Too many times, I'm ready to complain about someone or talk about only the things that make me grumpy. But here's a good experience.

I don't buy on eBay that much. I try not to shop any more than necessary, because shopping tends to lead to spending money and spending money leads to diminishing supplies of the stuff in my bank account. The Boy needs rainboots for school though and he likes goofy ones with stuff on them. He's going to outgrow that soon, I suspect, but I try to indulge his desire for funky rainboots and eBay is a great place to find them.

Looking around at the choices, we settled on some T-Rex boots that he wanted, because "Tyrannosaurus is the KING!" I ordered them and was really impressed that the seller shipped them out the next morning. They arrived by priority mail a few days later and my son was thrilled, although the books looked smallish to me, he put them on and started running around in them immediately.

The next morning, I picked them up and realized they weren't a size 13 as we had ordered, the label on the bottom said 10. I e-mailed the seller and she said she'd get a new pair into the mail immediately and would pay my shipping costs to return the others.

We got the new pair today. Inside the boots said 13 and a sticker on the bottom said size 13, but under the sticker was the imprinted label and it said 10. I measured the boots against my son's shoes and they are definitely a 10, not a 13. I e-mailed the seller again and proposed several options. She wrote back immediately and proposed something even more generous to me than what I had proposed.

I've never had a bad eBay experience, but all the others have been straightforward and had no problems. When a problem arises, you can really see the difference between someone you want to do business with and someone you don't. Although the whole boot thing is still not totally resolved, I can confidently say that I would like to do business with this particular seller again. She clearly cares to maintain a good reputation and goes beyond the minimum to do a good job.

If I need anything from her inventory, I will be doing business with Mele's Boutique again.