Headless Groom?

No, this post isn't about MY groom being headless...I just needed to vent. Far be it from me to post a negative eBay experience, but gah! Seriously?!? I don't understand some people!

For those of you who were able to attend my wedding (or just looked at the photos), you may have noticed the beautiful 8" LLadro of a bride and groom that my friend sent from New York. Now you all know how Lladros are in our family...so I'll skip that part. My mom saw it and fell in love with it. I was able to find one on eBay ending the next day, and ended up winning it for $46 (plus $6 shipping...so $52 total). YAY!! I won it, paid for it...we're good to go.

Fast forward about a week. I stop at my condo to get my mail, and have a 7"x7"x6" box waiting for me. Strange, I can't think of anything that I ordered that would be this size. I look at the return address...and the name sounds vaguely familiar. I start thinking it's the person I won the Lladro from...but that's impossible, right? A 7x7x6 box for an 8" Lladro? No....

Sure enough, I open the box and see a packing slip from my PayPal payment for the Lladro. *blink* It's in the box diagonally. Well...if the seller was somehow able to pack it well enough and have it still fit diagonally...I guess that works. I start unwrapping the brown paper that is around it. Paper. Not bubble wrap...not styrofoam...paper.

I got down to one layer of a bubble wrap style bag (where half of the bubbles are deflated) and I start to hear a clinking sound. Uhm...that's not good. No...really...when I got the Lladro out of the bag, the groom's head was missing. It was, of course, found at the bottom of the deflated bubble wrap. Hrm.

So I email the seller...inquiring about the 7x7x6 box for an 8" Lladro...knowing that surely she must have suspected that something could happen with a packing job like that. I feel that I was extremely nice in the email considering the words that I WANTED to use to ask about it. The response I got back? On Christmas??

"I am so sorry to hear that it broke. I often ship things that size in a 7x7x6 box, as it fits perfect on an angle and I always wrap it well, as I did. Since you did not take the optional insurance, I'm sorry I can not do anything about it. So sorry....."

*blink* seriously?!? So...I can start selling things...and if you don't purchase the $2.00 insurance then it doesn't really matter how well I pack the item to ship. I just don't understand what goes through some people's minds. I was also surprised to find that she stated that she often ships things in that size box. In reviewing her feedback, I see that she has sold a lot of high end items....but none that were breakable. I can understand shipping an 8 inch purse in a smaller box...but a Lladro??

Ok, I'm done. It's sad, my first post after so long really should have been about my wedding, or Christmas...but sometimes it just takes something THIS confusing to get you riled up enough to type it all out :-)

Where are we now? I sent her a reply letting her know that lack of insurance would be a good enough excuse if it appeared that the package had been mishandled by the USPS, but where the box was barely bent? If I had purchased insurance, the USPS wouldn't cover damage for an item that is poorly packed anyway. Luckily I paid with PayPal, so I'm covered either way. I just hope that she'll be willing to work something out before I have to go that route. I don't want to be the icky mean-spirited buyer...but in this case? I'm trying to be ok with at least expecting the seller to be fair :-)