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Deadbeat Sellers on Ebay

norcaltransplant

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Pretty simple question, I bought an H&K shirt off a seller with a 900+ rating, paid the next day, and haven't received the shirt or a response after 4 follow up emails.  When should I start the process of contacting my CC company (I paid on the 18th)?

Ironically, I'm debating filing a complaint after I just spent four days trying to settle a payment issue with a buyer--people just don't get how to manipulate Paypal to avoid the transaction fees.

end of rant
NCT
 

FIHTies

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The name for the ebay thread Meeester NCT. The Name, or we haf vays uf making you TALK...

Really, if you dont get a good explanation soon I think that the name shold be added to the HOF Ebay thread
 

jcusey

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The Name, or we haf vays uf making you TALK...
Yeah, you don't want to mess with Jonnie Two Ties.
wink.gif
Seriously, I'm sure some of the more serious eBayers will have more worthwhile advice, but I can't imagine waiting past Feb. 1. That will have given him 2 weeks, which should be more than enough.
 

zjpj83

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yeah, it's tough... i had a deadbeat buyer - he didn't pay after 4 weeks, claimed he had been having computer trouble, etc., despit assuring me via email that payment was going to be in the mail soon. After filing non-payment form the shoes ended up being bought by another buyer on "second chance" - sure enough, after other buyer has already paid, the original buyer said he had just sent me a money order via Fed. Ex. It arrived today via USPS. I have had to send it back to him. I feel badly about giving neg. feedback though since he was appologetic and claimed to have computer trouble (plus don't want retaliative feedback.) I've only ever had a couple non-payment issues on Ebay. It's mostly been a rewarding experience (though some items have been dissappointing or descriptions have been off.)
 

AlanC

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I feel badly about giving neg. feedback though since he was appologetic and claimed to have computer trouble (plus don't want retaliative feedback.)
I've seen feedback listings that state the original feedback was withdrawn by mutual agreement of both parties. You might look into that and see if you can remove it.
 

LA Guy

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I require contact within 12 hours, and Paypal within 24. If the buyer wants to to a money order. He has 5 days to get it to me - his responsibility. For my part, I ship within 24 hours or receiving payment unless overwise requested. The fine print is important. The more slack you give, the more people take. I am prompt (I pay by Paypal the moment an auction ends unless agreed otherwise) and expect others to be also. Hate the uncertainty otherwise.
 

Dakota rube

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I am getting a little tired of the whole eBay feedback system; it works when everyone does what they're supposed to do (huh, just like life, I guess.), but somewhere things have turned solidly in the Seller's direction.

I, like LA Guy, pay immediately upon the auction end, via PayPal. And the last person I bought from dilly dallied around for over a week before shipping my purchase. No correspondence regarding payment receipt, no shipping day, tracking number, etc. without me initiating contact.

I got an email from "someone simply responding to [Seller's] emails as she was called out of the town on business." Now, how lame is that? You're out of town, but someone else who can't ship anything, or answer my questions, has access to your email account? Come on, I'm not stupid.

When I do what I should by leaving negative feedback, the b**ch lays a log saying I'm leaving "false retailiatory feedback". I still haven't received feedback from this Seller, even though I paid in about 15.76345789 seconds after the auction ended.

Shouldn't the Seller leave feedback for Buyer upon receipt of payment?
 

Renault78law

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how do you manipulate paypal to avoid transaction fees?
 

gorgekko

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Until recently I was a pretty forgiving chap...I realize people are busy and outside of food and air I don't need anything immediately. Lately, however, I've been screwed by a few sellers on eBay so now I have no patience.

After I pay, unless the item is not in my possession within two weeks -- long enough to post it from anywhere on the planet -- I send email. If there is no response then I file complaints with PayPal and eBay and leave negative feedback.

The important thing about filing a fraud report is to do it within a month of paying (if I recall correctly) because after that eBay doesn't care so don't let a buyer shine you on with that "It's in the mail" routine. Chances are they're just stringing you along so the deadline passes and you have no effective recourse.
 

A Harris

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I am getting a little tired of the whole eBay feedback system; it works when everyone does what they're supposed to do (huh, just like life, I guess.), but somewhere things have turned solidly in the Seller's direction.

I, like LA Guy, pay immediately upon the auction end, via PayPal. And the last person I bought from dilly dallied around for over a week before shipping my purchase. No correspondence regarding payment receipt, no shipping day, tracking number, etc. without me initiating contact.

I got an email from "someone simply responding to [Seller's] emails as she was called out of the town on business." Now, how lame is that? You're out of town, but someone else who can't ship anything, or answer my questions, has access to your email account? Come on, I'm not stupid.

When I do what I should by leaving negative feedback, the b**ch lays a log saying I'm leaving "false retailiatory feedback". I still haven't received feedback from this Seller, even though I paid in about 15.76345789 seconds after the auction ended.

Are you new to ebay? Because I think you are being awfully harsh here. A lot of ebay sellers are like me - a one man show, and when things happen, as they often can and do, there can be delays. It's rare to get immediate payment confirmation and shipping out of a large corporation even, unless they have automated tools handling things. Theoretically a one man operation could be quicker, but you have to take into account unforseen circumstances, overworked people, and human error. A little patience is in order. Especially with email communication - it's easy to miss a message or two when you recieve 75-100 or more messages a day. Something to keep in mind is that most clothing sellers are providing goods at 25% of retail or less. Making a profit at those prices requires either a lot of volume, or a whole lot of searching for merchandise, or both. This requires a huge amount of work and time. Some people seem to be able to do this and still provide incredible service, but when I buy I certainly don't expect it. At those prices, I'm not paying for service, I'm paying (very little) for merchandise. I'm happy just to get it as described. Because there are a whole lot of sellers out there who make their profits by ripping people off.

I generally ship my packages on time, but mistakes do happen, for me it's usually with international shipments or people that pay via check/money order. I always try to make up for it if I can, but I do really appreciate a patient buyer.

In norcaltransplant's case, unless the seller has a recent rash of negative feedback, it sounds like your messages are not getting through. Definitely try some alternate methods of contacting them (like requesting the phone # from ebay) before leaving a negative.

In LA Guy's case, that is impressive service, I wish I could do that. I'm not as harsh about recieving payment as he is either, because in my particular category/price range people usually pay, eventually.

Shouldn't the Seller leave feedback for Buyer upon receipt of payment?

They certainly can, and many do, as it is the best way to get a high feedback number in a shirt period of time. But it opens you up to dishonest or unreasonable buyers who use the threat of a negative to extort a seller. The ebay feedback system is just flawed, not biased towards sellers. For instance, the frequently occuring situation where a buyer strings a seller along for several weeks or even a month with payment promises, and in the end, the seller knows that if they leave a negative, they are going to get an undeserved retaliatory negative for their trouble...

I got an email from "someone simply responding to [Seller's] emails as she was called out of the town on business." Now, how lame is that? You're out of town, but someone else who can't ship anything, or answer my questions, has access to your email account? Come on, I'm not stupid.

This could be perfectly legitimate. Before I bought a laptop computer so I could answer email while on the road, I sometimes have a family member answer email for me if I was gone longer than I expected. And no, they certainly were not trained to ship in my absence.

Until recently I was a pretty forgiving chap...I realize people are busy and outside of food and air I don't need anything immediately. Lately, however, I've been screwed by a few sellers on eBay so now I have no patience.

After I pay, unless the item is not in my possession within two weeks -- long enough to post it from anywhere on the planet -- I send email. If there is no response then I file complaints with PayPal and eBay and leave negative feedback.

This is a very fair, reasonable, even generous policy. Kudo's to you Gorgekko.
 

LA Guy

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In LA Guy's case, that is impressive service, I wish I could do that. I'm not as harsh about recieving payment as he is either, because in my particular category/price range people usually pay, eventually.

I can afford to do this because I don't sell very many things (usually just a quick flip here and there and wardrobe cleaning). Once I have a bid, I package the merchandise so that it can go to the UPS store on Monday after the auction has ended (usually Sunday.) Shipping is "actual" shipping", which is pretty much $10-12. I'll charge that immediately, and if more is required, I bill later (if its a buck or two off, I don't even bother.) If I overbilled, I'll refund the difference. I have access to lots of free boxes (from Bluefly, Yoox, and from computer euqipment around the department) to ship stuff in.
 

gorgekko

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Shouldn't the Seller leave feedback for Buyer upon receipt of payment?
They certainly can, and many do, as it is the best way to get a high feedback number in a shirt period of time. But it opens you up to dishonest or unreasonable buyers who use the threat of a negative to extort a seller. The ebay feedback system is just flawed, not biased towards sellers. For instance, the frequently occuring situation where a buyer strings a seller along for several weeks or even a month with payment promises, and in the end, the seller knows that if they leave a negative, they are going to get an undeserved retaliatory negative for their trouble...
This annoys me more than anything in the world. After you have my money, my end of the bargain has been completed. Leave the feedback. Yeah, I know, like you said, it leaves you open if anything goes wrong. It also means you don't get any feedback from me regardless of pleasant the transaction was.
This is a very fair, reasonable, even generous policy. Kudo's to you Gorgekko.
Hard to tell if you're being sarcastic there, ha ha.
 

A Harris

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This annoys me more than anything in the world. After you have my money, my end of the bargain has been completed. Leave the feedback. Yeah, I know, like you said, it leaves you open if anything goes wrong. It also means you don't get any feedback from me regardless of pleasant the transaction was.

I suppose I can understand where you are coming from, but the fact is that you are likely a good customer, part of the positive majority, and not one of the jerks. Thing is I don't know that until you have recieved the package and some time has gone by...

For instance, a ways back I sold a NWT Oxxford navy suit jacket to a guy. It was an off-ebay deal. I sent it out and a few days later I get an email to the effect that 'you said it was a 44r and it's tagged a 42r, you said it is a blazer and its a suitcoat. I'm sending it back for a full refund or else I'm charging back the card, suing you, pursuing you to the ends of the earth, etc...'

I tactfully pointed out that the auction clearly stated that it was marked a 42 reg but that it measured to a 44, and that it was a suit coat, but being the color it was there was no reason it could not be worn as a blazer. So no, I wasn't going to refund his money. It wasn't my problem he didn't know how to read (I didn't actually say that last bit I don't think.)

Anyways, the guy left a negative for another coat he bought from me, on ebay, that he was satisfied with. And he charged back the card - it took me over six months to finally get my money back... Good thing I had waited to leave that feedback, or else I would have had no money, no jacket, an undeserved negative, and the jerk would have had a positive feedback from me..

So the jerks out there ruin it for everybody. The only way to ensure that my feedback record stays clean of undeserved negatives is to wait a bit before leaving them. It does mean an overall lower number, but no negs is more important to me. It's a flawed system, but there it is...


Hard to tell if you're being sarcastic there, ha ha.

No, I was being serious. I think your policy is a good example of a reasonable approach.
 

gorgekko

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Well, thank you. I try and act the way others do...and this reasonable approach is a lot more harsh then I was just a few months ago. Like I said, you get screwed a couple of times...

At any rate, email is good. I email when I send payment and receive the item. Conversely, when I sell, I send email when I receive payment and send the item. I follow up in both cases to make sure everything is kosher.

I also see it from your side...there are those buyers who are nightmares. Fortunately the few times I have been a seller I've been graced with great buyers.
 

marc37

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l sent a cheque to an ebay seller and l have received nothing as yet. l have send several emails but he never responds back. lt has been 40 days. His feedback says he sometimes takes up to 50 days to deliver. Why won't he respond back?

l want to leave negative feedback but ebay won't let me do this until [or if] l receive the product.

What should l do?

How do l email ebay for the phone number of this seller? Can you provide a link please (l am a novice at ebay).
 

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