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At least one other Rubberslugger has to my knowledge had a recent bad experience with the ebay seller originalanimearts. My bad experience is now essentially closed (and bad); as 80 characters is not enough to convey the problems this seller causes, I'm sharing my experience with the community to properly warn them. I invite the other Rubberslugger (or any others with similar experiences) to share his story here as well.
The seller does business as originalanimearts on ebay, but payment is actually to John Kalning (or John M. Kalning, or Jon Kalning, or Jon M. Kalning), 121 East Xth Street #XXX, Los Angeles, CA 90014; (213) 925-XXXX or 213-612-XXXX.
The seller has a quantity of Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust cels that he is is selling on eBay. I won one of these auctions on 7/9, a D16 cel of D walking (fairly small image size) towards the viewer (a bit to the viewer's left) with his sword out to his right side; item 160004895123. The auction went for less than similar auctions had been going for. I promptly paid for the auction plus $8 shipping via paypal.
Two weeks later, I had not yet received the cel, although I'd received a USPS tracking number, which showed nothing other than that a tracking number had been created. I also won a Cowboy Bebop drawing from the seller. I contacted the seller asking that if the VHD cel hadn't been shipped, to combine them so I could save on shipping. No response for a couple of days. I emailed again on 7/26. I received this reply on 7/26:
"Hi there,
I can ship them together. ASAP. I thought I sent this VHD cel the week you paid for it, but its still in my outbox. I apologize and you can put a $8.00 discount on your paypal payment."
I received the package 8/16; it had shipped on 8/14, and an automated email was sent to me with shipping information as had been done with the unsent cel package. So much for ASAP. It also didn't include the VHD cel. I emailed him that day about the situation. No reply. A week later, I emailed him again. No reply. 8/25, I contacted him through eBay's system in the event his system was refusing my email. No reply.
9/5, I opened a dispute in eBay's system (this is more for show than anything; eBay charges you $25 if you are successful in pursuing a dispute, more than the cost of the item in this case). Paypal refused to let me open a dispute because it had been more than 45 days (technically, it turns out they opened a dispute, but said "tough luck, we won't do anything after 45 days"). No reply from the seller. The 60 day limit my credit card company has for opening a chargeback was only a few days away, so 9/6 I contacted my credit card company and initiated a chargeback to protect myself (20 minutes to half an hour on the phone). I also email the seller to advise him of this and encourage him to send me the item or at least respond to me about the issue. No response.
9/15, Paypal is notified (or admits they've been notified) of the chargeback and opens a case for it that they'll actually respond to. They email me and the seller that this is occurring. The same day, there is a listing in their log that "Email send to Paypal" (sic) is an action associated with the seller. Presumably, the seller actually responded to them. I don't know what is in it tho, as it is not revealed to the person with the dispute. I sent yet another message to the seller via eBay's dispute system attempting to get him to send me the cel so I could end the chargeback. At some time approximately two weeks later (there is no date in the dispute, and no emails are sent regarding conclusions of dispute from Paypal), the dispute was closed. To find out how it was closed, I had to go somewhere else, which then told me "The chargeback case is closed because there is insufficient evidence to dispute the chargeback."
10/3, 10 weeks since I last heard from him, more than 7 weeks since I told him there was a problem (during which time he has listed a number of auctions on eBay on separate days, and responded to at least one negative feedback on eBay, meaning he was not out of contact), several days after the chargeback was complete, and four days before the time guaranteed by eBay for leaving feedback expires, the seller responded to the eBay dispute opened 9/5:
"PLease give me your paypal address. This cel was sent out, but you obviously never recieved it and I never recieved it back. I can give you a full refund including shipping. I am so sorry this happened. If I do recieve this cel back to me I will email you and sell it back to you for %50 off the original price. I just want this matter to be resolved."
No automated message was sent to me other than for the package the seller admitted had not been sent (the tracking information for which never changed from the basic shipping information received message after the email was sent initially until it disappeared from the USPS servers for being too old a number) and for the Bebop package that was received that did not include the VHD cel. For the statement to be true, he would have had to have altered his apparently standard shipping practices and sent out the cel not with the Bebop drawing but separately (or else the cel somehow mysteriously vanished from the package with the Bebop drawing between being sent out and arriving here).
I sent him a message explaining that his timing was suspect and that feedback would be left at the appropriate time (this is still 10/3).
10/6, one day before the guaranteed comment period, I left the following negative feedback (using abbreviations as 80 characters is nowhere near enough space):
"Failed to send 2X. No reply for 7 wks; only replied after CC chargeback"
10/10, seller left the following negative feedback for me:
"I still havent recieved this item back. So either you have it or its lost thanks"
to which my reply was:
"No reply for 7 weeks on item not received, but retaliates to neg ASAP; scum"
So, to sum up: At best, originalanimearts/John Kalning is (edit 12/19) and slow to ship based on sitting on a package for two weeks that he admits to, and he has demonstrated by continued failures to respond that he is unable or unwilling to communicate for long periods of time about important matters regarding auctions that have problems, unless of course you leave negative feedback in which case he'll leave negative feedback for you in about 1 business day. (edit 12/19) I encourage all Rubbersluggers to consider the seller's actions and act accordingly. I also encourage you to link to this message from other conglomerations of cel buyers so that they may also act accordingly.
(UPDATE 10/16: Seller is now making (edit 12/19) counterfactual statements in feedback replies, claiming that there was no chargeback and that he refunded my money. (edit 12/19)
UPDATE 11/2: Seller sent a request to mutually withdraw feedback on 10/20. "Message from seller: I recieved the cel back and I'd like to remove the negative I left." Ebay does not allow one sided withdrawal of feedback of course; so if I were to accept, the blight on his feedback score would go away. So while his wrong feedback will stay on my feedback, I see insufficient reason to allow him to expunge his record without something in it for me. I sent him the following demand: "Answering each of the following questions in a timely manner is a necessary condition for me to engage in feedback withdrawal in eBay's feedback system, but it is not enough by itself as you have cost me far too much time, effort and headache by your unresponsiveness. Answer the questions and we will go from there:
1) When did you receive the cel back?
2) When did you send the cel?
3) What led to the cel being returned to you? Insufficient postage? Failure to address pr
Edited Jan 29 at 3:18 PM
That's a bit more info than we needed, Ted, but I get the gist and appreciate your predicament.
I've dealt with John for years and haven't had any problems- until my last order.
I think he has got slower in dealing with sales, but I know he also spends time overseas which causes problems.
Hope things work out.
