My Bad Blog Sale Experience: Advice?

Image Source - Edited

Being a beauty (or fashion) blogger, you often see girls popping up a post titled "Blog Sale" with a selection of products they don't need or want anymore and so are offering the rest of their readers a chance to buy something they like at a bargain price.

I always click on the post to see if there's anything that catches my eye, sometimes there is but it's usually just before pay day (typical) and I can't splurge. A couple of months ago, I spotted a few items advertised on someone's blog sale and one of them was an item I had wanted for ages. For once, I did actually have some money so I eagerly sent an email across asking if the items were still available. I received one back saying that they were and we agreed on a price and after a slight hitch with me sending the payment to the wrong email address, everything was sorted. 

A week went by of me waiting for Mr Post Man to knock and deliver my little selection of goodies but nothing turned up. I checked for a delivery card or if it had been left somewhere else because I hadn't been in but that wasn't the case. I sent another email across asking if she'd had the chance to send it across yet and I was assured that it was in the post and should be with me soon. Another 10 days later and it still hadn't arrived - obviously I was getting a little concerned that it must have gotten lost in the post at this point.

I sent another email across asking if proof of postage had been obtained and was told that it had and she would head to the Post Office to sort it out for me. That's where things started to go down hill, the communication became less frequent and I had to send a couple of emails prompting for an update and I then received an email back that I found a little confusing giving me information about how it had been delivered by a courier and it had been tracked down and had no missed deliveries for the day. 

I wasn't aware that Royal Mail used couriers so I asked my Dad who frequently uses eBay and often sends parcels and he told me that the information given to me didn't sound right, so I decided to head down to my local Post Office to ask for their advice and what would be likely to happen in this situation. I was given the procedure of what happens with a missing parcel and sent an email across explaining my concerns about what I'd been told. I received one back soon after telling me that she was given different information and that she would try and look into it for me and if she could clarify the situation, she'd send across a refund to me a week later as the items were clearly not going to turn up. I chased the situation up again a couple of days ago and was told a refund had been sent back to the account. I was dubious and when the Paypal account was checked, unsurprisingly, there was no money in there.

It's now been over 2 months since I sent across payment and my items still haven't turned up and neither has a refund. I don't know what to make of the situation to be honest, I wanted to think that it was just mis-communication or a mistake on her behalf but it seems I've clearly been given false information and although I don't want to think that someone is lying to me and has stolen my money, it's starting to become the only conclusion I can draw from the whole thing which is so disappointing. I don't expect a refund at this point, after a couple of weeks I pretty much guessed my money was gone and I wasn't going to be getting anything in return but I still don't want to let it go. Annoyingly, as I was told to pay through the "friends/family" option on PayPal, I have no way of putting in a complaint or reclaiming my money.

I just thought I'd post this because I feel I was far too trusting and probably quite unlucky too as I've seen a lot of girls talking about items they've received in a blog sale and thought that it would all go smoothly for me too. It's a real shame as I've met some lovely people through blogging that I will speak to on Twitter now and again and it's sad that as a little community, not everyone treats other people with respect and trust. I couldn't make my mind up as to whether to post the name of the blogger who's done this; they have a significantly larger following than I do and I'm not sure how many people will even read this or if it would cause a hassle. On the one hand, I want people to be wary of buying anything from her in the future but at the same time, I don't really want any drama as I'm not a fan of conflict so perhaps I should just forget about it... What would you do if you were me?

EDIT:  I have now received a full refund this evening, thanks for your advice for everyone who commented/tweeted. 

How have you found blog sales? Have you had any issues either as a buyer or a seller?