...Dulcemio:WolfM,You make a very good point. Ebay has to be extra-vigilant of customers' rights in order to counteract the potenital for distrust already built in to this process of strangers buying from strangers.+1Also excellent is Wolf's point about sellers guarding their reputation. From my limited experience, I am guessing that complete refunds wipe the slate clean, preventing a disgruntled customer from sullying the seller's reputation. I haven't tried to rate the above seller, but I'm not sure that I even can, because when I clicked on the ebay-generated link indicating that I had received a full refund, I was taken to a place which simply states that the problem has been fully resolved. It looks as though full refunds wipe out the transaction as though it never transpired. Which is fine, of course. No one should be complaining after that sort of response!By the way, I just completed another satisfactory transaction, procuring a new tester of "Elixir des Merveilles" at a great price and with no problems whatsoever. Proving yet again that ebay has figured out how to play this game and to defeat the negative perspective which some of us bring to their site. Over the course of a handful of experiences, they amazingly managed to completely reverse my former opinion of complete suspicion and distrust of the very idea of buying anything there. I still would not go vintage hunting, but that's because I have a degree in chemistry and know what happens to substances over time. :lol:

...Dulcemio:Seller's message:"Sorry you weren't satisfied with the Tester. But to respond to what you wrote item has NEVER been used. I inspect all merchandise prior to deliver so the bottle was NOT missing 2ML it was the full 3.4 ML so in conclusion I BELIEVE your trying to take the perfume I sent you and exchange it with a old one you have at home. " Yeah, you will get this sort of attitude from sellers from time to time because you're dealing with a random person, not a company, and said person obviously doesn't know the first thing about customer relations and repeat business.But out of the many Ebay purchases I've made I've had only one instance where I had to open a case. The seller became extremely immature and unprofessional when I told him there was a problem, and Ebay sided with me. You're right, Ebay will not tolerate crap from sellers."Customer is Queen/King" is a sound business strategy, in the end, at least if I'm any indication of consumer behavior. I buy nearly everything under the sun from Amazon because of their excellent customer service. In stark contrast, another company a while back gave me grief when one of their products was defective, and I never shopped there again! 8)

...Hayven:eBay does tip in favor to the buyers. It's bad service for a seller to make that assumption though. I have sold perfumes on eBay, and one person said a package never arrived. I looked at the tracking info, and it showed the package as delivered. I told him what I saw, and I asked him to maybe look next to his door or maybe a neighbor picked it up. Turns out it was left on his stoop. Never accused him of a false claim though.That was the problem in this case. Whoever this person is, wherever she got the bottle, she must acknowledge that unless she was there at the end of the production line, then she cannot know that the bottle was never sprayed--except of course by spraying it! Obviously, if I were just trying to rip her off, I would have made a much more serious complaint--said that the bottle arrived empty or something along those lines. But ebay knows that I have bought other items without any problems or complaints, so obviously I am not some sort of shyster. What she should have done was said something to the effect that, "I am sorry that the bottle had already been sprayed; I thought that it had not." Had she done that, I would have accepted her apology and been on my merry way. Instead, she attacked me, so ebay resolved the problem in my favor, by forcing a full refund.From this case, it is obvious that ebay has the same "zero tolerance" toward shady vendors as does Amazon, which is a great policy, in my opinion, and as evidenced by the fact that I go back to Amazon again and again, knowing that their vendors have been vetted, so to speak, and also that in the event that there is a problem, it will be addressed in a professional and competent way.There probably are people who try to take advantage of these policies, but I'm sure that ebay and Amazon can figure out who they are by examining their track record and the nature of their complaints. 8)

...Apicius:Why not listening to them?Today, I particularly enjoyed the latest review by Franfan20 for "Love is in the Air", read out loud by Queen Elizabeth II.http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.htmlSelect language: English (UK)Select a voice: QueenElizabeth:-)How fun! I'll try to improve my German this way. :lol:

...I feel that I must report this story to you, as I have expressed a lot of skepticism about ebay in the past. It turns out that their customer service is as good as Amazon's!I have ordered from ebay only a handful of times. I wanted to test the Van Cleef & Arpel Collection Extraordinaire perfumes, but was unable to procure manufacturer-carded samples anywhere else. I was disappointed to find that one of the vials was only half full, but I decided not to complain, because at least it meant that the seller had not filled it with water--I knew that it was authentic!Since then, I ordered two different cellophane-wrapped Lolita Lempicka limited edition bottles and a sample pack of ten Jo Malone vials, all at excellent prices, shipped free, with no problems whatsoever.I also ordered a bottle of Coach Iris Splash. The sprayer was not only broken, but also had liquid inside, so I opened a case alleging that the item was not as described, as it clearly was not new. Within a day, my entire purchase price was refunded. This gave me the confidence to try again (plus now I had a Paypal credit to use). I ordered a 100ml bottle of Prada Infusion d'Iris Absolue (the only one I'm missing), which was advertised as a new tester. When it arrived, the volume seemed a bit low (maybe 2ml short), but I was ready to give the seller the benefit of the doubt--until I sprayed.As we all know, a new, never-been-sprayed bottle requires a couple of extra pumps before it will spritz out perfume. This bottle sprayed perfume with the first press, so I knew that it had been sprayed and that the apparently short volume was due to the fact that the bottle was not in fact new.I debated with myself about what to do. On the one hand, it was still a great deal. On the other hand, I asked myself whether I would have purchased the bottle had it been listed as "used". The answer was "no". I decided to open a case just to put the seller on notice that people do not appreciate this sort of misrepresentation. My hope was to prevent the seller from doing the same again. What I was expecting in response to my complaint was an apology, and maybe an offer of a $5 credit.Instead, to my shock, I received a nasty and accusatory response from the seller. Here is what it said:Seller's message:"Sorry you weren't satisfied with the Tester. But to respond to what you wrote item has NEVER been used. I inspect all merchandise prior to deliver so the bottle was NOT missing 2ML it was the full 3.4 ML so in conclusion I BELIEVE your trying to take the perfume I sent you and exchange it with a old one you have at home. "Needless to say, I was taken aback. However, exactly two minutes later, I received another email, this one from ebay, stating that my entire purchase price had been refunded.My conclusion: ebay does not tolerate any nonsense whatsoever from sellers. Good work, ebay: you have earned my confidence.I wanted to share this story because everyone should know that if there is anything wrong with their purchase, ebay clearly believes that customer is queen/king, so you can shop safely there. :D

...FloraMilena:Cashew, my 14-year-old yellow Lab, is blind and deaf. Her best friend is Libby, 7, her seeing-eye cat. Libby steers Cashew away from obstacles and leads her to her food. Every night she sleeps next to her. The only time they’re apart is when we take Cashew out for a walk. Without this cat, we know Cashew would be lost and very, very lonely indeed. It’s amazing but true: This is one animal who knows what needs to be done and does it day in and day out for her friend.~ Terry Burns, Middleburg, Pennsylvania USAHow adorable can something possibly be??????????????????????????????????????????????????????? :D

...Dlane1953:I prefer books although to be fair I"ve never tried Kindle or similar. I can think of many opportunities to use one; if you travel and read a lot, it's easier to pack one item rather than 3 books.My mom's most persuasive argument was that you can actually highlight and mark pages. This is an issue for me, as I read a lot of library books and use post-it flags and the like. Sometimes it becomes overwhelming. Of course, in the books I own, marginalia abounds! :lol:

...Cincy:People who own them love them, however I would not buy. My bookcase would be bear if I never bought books. :wink:But you could put all of your beautiful perfume bottles on display! :P

...Dlane1953:I have been trying to join the modern age of hand-held devices.Ditto. I have been talking to my mom about Nook versus Kindle. She ended up talking me into getting a Nook HD+ while the prices are slashed this week. Will I like it? I wonder whether I'll ever lose my fondness for fondling paper books... 8)

...Dlane1953:Sherapop--that's horrible! You weren't hurt in any way?No, not at all. The loser yelled at me, when in fact it was a cross walk. I think that he probably shouldn't have been driving at all. He looked as though he was pushing triple digits. That's not ageism, just realism... Know thyself!!!And above all: CARPE DIEM!!!!! :wink:

...Dlane1953:NO NO NO. I will not do it. At least, not this month.Carpe Diem! A couple of days ago some lunatic nearly ran me over as I walked across the street in a crosswalk. I say: Go for it! :twisted:

...Dulcemio:Sherapop:Dulcemio:LOL at the 24 sec mark!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTffmMxqqLUWhat a riot--makes me want to get a kitten. Well, except that HRH Emperor Oliver would have a stroke upon the invasion of his domain. :roll:See, that's just the thing, Shera. Adult cats always seem so understanding of kittens and cut them slack like they would never do for another adult cat. Although, full disclosure, after I got the first young one I did feel the need to adopt a second young one so they could be each other's playmate and leave senior kitty alone. But everyone who knows my senior cat agrees that he is happier with other cats in his home, even if he doesn't actively seek their affection. (They give it to him unsolicited, he accepts grudgingly. He is emotionally reserved.) :)I did not know this, Dulcemio. Thank you for educating me! Every case I know of has involved a new cat on the block, so to speak, where both were already set in their ways. Not a harmonious situation! Maybe I need to adopt two kittens? :lol:

...Dulcemio:LOL at the 24 sec mark!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTffmMxqqLUWhat a riot--makes me want to get a kitten. Well, except that HRH Emperor Oliver would have a stroke upon the invasion of his domain. :roll:

...I have fallen off this thread again, due to not clicking on a link a while back.Happy Belated Birthday to Cincy and Wolf!!!!!Perhaps you should buy yourselves a bottle of this: 8)

...whoops, sorry. I replied to the link in my email. I see that I am way behind!! :oops:

...How about the new one from Histoires de Parfums:"1899 - Hemingway"adventurer, author, womanizer... 8)

...PBullFriend:I don't smell anything when I sniff iodized table salt, but there certainly are types of salt that smell. Doesn't that have to do with the other minerals that are in with them?I am not at all sure whether pure NaCl should have a scent, but how often do we encounter pure NaCl? That is the question... :?:

...It smells like potato chips. lol :roll:

...I have seen people claiming that salt has no scent, but I agree that it has a certain smell to it--both in perfume and on food. I'm going to go right now into my kitchen and take a sniff of a container of sea salt and report back...

...Older is better in this case, as "Oscar" has been reformulated to a shadow of its former self. If it's the real deal and has not turned, consider yourself lucky! 8)