I need an eBay seller's insight.

I was a buyer on an auction bid and didn't receive my item. I expected trouble since the seller never marked my item as shipped. I did pay immediately at the end of the sale. I waited about two weeks before I sent a copy of the eBay payment and an inquiry to his attention. I waited a few days and sent a second inquiry asking for an update on the sale. No response of any kind. I disputed the sale through eBay's resolution center. They asked for another 10 days for the seller to respond. Neither I nor eBay was contacted with a response. It's like we never existed. It was escalated to a claim and eBay sided with me and I received my credit. This seller has over 2500 transactions, two with me previously. He has 300 or so items currently listed right now. He has nine comments about non-shipment, but out of 2500, it doesn't seem so bad. He will get my first negative rating for a eBay sale. (I'm at 600 purchases.) What recourse might eBay have with him as a seller? He would not respond to either of us and would not ship. I would have preferred to complete the transaction but a credit is better than nothing. Do they fine some one who won't respond or is negative feedback the only slap on the wrist he will receive?

 

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I'm not sure what they will do, but I'd like to offer the possibility that something happened to him to keep him from responding to messages. If someone has 2,500 transactions, they're not a deadbeat or newbie, so it's possible the person had a health issue or other family emergency. I've had sellers tell me that a few times. You never know for sure if they're being honest but unless I have some reason to doubt them, I'd take their word for it.

 

It is very possible this is the case, but I'm still surprised someone didn't respond for him. The amount of sales he has, probably created the need for help from at least a second person. All the time involved with this transaction added up to a month's worth. Somebody should have checked on the business by then.

 

Ebay can recover the money through Paypal.
There is no fine. But, in order to qualify for Top Rated Seller discounts, a seller needs to resolve cases (returns and items not shipped). I think you are allowed a maximum of 2 unresolved cases (cases where ebay had to step in) over a certain time period.

 

Not necessarily. Most eBay sellers are a one person operation from their home. The seller may have 2500 transactions, but how long did it take to make so many transactions?

This does not mean with 100% certainty that the seller intentionally ignored all attempts at communication. Perhaps they were very unhappy with the final sale price and refused to let it go for that price. Did it sell below market value? I've read before that sellers can sometimes have their negative feedback removed. So maybe this seller is playing that game. You also mentioned the seller has "nine comments about non-shipment". Were they all recent?

 

I agree. The sudden lack of response or attention to one's eBay account usually means some type of incapacitation.

If you got your money back, just wait until near the end of the 45 days in which you can leave feedback. Maybe something will change.

 

My wife would not have a clue on what to do not to mention the fact that if I were suddenly hospitalized, the last thing on her mind would be in monitoring my eBay activities.

 

Very weird situation. I have too wondered what would happen if I was suddenly unable to respond. I am young, but still try to show my wife what I do and how I do it, just in case. I would not worry too much since ebay got your money back. Maybe leave a negative when you are close to the 45 days. At least that gives others (like yourself) a heads up that it has happened before. Ebay lets sellers have a percentage of cases open, etc, before it starts hurting the sellers account, so it probably will not affect him much if this is a rare situation.

 

Without going back to look again, I believe he has been active since 2010 on eBay. My bid price was under market from what the pictures show, but not enough to refuse shipping. That would be the case if I was the seller, but you don't know for sure on his part. Four non-shipment comments were in the last 30 days, another in the 90 day time frame; and the rest over an extended period of time. Since I have been satisfied with him on previous purchases, I didn't give it a lot of concern. He has about 40 very positive comments during the same 30 day period, and one neutral. I figured with the Christmas season already here, he maybe busier than normal. To his credit, he honestly never marked the sale as shipped. At first I thought he didn't realize it was paid for. That's why I sent the copy of the PayPal transaction on my first contact. I just have not experienced anything quite like this.


As far as the recommendation to wait the 45 days that 19Lyds and jwitten gave, I'll probably do that. It occurs at the end of this month so it's not that far off.

 

In general, if an ebay seller pays his/her ebay and PayPal fees then they will be allowed to continue to sell on ebay.

There is one seller who has coins listed on ebay even though he passed away during the ANA in August. I don't know if he has an ebay store and they just continue to ding his credit card on file, but he still has coins listed.

 

I was under the impression he had tons of positives, with just a few negs. The last post made it sound like in the last 30 days he has 40 positive, 4 negs, and a neutral. That is really really bad. What is his rating percent?

 

When I was selling on ebay, I was the business. There was no-one else working it, and if something had happened to me during a transaction and I couldn't respond, there would have been no one else who would have even considered (or known my info) to work it for me or respond to others.


I wouldn't worry about what ebay will or won't do. Perhaps they will wait to see if more of this happens, and if the seller finally responds. I think it is still in ebay's favor to let his items stay up for sale, because he may come back from a family emergency (or his own???) and pick up where he left off and keep up the business. No need for ebay to get upset, like a buyer would.

Also, in the case it may have been a family issue, I would in leaving feedback (even if negative) write it in a way that wasn't nasty. Just say Item not shipped or rec'd. Ebay refunded my money. Or something along that line.

 

I had to go back and look this up.
Last 12 months:
634 positive
2 neutral
9 negative.

97.8% on his rating.

325 - item as described
338 - communication
330 - shipping time
331 - shipping charges

 

That's what I was going to do, simple facts. You can't write too much in the comment area anyway.

 

I was wondering about Davids account as there is a piece I was interested in, but didn't know if the wife are children were selling the remainder off. I did hear that everything was going to be disposed of on HA.com

 

It is unprofessional for a seller to not respond to messages or emails. Busy or not, it's rude to leave a buyer hanging without a tracking # or even a response. Report to ebay as I'm sure a few others may have done the same thing. It sounds like to me the seller might not have ever shipped anything and just ran off with your payment.

 

From your first post, I read it that as far as your end is concerned, you are in the clear, did not receive your item but did get your money back. So this is resolved. Then what ebay may do to the seller is irrelevant. Unless you hear for certain what actually happened, your only available option is to not bid on any more of his items.


Too many people are making assumptions about this seller. Could he be a deadbeat? Sure. Could he have had a catastrophic incident that prevents him from responding? Absolutely. You do not mention the seller by name so we have no idea who he is. Nor do we have enough information to determine exactly what happen with him. This is really immaterial anyway, except to warn others about this current situation.

 

Unless the seller is in a hospital or deceased of course.

 

Correct, I didn't get my item but received restitution with a refund. My question was: Does eBay have any recourse with a seller who simply ignores them in a dispute. Tom B implied generally no, as long as the business end of their eBay agreement is current. So it seems sellers can take a very relaxed approach, if they don't want to take the time to resolve some issues with a sale. Rather than have a conversation, just let eBay issue a credit. I guess that's eBay's answer to buyer's remorse via non-payment. It seems the contract formed by either party, at the time of sale, isn't as binding as some people think. It appears it's just too much effort to enforce. Emergency or unusual situations excluded.

 

Ebay WILL take recourse, if it happens enough. If you are in nearly perfect standing, you get a discount. If you have a few instances like this (or other things), you lose your discount. The more you have, the more they restrict your account. If you have too many, they suspend you.