My Ebay nightmare

[Brother Tom]

I\'ve recently been doing a bit of purchasing on Ebay and things have not been going as planned. I got sent 1 wrong item and an incomplete item, but those were sorted out by some very helpful sellers. The thing that has been bugging me though is that I purchased £80+ worth of minatures which have not arrived, i\'m quite a patient person but I won this auction on about the 7th of december . I have Emailed the seller several times but basically he just tells me to wait bit longer and I am now getting fed up, i\'ve sent more Emails but with no reply, I have also got in contact with royal mail but for them to do anything further they need more details which only the seller can provide (which i\'ve asked him to do but I dont think he has)). I dont know what else I can do about this, does anybody have any advice.

 

[Frustrated Father]

Well ... wait.

(ducking thrown chair)

Seriously though, I would give it six weeks in all (which is basically just coming up) and if that hasn\'t worked, inform the seller that you haven\'t received it and its time to work on something.

The big questions are, where is it being sent from, how did you pay for it, and was it insured.

If it wasn\'t insured, you might have shot yourself in the foot. If you used Paypal through ebay, you can go through them to get your money back. If you used a credit card to pay (the best option) you can contact your bank/provider and dispute the charges which they will then reverse and then you can let your bank and him work out from there.

There are usually options, keep in mind though, as you stated already, the royal mail pretty much blows ass. Some stuff that I recently ordered from that side of the ocean took a helluva lot longer to get to me than I expected. One package took three days, another took almost five weeks. Go figure.

Hope it works out for you.

 

[No Such Agency]

My initial reaction was \"well, another person screwed on eBay, but FF may be right, it\'s only been 5 weeks. If it took the seller a couple of weeks to get around to mailing it (bad service, to be sure) and the Royal Mail is as bad as you all say it is, it could still be in transit (is this from within GB or international?). But the seller\'s stalling tactics and general cageyness aren\'t a good sign.

 

[War Griffon]

When ever I sell on e-bay I treat people how I would like to be treated, I\'ll always let them know approx postage times and things like that and when the parcel has gone to the Post Office.

Is this guy in the UK or in the States?
If the later and your package has been sent surface mail then you are looking at waiting up to 8 weeks.

If however he is in the UK the longest you should wait for the Post Office to deliver a parcel is 5 days as that is there promise.

On the other hand if this person has a seller name along the lines of Jonsee or similar and sells stuff like plastic kits then he has a bad name from other groups and should be avoided like a plague.

 

[dave3555]

You can request further contact details of the seller through ebay - such as a phone number. This can be handy if the seller does not respond to your emails.

dave

 

[Brother Tom]

Well the seller is from the uk thats why im worried about how long its taking. I payed through paypal so does that mean I have a chance to get my money back?
The Ebayer seller has a feedback score of 1000+ so I thought it would be ok, but now i\'m thinking because they sell alot of stuff maybe there not bothered about 1 negative feedback or maybe it just seems like to much hassle for them if something does go wrong.

 

[Orchid_Noir]

Don\'t wait too long

Don\'t shoot yourself in the foot with patience, there is a time limit for you to file within. Some of the ....... we\'ll leave it at a polite \"more dishonest\" registered sellers will play the \"delay them until recourse is no longer available\" game and run scam after scam this way.

Not saying that\'s the situation, just don\'t let that time limit pass you by and leave you holding a lighter pocketbook with naught to show for it.

(I don\'t know what the time limit is, I\'ve never let any of my buyers have to worry about that, and I\'ve never dealt with a seller that made me feel the need to look it up. *knock on wood*)

 

[Frustrated Father]

Don\'t look at how many positive feedbacks he has ... look at the negative ones.

I\'ve run across some power sellers out there that have a 96% rating, but when you look at it, they have like 90 negative and very unhappy people for the hundreds that are happy. Saw one that kept screwing everyone over on a high dollar item because she wanted more, but all the \'little stuff\' was making it across to the people. She had a high rating as well. Best thing to do is you homework when you are buying.

As for paying through paypal, yes, you should be able to get your money back, though it is going to be more of a hassel than you think sadly. Hopefully they won\'t give you too much of the run around. Simply put though, contact your bank and dispute the charges.

As for the person being in GB with you, it sounds as if that person messed about with you as I\'m sure your mail should be running quicker than that as stated by War Griffon.

Lastly, I\'ve run into it more than once, where the person says they sent the package, or you assume it was sent, and then when you start inquries you finally get the box ... and see that it was just mailed two days prior instead of the weeks that you thought it had been.

If it was me, I would give this person a final email, tell him you will wait till the end of next week, and if you have neither the package or a reply, you\'ll begin the process of regaining your money back through the proper channels.

Or ... just do it and don\'t give the fragger any warning.

 

[Brother Tom]

Thanks for your help everyone.
The seller said he had definetly sent and even put a return address on it, I emailed him today and asked for a copy of the postage receipt (thats if he got one).
I will give it until the end of next week and then take some more serious action, I think you have to sort it out within 90 days so i\'ve got about another 45 to sort it out, still i\'d better not wait to long.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Brother Tom: I\'d be inclined to now start to \"push their buttons\".
Advise them that, being \'told to wait\' is not an acceptable answer to your queries. Request the specific date of posage and if insured/registered ask for the Tracking number.
If that fails tell them that you have no recourse but to report them to Ebay.
Ebay sellers are jealous of the reputation and being reported is not something that is taken lightly.

 

[KatieG]

From your responses, it sounds like you paid via Paypal with a credit card, yes? File a report with Paypal NOW. Unfortunately, you are too late (you only get 30 days), but it will go on the guys record and it might get him to get off his butt and mail it if he hasn\'t already. When you get denied your refund, go to the credit card company and file (if you go to the credit card company first w/o filing the Paypal report, Paypal can and sometimes will freeze your account). You can always repay if the stuff gets to you, but you only have a limited time to file the reports and stuff, so I\'d do that now rather than waiting. Frankly, for something to take this long within your own country is inexcuseable. Another thing to do is file a fraud report with eBay. Again, this is something that may get him in gear if he hasn\'t already sent you the stuff, and it goes on his record if you never get your items. Frankly, he\'s probably just stringing you along in order to get past the deadlines for filing all the reports. You can always close a dispute if he sends you the stuff, but you can\'t file a report past the deadlines (well, you can with Paypal, they will just deny your complaint because its past the 30 day deadline - but it still goes on his record, so if he screws someone else he may get suspended), so if I were you, I\'d file as much as possible now rather than waiting. Also, the person who said if you didn\'t buy insurance, you\'re screwed is wrong, as it is the sellers responsibility to get your stuff to you, and if they didn\'t insure it, they open themselves up to a chargeback via credit card, and you are well within your rights to do so. Anyways, hope this helps. Also, the eBay boards are very useful for situations such as this, not many people know about them, but you can get to them by clicking on the \"community\" link on the front page. They will tell you the proper procedures to follow, expecially since what I basically told you I know applies for US buyers and sellers, but it may be different if both are in the UK.
--Katie G.

 

[Wolf_Fang]

ive never had a problem on ebay... as of right now tho im waiting for halo 2 limited edition to get here.... if its not here by wednesday im gonna email the guy

 

[Brother Tom]

Thanks KatieG for pointing out the limit of 30 days, luckily for me it was up to 45 days and I have now filed a complaint so we shall see where things go from here. Thanks again everyone for your help otherwise I probaly would have just ended up waiting until it was to late.

 

[KatieG]

No problem, I know its in the process of changing from 30 to 45 days, it must have already gone into effect for you guys, I don\'t think its in effect yet for us in the US. I hang out on the eBay discussion boards from time to time when I run out of stuff to read here, they\'re a great source for info...
--Katie G.

 

[Zora]

Yeah, currently experiencing the same problem...

I think I\'m just beyond the 30 days to request a refund from Paypal, and it was sent in the US , and I paid for priority mail. They emailed saying it was sent Dec 15th. 2 video games for my 5-yr old for Christmas. PLENTY of time to get here. Never arrived.

After a few emails, they said they\'d send them out again, but I have still not received them after a week and a half now.

Same thing: LOTS of positive feedback, just don\'t know what happened.

 

[freakinacage]

now just tell him that you expect it by the end of next week and you\'ll remove one of his fingers for every day it\'s late!!

 

[Infidel Castro]

Yep, that\'s the stuff! We\'ll go to whatever town he/she lives in and put out some feelers. When we find the person we will give them a good roughing up in the back of a white Transit van. I\'ve got the connections Brother Tom, just give me the info!

 

[Brother Tom]

Thanks Reverand I might take you up on that offer if things dont work out .

 

[Minigrrrl]

get their info from ebay, and give them a call. I\'ve found that if you actually speak to the person involved, they will all of a sudden be a lot mor ereceptive to what you\'re saying.

 

[Frustrated Father]

Originally posted by reverend
Yep, that\'s the stuff! We\'ll go to whatever town he/she lives in and put out some feelers. When we find the person we will give them a good roughing up in the back of a white Transit van. I\'ve got the connections Brother Tom, just give me the info!

This had me laughing for a good long time. Sadly, I found myself agreeing with this rather barbaric practice ... might make ebay\'ing all the more enjoyable.