I appreciate all who offered their 2 cents worth to my last question. Thanks. Today, I'm looking for advice about an eBay item that hasn't come yet. The item is this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3952617810&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT Bought 1/16/05. Paid (PayPal) 1/17/05. No item yet. Emailed seller 1/27/05. No response yet. Phoned seller and left message 1/29/05. No response yet. Question is: what is my next step and when do I take it? P.S. I noticed that this was a 3 day auction, and the seller also had some 1 day auctions ending on the same day 1/16/05. Seller has offered nothing since. No apparent FB from other buyers who would have bought on 1/16/05. Looks suspicious. Onlysdad
Here is a link to the ebay discussion boards for Coins & Paper Money. LINK I'm sure you'll be able to find some help there. Good luck.
My instincts tell me you might have to go through the PayPal Buyer Protection procedure to make a claim. However, I believe you must wait 30 days before doing so; you better check this out right now since this may have changed recently. In any instance, keep detailed records of all phone calls and email correspondance including time and dates of contacts, other notes you may have made. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the Seller, given that he has had good positive feedback continuously and frequently right up to the past week or so, and given that he now has no current auctions and has not listed anything since 20 January, something might have happened to him at home and he is unable to respond; it's happened before. Nevertheless, document everything, prepare to obtain a refund via a claim to PayPal. Good luck; may the Force be with you.
Thanks, Fred. I checked and it looks like I have up to 45 days to file a PayPal claim. As you suggest, it is possible the seller got sick or had a family emergency or something. So I might as well wait a while more. I gather that, in your view, this is not an obvious case of seller fraud? Onlysdad
a couple of weeks by itself is no proof that the seller is fraudulent, the auction doesnt specifically state that the seller ships next day some sellers only ship once a week, it maybe three or four days until your Item acually shipped, Iam currently waiting for coins to arrive that were also purchased on the 17th and did not ship until the 26th,,at least my seller got back to me when I enquired,, I dont like sellers who dont respond to my emails and I never buy from them again when this happens I also email them and let them know why I will never buy from them again. Iam also waiting for coins from 12/29,, this seller when emailed has always reponded, but it seems he moved and lost track of his business I have no doubt it will be taken care of .
I get very, very nervous when I don't hear from either a Seller nor Buyer within a couple days after an auction ends. When I'm one or the other, I get a personal email off as soon as possible after the auction closes to introduce myself (if I've never worked with them before) and to work out any details which might not be included within the item description. I am both surprised and disappointed when Buyers/Sellers depend upon eBay's and PayPal's automated messages as their sole correspondance. And most especially if there is going to be a delay at their end for any reason, I want to know about it. In my mind, failure to communicate is a serious breach of common courtesy for which the only excuse is death or disability. In the instance of the situation which started this thread, I am inclined to believe that something happened to the Seller since his busy eBay activity seemed to suddenly cease.
I've had a similar problem with a transaction for a roll of nickels. I paid via PayPal right after the auction closed and never heard jack from the seller (bugmaster58), who had a 100% feedback score. Two weeks later, I filed a complaint with PayPal. Two days after I filed the complaint, I got an e-mail from the seller saying he had been doing volunteer work for UNICEF and unable to access e-mail. He promised to send the coins the next day. He didn't. Right now, he has 2 days left to respond to my complaint with PayPal. We'll see what happens. So if I were in your shoes, I would go ahead and file the complaint. No sense in waiting any longer.
I also had a similar problem.If you have not heard from a seller within 2 weeks then go to PayPal & dispute the purchase. IMO the person who already has your money can at lest take time to email you & let you know what's up. You can also contact your credit card co. & dispute the charge there. Good Luck, Dave
So now that you got your coins, are you going to leave feedback? Based upon your experience you should leave a negative or neutral for bad communciation and the delay in shipment. But since you eventually got the coins, you'd be afraid of a retalitory negative. That's what I hate about the eBay feedback system. You never really know the true story. Bill
Yes... I left a negative feedback for coin_carolina on a POPS ebay item and he blistered me. Not only that, he is continually sending me harassing emails to the point that I am ready to report him to my ISP for abuse. I HATE the feedback system on ebay because the buyer is ALWAYS left hostage to the seller and never the other way around. Steve
Steve, If I were you I would go the eBay fraud site & get this jerkoff my back. I believe they (eBay) take a dim view of harassing emails. They helped me out once before.
Sounds like you tried every avenue...even phoning! There might be a legitimate reason...sickness, etc. But if I were you I'd keep trying to reach him and start the complaint process. Two weeks with no contact is unacceptable for buyer and seller alike, imo. Nick
