HEADS UP If You Buy Or Sell On Half.com

[moonrise]

Looks like Half.com has a mess on their hands.

Over the last few days, some buyers' orders are disappearing. Everything looks fine when the order is placed. But afterwards, the confirmation e-mail never arrives, and the transaction doesn't show up in the buyer's "Purchases" list. The items are also not showing up in buyers' "feedback-to-be-left" list. They're just gone! I've got two orders missing from 9/12 and 9/14, and possibly a third one from today, before I realized there was a problem.

On the sellers' ends, best I can tell from my own purchases, the DVD's were deducted from the sellers' inventories. I just sent an e-mail to one of the sellers to see if my order came through on his end. I'm willing to bet it didn't, because I've bought from this seller before, and he always sends a personal confirmation/shipping note right away. This time I haven't received one. The DVD's appear to be missing from his inventory, although he's got several thousand items listed, including some duplicates, so it's impossible to say for sure.

I unfortunately don't know the other seller's ID. I did find someone in my browser's history that MAY be him (I'm 99% sure it is). If so, the two DVD's I bought from him have been deducted from his inventory.

So ... if you're a buyer and have orders missing, they may or may not have gone through. Some people have reported on their help forum that they've already been charged for these missing orders. As of yet, the charges haven't shown up on my bank account, but it usually takes a few days.

If you're a seller, you may have items mysteriously missing from your inventory that have actually sold, but you weren't notified. Some sellers have mentioned missing inventory items on their help forum.

I (and several others) have sent an e-mail to Half.com's support, but as of yet, it doesn't appear that Half.com has offered any answers.

What a mess.

Link to help forum: http://forums.ebay.com/db1/forum/Halfcom/1000000002

[moonrise]

I just heard back from the seller. Nope, he didn't get notified of the order, and his nearly 4,000-item inventory is in chaos. Boy, I feel for him.

My inquiry:

Hi,

I received my Half.com order from 9/8, and am very happy with everything. Thanks so much!

I placed another order from you on Half.com on 9/12 for a total of $28.87, however, the transaction doesn't show up in my purchases, nor did I receive a confirmation e-mail. According to the Half.com forum, this is happening to a lot of buyers. Can you tell me if my second order went through? It was for several DVD's, including [list omitted - nothing interesting - LOL!]. Apparently these missing orders are being deducted from sellers' inventories, but I don't know if sellers are being notified of the sale. It's been going on for several days. Here's a link to their forum if you'd like to read about it: http://forums.ebay.com/db1/forum/Halfcom/1000000002

Just wanted to give you a "heads up", and to also ask if you received confirmation of my order.

Thanks,
my name

His response:

Thank you for contacting us about this. It does appear that there is a glitch and that is what happened to this order. It's not showing up in our sales page, or your purchase page. It doesn't appear as the seller is even getting the money credited to their account for these missing orders. Since you were charged [by Half.com, although it hasn't come through my bank yet], it might be best for you to try and get your money back. I hate that the items are going away from our inventory list because we have no way of knowing which items were purchased, so they will just be sitting on shelves and not even be listed. The only way I find the DVDs is by the markings beside my comments, like (J1). But I don't think there is any way for us to view the order to find them so I am not sure what to do yet.

[tedsky]

I'll tell hubby not to use half.com for a while. He loves buying his dvds from there.

[moonrise]

Originally Posted by tedsky

I'll tell hubby not to use half.com for a while. He loves buying his dvds from there.

I do too. It works out better for me than a service like Netflix. I can re-sell any movies or video games we're finished with, and keep the ones we want to watch/play again. And it's soooo much cheaper than buying them new.

So far I haven't received a confirmation e-mail from this morning's purchase, nor is it showing up in my "Purchases" list. I guess it's MIA too.

[loveofpast]

Thanks sooo much for the heads up. I just started listing with them again and haven't put up but a few items as I haven't had time but I'll keep an eye on this. Appreciate knowing this so I won't do any more until I think it's fixed. We would appreciate your posting anything else you hear.
Thanks again

[toystover]

There are two threads about this problem on the half board ...

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/Hal...rder/520151282

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/Hal...sing/510135613

I bought some books on the 15th and am having the same problem. It was only $10.00 (glad not more!) ...it's showing as pending on my CC.

[moonrise]

Mine's just over $50 total for the 3 missing orders.

I haven't heard a peep back from Half.com yet (no surprise there ), and still haven't seen anything "official" posted on their help board. Several more people have posted with the same problem, though.

I bet there's a lot more people who are waiting for their purchases to arrive, and don't even realize there's a problem.

Best as I can tell, it started around 9/11. IMO, it's totally unacceptable that Half.com hasn't posted an announcement to let everyone know what's going on, and what they're doing about it. For that matter, they really need to send e-mails to every single member, too, in addition to an announcement.

[moonrise]

Well, Half.com finally said something. They acknowledge there's a problem, but don't say exactly how they're fixing it.

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/Hal...iple/510136350

We are aware that when some members purchase multiple items, the sales are not being completed. The items are being removed from the seller inventories and are not restored. This does not appear to affect single item purchases. We are working to resolve this problem as quickly as possible.

[moonrise]

Okay, a charge for $4.xx has come through my bank for a single-item purchase made on 9/15. That transaction is correct. I did get the confirmation e-mail for it, and it does show up in my "Purchases" list.

Still no sign of any charges for the missing multi-item purchases made on 9/12, 9/14, and 9/16 (today, which for sure wouldn't have had time to come through yet).

Edit: IGNORE THE NEXT (grayed-out) PARAGRAPHS. POSSIBLY INCORRECT. UPDATED POST TO FOLLOW.

I'm going to hesitantly guess that the missing transactions either won't be charged at all, and that any that do get charged will be either never make it past the "pending" state or will be refunded if they do actually go through. In other words, I have a feeling they'll cancel the missing transactions completely. That's just a guess, though. I'm going to leave them "subtracted" in my checkbook until I know for sure one way or the other. I really would've liked the DVD's, but with the unexpected truck repair this week, either way is fine with me. I just hope they handle it promptly so I can straighten my checkbook out. And I hope they can fix the sellers' inventories!

Some people had mentioned on the forum that they purchased school books, and needed them ASAP. It'll totally stink for them if they have to wait the mess out to see if they need to re-order or not.

[moonrise]

I just got the confirmation e-mail for this morning's multi-item purchase, and it's listed on my "Purchases" list. So it looks like it'll go through.

Still nothing at all on the 9/12 and 9/14 purchases.

[toystover]

Me too ...

Originally Posted by moonrise

I just got the confirmation e-mail for this morning's multi-item purchase, and it's listed on my "Purchases" list. So it looks like it'll go through.

[moonrise]

I just woke up and found that my 9/14 order came through.

Still nothing on the 9/12 order. Maybe they're working their way backwards.

[loveofpast]

Thanks very much for keeping us updated.

[moonrise]

Update:

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/Hal...iple/510136350

We recently experienced a technical problem with the Half.com site that was causing some purchases to not be processed correctly in our system. Our technicians were informed and they fixed the problem. They are currently working to reprocess orders that were affected. Your order should hopefully now be appearing in your Half.com "Purchases" page. If it is not there right now, it should appear within the next 24 hours.

So far my remaining missing order isn't showing up, but hopefully it will soon.

[moonrise]

No updated announcements from Half.com.

Still no response to my e-mail to their support dept. Not even an automated "we got your e-mail" response.

And my remaining missing order still isn't showing up.

Bah.

[moonrise]

My missing order just appeared.

Hope all the sellers aren't so confused that they don't know whether to ship people's stuff or not.

Half.com REALLY REALLY needs to send an e-mail to each and every member, both buyers and sellers, letting everyone know what's going on. IMO, they've handled this VERY poorly.

[Empires]

Posts: 109
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Get your Half.com listings on eBay Today!



May 8, 2009 6:24 PM

• Report

Starting today, your listings on Half.com can also be displayed on eBay. We've made the process for getting your Half.com listings on eBay as simple as possible. If you and your listings qualify, all you have to do is opt-in. By opting- in, you'll get these benefits:

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To opt-in now:
1. Log in to “My Account” on Half.com.
2. Click the “Sell on eBay” link in the left hand navigation.
3. Click the “Sell My Items on eBay” button on the bottom of the page.

Thank you,

Meredith
Half.com Trust & Safety

[moonrise]

I heard back from Half.com this morning. It was a typical canned answer that only covered part of the concerns I had, and didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. I e-mailed them back, but at this point, I'm not expecting a miracle.

As an aside, I received two of the missing orders today. One DVD order looks fine. The other order of DVD's was advertised as being in "like new" and "very good" condition ... but they're scratched all to ****, and are the worst-looking DVD's I've ever received. It looks like someone strapped them to their shoes and tried to ski down a concrete hill. Okay, slight exaggeration, but they are really bad-looking. I'll be surprised if they play. Guess I'll test them ASAP, and e-mail the seller if necessary. The seller somehow has 100% positive feedback, but these DVD's are so mis-described it's not even funny.

ETA: Does anyone know of another site where you can buy used DVD's and/or video games for a reasonable price? I did the Swap-A-DVD thing for awhile, but the wait lists for the more popular movies are too long for my tastes.

[moonrise]

No further response from Half.com.

The DVD's wouldn't play correctly. One wouldn't play at all, except for the menu screen, and the other tried to play, but kept freezing every couple of seconds, making the playback too "jerky" to watch. I e-mailed the seller, and she refunded my money. She didn't mention whether she wanted the DVDs back, so I popped them into an envelope and will mail them back to her tomorrow. DH said that if she has one of those DVD "doctor" machines, maybe the discs can be fixed.

[Tempest]

Originally Posted by moonrise

DH said that if she has one of those DVD "doctor" machines, maybe the discs can be fixed.

Sorry about the DVD's... I don't know about online but sometimes in cities they have a place you can buy cheap used... Rental places will sell them for under $10 and some stores will give you a discount for DVDs or Movies you bring into them (there is one in the mall in Albany but for the life of me I can't remember it's name, other then it is national)

Our local Movie Gallery repairs DVD's for $2 at one point Nick and I had one because our games got scratched and unplayable I should buy another one the one we had was like $30 and worked fantastically, so in the long run probably would be worth it.

Anyway Gald you got your money back