Monday, March 10, 2008

eBay Live and Learn

I have been wanting the Mirabilia chart "Mermaids of the Deep Blue" despite the fact that it's way beyond my capabilities to stitch, and usually I haven't particularly taken to stitched designs of people. There is something about this pattern that just grabbed me. I figured it could go into my stash and someday maybe I would be able to drum up the courage to try it. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I found a kit on eBay that included the chart and the floss for it, for a very reasonable price with Buy It Now. I was a little bit surprised about the floss and even wrote to the seller to make sure it was there, which she said it was. The picture looked right, and I checked and all the feedback was positive. So I bought it. No doubt you are already shaking your heads at what is coming next. What I received was a Chinese knockoff of the pattern, with cheap floss. I went back and looked at the listing and saw that the name Mirabilia was nowhere to be found. I'd been had, and have no one to blame but myself. I looked again at the feedback and although it was 100% postive I found two neutral ratings that warned about Chinese fakes - I hadn't seen that before. Though I am sorry I am out the money I am even sorrier that I unknowingly contributeed to fakes being sold. I'm not quite sure what to do now. The seller didn't falsely advertise because she didn't say Mirabilia, but I certainly won't use what she sent, nor will I pass it on to anyone else. I guess I will just chalk this up to a dumb mistake, and be much more careful next time.

In happier news, Kathy blessed me with a Best Blogging Buddies award - Kathy I am so honored and grateful. You have been such a great supporter and this means so much to me. I will pass on the award to others very soon.

I just arrived back home after spending a weekend with my sister at a "women's wellness weekend" that was held at a YMCA camp in New Jersey. We spent two days partaking of lots of activities ranging from quilting and scrapbooking (no cross stitch, alas) to archery and hip hop dancing, with lots of all-female cameraderie. It was great fun and very relaxing. I got a little bit of stitching done on the first tree for Gingerbread Cottage, though I realized after awhile that I had been stitching half crosses and then back again with overdyed floss rather than making my Xs as I went. Fortunately there is not a lot of color variation in this floss so I think I didn't do much harm. There's so much to remember with this stitching art!

9 comments:

staci said...

Oh I'm so sorry about your ebay mishap--I think it's happened to all of us...once!

Sounds like you had a fun weekend away with your sis :)

Unknown said...

That sucks. Definitely leave negative feedback, if only as a warning to other stitchers/future customers of that seller.

I'm doing my first Mirabilia now and it's really not so hard. You've taken to stitching so quickly, I'm sure you'll do great! Let me know when you're starting, I will send you the 2 or 3 *tips* I've come up with... and when you come up with your own tips send them my way :-)

Kathy said...

You are one of my Blogging buddies and if I find your post in my Google Reader, I read it first.

Keep up the work on your stitching. It will get easier over time.

That sucks about e-bay, but we all live and learn. Did you leave some negative feedback, so it does not happen to anyone else?

Sharon said...

Sorry to hear that happened to you. Thankfully not all Ebay experiences are like that. You will know how to proceed in the future. It happened with me one time too-I spent a 100 dollars on a handheld device and it was defective. The seller knew and not long after I bought it-he disappeared off Ebay!

Kim B said...

It's too bad that the "bad apples" on eBay make others skeptical to use the services of the "good apples" on eBay. That's too bad about the design. You should definitely leave negative feedback like others said. I'm glad to hear you had a fun girls weekend, though!

Carol R said...

Sorry to hear about your ebay purchase. How disappointing for you. Wait until the seller leaves you positive feedback before you leave a negative one or he/she might reciprocate and leave you a negative one too! That happened to a friend of mine.

I wish you every success in locating a genuine "Mermaids of the Deep Blue" pattern

Aussie Stitcher said...

Sorry you had a bad e-bay experience, but good for you for blogging about it and raising awareness for others. I love the Cottage from Gingerbread Cottage it is looking great, looking forward to seeing other updates.

Nicki said...

I'm so sorry you've been caught by a bad seller. It happens - we got fake Chinese DVDs once and nowhere on the description or location did it say anything about them coming from China.

Sally said...

So sorry to hear about your experience on Ebay. Do leave them negative feedback, and another suggestion would be to contact Mirabilia and give them the link to the seller. The designer can do something about them selling fakes.