A Road Less Travelled

I just wrote the closest thing to a nasty business letter I’ve ever written. It was politely worded (with a please and a thank you, even) but it was forceful enough that it makes me a little nervous.

It all started when I decided it was time to finally spend the Christmas money I’ve been saving for the just the right purchase. I settled on some CDs at half.com. They had a good selection of music I actually like at decent prices with okay deals on shipping.

A few days ago I recieved my package–ripped open and missing two CDs. An exchange of e-mails between me and the seller settled that I would go file a claim with the post office.

I had some trepidation over this. I was sure that the postal employees would be very grumpy and defensive as soon as I tried to file the claim, and would do everything in their power to trip me up with red tape.

In actuality I talked to two very nice ladies who informed me that the package wasn’t insured in the first place so there was nothing they could do, but wasn’t it a shame the seller didn’t package it better? I agreed that it was indeed poorly packaged and went off to e-mail the seller. Again.

He informed me that I am being misled, for lo, the law states that the post office must inform me if they have delivered to me a package which is missing items. I sense a failure in logic here. The issue is that the post office does not pay for loss of uninsured materials. At this point I don’t even care if they properly informed me about the loss, especially as they wouldn’t know what was in the package in the first place and so would be unable to inform me of said loss.

My keen senses also detected a ridiculous number of commas in his e-mail, including one in the phrase, “you’re being, misled”. I mocked the commas to get it out my system and proceeded to write the aforementioned not-quite-nasty-business-letter.

As I reconsider, I did not say anything remotely nasty in the letter. I told him that the post office was unlikely to do anything about an uninsured package, though he was welcome to pursue it, but to please refund my money for the CDs I didn’t get. I think the part that intimidated me in the writing was “within 48 hours”. The rest of the letter was perhaps slightly terse but pleasant enough. That phrase pushed it over the edge into saying “I mean business”. Which is, after all, what I wanted to communicate.

Perhaps what really bothers me is this–the seller has a feedback rating of over five thousand. I have a feedback rating of five (one hundred percent positive feedback so far, but still not that impressive). If I decide he’s being a jerk I can add a small note to his record. If he decides I’m being a jerk he can just about wipe out my feedback rating.

Oddly, finding the words for this makes me feel better about the whole experience. I refuse to be intimidated by the large half.com seller with much feedback. I will fight my battles to the bitter end, regardless of…um, well, anything. Maybe I should try this again in the morning when I’m feeling more poetic.