Just tried to place a $50 bits order with him, and got a message saying "You do not meet this seller's requirements".

My question is: can a seller block you from purchasing from them? Because if they can, I believe he did and it's probably because I gave him neutral feedback. A few months ago I made an order, and he marked it as shipped. I figured since it didn't have tracking that it wouldn't be a big deal. Well, after about a week, I messaged him. No response. Messaged him a few days later, and got "well, shipping can take up to two weeks". I got my order three weeks after I paid for it. The feedback I left said "slow shipping, no communication". The real kicker is, he paid for tracking and didn't give me the number.

So, dakka, has anyone else had issues with this seller?

(btw mods, not sure if this is the right section, if not I apologize)

From the ebay stores own FAQ:

"Leaving us negatives. We view that as having been ranked as the worst possible seller on eBay. As such we expect you would never want to accidentally buy from the worst again. Nor do we want to sell to someone who was so obviously been displeased with us and would likely continue to be displeased. You will be immediately prevented from purchasing our items. This is a permanent effect and will not ever be reversed. This also applies to threatening to leave us negatives"

I assume this covers negative comments in a neutral feedback aswell. It is all detailed in their store, if you didnt like how they dealt with your purchase then they dont want you purchasing again

Melcavuk wrote:From the ebay stores own FAQ:

"Leaving us negatives. We view that as having been ranked as the worst possible seller on eBay. As such we expect you would never want to accidentally buy from the worst again. Nor do we want to sell to someone who was so obviously been displeased with us and would likely continue to be displeased. You will be immediately prevented from purchasing our items. This is a permanent effect and will not ever be reversed. This also applies to threatening to leave us negatives"

I assume this covers negative comments in a neutral feedback aswell. It is all detailed in their store, if you didnt like how they dealt with your purchase then they dont want you purchasing again

Thanks, didn't see that... it is kind of childish though. It would be different if I hadn't messaged him and left him the feedback...

I purchased some bases from them with no issue. Shipping was a little long but not horribly so. I guess its shipped by pony express.

I have purchased from them before. They almost always have the bits I want in stock, and ship them faster than any other bits service. I think part of that is I do not live far from where they are being shipped.

I have ordered from them a few times and never has a problem. Shipping time has always been about average for me.

I have never had any problems with the Bitz from them.

They even corrected an issue I had when they sent me the wrong item, and sent the real thing quickly.

Nothing but good experiences with them.

I imagine that the policy is to stop someone from ordering three different small priced items from them, after a bad order, just to leave negative feedback, no matter how the sale of those items went.

I would assume the policy is a method of defending themselves and their reputation, if in the past a customer has not liked their manner of completing buisness then taking that same customer on again is risking negative feedback once more which would effect their reputation. Doing this too many times they end up looking bad when in reality it could have been avoided by refusing to do buisness with that one customer (Which they do via their policy)

I've dealt with Hoard of Bits extensively and I've never had a single problem with them. I consider them one of the best sellers on eBay (along with windowbox/Black Dagger Games and Spikeybits).

The 19th Rule of Aquisition says: Satisfaction is not guaranteed.

Never had a problem with them and, in fact, have an order en route right now. They are entirely within their right to block orders, they can sell to whomever they want, but I'd be surprised if it were just for "neutral" feedback.

Same here: Never had a problem with them, best bits service I know.

Haven't dealt with them personally, but you do have to take into account that neutral feedback is in fact considered pretty much same as giving negative feedback by the community.

Here's one link for "etiquette" (take it with grain of salt)
http://reviews.ebay.com/FEEDBACK-ETIQUETTE-netiquette-POSITIVE-neutral-NEGATIVE?ugid=10000000000079805

One of my favourite bitz shops. They have a huge sortiment and some things are a really good deal.

Never faced any problems.

Never had any problems, it's possible you don't meet a basic option that ebay sellers can check that says "Don't accept bids from X sellers or sellers without X or with X"

I've bought from them, only ever had one issue where i ordered somethign with a pictured base but it cane without a base, they probably would have fixed it had i contacted them but i had a crapton of extra bases around so i never bothered to ask. otehr than that they've been a great vendor

Luide wrote:Haven't dealt with them personally, but you do have to take into account that neutral feedback is in fact considered pretty much same as giving negative feedback by the community.

Here's one link for "etiquette" (take it with grain of salt)
http://reviews.ebay.com/FEEDBACK-ETIQUETTE-netiquette-POSITIVE-neutral-NEGATIVE?ugid=10000000000079805

Wow. Really nice guide. I especially liked this additional guide he made:

Neutral Feedback versus Poking Eyes out with a Stick


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, HoB has 99.8% feedback on almost 100,000 transactions in the last year. That's a pretty good rating.

baritowned wrote:Just tried to place a $50 bits order with him, and got a message saying "You do not meet this seller's requirements".

My question is: can a seller block you from purchasing from them? Because if they can, I believe he did and it's probably because I gave him neutral feedback. A few months ago I made an order, and he marked it as shipped. I figured since it didn't have tracking that it wouldn't be a big deal. Well, after about a week, I messaged him. No response. Messaged him a few days later, and got "well, shipping can take up to two weeks". I got my order three weeks after I paid for it. The feedback I left said "slow shipping, no communication". The real kicker is, he paid for tracking and didn't give me the number.

So, dakka, has anyone else had issues with this seller?

(btw mods, not sure if this is the right section, if not I apologize)

they are slow because they have tons of orders and lots of emails to reply to.

you got your gak. as long as it shows up and is in decent condition you really have nothing to complain about.

good for them to slam the door. buyers have too much power as it is and this is coming from someone who buys stuff all the time on ebay.

I've never had a problem with them.

And I have ordered tons of stuff from them. Always get my order in a couple days, I think they are in Virginia USA so only a couple hundred miles from me. Always leaves me good feedback too.

Use them all the time, Spikey bits is a nice alternative if you're blocked from Hoard... not quite the inventory, but very good

Wow, that netiquette feedback guide is pretty funny . Although a bit out of date (created in '05, although since updated). I don't think it's possible to leave retaliatory feedback now, is it? (He mentions the practice...)

Also all good experiences (although virtually zero real communication, as with most big sellers nowadays...) with hoard o' bits from me.

I haven't used them, but that policy seems childish. I can understand that they don't want negative feedback, but at the cost of losing a potential returning customer? That's ridiculous imo.

People who leave negative feedback are rarely returning customers. They probably aren't losing much.

I bought an Arachnarok body in January and had it shipped to Australia. Received it in two business weeks. My experience was extremely positive.

Red Comet wrote:I haven't used them, but that policy seems childish. I can understand that they don't want negative feedback, but at the cost of losing a potential returning customer? That's ridiculous imo.

Not really. First, those giving negative feedback are rarely returning customers. Second, even if they were to come back, are they worth the effort?
That policy is very good way for Ebay business to 1) make sure their negative feedback stays low 2) concentrate their efforts on "better" customers.

In my previous work we had a client who were generally PITA. Always wanting discounts, not planning their systems properly so when they were configured there always were surprises, always wanting projets done short timetable. Margins from their projects were low to non-existent and stress levels from having to deal with them high.
Now, we were strapped for manpower at that time, so in retrospect, we'd have been far better off by not having them as clients at all.

Tl;dr:
Losing poor client can be a good thing for business. Especially if the resources of the business is already stretched thin.

I'm not mad about it, just a little frustrated. I would have been fine if he had communicated better, but that is what killed it for me. I use windowbox and spikeybits for 99% of my bits orders, and they always message me back within hours. They both also manage to get items to my house within two days, so I can have it in-hand and ready by the weekend when I am gaming. The only reason I was trying to buy from hoard is because he has a wider selection of vehicle bits than the other two, and I'm in the planning stages for some heavy conversions.

I'm sorry, but what he is doing is like Wal-mart turning someone away because they don't agree with how wally world does business with the chinese.

baritowned wrote:I'm sorry, but what he is doing is like Wal-mart turning someone away because they don't agree with how wally world does business with the chinese.

No, it is like Wal-mart turning away someone who complains about their service. Most business, internet and B&M, have the right to refuse service to anyone.

Had no problems with them, one of the best bitz shops out there

Melcavuk wrote:From the ebay stores own FAQ:

"Leaving us negatives. We view that as having been ranked as the worst possible seller on eBay. As such we expect you would never want to accidentally buy from the worst again. Nor do we want to sell to someone who was so obviously been displeased with us and would likely continue to be displeased. You will be immediately prevented from purchasing our items. This is a permanent effect and will not ever be reversed. This also applies to threatening to leave us negatives"

I assume this covers negative comments in a neutral feedback aswell. It is all detailed in their store, if you didnt like how they dealt with your purchase then they dont want you purchasing again

In other words: "Because we screwed up and failed you as a customer, instead of fixing the issue that led to your complaint we will instead never do business with you again so you can't complain our problems publically and so we can act like whiny little school girls."

I generally don't go back when I leave a negative for someone, but I only do so in the most extreme circumstances. I never get an item and no communication then I definitely leave a negative. I get no communication, but quickly receive the item is a positive for me. No communication and slow shipping can get a neutral from me because as long as I am kept in the know shipping delays don't bother me, and as a seller I know how completely simple it is to send a quick notice message through ebay. Heck I send shipping delay notices out within a couple days if I can't get the item sent immediately and when I sell I usually sell a ton of items as once. I don't buy into the they have a lot of orders so things are slow. If that is the case then hire someone else to respond to emails just saying, "It'll be on its way soon, sorry for the delay" goes a long way towards making sure that feedback at the end is a positive one.

Skriker


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baritowned wrote:Just tried to place a $50 bits order with him, and got a message saying "You do not meet this seller's requirements".

My question is: can a seller block you from purchasing from them?

The answer is "Yes a seller can set requirements for bidders." These requirements range from limiting based on the number of unpaid item strikes you have on your account through completely blocking you as a bidder period.

Skriker

considering how ebay ties certain incentives to feedback, there is a tremendous pressure for a seller to not receive anything but straight 5 star feedback. I have known of instances where a ticked off customer has bought multiple items from the seller, refused to pay and left negative feedback for every single item. while it can be straightened out, it is also be time consuming, frustrating and can be a serious hit to a business. I can easily see why any store dealing in lots of small orders would institute such a policy as simple self protection, ebays policy's almost make it a requirement for shops like that.

I haven't bought from them, but I did ask about an out of stock HOB and I got a response back within a couple of hours, so no complaints there.

I have noticed more shops are doing better communication wise then they used to. I was actually banned by one seller a while back because I had the audacity to ask if a certain article was in that issue of a magazine.

Isengard wrote:

they are slow because they have tons of orders and lots of emails to reply to.

you got your gak. as long as it shows up and is in decent condition you really have nothing to complain about.

good for them to slam the door. buyers have too much power as it is and this is coming from someone who buys stuff all the time on ebay.

KB, I ALWAYS pay for stuff as soon as I place the order, always have. What I was trying to say, if I pay for something, I would at least like some confirmation that I'm actually getting it (a tracking number), which Hoard doesn't do. Even though I paid him $4.50 for shipping, and the package had a tracking number on it, He neglected to give it to me.

You are still complaining about how he did business with you last time, and at the same time you are complaining that he will not do business with you again now.

Why should he risk getting another neutral or negative feedback, knowing that you are already a customer that is not happy with the way he does business?

Just as a customer has the option of refusing to buy from certain sellers, a shop has every right to refuse to do business with you.

I really don't see what the big deal is there.

d-usa wrote:You are still complaining about how he did business with you last time, and at the same time you are complaining that he will not do business with you again now.

Why should he risk getting another neutral or negative feedback, knowing that you are already a customer that is not happy with the way he does business?

Just as a customer has the option of refusing to buy from certain sellers, a shop has every right to refuse to do business with you.

I really don't see what the big deal is there.

The fact that rather than facing the music and acting on criticism that this seller would rather push away anybody who doesn't like their service?

pretre wrote:

baritowned wrote:I'm sorry, but what he is doing is like Wal-mart turning someone away because they don't agree with how wally world does business with the chinese.

No, it is like Wal-mart turning away someone who complains about their service. Most business, internet and B&M, have the right to refuse service to anyone.

So long as the discrimination is not based on race/gender etc.

As for Hoard I'm really not happy to hear how they are gaming the system. We all do business with places we're not 100% happy with, maybe they're convenient, maybe their prices trump the bad service, whatever.

I've used them before but this policy would make me think twice.

BlapBlapBlap wrote:

d-usa wrote:You are still complaining about how he did business with you last time, and at the same time you are complaining that he will not do business with you again now.

Why should he risk getting another neutral or negative feedback, knowing that you are already a customer that is not happy with the way he does business?

Just as a customer has the option of refusing to buy from certain sellers, a shop has every right to refuse to do business with you.

I really don't see what the big deal is there.

The fact that rather than facing the music and acting on criticism that this seller would rather push away anybody who doesn't like their service?

Face the music? It was (based on this thread) an aberration. The feedback was posted. That's all the music he has to face (bad press).

Bottom line is:

In the U.S. sellers have the right to refuse service for any reason.

If they do not want to sell something to you, they do not have to. End of story.

I've bought from them over 50 times and only had a problem on one order.

I would advise them to everyone

I have used them, I got fast shipping myself and had zero issue. I have to say i plan to use them again.

I don't think I've ever used them, it been so long since I've gotten anything on ebay that my history is gone.

I've never had a problem with them. I usually get my stuff within 10 days.

It seems a bit rash to ban a customer for leaving a neutral feedback, though. I could stop buying from them as a show of solidarity for the OP of this thread, but I won't.

always gotten great service from Horde o Bitz.

cant say that about others I have bought from.

Isengard wrote:Interesting, I think E-Bay in some ways gives the seller too much power. It seems that a lot of people selling on there seem to think that they can take money and then act in an amateurish way that is verging on illegal. For example huge delays in shipping, etc. My £, $ or whatever is the same if I give it to a shop, Amazon or an E-Bay trader. I expect the same kind of service, which includes getting communications and not waiting too long. Some E-Bay sellers think that a curt e-mail saying they're having some issues is acceptable as an excuse for not meeting their own deadlines. If you complain they get 21 days to even respond to the e-mail before E-Bay takes any further action. IMHO if you cannot run a competent business, answer all your mails and ship reasonably fast then you should accept criticism. I don't know this specific company and I don't have any idea if they are good or not, I'm talking generalities. For me the bottom line is an E-Bay seller takes my money, therefore they should quickly supply the goods and respond to any queries. Being on E-Bay is not an excuse for shoddy service or attitude.

Definitely agree. Some sellers think you are uppity if you have the audacity to want to know what the status is on your item. I don't mind shipping delays, but I don't want to have to "guess" that there might be a delay. It takes *minutes* to create a new message template as a seller in ebay, or to tweak an existing template. Include field definitions in the template to automatically list buyer name and the items won by them. It then takes *seconds* to select a batch of buyers and send them the same "We apologize, but order volume has delayed the shipping of your item," message to a batch of people.

Sellers who claim they are "too busy because we have so many orders" are either just lazy, and don't want to do their due diligence in customer service, or cheap and don't want to pay someone else to do it for them.

Skriker


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kb305 wrote:youre getting things at a huge discount most of the time which is why people shop on ebay in the first place. if you cant handle waiting a few weeks to get your stuff then i think you should just go into GW and pay full retail. also alot of people auction snipe. and iv heard stories of people getting an item, complaining to ebay that they didnt recieve it and ebay will always take the buyers side. so basically they get something for free at the sellers expense.

So what? I get a big discount buying from Amazon, but through Prime get free 2 day shipping on my order as well, and also pretty much 24/7 ability to check on my order after I make it.

What exactly does auction sniping have to do with it? The final bidder is the final bidder whether you were bidding for days or the auction or the last 10 seconds. Also as for people claiming they never received an item this falls into two categories: 1) The seller needs to insure their packages to protect themself and also needs to use at least some kind of minimal delivery confirmation service. If you pay your postage online through ebay and paypal you get the delivery confirmation for free. 2) Sometimes packages don't arrive and if a seller refuses to allow me to insure a package that is important to me then they *are* responsible for its loss. Again I fail to see what this has to do with sellers providing poor customer service? Because some buyers suck then sellers are allowed to treat all customers poorly? Hardly.

Skriker

My experience with HOB:

I've ordered from them maybe six or seven times. I had problems on two of the orders. In one, one of the bits was defective (clipped too deeply into the sprue and damaged the bit) and the other, they flat out forgot to include an item in the shipment.

Both times, it took forever for someone to reply to the e-mail, and then a long time for them to make it right. But, they DID eventually make it right, which is what counts.

My take? Great prices, decent inventory, but sometimes lacking in the quality control and communication departments. Overall, though, I am satisfied and will continue doing business with them.

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:My experience with HOB:

I've ordered from them maybe six or seven times. I had problems on two of the orders. In one, one of the bits was defective (clipped too deeply into the sprue and damaged the bit) and the other, they flat out forgot to include an item in the shipment.

Both times, it took forever for someone to reply to the e-mail, and then a long time for them to make it right. But, they DID eventually make it right, which is what counts.

My take? Great prices, decent inventory, but sometimes lacking in the quality control and communication departments. Overall, though, I am satisfied and will continue doing business with them.

This isn't Hoard O Bitz

I've ordered from them AT LEAST a dozen times with kit bashing tyranids / various necron parts and have never been disappointed.

Probably my favorite, most reliable bitz vendor i've dealt with

BlapBlapBlap wrote:

This isn't Hoard O Bitz

I am a bit confused by that commit. Hoard O Bitz is both the topic of the thread and what Xenocidal Maniac spoke of.

Skriker wrote:

So what? I get a big discount buying from Amazon, but through Prime get free 2 day shipping on my order as well, and also pretty much 24/7 ability to check on my order after I make it.

What exactly does auction sniping have to do with it? The final bidder is the final bidder whether you were bidding for days or the auction or the last 10 seconds. Also as for people claiming they never received an item this falls into two categories: 1) The seller needs to insure their packages to protect themself and also needs to use at least some kind of minimal delivery confirmation service. If you pay your postage online through ebay and paypal you get the delivery confirmation for free. 2) Sometimes packages don't arrive and if a seller refuses to allow me to insure a package that is important to me then they *are* responsible for its loss. Again I fail to see what this has to do with sellers providing poor customer service? Because some buyers suck then sellers are allowed to treat all customers poorly? Hardly.

Skriker

I absolutely agree. If you went into a cheap shop and because they were cheaper they ignored you or refused to help you find an item or started chatting on their mobile while you were stood waiting you would not put up with it. Poor communication and slow shipping is not good enough just because its an auction site. It might be if you are a one-off seller just clearing a few items from the attic, then you might have an excuse for waiting til saturday to get down the post-office or whatever but if you are running an E-Bay shop as far as I am concerned I expect you to offer a proper service, the price you charge is up to you. Being rude, unhelpful etc just because you are cheap is not acceptable. Luckily it only happened to me once on E-Bay, the guy just never sent the stuff (I always pay immediately) and then he sent some excuses about a family illness and stopped responding to mails. I did not believe him and a simple glance at the public activity on his account showed he was still buying and selling stuff happily. Took about 3 months all told to get my money back. That's 3 months in his account gaining interest and not in mine, never got any compensation for that.

Skriker wrote:Definitely agree. Some sellers think you are uppity if you have the audacity to want to know what the status is on your item. I don't mind shipping delays, but I don't want to have to "guess" that there might be a delay. It takes *minutes* to create a new message template as a seller in ebay, or to tweak an existing template. Include field definitions in the template to automatically list buyer name and the items won by them. It then takes *seconds* to select a batch of buyers and send them the same "We apologize, but order volume has delayed the shipping of your item," message to a batch of people.

Sellers who claim they are "too busy because we have so many orders" are either just lazy, and don't want to do their due diligence in customer service, or cheap and don't want to pay someone else to do it for them.

Skriker

Sorry, but I disagree. This guy is doing immense volume on tiny things sometimes costing less than a dollar. If every punk kid who ordered something called him six times a day wondering where the order is no one would get through. He posts a UPS tracking number within a day or two of your order. If you want to know the order status click on the link and you can see exactly which depot the box is sitting in.

I bought some things from them a while back when I first started looking into bits, your right, the shipping was kind of slow and they can block people. Bits World is very competent and I usually receive my items within a week. Whatever rating you give them they probably deserve, as long as the rating is honest. And if they don''t allow people from buying their products just out of fear of a bad rating, they lose customers.

http://stores.ebay.com/Bits-World?_rdc=1

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

HOARD O BITS HAS BLOCKED ME FROM ACCESSING THEIR SITE.

Unreal. I placed an order with them last week. I try to access the page today from my home computer to check my order status, and it says "unauthorized site access". I try accessing the site from another computer with no HOB cookies on it and no login record, and, wouldn't you know, I get right in.

I guess they didn't like me complaining about THEM NOT SHIPPING MY PRODUCTS TO ME ON ONE OCCASION AND SHIPPING DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS TO ME ON ANOTHER. I ordered from them once again because although it did take them a long time, they did end up correcting the problems. But now it looks like they no longer wish to do business with me because I made perfectly reasonable requests. I didn't harass them. I wasn't rude. And my problems were legitimate and documented. I even sent pictures of the defective product.

I completely and utterly rescind my endorsement of this company that I wrote above. What childish, ridiculous, unprofessional JERKS.

Unreal. I've never even heard of such a thing. Are they in high school? Total joke. Avoid HOB like the plague.

Kevlar wrote:
Sorry, but I disagree. This guy is doing immense volume on tiny things sometimes costing less than a dollar. If every punk kid who ordered something called him six times a day wondering where the order is no one would get through. He posts a UPS tracking number within a day or two of your order. If you want to know the order status click on the link and you can see exactly which depot the box is sitting in.

You actually got a tracking number from him? I've made two orders through him (one for $25, the other for $40) and never got a tracking number. At all.

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

HOARD O BITS HAS BLOCKED ME FROM ACCESSING THEIR SITE.

Unreal. I placed an order with them last week. I try to access the page today from my home computer to check my order status, and it says "unauthorized site access". I try accessing the site from another computer with no HOB cookies on it and no login record, and, wouldn't you know, I get right in.

I guess they didn't like me complaining about THEM NOT SHIPPING MY PRODUCTS TO ME ON ONE OCCASION AND SHIPPING DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS TO ME ON ANOTHER. I ordered from them once again because although it did take them a long time, they did end up correcting the problems. But now it looks like they no longer wish to do business with me because I made perfectly reasonable requests. I didn't harass them. I wasn't rude. And my problems were legitimate and documented. I even sent pictures of the defective product.

I completely and utterly rescind my endorsement of this company that I wrote above. What childish, ridiculous, unprofessional JERKS.

Unreal. I've never even heard of such a thing. Are they in high school? Total joke. Avoid HOB like the plague.

He banned you for what you said on here? Wow, that's excellent business. I'm kicking myself for opening a can of worms, but if that's how he is going to act, then he will probably start losing business...

How can they make money if people cant get to their site lol

Hunterindarkness wrote:

BlapBlapBlap wrote:This isn't Hoard O Bitz

I am a bit confused by that commit. Hoard O Bitz is both the topic of the thread and what Xenocidal Maniac spoke of.

My bad

Kevlar wrote:Sorry, but I disagree. This guy is doing immense volume on tiny things sometimes costing less than a dollar. If every punk kid who ordered something called him six times a day wondering where the order is no one would get through. He posts a UPS tracking number within a day or two of your order. If you want to know the order status click on the link and you can see exactly which depot the box is sitting in.

You are welcome to disagree, but this isn't about punk kids calling six times a day wondering where their order is. This is about simple customer service and keeping your customers informed about their order. A simple method of sending "delayed shipping" notices keeps people from calling six times a day wondering where their order is. The fact is that ebay provides simple, fast and easy to use tools to cover this kind of communication for ALL sellers. It is just that some are too lazy to use it. I clearly state in all of my listings how soon after payment an item should ship. If I am not going to get it shipped in that time frame I send a notice to the seller apologizing for the delay and letting them know when the item will go out. It is just good business and smart business to keep your customers happy and not wondering whether they will ever get the item the bought or not.

Yes once you get a tracking number you can track the package, but this does *nothing* for you before the package is shipped and going days and days without receiving a shipping notice or any other information tends to annoy many buyers in whatever market you are selling in.

Skriker

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

HOARD O BITS HAS BLOCKED ME FROM ACCESSING THEIR SITE.

Just wondering, how would try know how to block you?

Hunterindarkness wrote:

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

HOARD O BITS HAS BLOCKED ME FROM ACCESSING THEIR SITE.

Just wondering, how would try know how to block you?

I have two computers that I have used to access the HOB site. I have an account with HOB, and I was automatically logged in to the site under my username on both computers.

I tried to check the site to check on the status of an order I placed on Friday, and I couldn't access the page. I just got a message saying "unauthorized site access". I thought maybe the site was down or something. Then I read this thread, and I thought - "wait a minute... maybe he has banned me". I tried accessing the site from my wife's computer, and no problems!! Then I tried logging in with my username and password. As soon as I did - "UNAUTHORIZED SITE ACCESS"

I am assuming that he banned me because he screwed up on two of my orders, and I "had the nerve" to request that he fix the problems. As I mentioned in my post above, their customer service and quality control isn't great, but I was willing to overlook it and continue doing business with them. But, it seems that they view me as a "problem customer" or something and have blocked me.

This is beyond the pale. I've never even heard of something so ridiculous. I wasn't a jerk to them, didn't harass them, nothing. I politely asked that they fix their mistakes. That's it. And they reward my loyalty by banning me! Nuts.

If you give a seller negative feedback without contacting them and allowing them to try and rectify a problem, then i do not blame them for blocking you.

DeathReaper wrote:If you give a seller negative feedback without contacting them and allowing them to try and rectify a problem, then i do not blame them for blocking you.

K, I don't think you read what I wrote, buddy.

I didn't order from them from ebay. I ordered directly from their website. I never left negative feedback in any kind of public forum for them. In fact, I endorsed them in this very thread. I simply e-mailed them privately asking them to fix the two mistakes they made. I was rewarded by being banned.

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

DeathReaper wrote:If you give a seller negative feedback without contacting them and allowing them to try and rectify a problem, then i do not blame them for blocking you.

K, I don't think you read what I wrote, buddy.

I didn't order from them from ebay. I ordered directly from their website. I never left negative feedback in any kind of public forum for them. In fact, I endorsed them in this very thread. I simply e-mailed them privately asking them to fix the two mistakes they made. I was rewarded by being banned.

That was more for the OP than you.

your situation needs further investigation, maybe ask them what is up?

DeathReaper wrote:

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

DeathReaper wrote:If you give a seller negative feedback without contacting them and allowing them to try and rectify a problem, then i do not blame them for blocking you.

K, I don't think you read what I wrote, buddy.

I didn't order from them from ebay. I ordered directly from their website. I never left negative feedback in any kind of public forum for them. In fact, I endorsed them in this very thread. I simply e-mailed them privately asking them to fix the two mistakes they made. I was rewarded by being banned.

That was more for the OP than you.

your situation needs further investigation, maybe ask them what is up?

Oh, ok. Sorry then.

I e-mailed them. But I think based on the evidence we have on this thread, their policy is to ban or ignore "problem" customers who have the nerve to speak up when they make mistakes. I run my own company myself. I would never even dream of treating my customers like this. If I screw up, I make it right, and I don't ever blame the customer for it or refuse their business.

This is really ridiculous. We'll see what they say, but, I have the feeling that I will simply be ignored.

Is my first choice when I need bits. I have had orders knocking on my door in about one week (from USA to Spain). They have usually shipped my bits the day after payment, except one day I did it on July 3rd, so they shipped on 5th. They are in my WH40k bookmarks, just below forgeworld.co.uk

I have also bought bits from them several times.
Extremely pleased!

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

DeathReaper wrote:If you give a seller negative feedback without contacting them and allowing them to try and rectify a problem, then i do not blame them for blocking you.

K, I don't think you read what I wrote, buddy.

I didn't order from them from ebay. I ordered directly from their website. I never left negative feedback in any kind of public forum for them. In fact, I endorsed them in this very thread. I simply e-mailed them privately asking them to fix the two mistakes they made. I was rewarded by being banned.

Customer service is one of the most important aspects in business. If business aren't offering great customer service, chances are 10 minutes away there is a competitor with better customer service. With competition, good customer service is an easy, and simple, way to win the customers hearts.

Dayvuni wrote:

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

DeathReaper wrote:If you give a seller negative feedback without contacting them and allowing them to try and rectify a problem, then i do not blame them for blocking you.

K, I don't think you read what I wrote, buddy.

I didn't order from them from ebay. I ordered directly from their website. I never left negative feedback in any kind of public forum for them. In fact, I endorsed them in this very thread. I simply e-mailed them privately asking them to fix the two mistakes they made. I was rewarded by being banned.

Customer service is one of the most important aspects in business. If business aren't offering great customer service, chances are 10 minutes away there is a competitor with better customer service. With competition, good customer service is an easy, and simple, way to win the customers hearts.

People will put up with bad customer service if it means that they will save 50% on their purchases. And considering that the vast majority of people are happy with their purchases it would seem that they are doing something right. I don't have a problem with a company going "You don't like the way we do business we will no longer do business with you". And while I no nothing about the person being banned after emailing, I also do not know the tone of voice used in his email. So I cannot make any judgement about him being banned from the site. But as a business HOB has every right to refuse to do business with anybody they want. Contrary to the popular customer mindset, you do not have a right to do business with anybody. You purchased, they delivered (eventually). Your business relationship is now over unless both sides agree to enter another contract. I am sure they could hire more people to answer emails and questions, but then the price will go up and everybody will start complaining.

You can have great prices and sometimes rough customer service, or you can have great customer service but higher prices. You cannot always have both.

If I want bits and I know that I absolutely have to have them at a certain date and I want tracking, then I will pay extra and order from the Warstore.
If I want bits to experiment with and time is not a consideration, then I will order from HOB or any of the European bits services.

You get what you pay for, people seem to forget that.

d-usa wrote:

Dayvuni wrote:

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

DeathReaper wrote:If you give a seller negative feedback without contacting them and allowing them to try and rectify a problem, then i do not blame them for blocking you.

K, I don't think you read what I wrote, buddy.

I didn't order from them from ebay. I ordered directly from their website. I never left negative feedback in any kind of public forum for them. In fact, I endorsed them in this very thread. I simply e-mailed them privately asking them to fix the two mistakes they made. I was rewarded by being banned.

Customer service is one of the most important aspects in business. If business aren't offering great customer service, chances are 10 minutes away there is a competitor with better customer service. With competition, good customer service is an easy, and simple, way to win the customers hearts.

People will put up with bad customer service if it means that they will save 50% on their purchases. And considering that the vast majority of people are happy with their purchases it would seem that they are doing something right. I don't have a problem with a company going "You don't like the way we do business we will no longer do business with you". And while I no nothing about the person being banned after emailing, I also do not know the tone of voice used in his email. So I cannot make any judgement about him being banned from the site. But as a business HOB has every right to refuse to do business with anybody they want. Contrary to the popular customer mindset, you do not have a right to do business with anybody. You purchased, they delivered (eventually). Your business relationship is now over unless both sides agree to enter another contract. I am sure they could hire more people to answer emails and questions, but then the price will go up and everybody will start complaining.

You can have great prices and sometimes rough customer service, or you can have great customer service but higher prices. You cannot always have both.

If I want bits and I know that I absolutely have to have them at a certain date and I want tracking, then I will pay extra and order from the Warstore.
If I want bits to experiment with and time is not a consideration, then I will order from HOB or any of the European bits services.

You get what you pay for, people seem to forget that.

Hi. Here is the last e-mail I sent to them regarding one of their mistakes. Does the tone seem offensive to you?

"Re: Order# XXXXX Hello. I e-mailed you the other day and did not receive a reply. Item # WH40-BT-06 Black Templar 38x Bits and Badges was not included in the package I received. Please send it to me as soon as you can. Please confirm receipt of this e-mail. Thank you."

He responded after a few days saying he would send it out, and he did. I received it about a week later.

Then I placed another order last Friday. I logged in yesterday to find I had been banned. No explanation, no communication, nothing.

All you people saying that "no one has to do business with you" are certainly right. But, if you act like this and stop doing business with people who ask you to do, you know, normal things that a business should do, then you will soon run out of customers. And, those customers have a right to go and complain bitterly about you on the internet and cost you even more business.

So, you know, blow people off and all that, but at what cost? I submit that those of you saying "no one has to do business with you" have never run a business yourselves.

At lest he took care of your issue first. Banning you is a bit odd for me, but at lest they did not take the money and not provide what you paid for.

Hell, I left somebody positive feedback with slow shipping and no communication because I got my model anyway. I just listed that shipping was slow with no communication in the details section. He also left me no feedback. Would I buy from him again? No, because I think he was unprofessional in his selling actions. But was he actually a "bad" seller, earning a negative or even neutral? No, just not the kind of seller I want to work with again. Slow shipping doesn't deserve neutral or negatives. I've used Horde O Bitz before and they're a good site. Slow shipping happens, just roll with it if you get your models.

I have bought from the twice, once in America and once here in China. In America they didn't send me all the items and were slow. They said that they'd send me two packs of the thing they forgot to make up for it, they didn't. Here in China they told me two weeks after I paid they didn't have my address. I sent it to them twice and asked 3 times over two weeks if they had sent it. After a 3rd week of no response eBay was able to step in and make them respond and refund me. Why it took that long I will never know. I'm glad they've made plenty of good transactions but as everyone has mentioned, their communication is horrendou and plenty of cases of slow shipping.

Hunterindarkness wrote:At lest he took care of your issue first. Banning you is a bit odd for me, but at lest they did not take the money and not provide what you paid for.

True. And I didn't have a problem with it, which is why I ordered from him again.

However, he does still have my money for my last order that I placed on Friday, and, so far, I have received neither my product nor a refund. I will give him another week.

Will keep you all posted. However, at this point, it looks to me like Hoard O Bits is a deadbeat vendor.

Please do, I find the refusing to take orders childish as my stance has always been if the Vendor fixes the issue, there is no issue.

I really hope he handles the money issue and you are not forced to take measures to get it back.

Just an update on this - I still have not received my product or a refund. I have not received a reply to my e-mail asking why I was blocked from the site.

It's not looking good.

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:Just an update on this - I still have not received my product or a refund. I have not received a reply to my e-mail asking why I was blocked from the site.

It's not looking good.

Have you filed a complaint with eBay? That'll usually do it

Placed an order Monday night, got my stuff today.

First time I ordered from them I only got 5 out of the 6 bits I ordered. I just told them about it and they offered to fix it right up, so I wouldn't say they're bad. Haven't placed any huge orders from them yet, though.

I used to be a fan of Hoardbits a year ago ( there was a screen shot of me spending $189 a month in bits alone )

However, I have received wrong items before ( no doubt someone else's while mine is nowhere in sight )
I even took picture of it, ok they believed me that one time.

Then my last purchase before the " ban " I ordered bunch of chaos marauders as well as a LR hull.
The bits were sent in a small white box, around size of my finger, there is NO WAY a LR hull would fit in it.

I showed them photo of the box they sent, next to a LR to prove my point.
They called me a liar and I was never allowed to purchase from them again.

/sigh

I have never had anything but excellent transactions from HOB, and I've been buying bits from him for at least four years. He's one of my favorite E-Bay sellers.

felixander wrote:

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:Just an update on this - I still have not received my product or a refund. I have not received a reply to my e-mail asking why I was blocked from the site.

It's not looking good.

Have you filed a complaint with eBay? That'll usually do it

See, that's the problem. I didn't order through ebay. I ordered through his website directly. If he has ripped me off, I have no recourse other than to file a mail fraud claim.

LunaHound wrote:I used to be a fan of Hoardbits a year ago ( there was a screen shot of me spending $189 a month in bits alone )

However, I have received wrong items before ( no doubt someone else's while mine is nowhere in sight )
I even took picture of it, ok they believed me that one time.

Then my last purchase before the " ban " I ordered bunch of chaos marauders as well as a LR hull.
The bits were sent in a small white box, around size of my finger, there is NO WAY a LR hull would fit in it.

I showed them photo of the box they sent, next to a LR to prove my point.
They called me a liar and I was never allowed to purchase from them again.

/sigh

Sounds very similar to my experience. He screwed up two of my orders, which I documented with pictures, and then banned me. But in my case, he didn't give me an explanation. I can only assume that he thinks I was "lying". The only problem is, in my case, he has some of my money. So far, I have received neither my product nor a refund.

Sounds like this company is a total joke. I hope no one else gets burned or banned by this guy.

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

felixander wrote:

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:Just an update on this - I still have not received my product or a refund. I have not received a reply to my e-mail asking why I was blocked from the site.

It's not looking good.

Have you filed a complaint with eBay? That'll usually do it

See, that's the problem. I didn't order through ebay. I ordered through his website directly. If he has ripped me off, I have no recourse other than to file a mail fraud claim.

LunaHound wrote:I used to be a fan of Hoardbits a year ago ( there was a screen shot of me spending $189 a month in bits alone )

However, I have received wrong items before ( no doubt someone else's while mine is nowhere in sight )
I even took picture of it, ok they believed me that one time.

Then my last purchase before the " ban " I ordered bunch of chaos marauders as well as a LR hull.
The bits were sent in a small white box, around size of my finger, there is NO WAY a LR hull would fit in it.

I showed them photo of the box they sent, next to a LR to prove my point.
They called me a liar and I was never allowed to purchase from them again.

/sigh

Sounds very similar to my experience. He screwed up two of my orders, which I documented with pictures, and then banned me. But in my case, he didn't give me an explanation. I can only assume that he thinks I was "lying". The only problem is, in my case, he has some of my money. So far, I have received neither my product nor a refund.

Sounds like this company is a total joke. I hope no one else gets burned or banned by this guy.

I didn't have it archived ( didnt know the messages expire )
But they said this ( in better english :'P )
"if we really messed up and you didn't receive it, why are you still ordering from us? Obviously you are satisfied which means you received them"

I've never had problem with them, though it could be because they are stationed about two hours from where I live... I could drive and pick up my order, then get back to my house, before the payment had cleared. I don't, because I don't feel like driving 4 hours to get some bits, but still.

Also they have a website, hoardobits.com, and you can buy anything without fear of being boondoggled. EDIT: Apparently not.

Hoard o' Bits also sells their stuff for a mite cheaper than Spikeybits, and their bits are better broken-down (you can buy more of what you want without superfluous bits you don't need) most of the time. Sometime, Spikey has the single bit I need, whereas Hoard sells it with another piece I don't want. Windowbox/blackdaggergames sells single models all of the time, and it's awesome.

In short, I like Hoard o Bits, and use them quite often. I usually get my orders within the week.

Also, Dicebucket is awesome. Just letting everyone know. Not a bits seller, but still.

I ordered a couple things from them two weeks ago. They order came fine, but it took them almost three weeks to get my order to me. In comparison, I have another Ebay vendor that I ordered bits from at exactly the same time. Simliar prices, similar quantity....arrived in 2 days.

I have nothing against Hoard o bits, but after reading the reviews by some people in this thread.....substantiated or not, I probably won't do business with them anymore. Why do business with someone who has a record (real or not) of some bad disputes when there are competitors who do it faster and better a click away?

MadmanMSU wrote:I have nothing against Hoard o bits, but after reading the reviews by some people in this thread.....substantiated or not, I probably won't do business with them anymore. Why do business with someone who has a record (real or not) of some bad disputes when there are competitors who do it faster and better a click away?

Exactly. Why put up with the possiblity of games when you can buy elsewhere and not wait for weeks to get your item or get screwed because the vendor messed up the order and refuses to believe that they did...

Skriker

Just a quick update on this

I still have not received my order
I still have not received a refund
I still have not received a reply to my e-mail

Starting to look like not only did I get banned, I got ripped off.

Time to call the CC company/paypal

Yeah PayPal will help ya out and give a ring to the Better Business Bureau. If Hoard Bits is an actual registered business (which it may not be) then they'll hook him and force him to refund you. I've had to call on them twice and both times I got immediate responses from the company as soon as the BBB had sent their letters.

felixander wrote:Yeah PayPal will help ya out and give a ring to the Better Business Bureau. If Hoard Bits is an actual registered business (which it may not be) then they'll hook him and force him to refund you. I've had to call on them twice and both times I got immediate responses from the company as soon as the BBB had sent their letters.

As soon as I had sent my letters?

I don't remember...

Wha?

MadmanMSU wrote:
I have nothing against Hoard o bits, but after reading the reviews by some people in this thread.....substantiated or not, I probably won't do business with them anymore. Why do business with someone who has a record (real or not) of some bad disputes when there are competitors who do it faster and better a click away?

"I read it on the interwebz so it must be true!"

Take anything you read on the internet with a grain of salt. Could always be an ebay competitor trying to give them a bad name. His ebay seller rep speaks for itself.

I have tried them once. In that time they got my address wrong and they did not do anything when I contacted them. And they didn't seem to concerned about it so I left negative feedback. That's when I got banned.

There are way too many companies to buy from on Ebay and other places to worry if I can buy from. If they don't want my money then I'll give it to the next one in line.

Kevlar wrote:

MadmanMSU wrote:
I have nothing against Hoard o bits, but after reading the reviews by some people in this thread.....substantiated or not, I probably won't do business with them anymore. Why do business with someone who has a record (real or not) of some bad disputes when there are competitors who do it faster and better a click away?

"I read it on the interwebz so it must be true!"

Take anything you read on the internet with a grain of salt. Could always be an ebay competitor trying to give them a bad name. His ebay seller rep speaks for itself.

Um, yeah, except I'm not... I have several hundred posts on this forum and it's pretty clear I am not in the bitz business. This dude screwed up on two of my orders, banned me, and now it appears he has ripped me off. Others have reported similar problems. Pretty straightforward.

His ebay rating "speaks for itself" because he refuses to do business with people who would dare complain about his poor service or mistakes... leave him even a neutral feedback and BOOM banhammer.

I used to use Hoard o' Bits, had several transactions with them with no problems. However, my last transaction with them I was double-billed, messaged them several times about it but got no help. Finally had to dispute with my cc company because the cc bill was due. Left them negative feedback, got banned. I did receive my order in perfect condition though.

I would have actually used their service again, prices are low and they have good stock. However I also feel that as a consumer the negative feedback was justified and warranted, thus I gave it, and was banned in return. Oh well!

Out of the past month 40 people gave negative feedback, while 6605 people left positive feedback for Hoard_*_bits.

That is 0.60% of people that had a bad experience with their orders.

less than 1% is a great track record for any business.

I wish I had this few complaints from customers at my job.

DeathReaper wrote:Out of the past month 40 people gave negative feedback, while 6605 people left positive feedback for Hoard_*_bits.

That is 0.60% of people that had a bad experience with their orders.

less than 1% is a great track record for any business.

I wish I had this few complaints from customers at my job.

And that's not accounting for the fact that a number of those negative feedbacks are from the same user(s) who submitted negative feedback for every bit they ordered. One user alone accounts for 15 of the 40 negatives in the last 30 days...

I can't say I've had any negative experiences with them but I don't exactly order large volumes of bits from numerous sources.

LunaHound wrote:The bits were sent in a small white box, around size of my finger, there is NO WAY a LR hull would fit in it.

I showed them photo of the box they sent, next to a LR to prove my point.

Nobody's perfect but that is horrible

Ordered from em a number of times with no issues what so ever!

DeathReaper wrote:Out of the past month 40 people gave negative feedback, while 6605 people left positive feedback for Hoard_*_bits.

That is 0.60% of people that had a bad experience with their orders.

less than 1% is a great track record for any business.

I wish I had this few complaints from customers at my job.

I know 1% is really good record ( compared to finecast too )
however, when does a company grow so big that the 40 people that had bad experience turn into nothing but a numerical percentage figure?

Dayvuni wrote:

LunaHound wrote:The bits were sent in a small white box, around size of my finger, there is NO WAY a LR hull would fit in it.

I showed them photo of the box they sent, next to a LR to prove my point.

Nobody's perfect but that is horrible

I can imagine how it went wrong, everything fitted besides the landraider haul, so they left the haul aside to find a larger box,
and forgot about it -_-

LunaHound wrote:

DeathReaper wrote:Out of the past month 40 people gave negative feedback, while 6605 people left positive feedback for Hoard_*_bits.

That is 0.60% of people that had a bad experience with their orders.

less than 1% is a great track record for any business.

I wish I had this few complaints from customers at my job.

I know 1% is really good record ( compared to finecast too )
however, when does a company grow so big that the 40 people that had bad experience turn into nothing but a numerical percentage figure?

It all depends on how many orders the company has.

Customer service rates vary, but less than 1% is a good number to strive for.

However, the company should make the situation right, no matter how many issues they may have to deal with.

It is not difficult to make people happy, usually giving them what they ordered, in a timely manner will do.

If something is forgotten then they should do anything they can to rectify the situation.

DeathReaper wrote:Customer service rates vary, but less than 1% is a good number to strive for.

However, the company should make the situation right, no matter how many issues they may have to deal with.

It is not difficult to make people happy, usually giving them what they ordered, in a timely manner will do.

If something is forgotten then they should do anything they can to rectify the situation.

As an ebay seller I felt I had failed if I had *any* negative feedback. In my opinion there wasn't an *acceptable* number of valid complaints for people to lodge against me and if I got 40 negatives in a month, despite how many positives I got I would be concerned about it in a BIG way. As a buyer on ebay I generally don't like to order from vendors with multiple negatives in a month. I do look at feedback and if it is clear it is one really obnoxious customer who ordered a number of items and negatived them all I might give it a go, but if it is negatives from multiple customers then I am not going to order from them because multiple mistakes means that it can more easily happen to me and either the seller is overburdened which means delayed shipping, or lazy which can result in a lot of different things.

Skriker

All companies will have complaints, If you did not buy from companies that had complaints against them, you would never buy anything.

You have to find the company you like dealing with, and buy from them.

Testimonials are great for business, and negatives are bad, but 6005 to 40 in a month (Less than 1%) is a great track record for any company.

Yeah, but it's the fact that the people who left negative reviews weren't upset, but rather they were screwed out of money and never sent products or sent the wrong products and never received any correction which is the problem. If it were 40 reviews of "The order took too long to ship here" or "Seller forgot part of my package and took a week to ship it out" then I'd agree that 40/6000 is not bad. But that the complaints are "You never sent us the products we paid for and refuse to do so" or "You sent us the wrong products and will not correct this" and then the seller childishly bans them for doing such is the main problem. Once again, GREAT to the people who have had flawless transactions... but it may just be a matter of time.

Felix - exactly.

And, to update you all on my situation.

Still no product
Still no refund
Still no e-mail

And I am still banned.

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:Felix - exactly.

And, to update you all on my situation.

Still no product
Still no refund
Still no e-mail

And I am still banned.

Paypal dispute possible? Mine was too late when I was hoping they would make it "right"
I was still hoping to be their customer so I never filed mine .

Wow. This all sounds terrible. I'm normally pretty tolerant of many inventory-related issues, but when I see multiple people claiming that the company was putulant and called them liars, then I will stay away. I have never used hoard-o-bits before, and after reading some of this I never will. Especially considering window-box aka Black Dagger Games is as reliable as clockwork.

At this point man report it to paypal or contact the BBB.

Wow, now that I see that other people are having issues with him, I don't feel as bad for leaving neutral feedback. Xenocidal, that's the same thing that happened to me, minus the being banned part. It took me a month to get a $50 bits order, and he didn't communicate at all.

Is there any way all of us that have had problems with him can get together and talk to ebay or something?

He did not order though ebay, so he is out of luck there.

I have had about 20 dealing with them, no issues, they have a nice long window as well you can win three weeks worth of auctions before you have to pay to get cheep combined shipping. To the OP, its too bad you lost out on a fairly decent resource of bits.

Any updates, Xeno?

Do you hate it on ebay (bidding) when some random person outbids you at the last second and you dont get that land raider for 99p?

azazel the cat wrote:Wow. This all sounds terrible. I'm normally pretty tolerant of many inventory-related issues, but when I see multiple people claiming that the company was putulant and called them liars, then I will stay away. I have never used hoard-o-bits before, and after reading some of this I never will. Especially considering window-box aka Black Dagger Games is as reliable as clockwork.

Unless of course they are lying,..

I believe what I see with my own two eyes, not what some random person posts on the internet, especially when said random persons are .01 percent disgruntled vs 99.9 percent of those that aren't.

Basic rule to keep in mind when looking at reviews on the internet:

1) People who are happy usually never post reviews. Why would you go out of your way to post a positive review? "A company did what it was supposed to? AWESOME!" Meeting expectations usually does not cause good reviews.

2) Pissed off people will always go online to be pissed off. Rightfully so.

Since happy people don't go out of their way to post "OMG, we had an agreement and they kept it!" and pissed off people always go out of their way to post about it, the reviews will always look worse than they actually are.

Why does this thread keep popping up?

Silentway wrote:
Why does this thread keep popping up?

I can definitely provide a reason.

Last week I ordered a handful of items, including a set of 22 pairs of ork boyz legs. When my items arrived, I discovered that a $5.99 set of 8 pairs of WHFB orc legs had been substituted. I immediately tried to contact them to let them know about the error and that I'd paced another small order (at this point I still thought it was an honest mistake), and could they please simply include the right item in that order, further explaining that it would be prohibitively expensive to return the item. At any rate, that's what I would have done if eBay had simply allowed me to contact them, but, as soon as I informed them that it was regarding 'item not as described: wrong item,' the only option I had was to open a case. Which raises pretty big red flags to me and suggests eBay may already be monitoring them for having done this sort of thing before, or systematically, based on a pattern of complaints, feedback, etc. So I included that message and opened the case. Update: This has nothing to do with this seller: it's an awesome new eBay "feature."

As soon as I made it plain that I didn't want to have to send the wrong item back, the seller insisted that the item be returned, with tracking, at my expense (a cost of about 85% of what the item cost in the first place--tracking from NZ is incredibly expensive). I then offered to PAY for the item I had already been sent in error, despite not wanting it and not having ordered it, simply to save money, then called her to speak with her about it.

Despite picking up a business phone instead of just letting it go to voicemail, she then berated me for daring to call her on a Saturday afternoon. It just went downhill from there, despite which I was polite and calm for the whole conversation. She insisted that I go through ebay messages and hung up.

I went and did so, not only reiterating my offer to pay for an unwanted item in order to simply receive what I had ordered, and paid for, but also offering to ship the unwanted item back, at my expense, by a method just as quick as the tracked method simply to prove to her that I was telling the truth, whereupon she did what any sane person would do when faced with a sincere series of attempts to resolve her mistakes with my money and promptly shipped my second order without comment and BANNED ME.

(I won't buy from her again, I just wanted to confirm my suspicions that she would mark my second order shipped and then ban me, and she did not disappoint--I haven't left negative feedback, nor threatened to, nor will I if I get the items I ordered including the ork boyz legs, but this is how she does business--if you dare to call her on her mistakes, she bans you and keeps your money)

At no point did she bother to answer any of my attempts at communication, or to find a resolution to the problem. She's not the only one--less honest sellers have figured out that it's really expensive to return things once they're shipped internationally, and since eBay always makes the buyer pay for return shipping, they can ship whatever rubbish they like without fear of ever having to give a refund or accept a return.

Seriously, folks--it's the same tale. It's systematic, it's vindictive, and it's ridiculous. BUY ELSEWHERE.

I've ordered from them a few times, and I've no complaints.

I've purchased from them before, and aside from them overcharging - which you obviously come to terms with before checking out - their service has been just fine.

They've been fine every time I've used them, multiple times over the last 5 years.

Frankly, that policy is fine. If someone is unhappy enough to leave bad or neutral feedback, why have them back? While I can't boot people from my area of work when they start whining over things that are how they are(such as rules of that area), I'd love to at times. if you don't like it, why the hell would you go back? And why do they think you're going to be happier the second time? It eliminates a few buyers who would give a legitimate second chance, but most will not.

We also don't know what the actual timeline was for the TC, meaning dates and hours.

Xenocidal Maniac wrote:Felix - exactly.

And, to update you all on my situation.

Still no product
Still no refund
Still no e-mail

And I am still banned.

Still the same. I never did get a refund, my product, or a reply to my e-mail.

baritowned wrote:Wow, now that I see that other people are having issues with him, I don't feel as bad for leaving neutral feedback. Xenocidal, that's the same thing that happened to me, minus the being banned part. It took me a month to get a $50 bits order, and he didn't communicate at all.

Is there any way all of us that have had problems with him can get together and talk to ebay or something?

Sorry to hear it, but it sounds like a pattern.

baritowned wrote:Any updates, Xeno?

Unfortunately, no. Banned, ignored, ripped off.

d-usa wrote:Basic rule to keep in mind when looking at reviews on the internet:

1) People who are happy usually never post reviews. Why would you go out of your way to post a positive review? "A company did what it was supposed to? AWESOME!" Meeting expectations usually does not cause good reviews.

2) Pissed off people will always go online to be pissed off. Rightfully so.

Since happy people don't go out of their way to post "OMG, we had an agreement and they kept it!" and pissed off people always go out of their way to post about it, the reviews will always look worse than they actually are.

True. However, when you see the same complaints about the same merchant over and over again, it's a pretty good sign that there is a problem. I've been in business (in an entirely unrelated industry) for ten years and you can't find a single complaint or poor review about me anywhere.

Being that I am a small business owner myself and I know how important good / bad reviews are to a business, I am always reluctant to complain online unless I really have a good reason to. I got ripped off and got my IP banned from their site for daring to ask them to make it right. I think people should know about it and I frankly think they should be out of business.

Librariarch wrote:

Silentway wrote:
Why does this thread keep popping up?

Seriously, folks--it's the same tale. It's systematic, it's vindictive, and it's ridiculous. BUY ELSEWHERE.

Yep. Over and over. Whoever this Horde O Bits person is, is nuts.

why not just order off their site?

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
why not just order off their site?

I am banned from the site. Won't even load. I've been IP banned.

I've probably ordered from them over 40 times, without any issues.

"I've been in business (in an entirely unrelated industry) for ten years and you can't find a single complaint or poor review about me anywhere" - or you are just completely naive to it, which is far more likely.

@XM: my "people are always more likely to complain" is just a loose guideline for me. I always expect anything to have a certain amount of negative reviews. That doesn't mean that you can't see a pattern or that negative reviews are not justified. It's more of an "I will excuse X number of bad reviews" but still take a closer look if there are more than that.

Isengard wrote:

IMHO if you cannot run a competent business, answer all your mails and ship reasonably fast then you should accept criticism. I don't know this specific company and I don't have any idea if they are good or not, I'm talking generalities. For me the bottom line is an E-Bay seller takes my money, therefore they should quickly supply the goods and respond to any queries. Being on E-Bay is not an excuse for shoddy service or attitude.

In some cases, obviously, people do have very large and established "legitimate businesses" that sell exclusively through ebay. As a setting however, ebay was created for the "bedroom seller" getting rid of the occasional junk or personal collection. Expecting to be treated fairly is of course legitimate, but some people's attitudes about service and turnaround are childish and unrealistic.

I used to spend $40-$50 a month at HOB with a few big purchases of around $200, the shipping was usually very quick and I didn't have any problems ove rthe last 3-4 years.

Then 3 months ago when I put in an order for some chaos and orc bits that amounted to $54. Typically stuff from them arrives in about 4-5 days so after three weeks of waiting I was a bit curious so I checked the tracking number that had been provided through ebay. Tracking said it'd been shipped out the day after the order was submitted and the last update occured two days after shipping. Then there two weeks of no status change. I politely emailed them to ask if the package might have been returned to them or if there was any way they might be able to inquire about it at the post office.

As a seller I know that on a rare ocassion the post office loses stuff and there are delays so I wasn't particuarly upset. What changed my mind is that there was no response from them for well over a week at which point I'd already gone to two seperate post offices to see if they could provide any information which amounted to a shrug and an obvious statement of "gee that's weird it should have arrived by now". (as it was showing having entered the sort facility 3 weeks prior, which is less than 20 miles from my house )

At this point I was over a month so I filed a paypal claim which is finally what prompted HOB to actually get around to emailing me back. They said nothing had been returned and that they'd look into it and email me back. Thought to myself ok the communication level here is a bit dodgey but maybe they are just busy.

After another full week still no reply from them even though I'd sent a nice follow up email during that time, so without any other options I escalated the claim to a dispute. The dispute was left open another two full weeks before it was closed by paypal, during that time there was still ZERO communication from HOB.

I know that the package being lost wasn't their fault as the trakcing provided proof that it had happened while in the hands of the PO. I was certainly willing to work out a compromise with them but they actively ignore communication even when it's trying to be helpful in working out a mishap.

Paypal refunded my purchase (at this point a little over the two months mark) I left a neutral feedback as I was still trying to remain positive about the situation. In the feedback I stated that the order never arrived and that a refund had been granted. Honestly they deserved a huge Negative for their lack of communication but I was still trying to be fair. Immediate response from HOB was to give me a permanant ban. ::shrug::

Any semblance of communication or customer service is completely lacking with HOB. Even when being aproached by somebody attempting to work their way through a dispute they simply opt to ignore any contact. After that experience it's doubtful I'd ever want to use their service again which means some other seller will now get my business.

ordered stuff from them several times, never had a problem. Guys is a fast shipper too.

Can someone tell me any reason to buy from this terrible seller?Also I bought a moria and angmar lotr book off GW.A page ripped for no reason.Now I send them a email,get a new one everybody's happy.I go on the site:not blocked for complaining am I?You people who buy from HOB:Shame on you!how dare you leave neutral feedback!Shameful.Getting the wrong amount and type of legs:Your fault for..errr...Joining the legion of doom.Guy who didn't get a land raider:That's what you get for....hating America! (I can Imagine someone using these excuses sometime.)

Locrian wrote:
I've probably ordered from them over 40 times, without any issues.

"I've been in business (in an entirely unrelated industry) for ten years and you can't find a single complaint or poor review about me anywhere" - or you are just completely naive to it, which is far more likely.

Who are you? How do you know anything about anything? I can't believe how rude people are on the internet behind the shield of anonymity. You're just some random kid on the net. I handle transactions in the hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. I guarantee you if there were a bad review about me out there, I'd know about it. So knock the smug attitude off when you don't know a damn thing about anything.

If I gave people the same service that HOB gives their customers, I would have been out of business long, long ago. The only difference is the dollar amount. If I had anything like the terrible reviews that HOB has with the dollar amounts that I deal with, I can pretty much promise you NO ONE would do business with me. I also would be sued and possibly prosecuted criminally. But, I guess because she only rips people off for $15 here, $50 there, then bans them from her site, people just overlook it.

And what's with people rushing to her defense? What do you care? So you've had good experiences with HOB. Great. Good for you. Guess you got lucky. I guess we should all just keep our mouths shut whenever a vendor that you happen to like screws us over.

Unreal.

 Xenocidal Maniac wrote:

And what's with people rushing to her defense? What do you care? So you've had good experiences with HOB. Great. Good for you. Guess you got lucky. I guess we should all just keep our mouths shut whenever a vendor that you happen to like screws us over.

Unreal.

And what's with people rushing to condemn them? What do you care? So you've had bad experiences with HOB. Sorry. Bad for you. Guess you got screwed. I guess we should all just keep our mouths shut whenever a vendor that you happen not to like sends us what we pay for.

Unreal.

(see how that post is stupid when you complain about people discussing things on a discussion board?)

People posting that they had good experiences, or that they haven't had any problems, is not the same as people rushing in to defend the company.

Nobody is keeping you, or Paulson Games, or anybody else from sharing the problems you have had with them, if there have been problems you should report them. That doesn't mean that people shouldn't be able to post if they have had good experiences. From what I can see it looks like HOB used to be pretty good, and over the last few months they have had an increasing pattern of problems. People should take all comments that have been posted here, including the more recent problematic ones, and make a decision for themselves if it is worth the risk. (Personally, at this point I would look elsewhere for my bits)

I am still laughing at your conflicting positions of "how dare they ban me and keep me from posting my opinions" and "how dare people post their conflicting opinions here" though.

 Xenocidal Maniac wrote:
Who are you? How do you know anything about anything? I can't believe how rude people are on the internet behind the shield of anonymity. You're just some random kid on the net. I handle transactions in the hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. I guarantee you if there were a bad review about me out there, I'd know about it. So knock the smug attitude off when you don't know a damn thing about anything.

Who are you? I can't believe the number of assumptions people make on the Internet behind the shield of anonymity. You're just some random kid on the net. I can make up numbers to make me seem important too. I guarantee - like, absolutely guarantee - that if you handle transactions that large, you have unsatisfied customers. Not customers that never received the product/service, but unsatisfied customers just the same.

Discussion boards are for discussing. Different people have different opinions and experiences.

Nice to see a thread about this finally as for a long time now I felt like the only one out there that wasn't mad for HoB, but it seems like a lot of people have suffered from their lack of professionalism.

My issue with them took place several years ago and I had been a regular enough customer at the time. This particular time however I ordered some items, and I waited patiently 2mths and they still hadn't shown up. Contacted HoB, they ignored, contacted ebay on their dispute thing, HoB ignored the hails from ebay, ebay suggested I move to a PayPal dispute so I did and after a total of 3mths the ordeal ended with me getting my money back as well as a lot of sense not to buy from there again.

Wow, I can't believe a thread that I started made the front page. Or that it popped back up over a year and didn't get locked.

Anyway, I never ordered again from them (obviously, but I considered making a second account for something that only they had). Windowbox and another seller that is located less than two hours from where I live are the only ones I'll buy from.

And Xeno, it's crappy that you never got the bits or a refund. People like HOB shouldn't be in business at all if they can't take criticism from their own mistake.

I did receive a refund, along with a ridiculous lecture about how rude I was for not accepting whatever she chose to send and for for daring to open a case with ebay, despite which I had sent her a thread from an eBay forum with others complaining about just the very same problem (that you can't contact a seller through ebay messages about a wrong item without opening a case anymore).

She made it out as if refunding my money was some sort of magnanimous gesture, when in reality, the entire case was a series of different suggestions by me, all of them quite reasonable, as to how I would be willing to resolve the mix-up (as if it were even my responsibility), and she knew perfectly well that the minute I escalated it someone from ebay would look at that and rule the dispute in my favour because she had never replied to any of it. Big sellers lose privileges with ebay if too many disputes are ruled against them and she knew she was going to lose.

It's been an astonishing experience. She would clearly rather lose a customer than simply apologise and correct an error. I was more than willing to leave positives for all of the transactions if she simply made good the error; instead she chose to ignore, then ban, then antagonise me, and I felt compelled to leave negative feedback based on her behaviour.

Our phone conversation was the most telling. She berated me for opening a case, and kept doing so even after I explained I had no choice . She berated me for calling on a Saturday, although I would have been perfectly happy to leave a voicemail for her to answer on Monday and she was in no way obligated to pick up the phone. At no point did she seem in the least bit concerned with solving my problem, all the while claiming she had no idea which transaction I was talking about, although the simple fact that she was clearly already irate from the word "hello" made it pretty clear to me she knew exactly who she was talking to.

It's kind of like buying your bits from The Rhubarb Lady.

Ok, guys, I can see that I am not going to defeat the internet lynch mob hate squad here. All that is happening is that I am getting enraged and am about to put my fist through my computer monitor. My dad died last week and I don't have it in me to go at it with you guys. Order from HoB or whomever you please until you're blue in the face and go ahead and think that just because you can't maintain a 100% customer satisfaction rate that no one can. And, no, I don't deal with huge transactions, right, I am making all that up. If that makes you feel better about yourselves, great. I am very happy for you.

I could not care less and I just don't have it in me right now. I am out.

Nobody here is defending HoB.

I think your personal issues are making you see things that aren't here, and maybe it's just best if you take some personal away time to deal with them.

If people saying "I haven't had a problem with them" makes you want to punch your monitor, then it is time to walk away and deal with your real problem and get your emotions sorted out.

Loosing your dad is a hard thing to go through.

XM, take a chill pill and get off of this thread, and preferably the internet, for a few days. If it's pissing you off, get OFF, instead of raging, calling people kids(and thus displaying a "holier than tho" attitude), getting extremely defensive, and explaining how life sucks right now(that does NOT excuse name calling any more than it would excuse you yelling at a customer). Those things aren't going to make you feel better, it's just going to piss you off more.

You need to go take care of your real life through real life means, not an anonymous internet board which offers no ability to help you work through what's going on.

So after being a long term customer and a very active customer (I've blown over $400 in the past year alone from their online store) they shafted me $20 in pieces and refuse to respond. Thankfully I went through PayPal so we'll see how it goes.

Sorry to hear about this. I've bought huge amounts of stuff from them, more recently through their direct site.... perhaps it's worth paying the extra 10% and ordering thru eBay.

DO have to say that, I've had queries on quite a few of my orders; changing shipping, checking on items, and thought their customer service was terrific. That said, when I sell on eBay, I'm so paranoid about some of the unreasonable buyers out there that if I get weird or passive aggressive messages, or a 0 feedback buyer bids without emailing me first, as I ask, I always block the buyer. It's just not worth the risk.

 felixander wrote:
So after being a long term customer and a very active customer (I've blown over $400 in the past year alone from their online store) they shafted me $20 in pieces and refuse to respond. Thankfully I went through PayPal so we'll see how it goes.

say good by to buying from them then.

Yeah, they gave me the typical "Well since we ****'ed up you don't want to order from us again so we'll take care of that for you by blocking you from our website" line but they DID give me a refund.

Sorry for the slight thread-romancy here.

I'm unsure whether to worry at this point. I purchased an item from these guys a while back on ebay. After a lengthy delay they finally sent me a tracking number. The problem is that it has been 9 days since that tracking number was sent, and it has yet to be accepted by the post office. Do they usually hang onto items for a couple weeks after they have a shipping label printed?

I don't remember having problem with that particular bits vendor but purchasing bits on eBay has always carried its problems. Some bits vendors ship within a week, others have taken over a month. I wish I could work with someone more reliable than these eBay sellers, but GW has a policy of cracking down of bits vendors and most of the ones that run independent internet sites either don't sell the bits you want at all, or are out of stock on half of their listings. Sadly, shopping for bits can be an exercise in frustration.

The only "problem" I ever had with them was they accidentally sent me double my order, once, which they were okay with me keeping. Other than that it's always been perfect.

I have ordered bits from them a couple of time to get shipped to the UK and not had a problem.

I've ordered from them 21 times and always got my bits within 2 weeks, packaged well and everything accounted for.

Only complaint I've had with them is they don't put new bits intotheir store from New kits for a couple of months

I've been a frequent customer of Hoard O' Bits for a couple of years, and it wasn't until recently that I've had a problem.

Hoard O' Bits sent me an incorrect item from their bits site hoardobits.com. I've attached my original correspondence to them, their reply, and my follow-up.

Since April 28th, I've received a message stating "Unauthorized site access" when visiting their website.

From: scott_kowalczuk
To: hoard@hoardobits.com
Subject: RE: HOB Question
Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 17:39:40 -0400

Hello,

The incorrect items were shipped to you today via USPS.

The total shipping was $5.80, which you can credit to my account - I'm sure my son and I will be ordering more bits from you in the future anyway

The tracking number is 9114901230801861752503

I also included a copy of this e-mail with the returned items, which explains the part numbers.

Scott

From: hoard@hoardobits.com
To: scott_kowalczuk
Subject: Re: HOB Question
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 11:49:02 -0400

you can send the items back for an exchange, thanks

----- Original Message -----
From: scott_kowalczuk
To: hoard@hoardobits.com
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 6:20 PM
Subject: HOB Question

User Name: Scott_K
Return Email: scott_kowalczuk@live.com

Order #2014010521

Good evening,

I received the above order, and there are 2 discrepancies.

The first discrepancy is I ordered...

03172012-6-18 WARHAMMER 40K BIN BITS CHAOS DAEMONS BURNING CHARIOT - HERALD OF TZEENTCH HEAD

.. but was sent this instead... 03172012-6-17 WARHAMMER 40K BIN BITS CHAOS DAEMONS BURNING CHARIOT - HERALD OF TZEENTCH BODY

The second discrepancy is I ordered...

04252013-1-48 WARHAMMER BIN BITS HIGH ELF ON DRAGON - DRAGON HEAD with SPIKES

.. but was sent the head from this instead... 04252013-1-47 WARHAMMER BIN BITS HIGH ELF ON DRAGON - DRAGON HEAD with FINS

Please send the Herald of Tzeentch Head, and the Armoured High Elf Dragon Head.

Thank you.

On ebay, as a seller, I set up a block for buyers who

"...have under 5 feedback, &/or have -1 or more neg feedback, have been members less then 6 months, left multiple neg feedback for multiple sellers in the past 6 months, and have been inactive for the last 12 months."

I also have blocked several buyers who requested partial refunds or they'd leave neg feedback....

Lots of ways to get blocked on ebay!

You can set up bidder requirements by location, activity, etc....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I've blocked slow paying ebayers too, even if positive was left....

Even blocked a buyer who left a positive comment of just "K" but left 3 stars outta 5.....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
**** BTW, I also have worked with HoB, 100% positive dealings. *****************

The eBay feedback systems is a complete joke. Sellers who either never bother shipping or take months to ship can still somehow retain scores of 98%. Meanwhile, leaving anything short of perfect scores or leaving neutral feedback is often treated with hostility and blocks, probably because if a scammer can consistently retain over 95% positive feedback then everybody has to ensure they have nothing short of perfect scores to account for the resulting score inflation. So not only does leaving negative feedback seem to do nothing, you will probably be punished by the seller or even unrelated sellers just for leaving it.

I have long stopped bothering playing the feedback game on eBay. I don't even worry about checking sellers scores and I just leave positive feedback unless somebody openly rips me off. When I do get ripped off, I just request a Paypal refund through eBay; that has yet to fail me. The Paypal refund is basically eBays quality control mechanism now, the feedback system is just a dead husk of a system that may have worked 5 or more years ago.

I have used HOB many times (30+). Usually, I order through their site. I think their service is above average for their particular niche. I've used all the other bits sites over the years and in each case I've eventually stopped using them due to bad service, mistakes, etc. HOB has been great in resolving the one or two problems I've had with their orders over the past several years. They remain my go to choice for all bits. I'd recommend them.

I've also never had a problem out of HOB, infact I've recommended them to several friends that do make a hobby of minis. Having things shipped through military mail I'm used to long wait times so I cant tell if their's are excessive or not.

Phanixis wrote:
The eBay feedback systems is a complete joke. Sellers who either never bother shipping or take months to ship can still somehow retain scores of 98%. Meanwhile, leaving anything short of perfect scores or leaving neutral feedback is often treated with hostility and blocks, probably because if a scammer can consistently retain over 95% positive feedback then everybody has to ensure they have nothing short of perfect scores to account for the resulting score inflation. So not only does leaving negative feedback seem to do nothing, you will probably be punished by the seller or even unrelated sellers just for leaving it.

I have long stopped bothering playing the feedback game on eBay. I don't even worry about checking sellers scores and I just leave positive feedback unless somebody openly rips me off. When I do get ripped off, I just request a Paypal refund through eBay; that has yet to fail me. The Paypal refund is basically eBays quality control mechanism now, the feedback system is just a dead husk of a system that may have worked 5 or more years ago.

There seems to be an expectation that sellers are entitled to positive feedback.

If I'm not completely happy, I leave neutral feedback. (There were things I was happy with and things I wasn't...kind of the definition of a neutral experience.)

If I'm unhappy for an reason, I leave negative feedback.

That being said, after observing a number of ebay related threads, it appears that the internet (or at least the wargaming community) tends to view Ebay as the new wild west. No law, no order, no civilization but what you can force into existence yourself. If someone deals from the bottom of the deck, no one's going to lift a finger to help you. Your options are either suck it up or DRAW! (Preferably while their back is turned because, hey, this is the wild west baby!)

That being said, I appreciate everyone warning that shipping from Hoard o Bits can take so long (as well as the forewarning that they have such a petty and vindictive policy regarding feedback!). I'm planning on ordering some pieces from them at some juncture in the future, so it's good to get some advanced warning.

I'm confused about the OP here.

He had a bad experience with a small shop. Why would you then return to that shop when you have clearly identified others that you've successfully done business with? It's not like HoB has a corner on the market for bits sales.

I appreciate any and all warnings about dealings with certain providers; however I think the OP is a bit disingenuous with claims of trying to place a second order from a group that he clearly didn't have a good experience with.

Luide wrote:

Red Comet wrote:I haven't used them, but that policy seems childish. I can understand that they don't want negative feedback, but at the cost of losing a potential returning customer? That's ridiculous imo.

Not really. First, those giving negative feedback are rarely returning customers. Second, even if they were to come back, are they worth the effort?
That policy is very good way for Ebay business to 1) make sure their negative feedback stays low 2) concentrate their efforts on "better" customers.

In my previous work we had a client who were generally PITA. Always wanting discounts, not planning their systems properly so when they were configured there always were surprises, always wanting projets done short timetable. Margins from their projects were low to non-existent and stress levels from having to deal with them high.
Now, we were strapped for manpower at that time, so in retrospect, we'd have been far better off by not having them as clients at all.

Tl;dr:
Losing poor client can be a good thing for business. Especially if the resources of the business is already stretched thin.

This is business 101. Do you take the $10 million dollar contract that you will spend $900k to complete, or do you take the $1 million dollar contract you will spend $100k to complete? It is common for businesses to refuse service to customers. No shirt/no shoes/no service as an example, or bathrooms for paying customers only.

Choosing not to do business with someone who can cost you more business or is generally to much of a pain to deal with (i.e. increases effort which reduces profit) is neither childish or inappropriate, it's simply necessary to survive.

Now, I'm not saying the OP was that much of a pain, but enforcing a lock on customers isn't horrid, and what they've done is make it easy for themselves so that they don't have to make a judgment call each time.

For the record, I've used them and been perfectly satisfied with them.

I've bought from them numerous times without many issues. They sent me the wrong bit once. I emailed them and told them what I ordered and what I received, and they sent me a replacement immediately.

I don't believe I did anything wrong. In fact, I believe I was polite and professional about it. Certainly no reason for her to be a c you n t and block me. As Clively stated - she doesn't have a corner on the market, so I'll gladly take my business elsewhere.

clively wrote:
I'm confused about the OP here.

He had a bad experience with a small shop. Why would you then return to that shop when you have clearly identified others that you've successfully done business with? It's not like HoB has a corner on the market for bits sales.

I appreciate any and all warnings about dealings with certain providers; however I think the OP is a bit disingenuous with claims of trying to place a second order from a group that he clearly didn't have a good experience with.

He didn't have a bad experience though, he had a neutral one. Most of my consumer experiences are neutral. I pay my money, get my crap, and get along my way. The original poster was probably (given the company) satisfied with the price, but not the shipping time (which wound up being half again as long as they said it would be). Seems pretty neutral to me. When it comes time to buy more bits, they're still the cheapest, so he goes back to them. Unfortunately, their childish business practices have placed a higher value on a positive ebay feedback score than on return business.

Ever since discovering this information about them, I'm seriously debating whether or not to give them anymore of my business. This is not what professional adults do. It is what spoiled children do.

 Jimsolo wrote:

clively wrote:
I'm confused about the OP here.

He had a bad experience with a small shop. Why would you then return to that shop when you have clearly identified others that you've successfully done business with? It's not like HoB has a corner on the market for bits sales.

I appreciate any and all warnings about dealings with certain providers; however I think the OP is a bit disingenuous with claims of trying to place a second order from a group that he clearly didn't have a good experience with.

He didn't have a bad experience though, he had a neutral one. Most of my consumer experiences are neutral. I pay my money, get my crap, and get along my way. The original poster was probably (given the company) satisfied with the price, but not the shipping time (which wound up being half again as long as they said it would be). Seems pretty neutral to me. When it comes time to buy more bits, they're still the cheapest, so he goes back to them. Unfortunately, their childish business practices have placed a higher value on a positive ebay feedback score than on return business.

Ever since discovering this information about them, I'm seriously debating whether or not to give them anymore of my business. This is not what professional adults do. It is what spoiled children do.

Except that for Ebay, positive feedback is business. People will refuse to buy from folks with lower ratings (even from people with 98% good feedback). So, not doing business with people who hurt that rep may mean a lost customer, but it also means you don't loose others.

 Maniac_nmt wrote:


Except that for Ebay, positive feedback is business. People will refuse to buy from folks with lower ratings (even from people with 98% good feedback). So, not doing business with people who hurt that rep may mean a lost customer, but it also means you don't loose others.

Perhaps a shopkeeper that experiences miscommunication/disconnects frequently enough with his client base to require sustained protection from those same clients has a larger issue elsewhere.

Disavowing oneself from the rare "difficult" customer is one thing.

When self preservation demands a detailed, established policy or procedure for extricating oneself from what should instead be a source of potential income seems a little on the dysfunctional side, and not necessarily the most efficient or profitable path to success. Or so it seems to my eyes.

hurtmypony wrote:

 Maniac_nmt wrote:


Except that for Ebay, positive feedback is business. People will refuse to buy from folks with lower ratings (even from people with 98% good feedback). So, not doing business with people who hurt that rep may mean a lost customer, but it also means you don't loose others.

Perhaps a shopkeeper that experiences miscommunication/disconnects frequently enough with his client base to require sustained protection from those same clients has a larger issue elsewhere.

Disavowing oneself from the rare "difficult" customer is one thing.

When self preservation demands a detailed, established policy or procedure for extricating oneself from what should instead be a source of potential income seems a little on the dysfunctional side, and not necessarily the most efficient or profitable path to success. Or so it seems to my eyes.

As someone who runs an ebay business, my main source of income, this type of policy is completely understandable. With the amount of power that buyers have, there are very few options left available. Like Maniac_nmt wrote positive feedback is business, not only do buyer tend to only buy from the very highly ranked, but ranking in the ebay sellers affects where your item will show up whether it will be near the top or not on best match which is what a lot of people use to find items. I have the same policy, of course I don't list it because that just seems like kicking a beehive which is what has happened here. That being said I'm not defending HOB since it seems they are doing a lot of things wrong.

Had one very small order get lost in the mail, yet had dozens of good orders and would have stayed a customer. Would have even been willing to eat that small order, but their complete lack of response was not cool and I got banned from their auctions for leaving a neutral. Never once complained, I just asked how we could resolve the situation so I was hardly a unhappy or angry bidder, but they decide to ignore people even when they are being perfectly reasonable.

Their loss as I'd rather deal with people who don't treat their repeat customers like crud. GW parts from Blackdagger or Windowbox are all the same plastic crack, without the attitude.

Yeah, I've dealt a lot with them, always have had great service. Only thing I could say is once I ordered the Chimera lions head, and got one half of the reptile head by mistake. Contacted them and the sent out a brand new head, didn't even want the old one back.

Now they are the only bitz dealer ill use.

Yes, a few years ago I got an item from him and a piece was missing, it so happens it was the important weapon bit I wanted for a kitbash Vampire model. He refused to believe me that it was missing, so I had to file a complaint with the resolution center. He finally replaced it and banned me from ever buying from him again. whatever....When you deal in bitz eventually you'll lose track of an important piece here and there. Hell I lose important pieces here and there and I don't deal in Bitz. He should have understod that. I even offered to send him the original lot so he could attempt to make money from it, however he just gave me a rude response.