My jurisdiction is: ILLINOIS
I am an ebay seller in need of some help regarding a transaction w/a buyer who iI am an ebay seller in need of some help regarding a transaction w/a buyer who is undermining my business--ebay refuses to help me.
This "buyer" first emailed me regarding a pair of gloves I had up for auction and asked if he could just buy them outright for $10.00. Since there was much interest in this particular item I emailed back and told him no. He then bid on the gloves and won them at auction's close for $53 and change. Per the terms of the auction, winning bidders are to contact me within 3 days of auction's close regarding when payment will be made; payment is expected within 7 days. When I didn't hear from him by day 5, I sent a 2nd invoice notification and asked him to please let me know when to expect payment. He finally contacted me the day payment WAS DUE to tell me he sent a Money Order THAT DAY--which gave me no option to request an immediate/electronic payment method from him. In addition, I let slide the fact that his payment would be at minimum 3 days late (ebay encourages "customer service", after all!) via a payment method that ebay now considers "unauthorized", I waited for this supposed M.O. to show up. And waited...and waited. I'm still waiting.!
I contacted this buyer when his payment still had not arrived after 5 business days (Fl to IL), and asked him to please contact me since payment was now past due. I gave him 48 hours to respond and when he did not, I relisted the item, which ebay says I'm within my rights to do. I then filed an "Unpaid Item" dispute w/ebay, since at the very least I wanted to be reimbursed for the initial listing fees, as well as the Final Value Fee that ebay deducted.
Within an hour of filing the dispute--what do ya know!--the buyer contacted me and said the payment should have been received, to which I responded, Yes it certainly should have! He became increasingly agitated, sent a number of very rude emails and threatened me w/negative feedback, which I reported to ebay since they claim that is feedback extortion. Since the item had already been relisted due to non-payment, I told him I would happily mail his payment back via Certified Mail were I to receive it; I also suggested he contact USPS since money orders can be tracked and confirmed cashed only if the original buyer files claim PS401. Ebay then allowed him to file an tem not Received/Not as Described" dispute in retalliation, to which I responded, saying that of course the item hadn't been shipped since IT HAD NOT BEEN PAID FOR.
He demanded that the M.O be returned (never got it) or that the gloves be sent (they weren't paid for); both requests seemed to me to be impossible.
A few days later he left negative feedback (which I cannot do in return b/c ebay has changed the rules) which I was surprised ebay allowed. That brought my 100% feedback rating gathered over the course of two years and over 1500 transactions down to 99.6. I contested this, ebay said, quote: "even if feedback is unfair, inflammatory or untrue, it will not be removed." Um...what?? I let it go until yesterday, when I had had hardly any hits on my newly listed auctions, got suspicious and checked my "Detailed Seller Ratings", which had been brought down significantly by this buyer and thus my search standing went from "Raised" to "Lowered"--this means that my listed items are almost impossible to find if a buyer does a search on ebay.
I called ebay, once I finally found their number for "Buyers ONLY" on the internet, three times regarding this matter--no one will give me any information and the last time I called, the person who answered the phone actually said "How did YOU get this number?" in the rudest possible way. Since ebay does not allow me to list items for free out of the goodness of their hearts but instead charges a fee for each item listed, and since they take a percentage of what I sell, shouldn't I be able to GET SOME HELP from them??
I am at a total loss as to why this buyer who has never proven payment was made has been allowed to negatively impact my crediblity as a seller that I've worked hard to acheive, as well as dramatically decrease the potential for HOLIDAY sales on the items I list. My new worry is that since there is an investigation into my "Selling Practices" pending they will find in his favor even w/o the burden of proof and deduct money directly from my Paypal account without my consent--can they do that?? They already decided in his favor in the Unpaid Item case I opened, so he has not received a strike for non-payment and I will not get my original listing fees or Final Value Fee back from ebay.
This is so ridiculously long, sorry! I just think it's crazy that I have to provide delivery confirmation and tracking or I am SOL as a seller but this buyer can steal from me twice! Aside from the phone calls, I have contacted ebay approimately 7-8 times regarding the multitude of issues and questions I have and they have responded once to tell me something I already knew. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP if possible--thank you!!
I am an ebay seller in need of some help regarding a transaction w/a buyer who iI am an ebay seller in need of some help regarding a transaction w/a buyer who is undermining my business--ebay refuses to help me.
This "buyer" first emailed me regarding a pair of gloves I had up for auction and asked if he could just buy them outright for $10.00. Since there was much interest in this particular item I emailed back and told him no. He then bid on the gloves and won them at auction's close for $53 and change. Per the terms of the auction, winning bidders are to contact me within 3 days of auction's close regarding when payment will be made; payment is expected within 7 days. When I didn't hear from him by day 5, I sent a 2nd invoice notification and asked him to please let me know when to expect payment. He finally contacted me the day payment WAS DUE to tell me he sent a Money Order THAT DAY--which gave me no option to request an immediate/electronic payment method from him. In addition, I let slide the fact that his payment would be at minimum 3 days late (ebay encourages "customer service", after all!) via a payment method that ebay now considers "unauthorized", I waited for this supposed M.O. to show up. And waited...and waited. I'm still waiting.!
I contacted this buyer when his payment still had not arrived after 5 business days (Fl to IL), and asked him to please contact me since payment was now past due. I gave him 48 hours to respond and when he did not, I relisted the item, which ebay says I'm within my rights to do. I then filed an "Unpaid Item" dispute w/ebay, since at the very least I wanted to be reimbursed for the initial listing fees, as well as the Final Value Fee that ebay deducted.
Within an hour of filing the dispute--what do ya know!--the buyer contacted me and said the payment should have been received, to which I responded, Yes it certainly should have! He became increasingly agitated, sent a number of very rude emails and threatened me w/negative feedback, which I reported to ebay since they claim that is feedback extortion. Since the item had already been relisted due to non-payment, I told him I would happily mail his payment back via Certified Mail were I to receive it; I also suggested he contact USPS since money orders can be tracked and confirmed cashed only if the original buyer files claim PS401. Ebay then allowed him to file an tem not Received/Not as Described" dispute in retalliation, to which I responded, saying that of course the item hadn't been shipped since IT HAD NOT BEEN PAID FOR.
He demanded that the M.O be returned (never got it) or that the gloves be sent (they weren't paid for); both requests seemed to me to be impossible.
A few days later he left negative feedback (which I cannot do in return b/c ebay has changed the rules) which I was surprised ebay allowed. That brought my 100% feedback rating gathered over the course of two years and over 1500 transactions down to 99.6. I contested this, ebay said, quote: "even if feedback is unfair, inflammatory or untrue, it will not be removed." Um...what?? I let it go until yesterday, when I had had hardly any hits on my newly listed auctions, got suspicious and checked my "Detailed Seller Ratings", which had been brought down significantly by this buyer and thus my search standing went from "Raised" to "Lowered"--this means that my listed items are almost impossible to find if a buyer does a search on ebay.
I called ebay, once I finally found their number for "Buyers ONLY" on the internet, three times regarding this matter--no one will give me any information and the last time I called, the person who answered the phone actually said "How did YOU get this number?" in the rudest possible way. Since ebay does not allow me to list items for free out of the goodness of their hearts but instead charges a fee for each item listed, and since they take a percentage of what I sell, shouldn't I be able to GET SOME HELP from them??
I am at a total loss as to why this buyer who has never proven payment was made has been allowed to negatively impact my crediblity as a seller that I've worked hard to acheive, as well as dramatically decrease the potential for HOLIDAY sales on the items I list. My new worry is that since there is an investigation into my "Selling Practices" pending they will find in his favor even w/o the burden of proof and deduct money directly from my Paypal account without my consent--can they do that?? They already decided in his favor in the Unpaid Item case I opened, so he has not received a strike for non-payment and I will not get my original listing fees or Final Value Fee back from ebay.
This is so ridiculously long, sorry! I just think it's crazy that I have to provide delivery confirmation and tracking or I am SOL as a seller but this buyer can steal from me twice! Aside from the phone calls, I have contacted ebay approimately 7-8 times regarding the multitude of issues and questions I have and they have responded once to tell me something I already knew. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP if possible--thank you!!
