Finally!!

I buy things on eBay from time to time, and usually I have pretty good luck with the items I get. Occasionally, there are issues. I experienced an issue on my most recent purchase and it took nearly a month to get it resolved. Here's the rundown.

• Through eBay's "second chance" feature, I won a Garmin GPSMap 60csx on May 27.
• I completed the checkout via the eBay website and verified my address.
• As a good/impatient eBay buyer, I used PayPal to pay for my item.
• My item shipped on June 1st.

Then, I noticed a problem....

It turned out that while I had updated my address on eBay, my old address was still listed on PayPal. Unbeknownst to me, there's a rule for sellers that states that packages must be shipped to the PayPal address, not the eBay address. This is not stated anywhere during the checkout process.

Despite my message to the seller to change the address prior to shipping, it ended up suffering though the longest trip between Georgia and Tennessee, ever (click "Show Details").

During this ordeal, I finally contacted the seller. By the way, I would like to say that while the seller was fair, they were incredibly unresponsive unless strong language and repeated e-mails with read receipts were sent.

I watched as my package ping-ponged back and forth between Atlanta and Knoxville. I even went to the post office in Knoxville and asked them to flag down the package if it ever came back again (fortunately/unfortunately, it never returned).

After nearly two weeks, my package came to rest at the seller's address. It then took another 5 days to get the seller to resend the package out (needing at least 3 e-mails, 2 with read receipts). Finally, on Friday, June 20th, 24 days after winning the item, I had it in my hands.

So, what do I think of it? That will be the subject of a further post. However, I am enjoying what I see so far. I'll write a review once I am able to post some finds.

As for my eBay experience, I do not think that it is entirely the seller's fault, and certainly I can share in the blame for not having a current address on PayPal. However, I feel that if shipping info as it relates to eBay/PayPal were more explicit and if the seller were more responsive, this would not have been an issue. Even if the seller was not able to change the address, I could have met the package at the old address (an apartment complex) and stopped it there by speaking with the apartment manager.