...or, put more simply...

So... the battery subsystem for SPACE CAADET relies on an accessible SMBus connection, which is to be provided by the Adafruit FT323H breakout... so far so good. But that breakout uses a USB-C connector. That means I need an adapter. Two choices... one, I can get (somehow...?) or *make* (LOL, nearly 100% guaranteed to NOT work!) a USB3.0-compliant USB-A to USB-A cable with both ends male, which lets me use an existing USB-A female to USB-C male adapter I have... mind you, such cables are near-mythical as far as availability/etc goes... or I can get a USB-C cable from somewhere, or I can get a USB-C to MicroUSB adapter that lets me use more normal cables.

Wait, Dollar Tree sells USB-C to MicroUSB adapters... or, rather, they did at one time. I've not had a chance to go there in a goodly while, and they discontinued those adapters during that time.

/sigh

Pulled up eBay, bought one for a buck fitty. Great!

...except that was 15 July and it never arrived because the seller, operating under the name "isellparts2u", doesn't want to be bothered with providing actual customer support.

eBay gives buyers the option of including a message with their purchase, in case they need to specify additional information or the like, for the seller to be aware of. A lot of HK/CN international listings use this feature instead of a drop-down menu to allow customers to specify eg color preferences on listed items where that's a thing.

Having had shipping issues before, I used the option to ask the seller to use First Class Parcel shipping (can take a week ish, so it's slower than Priority Mail, but it's dort cheap, comes with tracking, and generally gets more respect/etc than a lumpy envelope by Postal workers).

Next thing I know, I get a shipping notification, which means the guy's already printed the label. This is around midnight on a Saturday and he(?) is USA-based.

Ohhhhh boy.

I wait till Monday to see if a tracking number shows up. I'm nice, and I always try to assume good intent. I also want to guve the seller a chance to show that he(?)'s not effed up after all, before I start lecturing.

No tracking.

I write him(?) and get a near-immediate botspew answer that is entirely useless. A second attempt at communication has identical results.

/big sigh

Yesterday, having only just realized (after extricating myself from a massive IRL drama-pile, at least partially) that the part never came, I write the seller again and pretty well rip him up.

Same botspew.

"Please actually read my message!"

Immediate refund.

I'd asked specifically, IN ALL CAPS so he(?) essentially couldn't miss it, for a replacement, shipped properly.

No part, no time, and on top of the rest, he blocked me from responding further.

"isellparts2u"... well... technically, I suppose, although it's a bit dubious since apparently the parts may or may not ever arrive and you don't really have any proper recourse if that happens, since he(?)'s got a big ol wall of code between him and his customers. I know this much, next time I need something I'm sure as heck gonna save time and effort and buy what I need from a seller that isn't nearly so worthlessly uncaring, unreliable, and downright stupid.

EDIT: "isellparts2u" is the *CORRECT* seller handle -- the other one, previously named, is someone I was communicating with but haven't yet bought from. Last night was late and I'd been struggling all day and I simply scrolled through my email to the last seller I'd exchanged words with (of *any* sort lol) -- and hit them instead of the right one, because the *un*involved seller and I had been talking afterwards.

Apologies to that seller and to anyone who might have made a decision in between then and now based on my remarks.