapse–failing to mention the client/vehicle’s name until so late–is not the bad thing it would be in other books. Rather, it is the first clue he receives in being given the case. It is only the first of many things Vincent must learn about his client over the course of the book while he continues to masquerade as Norman.

While roaming about Manhattan, Vincent must convince Norman’s friends that he actually is Norman while still collecting those clues. Sometimes Norman’s own memories pop up and help, and sometimes Vincent has to wade through the leftover memories from his other clients. And sometimes those memories are no help at all, and he must bargain with other players in this game, natural cops and supernatural goblins alike—and whatever his “handler” Church is–to give him the information he needs.

And sometimes it isn’t enough, such as when he runs into the very thing responsible for Norman’s death.

Pros:

I would not be too quick to call Vincent likeable–the effect thirteen different dead people’s memories floating around in his metaphorical skull has on his mental capacity probably has something to do with that–but he certainly made for an interesting character. Like I said, I used to read detective fiction a lot, and the paranormal/possession angle was, for me, a unique twist that made it worth getting back into the genre.

The story definitely drew me in. In fact, there was one part where I was disappointed that the case seemed about to wrap up, because… no more Vincent Graves adventures to read about. Then I realized I was only a very small percentage of the way into the story. If it was a game, I would’ve been exploring the Disc One Final Dungeon right about then.

Cons (ish):

Environment.
Like I said, I’m not too keen on the big city stuff for personal reasons. Stories set in the medieval period don’t bother me, but modern-day New York?
Not much of a con, though, as this is more a personal preference. Not every book is perfect for every reader, after all.

Formatting.
When I first read the sample, and then the review copy, I noticed several typographical errors, particularly towards the end. Far too many of these areas wound up Punctuated. For. Emphasis. because of such errors.
The book has long since been updated and I am happy to report that these errors have all but vanished… at least that I, off-duty that I am, have not found them.

Suspension of disbelief.
The biggest problem I had with the book was actually right at the beginning, when Vincent was escaping from the coffin in Norman’s body. I just could not, and still can’t, wrap my head around how he pulled off the escape.
The first time I read it, the form of the escape was actually implied. The book was since updated to describe the escape, but I still have trouble visualizing it. I mean, Norman wasn’t the only body in that coffin; wouldn’t it be awful cramped to be flipping around in there?
Knowing Vincent’s supernatural abilities, particularly the ability to enhance his host’s physical abilities, certainly helps, but this scene is still very weird for me.

Summary:

Very few, if any, books will appeal to every reader out there, but if you’re a fan of detective fiction or paranormal fiction, you should give this one a try. It was a great read, and I look forward to getting my hands on a copy of the next book, Grave Measures…. which apparently takes place in an asylum.

July 2018 Update:

Some time ago, Grave Beginnings author R, R, Virdi had offered signed bookmarks on FaceBook to help promote the series (which is now a trilogy though I vaguely recall hearing that there were plans for more titles).

I had originally requested 20 of those bookmarks, believing that to be a suitably large yet manageable number that I could give away at the college bookstore where I worked at the time. Sadly, this was not to be (as it turns out, only vendor-contracted giveaways were allowed 😦 ), so instead I began including a bookmark within some of the books I’ve scattered about town for Bookcrossing.

Between Bookcrossing and the few I handed out when I attended the 2018 Barrowman Writing Workshop (and I’m pretty sure I didn’t hallucinate John taking one 😀 ), I am finally down to 2 bookmarks.

Should I ask Ronnie if he’s willing to send out more bookmarks? Or maybe I should try making some to promote my own work the same way…. but first I need to come up with a design….

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The Trouble with Kindle Scout

Posted on 20 February 2016 by Side Quest Publications

Okay, maybe this is just me, but I’ve had some… issues, lately, with selecting books to nominate on Kindle Scout.

No, this is not a troubleshooting question; it’s actually a “do I really want to nominate this book” question.

See, the trouble I’ve been having is that I’m treating myself as the customer, the end-user who buys a (presumably) finished product. And the sample, by extension, is the thing that tells me if I want to buy that product. I am not acting as the proofreader, beta reader, or whatever else.
Continue reading →

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“I Found it on Google”

Posted on 16 February 2016 by Side Quest Publications

That’s a lovely image you have there; where did you get it?

Oh, that? I found it on Google.

….

Stop!

police-man-306848_640

Step back, and listen carefully. You did not find that image on Google.

Continue reading →

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The Old Year Now Away is Fled

Posted on 31 December 2015 by Side Quest Publications

Christmas is over and done with, and another year is coming to a close.

For many of us, this means facing that slowly building panic as we realize just how much we spent that we really didn’t need to and probably couldn’t afford.

For me, that means taking a tally of what all I’ve bought, realizing that–no matter how much I might want to–it’ll be a very long time before I need to make any big purchases again, and setting to work on building my savings back up. Student loans won’t pay for themselves, you know!
Oh, and cross my fingers once a week as I scratch off a new lottery ticket, or a few times a day when I play the SaveUp game through my bank. And definitely cross my fingers for my folks to keep their jobs.

Meanwhile, there’s that novel I need to continue. One more chapter to edit and then I can start uploading paid content to Patreon (I’m making the prologue available for free).
Or those unboxing videos I took recently of assorted Christmas and pre-Christmas goodies, and random videos to take down from my main YouTube channel and migrate to the themed motorcycle and gaming channels.
And of course, assorted fanfictions to keep working on.
And continuing to add things to eBay and my Amazon Inventory.

And… well, I could probably come up with a lot of things to keep adding, but what about my readers? How are the rest of you doing? How are you coping with the end of this year, and what are your plans for the next?

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Social Networking Experimentation

Posted on 4 November 2015 by Side Quest Publications

Just a heads’ up to anyone who follows me on Twitter or FaceBook, I decided to try something different with my syncing options.

To start with, I removed FaceBook from my list of sites to publicize this site to, so I’ll be relying entirely on Twitter to push my links there.
(My other two WordPress sites, being more writing-centric than this one, will continue to auto-sync to FaceBook,  but that’s because they go directly to my author page rather than my profile.)

I also removed my FaceBook page from my Twitter feed…. anything that I want to post to my page, I’m going to share directly from my main profile, so as to cut down on duplicate posts when Twitter tries to sync from both locations.

And finally, I’m thinking about creating a new FaceBook page strictly for the books… somewhat distinct from my “author page” that still falls somewhere between a writing page and “a little of everything.”
Even if I don’t do that, I’m also looking at creating a new Twitter account for the same purpose. I need something that isn’t the “a little of everything” and reposting/retweeting for networking purposes; I need something that’s strictly about certain aspects of the writing process.
While I will engage with people who follow me at these locations, the majority of posts will still be auto-synced or shared from other sites, so there shouldn’t really be too much issue with trying to manage multiple accounts. Yet. In fact, the biggest problem I anticipate would be going through my old posts and deciding what I want to share over from what I’ve already got; sharing new content should be easy in comparison.
But I’m going to continue exploring my options and see what fellow writers are doing before I decide exactly what I’m going to do….

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New Job Updates and Agenda Part…Two?

Posted on 21 October 2015 by Side Quest Publications

The two new jobs have been going on for a month now and then some, and even the “temporary” job doesn’t show any sign of ending just yet.
Allergies at the presumably not-temporary job are still questionable, but the boss did provide me with a pair of reusable protective gloves that are…. a little better than the disposables. They’re not perfect, though–between the gloves and the meds, the itching and rash is more sporadic now, but it’s still happening–so I’m definitely keeping my alternative of “refiling the paperwork before the month is up” in mind as a backup plan to get necessary accommodations.
On the subject of the gloves not being perfect, I need to find a good way to keep them clean. On the one hand, they’re meant to keep my hands protected. Yeah, they’re white, and yeah, they don’t take long to look nasty from all the stuff I’m working with, but that’s because they’re doing their job, so as long as nobody else cares what they look like, I probably shouldn’t be too terribly concerned. On the other hand, there is the matter of cleaning the inside of these gloves…. I’ve only had them a few days and they’re already starting to smell like dirty gym socks. And I can’t exactly throw them in the laundry.

On the social networking front, I have too many things I want to do.
Keep working on that novel, and post more of the free prologue to Patreon and to my Shattered Waters and secondary deviantArt account.
Make another go at writing those promised book reviews.
Speaking of Patreon, I need to finish editing a welcome and thank you video for my profile on there. And there are even some clips I want to experiment with for YouTube to provide intros and such to my more regular stuff… to whatever extent any of my videos can be deemed “regular” just yet. Trouble is, one of the clips I meant to use seems to have gone missing; I know I’d saved it to my computer but I can’t find it any more. On the plus side, I did manage to find the episode it’s from (Sleepy Hollow Season 2 Episode 11: Akeda) so I re-recorded that scene and now it’s time to edit, edit, edit! And see if I can fashion some of these clips into a workable wallpaper for one or more of my fandom-based profiles while I’m at it.
And there is that photomanip I need to attempt–again–to make a cover for this year’s NaNo novel. And the photomanip for the Torchwood/Arrow crossover for my Doctor Who cameo site and deviantArt group. And the….

And then there are all of those physical crafts I’d started dabbling in. I have those woodcarving projects shelved and waiting for me to pick up a knife again, some books on jewelry making, and I need to get my hands on some suitable transfer paper or a similar product so I have an easy way to get patterns onto wood and glass alike.

And there are any number of other things I want to update on my site. That “places to see” section is looking woefully empty with only two of the many things I’d bookmarked showing up in there….

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Agenda: Blarghing about Blogging

Posted on 7 September 2015 by Side Quest Publications

I finally got a new job just a couple of weeks ago (yay!), so hopefully soon I’ll be able to take a chunk out of my student loan instead of the little bits I’ve been paying for the last three years.

But the job is 3rd shift; not too big a problem, it just means I need to adjust my sleeping schedule, but it also means I won’t be mentally awake for a while when I’m at home, not until I’m accustomed to the hours.

No, the big problem is that I apparently decided to be allergic to the store’s cleaning supplies.
So just don’t mess with them, I hear some people saying. Easier said than done…. my job is cleaning. And the protective gloves don’t…. quite…. help.

So, now that I have a few days between shifts, I had thought I might get to work on something productive within my creative pursuits–working on my fiction, working on that book review I promised, working on my hand crafts, or just messing with some of those photomanip ideas I’ve been toying with for a while. This in addition to doing the daily chores that need doing.
Nope! Instead I get to take some Benadryl, sleep away most of a day and night, launder all of the clothing and blankets I’d used the last couple of days (just in case whatever’s making me itch is still in them), continue working on those chores…. and get caught up on TV whenever the medicine lets me stay awake long enough to have the slightest idea what I’m even watching. And if I’m lucky, maybe I’ll be able to concentrate well enough to write pieces of that review and collect some pics for the photomanip ideas.
And continue trying to persuade the BluRay drive on my computer to play those Doctor Who BluRays. It’s the only BluRay compatible player in the house, and, while buying an actual BluRay player is still an option (once I start receiving a paycheck), I kinda need the computer to get some of the pics I want for the photomanip ideas.

In the meantime, check out fellow NaNo-author RR Virdi’s Blargh–it’s his novel I’m trying to review.

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Piped In Music

Posted on 27 August 2015 by Side Quest Publications

I had a weird experience lately with piped-in music.
You know, where the store has music playing overhead, not from a radio but from some external source? Traditionally this means music chosen by headquarters but lately, and especially in local smaller businesses, this may mean the store owner plugging in a phone to access his or her online playlist.

Anyway, the weird thing. Several weeks ago, I was at a national department store, and I overheard the song “Hollywood” by Michael Buble.
“Don’t go higher, for desi-yi-yi-yi-yer! Put it in your head, baby Hollywood is dead, you can find it in yourself!”
Okay, so that was nothing weird by itself, just a random song.
Same store, a few weeks later, and I hear “Listen to the Music” by the Doobie Brothers.
“Don’t you feel it growing, day by day! People gettin’ ready for the news! Some are happy, some are sad! Oh, we gotta let the music play!”
Again, not weird by itself.

And then, on my first day at work, it got weird… in an “I have a weird sense of humor” kind of way.
First I heard “That’s the Way It Is” by Celine Dion.
“When you want it the most, there’s no easy way out….”
It wasn’t until about the middle of the song that I realized what I was hearing…. or that I’d been singing along the whole time and doing a pretty good job of remembering the lyrics.
And this was followed immediately by “Mandy” by Barry Manilow.
“Well you came and you gave without taking, but I sent you away, oh Mandy!”

What do all these songs have in common? Well, the versions playing–what I can only assume are the original versions; I have no idea how many times any of these have been covered or remade–absolutely nothing.
But for me, I knew every last one of these songs to some extent or other because they’re all songs that one John Barrowman covered on his album You Raise Me Up. I swear, that day at work I actually started listening to see if This is the Moment or even You Raise Me Up would start playing. No such luck, but it might’ve been funny if it had happened.
Maybe I should start a playlist of the originals of everything John’s covered. 😉

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