OT: WTF!!!!!!!!!!! Ebay waster

I presume you know about this:

I think paypal nuke your account for that kind of thing!

I don't accept cheques, and have had a few people moan about the speed at which I sent stuff out, just 6 days after the auction had ended. "Fair enough" you might think, if I only do paypal and I've not sent it out after 6 days that's not too good on the whole. These idiots sent cheques though, despite it being stated on the page that I don't do cheques..

I think this ebay moaning thread could go on for months ;-)

I also try to do this whenever the other party is compliant, many e bay users either don't have bank accouts or don't want the money showing.

My experience is diametrically opposite yours, I got no help from the resolution centre, all I got was automated responses non of which covered exactly the problem I was having.

I will not use Pay-Pal ever again, they have ripped me off once and they will not get a second scahce.

Don't be daft. Courts very, very rarely enforce "specific performance" - i.e try to compel anyone to go through with a deal. They may, at best, assess the loss you have suffered, "loss of bargain" - but even that's a bit dicey.

Ebay may slap the seller's wrist, but that's all that can happen.

Prepare for a struggle to get your money back - it was perhaps unwise sending it after he'd told you not to.

Then move on.

I had a similar problem with a private feedback guy, said he didn't want the item and wasn't going to pay, then he left me bad FB. I complained to Ebay, forwarded his e mails, his account was pulled and FB was cancelled though there was a note left to say EBay had withdrawn the FB.

After reading all the other suggestions and having had one bad experience so far (first time I'd ever used an auction site; should have known better than bid for an item abroad), I still think that the best solution is the one I wanted to apply to the bastard who scammed me:

Find the seller's address, pay a couple or Romanians/Russians/(enter unjustly maligned nationality of your preference here), send them over, break his legs.

Vigilante justice may not be really just, but it's more fun.

Geo

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:04:22 -0000, "Autolycus" enlightened us thusly:

then again, I tend to pay pretty much immediately, on ebay things. I don't see the point in faffing around - the only time I request a total is if the carriage is unclear or something. So someone whinging thusly afterwards would catch me too.

I'd get Paypal into it if I'd done it through paypal, and forward the email that the bloke sent, citing this as reason for demanding a refund. If they don't play ball, you can then complain about their "buyer protection". Paypal and ebay are one now, anyway, of course.

AFAICS, if the paypal/ebay system refuses to enforce either delivery or a refund within a reasonable time, then there's nothing to stop you putting the facts before a suitably rabid newspaper...

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:59:06 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)" enlightened us thusly:

It'd depend on the convenience. Try shopping in Ikea and paying by card...

but my point is I think valid: it's handy to me to use Paypal, since by this means I can conveniently and without hassle send money anywhere in the world. It's also convenient to me as a seller, granted, since I can accept money from e.g. the US without faffing about. I don't object to them charging, since everyone else aslo charges, but I do object to the one-sided-ness, bearing in mind the convenience is the same for buyer and seller.

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:01:32 GMT, NM enlightened us thusly:

it's your choice, as it's everyone's choice - for me, the convenience outweighs the risk.

I daresay that if you accepted credit cards directly, the same could happen. It might be that the banks are more careful about checking.

the other point in your case is that although you posted the item and have a receipt, it's still possible that the recipient never got it. In which case you have a claim against the carrier for losing it - provided of course you took sufficient insurance on it.

Standard parcelforce parcels only have cover up to about £20 compensation, for example, but upping that to a max of a few hundred only costs about 50p more or something.

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:23:14 GMT, Doug Baiter enlightened us thusly:

I do, but I keep forgetting it :-)

misses the point though: ebay should build it in; it shouldn't need a third party. I'm going to suggest it again... perhaps if we all suggest it they might notice.

The obvious comment: if you don't like the idea, what are you trying to hide? Same as private feedback: why are you hiding it? If it's good, let us see it, if not, I for one will assume there's something to hide and not buy from them, so in my case, they only lose by hiding.

In the same way, I dislike this "bidder 1" and "bidder 2" crap - I used to like investigating the people bidding against me in an auction :-)

The buyer was offered track and trace with extra insurance, this option and refused on the grounds it was too expensive, even after it being pointed out normal parcels was his risk as essentially I was his agent posting what were by then his goods to him in the way he instructed. I shouldn't even have been in the loop.

Would you not expect, if it was a genuine case of lost in the post, some sort of communication, some questions, etc? Nothing at all heard until Pay-Pal tried to take his refund out of my account. I was scammed pure and simple and they let this go on over and over.

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:11:59 GMT, NM enlightened us thusly:

If it were me, then I'd contact the seller, yes, and get confirmation that it'd been dispatched. I'm not saying that it wasn't a scam, BTW, but that unless you know the item was indeed received, the information presented doesn't make the putative purchaser a villain. I sent a bike wheel by post somewhere and it went missing, and that's a big, heavy, obvious parcel. Eventually, it showed up - but not 'til about 2 months at least later, when we'd already sent another, IIRC.

Granted your point about being offered higher level postage, and it was his risk. but then again, swap it around and put yourself as the buyer: you pay for something, you;re told it's been dispatched, and it doesn't show up. what do you do then? OK, if you're like me, you contact the seller, who tells you it was posted 3 weeks ago, and it's no longer his problem.

You then look at Paypal or whatever, and you find that you can claim for non-arrival, so you do so. I've not looked, so I don't know in what form that bit of Paypal is worded; it might be that it's not obvious that the seller will end up paying.

Did Paypal actually have the money from you, or just try for it?

Oh I dont deny for a moment that Ebay should offer it themselves, but in the absence of that I like the toolhaus utility to avoid scrolling through pages and pages of feedback to find the ones I'm looking for!

Yeah. For once I understand their reasoning behind this, but I too preferred to look up those bidding, if only to see what the max bid they had was on the item they lost to be bidding on this one, if you see what I mean!

paid with paypal using a credit card so I'm hopefull havn't heard owt yet though sent another message to try and get whats happening.

The bit that pissed me off was Pay-Pal's total refusal to accept the reciept, on post office marked till roll, showing the consignees address, as proof of posting. This let them swiftly off the hook regarding paying compensation under their guarantee. Remember this in case it happens to you, The only proof of posting they accept is a full track and trace insured, use anything less and you risk loosing the goods, the money and getting charged for the privilidge. IMO not making this cristal clear is totally dishonest on their part.

There was just over fifty quid in the Pay-Pal account, they took that then tried to access my bank for the rest but luckily the debit card had expired, realising they had my credit card details on file I immediatly reported it stolen and just in time stopped them taking money from that. They keep pestering me for the balance but AFAIAC they have a snowball's chance in hell of getting it.

I, using the reciept, managed to eventually get a refund of 35 pounds direct from the post office, as compensation for a lost packet, this is their maximum for that type of parcel and took many months so financially it wasn't that bad in the end, I lost about twenty quid, the cheeky bastards also took their commission for the sale BTW.

This is a well known scam BTW, any genuine person would have, at the very least, sent an e mail asking what the hell was happening, do a bit of Googling and you will see just how loved and respected Pay-Pal are. If I'd realised their guarantee was worthless I would have refused to use them.

And I got a bad FB just to add insult to injury.

Rant over, I feel better now.

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:37:56 +0000, hugh enlightened us thusly:

I have, and that's why I use Paypal. I still think their charging structure is unfair.

and in the end, the customer loses out - 'cos on fixed price stuff, I add the likely amount of fees to the price so everyone pays more. On high-value auctions, I don't accept Paypal...

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:30:47 GMT, NM enlightened us thusly:

indeed. Paypal run close to dishonesty in several ways, I reckon; all the info is there somewhere but some of it is quite well hidden. 'tis a fact that such things as parcelforce 48 which is indeed tracked and whatever don't in fact cost a lot more. I'm tempted to just up the postage charges and use that anyway - it is more reliable, too - and on auctions with Paypal put a cunningly-worded [1] note to the effect that the postage charges are higher because of Paypal policy.

To be fair to Paypal, they handle no doubt millions of transactions per week if not per day, and the huge majority go through with no hassle; the bad ones get disproportinate publicity.

Not saying that you haven't got legitimiate complaints, because you have, but let's face it, if you'd had a hundred good trnasactions, you'd not go on at length about it; that's human nature, no-one likes to think they've beem taken for a mug.

It'd be tempting to list stuff with no Paypal but accepting some other online eqeuivalent :-)