I recently had a non-paying bidder dispute opened up against me by an eBay powerseller and I could use a little advice from those in the know. Here's what happened: The seller is located in the US, I am located in Canada. The seller's auctions state that he offers a combined shipping discount, ships worldwide, and accepts PayPal. Each of the items in question (coin supplies) ships for $6.00 (in the US) individually. I use "buy it now" and purchase 4 items. Shipping comes to $24 (ouch!) and I'm told that they don't offer a shipping discount to Canada. I'm a bit peeved, but still willing to pay the shipping. I go to pay through PayPal and I can't... I'm then told by the seller that they don't accept PayPal payments from Canada. Hmmmmm.... So I've had enough at this point, and just ask the seller to cancel my bids. They are buy it now items from his store so it shouldn't be a big deal just to add them back into the inventory. However, the seller opened a unpaid item dispute for the items and is very adamant that I pay. Of course I'm not going to pay and this should really be a no-brainer for eBay to resolve, but eBay has done some bizzare things in the past and will probably do so again... Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should proceed?
Did the seller's ad state specifically they will not accept PayPal from international customers? Also, it really shouldn't be a big deal accepting PayPal from Canada due to the new rules (not so new anymore) which provides the seller protection, so I'm not sure why they would have such a prohibition.
Got any auction links to things you HAVE not bought from this seller? (keeps your user ID out of it). Then we can read the fine print. clembo
Reply to the unpaid dispute that you and the seller have agreed not to complete transaction. Seller will get fee refund from Ebay and you will not get a strike against you.
Here's a link to one of his auctions: http://cgi.ebay.com/Whitman-Slab-St...ryZ39476QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem The wording is similar to the items I was buying, however on mine it states that you just add $1.00 shipping for each additional item. Jack, that would be brilliant!! Unfortunately the jerk just closed the disputes and now I have 3 strikes against me...
Pm me tommorow, I will give you my phone number to the humans at ebay...explain situation and you have a chance at removing the strikes. every open dispute is supposed to remain open for at least 7 days.....sellers themselves cannot close a dispute, only Ebay can do that
He never mentions it in any of his listings. He kept talking about buyer protection issues (which I know first hand there are none) and kept offering to accept my credit card info over the phone. Can you blame me for backing out?!! lol
As a seller on Ebay, I would not accept Paypal from anyone, anywhere outside of the USA if I were to use USPS for shipping because there is no way to prove that the item was delivered outside of the USA. With no proof, all someone has to do is file a dispute with Paypal for unrecieved items and they can be guaranteed to win because you can not prove that the item was delivered. I WILL accept Paypal from outside the USA as long as the buyer agree's to Fed Ex shipping because I can prove where the package ended up. Usually people will not pay for Fed Ex because they are outrageously expensive. As far as the seller closing out the dispute, they have to wait 7 days after the date of the sale to file for an unpaid item and then have another 10 days until they (seller) can close the dispute and get their listing fee's back. It also leaves unpaid strikes for the buyer which can cause the buyer to loose their account. Something a lot of people do not know is in the same screen where you file as a seller for an unpaid item, you can also file for a mutual agreement to cancel the transaction. This releases the buyer from having to pay and also refunds the fee's to the seller for the final value fee of the item. In other words, everyone leaves happy and it does not cost either party anything but an e-mail. You can try calling Ebay and speaking with a human, but honestly I do not think that you will have much of a case this time.
Yes, I will not even allow non US bidders because of the tracking pain in the A, unless they email in advance and agree to the fedex shipping, OR if they are cointalkers etc that I know are good folks that wont pull the shipping scam.
As a seller myself, I shipped all over the world and have not had a problem, but maybe I have been lucky. I never thought about the lost mail/no tracking angle...hmmm. Anyway, best of luck to the OP!
Today I bought a few things from a seller that ONLY accepts PayPal from buyers outside the US, so to each his own I guess. Either way, I just like to be informed of it before I bid/buy so I have the option to take my business elsewhere. You have to remember, before I bought anything I asked for a shipping quote (on 2 of the items) to my address in Canada... THAT would have been the time to tell me that you don't take PayPal outside of the US, not after the fact.
Earlier this year a former PayPal (and now eBay) manager in Germany had interesting conditions in his own eBay auction: http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140237360091 He would accept PayPal but required a copy of the buyer's ID card and credit card or account statement. Of course that got quite a bit of attention in eBay forums and the media. Seems he does not really trust PayPal either. Well, around here (Euroland) I can simply pay by transferring the payment. Simple, convenient and definitely less expensive than PayPal. Sellers who insist on PayPal I pretty much ignore ... Sure it is up to the seller to choose which means of payment he accepts. But it is strange, in your case, that he does not clearly state that in his auctions. Christian
A quick update for those of you who are following this thread... eBay responded to my strike appeals with the following email: Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your Unpaid Item appeal for item XXXXXXXXXXXX. Normally we require proof of payment or email evidence to be provided before we will grant a non-payment appeal. However, since this is your first appeal, the Unpaid Item strikes have been removed from your record without any further inconvenience to you. It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay. Sincerely, Karsten eBay Customer Support I don't agree with WHY they are removing the strikes, but at this point I'll take it. I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but I'm a bit of a "powerbuyer" on eBay with a 100% feedback and a rating of 502ish. It will be interesting to see what happens next time... if there is a next time!
May I suggest that you ask before you get yourself into another bind - particularly since you live in Canada.
With all due respect, I don't think that the owness is on me to ask such questions when an auction states otherwise. I've successfully completed well over 700 transactions on eBay during the 8 years I've been a member, and I've never had an issue like this before. If anything, I usually ask if a seller ships to Canada, not if they accept PayPal from Canada, because those that don't usually don't accept PayPal at all and clearly state that in their auctions. This was just a difficult seller to deal with and luckily they are few and far between in my experience. I'd even bet money that he won't even change the small print on his auctions as a result of this incident, but that's life.
Basically yes, it would help in the future. But what if the next seller has some other "secret" condition that apparently applies to his/her auctions but is not published in the auction descriptions? Frankly, I think it's too much of a hassle. Sure, if something is expensive here (I'm in Europe) and can be had at an extremely good price from a US seller, I may decide that it's worth the extra effort. But in general I am better off when buying from a local seller, even if the price looks a little higher first ... Christian
I have over 7000 positives as a buyer (1 Neg LOL) but still if I am buying from a seller I have not delt with before I will email them and ask if they take paypal (even if they clearly state that they do) as they might not take a credit card generated payment but do take a bank ballance one. Saves on hassle in the long run, I also check on the shipping costs to the UK :kewl:
Probably a good policy. I also think the seller's ad should have stated something to the effect of "Inquire with me if you are an international buyer BEFORE bidding" all of this could have been avoided. That's what I am putting in my ads from now on...
