I sell product on ebay, so didnt expect my income to be that adversely affected by the corona virus. I thought I may see a reduction in sales, but that I would still be able to see the crisis through, as long as sales didn't decline too much. I dont want to become a burden on the taxpayer, so hoping to avoid claiming any govt grants or welfare.
However I wasn't expecting a sharp increase in supposedly 'faulty' product, & a request for refunds.
I normally get maybe 2 or 3 returns a year for faulty or damaged product. However today alone I have had 4 return requests, all complaining about issues with the product that I KNOW are not true. This is more than a whole year's returns in just one day.
I don't think it is any coincidence that this has happened just after the govt announced the closure of all non-essential services. I guess that people are losing their jobs, so don't want to have to pay for the product they ordered, which they probably purchased on credit card.
The problem is that I have no choice but to refund these people, & I even have to pay the return postage if I want the product back, because if I don't refund them willingly, ebay will refund them on my behalf.
I contacted ebay & told them that these are fraudulent returns. For instance, 1 customer said there was no label on the bottle. As I personally packed the product, I am 200% certain there WAS a label on it when sent, because this is not something I would overlook, as I have to wrap it in bubble wrap & cardboard 1st. There is no possible way I could not notice the label was missing. Other refund requests are equally spurious.
The problem is ebay doesn't care. They just say they cannot verify anything, so I have to refund the customer. Every refund is the equivalent of the profit from 3 sales, so I basically have done a whole days work for nothing in packing & posting product, as well as the loss of product.
I wouldn't mind so much if they were honest for the return reason, saying they cannot now afford it because of lost job or downturn in business. However these people are probably hoping I won't want to pay the return postage cost, so I will tell them to keep it & they will get the product for free.
Anybody else having these issues with their business?
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I don't know what to tell you; but I know eBay doesn't play around.
Ugh...that's a tough one. Policy change time? Just a thought. One word comes to mind...Dicks!
@doG
Unfortunately ebay controls the policy. Sellers dont have a say in it. I have never once heard of a case where ebay have sided with the seller.
Business? What business. I was due to begin a new job on the first here in Korea. The company pays for my apartment and then I get a salary on top of that. I have just retired from a University Counseling and Teaching position.
So I moved to the new city. Lucky for me I got everything moved by the first. That was just in time for the Korean government to close all schools, even the new private school I will eventually be working at. So, no income since the first.
Well, at least I am not losing money. Well, not a lot of money anyway. Because the school is not open, I can not transfer. I have to go to immigration and get a special job search visa, D10, for $130.00 Then, after the 6th, of next month, when the school is scheduled to open, I get to go to immigration again and pay for a regular E2 visa, so I can work/. Another $130. Fuck Me! In the mean time, Korea is playing the social distancing game. I get to sit in my apartment on the computer for the next two weeks. WHAT FUN!
@coG
...all the more time for what really counts, us.
@doG. Isn't that amazing. I just started "The Day the Universe Changed" Been doing some online house hunting. Took a trip to immigration. Sent $300 to a friend in the Philippines whose daughter is going to a police academy. Put on a virus suit so Sheldon would not infect me with his human slime. AND! Spent my day enjoying my time here in the funny pages! Everything Important!
@coG
Its truly sad that it takes humans so long to figure out what is truly important.
@ilovechloe
As a committed Ebay buyer, I sympathise.
I buy a LOT of stuff on Ebay. I have needed to return things maybe 4 times over 3 years and over a hundred purchases. Ebay has usually, but not always taken my side . At worst I've received a part refund. .
Guess I'm naive. It simply did not occur to me that more than the occasional crook would try it on to get their money back .I understand that people who do that often get a bad rep and can be banned. (?) But I think you're right, people are desperate for money.
I thought Ebay purchases would actually rise. I do hope things pick up for you.
Well...interesting financial times...Canadian parliament asking for unilateral financial decision making without parliament approval until December 2021. Hmmmm...
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/nationalpost.com/news/covid-19-bill-would-gi...
Edited to add: comments like this “ I suspect the federal government was shocked by the EI claims last week,...”
See - tell everyone stay home...shut down business...”shock at EI claims”...ask for blank cheque
Lots of confidence here (eye rolling)
Edited to add: https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/politics/article...
The fun begins...
@White
"Well...interesting financial times...Canadian parliament asking for unilateral financial decision making without parliament approval until December 2021. Hmmmm..."
It is said that death and taxes are the only certainties. To that I think we may safely add that governments of all stripes will increase their power whenever the opportunity arises.
In recent years I think the US has taken the biscuit for a democracy: It used the 9/11 disaster as an opportunity; it abolished habeas corpus with the Patriot Act, and the sinister sounding Department Of Homeland Security. Add to those, Guantanamo a Bay prison and the practice of rendition.
It was after reading the Patriot Act that I decided not to visit the US again as much as love the country and my American relatives. My logic was and is; if they will treat their own citizens like that, what will they do to a foreigner? Under Trump, it's become worse.
I am no longer able to make long trips, so it doesn't matter any more-----
@MY CORONA VIRUS STORY:
So yesterday I had to go to immigration to extend my visa from an E2 work visa to an D10 seeking employment visa. That means a one hour bus drive to immigration, a $5 taxi ride, waiting in line, and then a one hour return trip with another $5 taxi drive.
I have a job already but the school has been shut down by the government due to the corona virus. My visa expires on the 31st.
Okay, so I spend an hour at immigration only to find out that I need a photograph.
No one mentioned that before but there is a photo machine in the immigration department. $10 for six, very poor photos. Then they tell me that I need to get some paperwork from the school. Not a real problem but it means I must return the following day.
10 AM the next morning, I make the same trip. I have 2 photos in my pocket just in case. Lucky me. I get there, fill out the new paperwork annnnnnnnd..... they have lost the photo I gave them yesterday. Predictable! But I am prepared.
Next, they tell me that transferring the visa will cost $130. Not a problem. I get out the ole visa card and take a cash advance of $200. I just don't want to dip into savings.
So the way this works is that I have to go stand in the line for the cashier. So I wait some more. I get to the cashier and the immigration worker that has been helping me, comes up and tells me that I do not need to spend the $130. My visa is automatically extended to April 30 because of the corona virus.
So I hop in the taxi, hop on the bus, spend an hour going home after 2 hours in the immigration office. Get home, flop on the bed, and SCREAM!!!!
WHAT THE FUCK! These assholes could not have spent 10 minutes telling me that two FUCKING DAYS AGO!!! ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
On the good side, I am legally in Korea until the 30th of April. I do have a new job and I am living in a nice apartment, rent paid by the school until school starts. I have an extra 200 dollars in my pocket and a lot of free time to annoy Tin Man and Old man. And then there is always getting my belly rubbed by Whitefire13.
@Cognostic:
Your post brought back not-so-fond memories of the Japanese version of immigration hell. The first time I renewed in 1971 I was in the queue behind a nun. Not a Mother Teresa hag, but a lovely Audrey Hepburn nun. When she got to the window, her papers were out of order, and the official just yelled and raged at her, reducing her to tears. Then came my turn. He told me my case was probably hopeless but said I should write a begging letter to the minister and sent me off to one of the scribes. Yes. They actually had scribes like in ancient Rome or Egypt.
They had a system where you wait in line for two hours and they tell you come back with a photo. Then you wait another two hours and they tell you to come back with a revenue stamp. And then you wait another two hours and they give you a form to fill out and go to the back of line again.
And out the back the bureau chief is selling visas to a gangster pimp for his next batch of imported waitresses/singers (sex slaves).
@Algebe: I guess they have gotten better at it. My last trip to Hiroshima to renew a visa was 98 I think. If you get to the embassy before 12 noon, they will have your paperwork for you on the following day after 12 noon.
They must have gotten smart. Too many complaints like yours. Now they just take the paperwork, kick the foreigners out, and then give you your shit the next day.
Re harrowing frustrating day
Gently rubs belly with rolling pin...
@White: Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (STARTLED!!!!) What the fuck was that?
Monkeys don't purr/ It must be gas!
Re: Canada emergency funds...
So Trudeau, eh, said they’re still debating and working on it, eh - no unilateral powers - we are still going to protect our democratic processes, eh
Just reading in Huff post that PRISONS all over the world seem to be in trouble. Countries such as UK,US and Canada don't have national protocols in place. Experts have warned that the virus will spread through prison populations 'like wildfire'. No reports of a major outbreak yet, but US ' Rikers island looks promising.
Seems like a pretty extreme way to reduce the prison population.
In the mean time in the US, Trump wants the see full churches at Easter. The Republican senate leader has spoken out against Trump's dangerously stupid comment, one of the-flying-spaghetti-monster-knows-how-many.
I'm still trying to arrange delivery of my groceries. Today will see if my chemist will deliver my meds. (they don't usually) THEN see if my new super clinic (12 doctors) will send my scripts direct to my chemist.
Guess which Hollywood producer/sex fiend has tested positive in Rikers Island.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-23/source-harvey-weinst...
@Algebe
Yair, I saw that.
From what I've been reading, the poor chap really does have a dicky ticker. Gee he might die. How sad.
Seems Covid19 hasn't quite reached international prison systems yet. Apparently, in the US at least it won't be long before prisoners start dropping like flies. .
Colorado has a huge prison industry. They shut down all normal visitation over a week ago. Seems the bean counters at the top of the for profit prison industry saw how bad it would be for their bottom line if they had an outbreak in the prisons. (They get paid per bed filled, and are responsible for medical costs, even if they may be substandard.
@logicFTW
"Colorado has a huge prison industry. They shut down all normal visitation over a week ago. Seems the bean counters at the top of the for profit prison industry saw how bad it would be for their bottom line if they had an outbreak in the prisons. (They get paid per bed filled, and are responsible for medical costs, even if they may be substandard."
I don't understand how the US gets away with sub standard private prisons. Are they not denying prisoners rights under the constitution?
I understand that in some states, convicted felons lose the right to vote, permanently? Again surely a constitutional issue? Here although a person may not vote whilst in prison, he/she may as soon a they are released.
The US has the largest prison population in the world. It is my understanding that a large proportion are there due to non violent drug offences. (?) Is there no serious effort to change the drug laws, especially since marijuana is now becoming legalised? To what degree if any, do you think it's a race issue.?
To clarify : Iit is my opinion that people are sent to prison AS punishment, not TO BE punished. That their human rights are not abrogated once they are in prison.
Here? Well ,in this sate our Maximum security prison is called "Yatala Labour Prison" " and is about 5 miles down the road from me. I can see it from my back deck. It's a hideous victorian monstrosity, built of local stone in 1854 ( the colony was founded in 1836)
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"Yatala Labour Prison is a high-security men's prison located in the north-eastern part of the northern suburb Northfield in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. It was built in 1854 to enable prisoners to work at Dry Creek, quarrying rock for roads and construction. Originally known as The Stockade of Dry Creek or just The Stockade, it acquired its current name from a local Kaurna word relating to inundation by water, which was used for the Hundred of Yatala.
The prison has been expanded many times but still has functioning buildings that date to the 1850s. It remains Adelaide's main male prison and although it was scheduled to be closed by 2011, it has remained open due to the Global Financial Crisis."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatala_Labour_Prison
I've met a few blokes who spent time in Yalata. It sounds horrific.
@cranky47
Nice post. I want to do a longer reply but the wife is trying to sleep, so have to keep the initial reply brief.
I think the US has pretty successfully "tricked" the folks that are normally swept up in the criminal justice system. To me its just part of the invisible (to many) class system in the US. US is not only one, but the one I understand best, and know most about. Like almost anywhere in the world access to wealth determines how the legal system will treat you. If you are poor, you are effed. The barest appearance of a "fair trial" that almost no poor person can even "afford" to do. If you are rich, you can get away with almost anything, unless you are really bad and/or get caught, a lot. (Or maybe piss off another rich person.) For instance, weinstein was really bad, got caught a lot, and pissed off other wealthy/powerful people. If he did not check all 3 of these boxes, he probably would still be getting away with it.
Lots of non violent marijuana sentences got released early with time served. Those folks still had to do parole and had a permanent record of conviction though (usually destroying an honest way to make a good living.)
Drug law change is getting a lot of resistance, esp. from the conservative republican party. US has been at "war" with drugs for the last 30+ years, and has only lost ground on that war. (Mostly because lots of folks refuse to understand simple human behavior, around supply and demand of a highly inelastic good.)
Absolutely is a race issue, esp. in the past when these laws were written. "Pot" was the "mexican" drug, and "crack"(cocaine) was the "black people" drug. (Which carried much higher arrest rate and penalties for "crack" then the more pure/concentrated powdered cocaine that caucasian people preferred at the time.
Oh and most caucasian's drug of choice? Alcohol, funny that most people do not even classify it in the same league as pot and cocaine, even though they should be.
I think people should not be "punished" with loss of freedom at all. I do think some folks need to be rehabilitated. And there is a few dangerous people that should be kept away from vulnerable society, but not millions of people that are currently locked up at great expense to society as a whole. Esp. when considering the whole system is heavily rigged for the rich.
Thanks for sharing about Yatala.
@Logic
Likewise, good post.
I did a couple of papers at university about that the Class system in my final year.
One argued that Australia is a middle class hegemony ****. I took a largely Marxist view and got and distinction.
Another (shorter) paper argued pretty much same thing based on our drink driving laws and and placement of testing stations and alcohol advertising .
Pretty sure the middle class hegemony argument can be made for the US.
Race is also very much an issue with Prisoners here: Aboriginals makeup 2.5% of our total population., but make up 28% of the total prison population.
Race may not be an issue to the same extent as the US, but Australia still has some major issues with racism . I've mentioned before that Aussies have always had [at least) one group to hate. Through the 80's it was the Vietnamese especially, many of whom were refugees. Today it's Muslims, who are stereotyped as middle Middle Eastern Arab terrorists.
It's worth considering that the White Australia policy was not abolished until 1975. Until the 1950's, Australia was as homogeneous as Japan with our Anglo -Celt . In the 1950's we reluctantly allowed eastern Europeans because of a severe labour shortage (Italy and Malta)
Give you idea: In 1947, Arthur Caldwell, leader of the [socialist] Australian Labor Party, said in parliament that "Two Wongs don't make a white" Everyone thought that was so fucking witty, probably including my dad.
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**My primary source was ''Ruling Class, Ruling Culture' by Raewyn Connell. I largely argued against Sol Encel's interactionist perspective "Equality And Authority; A Study Of Class, Status And Power In Australia" which argued Australia was/is a classless society ("Just ask any Australian")
Surveys show that MOST Australians identify as as middle class.Me? Working class to my back teeth. Also a perfect example of the dangers of teaching the lower orders to read. :-}
If you want a lawyer, we will appoint one to you who works for us and can probably get you a 10% reduction in your fine but be sure of one thing.... YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!!!
@CRANKY: To clarify : Iit is my opinion that people are sent to prison AS punishment, not TO BE punished. That their human rights are not abrogated once they are in prison.
Actually they are sent to prison to be rehabilitated. The old system of penitentiaries was based on punishment and doing penance. It was cheap and prisoners just sat in cells for 30 years.
Now the prisoners have jobs. They are engaged in slave labor and can make as much as 50 cents an hour. If they do not work, they sit in their cells. Look into the Privatization of Prisons.
Are you aware of the fact that SLAVERY is completely legal in the USA? Read the 13th amendment. It NEVER outlawed slavery. It specifically indicates who can have slaves.
"Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Why do we have so many non-violent criminals? SLAVE LABOR IS CHEAP!!