Advice on a eBay transaction gone bad.

[haha]

I asked the seller to give me a full refund and they did.

They took down the auction and relisted it at an even higher price but no bids yet.

Question:

What type of feedback would you give to a seller that refused to ship an item you won even when you offered a couple hundred more?

I think I would quit stressing about it. On the range of stuff that happens, this is just slightly below the 50-50 line.

Ha

 

[easysurfer]

Can you put a reserve on anything I listed something before and I do not remember there being a reserve available.... the only thing that I could do was put in the minimum bid....

I bet that they thought the bidding would go up and it did not.... probably the first time they listed and learned a lesson...

You're right in that just starting out with a minimum acceptable bid accomplishes the same purpose. But you can also set a reserve price:

Selling with a reserve price

I never understood why if you had a reserve price to start out below that

 

[sengsational]

Here's a solution, use a throw-away eBay account to bid $1000 on the re-listed item. No matter what, you'll "win", and then you can string the seller along for weeks saying "yeah, the check is in the mail"

 

[Dimsumkid]

As I am sure you know, they can leave feedback for you as well, and theirs may not be truthful.

I hope you opened a case with E-Bay against this seller prior to getting the refund. If you do leave them negative feedback, and they retaliate in kind, you can contest it and E-Bay can remove it based on the reported issue.

As a seller, you can't leave anyone a negative rating anymore. You can select a positive rating, then write in a negative comment. If you opened a case, the seller is prevented from leaving any ratings/comments at all.

I think the ebay rating system heavily favors the buyer. As a seller, I get buyers who don't bother paying $2 after winning an item and I have to open a case to get them to pay.

To the OP, I suggest leaving a negative rating, then writing in what happened as best you can. This negative rating will stay on the seller's record for 1 yr. Most people will only read the ratings positive/negative count and only read the negative comments since most people don't want to get burned and will stay away from problem sellers.

 

[youbet]

I asked the seller to give me a full refund and they did.

Great!

It does seem like this seller was more of a dufus/newbie than a scammer. Time to move on.........

 

[Silver]

As a seller, you can't leave anyone a negative rating anymore. You can select a positive rating, then write in a negative comment. If you opened a case, the seller is prevented from leaving any ratings/comments at all..

Thanks for this update. This must have changed and I didn't realize it. As a seller this is helpful to know.

 

[sengsational]

To the OP, I suggest leaving a negative rating, then writing in what happened as best you can. This negative rating will stay on the seller's record for 1 yr. Most people will only read the ratings positive/negative count and only read the negative comments since most people don't want to get burned and will stay away from problem sellers.

This won't really have any effect since this eBay user has a trash account...no history or reputation to protect.

I would never bid on a relatively "high dollar" item unless the seller had an eBay userid that he/she would hate to have trashed. Buying from (or selling to) an eBay noob is asking for trouble. I once sold to a guy who, when he got the product delivered, just sort of changed his mind. He sent it back on his nickle, as agreed, I refunded, then he proceeded to trash ME on feedback! No more noobs!

 

[My Dream]

Update:

Seller took down the new listing since it didn't sell and listed again at an even higher price. As for my refund, the seller has given the refund but Paypal is holding back for some reason so I can't get it for several days.

"Placed
PayPal has placed a temporary hold while we're reviewing it. We'll contact you shortly with further information."

 

[Meadbh]

Update:

Seller took down the new listing since it didn't sell and listed again at an even higher price. As for my refund, the seller has given the refund but Paypal is holding back for some reason so I can't get it for several days.

"Placed
PayPal has placed a temporary hold while we're reviewing it. We'll contact you shortly with further information."

PayPal can be very frustrating. They once held a payment that I was making (a deposit on a rental in a Hawaii) for several weeks, going over the payment deadline and leading to angry messages and a threat of cancellation by the property owner. PayPal did not respond to my emails or phone calls. When they eventually paid the owner, I was charged a penalty, perhaps to cover a drop in the exchange rate. This may be occurring in your case too. Personally I am now avoiding PayPal.

 

[braumeister]

Personally I am now avoiding PayPal.

You and about a zillion others of us.

Sad that what started out as such a good thing quickly degenerated into what it is today.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I got burned using Paypal by buying software that never worked. If I had used a credit card I would have gotten my money back but Paypal just basically said tough luck. I considered it a theft of my money and they did nothing. I realized afterwards why the seller only took Paypal and not any credit cards. So I am in the fool me once camp as far as Paypal goes.

 

[Totoro]

Sad that what started out as such a good thing quickly degenerated into what it is today.

I seem to remember Elon Musk trashing Paypal (which he founded) with a similar statement a few years ago.

Started out as way for people to make payments easier and cheaper, now it's worse than credit cards in many cases.

 

[Dimsumkid]

I got burned using Paypal by buying software that never worked. If I had used a credit card I would have gotten my money back but Paypal just basically said tough luck. I considered it a theft of my money and they did nothing. I realized afterwards why the seller only took Paypal and not any credit cards. So I am in the fool me once camp as far as Paypal goes.

Using paypal doesn't stop you from using a credit card. You do have to change your funding option every time since paypal defaults to your bank (no credit card as the default). This allows you to keep the credit card protection in this case.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Using paypal doesn't stop you from using a credit card. You do have to change your funding option every time since paypal defaults to your bank (no credit card as the default). This allows you to keep the credit card protection in this case.

I stopped using Paypal years ago because of this issue:

New York Attorney General Tells PayPal to Pay Up

"According to the Attorney General's office, an investigation by Spitzer's office revealed that PayPal's "User Agreement" misrepresented to account holders certain terms and conditions, including a statement that it afforded to its account holders "the rights and privileges expected of a credit card transaction." In practice, consumers were often denied these rights – both by PayPal and by two credit issuers, American Express and Discover, according to the report. "

I thinked they cleaned up their act after being investigated by 28 different state attorney generals at one time, so maybe it is better these days.

I see their buyer protection agreement still does not cover digital goods.

 

[Texas Proud]

You're right in that just starting out with a minimum acceptable bid accomplishes the same purpose. But you can also set a reserve price:

Selling with a reserve price

I never understood why if you had a reserve price to start out below that

Thanks for the info.... I see where I went wrong....

You can't add a reserve price to a listing when using the quick listing tool. From the quick listing tool, you will need to click Switch to advanced tool in the upper-right corner and create your listing there.
​

 

[gauss]

Using paypal doesn't stop you from using a credit card. You do have to change your funding option every time since paypal defaults to your bank (no credit card as the default). This allows you to keep the credit card protection in this case.

I have often wondered if this strategy would actually work as you suggest.

My concern is that it could be strictly interpreted that your card was used in a financial transaction between you and PayPal. If PayPal performed according to their terms then the credit card transaction might not be disputable.

I have never tested this or researched it thoroughly but you comment reminded me that this is an open question from where I am sitting.

-gauss

 

[pb4uski]

...It does seem like this seller was more of a dufus/newbie than a scammer. .........

The first time I sold something on eBay was a CRT monitor that I was no longer using. I'm in the northeast and some guy from CA bought it for $25 plus shipping. When I was getting prepared to ship it I found out it would cost $45 to ship it to him. I corresponded with him that I had no idea that the shipping would be that much and that if he wanted out of the deal I would understand. he took me up on my offer and we both learned a lesson to pay attention to shipping.

 

[braumeister]

we both learned a lesson to pay attention to shipping.

I've found that offering free shipping when selling on eBay is a huge help. So I calculate the shipping cost to the farthest point in the country and build that into my starting price. So far this strategy has worked very well.

 

[Rick_Head]

Being in Canada, I've seen $5 items with $50 estimated shipping.