OT: Ordering from ebay

#1

I am very new to ebay, in fact this is my second purchase from there. The first one went without a hitch. I bought some yarn on friday and it was here on monday. Pretty nice.

Now I bought a second item and had to do the stupid bidding thing, yuck, and I bought it saturday morning, paid for it and everything (at least I think I did) and its 2 days later and I haven’t heard a peep out of the seller. I’ve sent her 3 emails and no reply at all!!! She apparently has a perfect record, of course I really don’t know what that means, and for some reason she doesn’t want to send my item. Or tell me she’s received my payment.

Anyone got any ideas??? :pray:

#2

If she has a perfect record I would give her a few more days before you start to worry. I hope that all goes well! :thumbsup:

#3

I love ebay. I just bought a book and sent two emails and also thought I had not heard from the seller. But then when I went to Ebay and clicked on “my ebay” it said I had one message. So I clicked on that and there was the response from the seller. So I will start to look there for responses. Check yours out too just in case. :happydance:

#4

I would be patient. I would also go back and check all the emails you received during the bidding process, and the notice that told you that you were the winner. Somewhere in there I am sure it says how/when shipping will occur. A lot of sellers only ship items on certain days of the week.

When I was selling regularly on eBay, I had auctions ending all the time, but I only shipped out on Thursdays. That gave me the week to get all my items ready and take them all in one trip, instead of having to go to FedEx everyday.

#5

I love Ebay, I have a couple of favorite sellers that I deal with and highly recommend…here and here. I don’t do auctions when I ebay, I always opt for the ‘buy it now’ feature :thumbsup:

#6

Thanks everyone. I did check the ‘My Messages’ link and my inbox says no messages.

I will check her shipping details and see if I missed something. I am only obsessing about it because I the item I bought I have been looking for for a LONG time. It didn’t exist until I checked last week. And I had checked ebay in the past for it.

Plus I just sent my money to a complete stranger and I don’t have the item in my possession. :shock: I’m kinda a freak when it comes to these things. That’s why it took so long to 'join’ebay. I hate buying online. Its such a risk, to me anyway. :rollseyes:

My mother raised a paranoid daughter. Hmm, :thinking: wonder where I got it from :lol: :lol:

#7

Also, this was over a weekend, so the seller may not have been home.

I’ve only been “stung” once, and since I paid by Paypal, my credit card company refunded the money as I never received the item.

For the most part, ebay is great - or has been for me, anyway.

I recently got some yarn from there, too - but as it is for projects for me, I haven’t started using it yet. :lol:

#8

How long did it take for the credit card company to get your money back? I’ve heard it takes quite a while. True/False??

BTW, I checked her shipping section and there’s nothing in it about specific shipping days.

#9

If you’ve sent your money and she has good feedback, I wouldn’t worry about it yet. Some people have a lot of auctions going at once and don’t have time to respond to emails right away. It can take up to 1 or 2 weeks to get your goods, although I’d say that’s worst case and depends on shipping method.

#10

How long did it take for the credit card company to get your money back? I’ve heard it takes quite a while. True/False??

BTW, I checked her shipping section and there’s nothing in it about specific shipping days.[/quote]

I went directly through my credit card company (not through the PayPal process), and it was back in my account by my next statement. I just called customer service, explained that I wanted to cancel that transaction as I’d never received the merchandise (and this was after about 30 days - so I’d given them enough time to overcome any obstacles…and btw, the person I bought from had changed identities at least 3 times and had done the same thing to a lot of people). So, no, it didn’t take all that long to get it back. Just don’t mess with the PayPal arbitration thing if it comes to that.

BUT, I’d still wait before panicking. There have been times I’ve bid on stuff, and don’t hear from the person for a few days - and this is even after I’ve tried to contact them. I figure we’re all busy people, and you never know what is going to come up - you could get sick, have a bunch of auctions ending at the same time, have car trouble and not be able to get to the post office…with the auction ending on a weekend, I’d cut them even a little more slack than if it ended during the week. Especially since it was Father’s Day weekend - they may be traveling.

I know it’s hard, but keep the faith and give it a bit more time.

#11

Indeed I shall :blush:

#12

I’m sure it will be fine, but do let us know, won’t you?

#13

I do ebay all the time. Some sellers are great about emails, and some never even respond. I mean, these aren’t businesses most of the time - they are just your average person at home.

Sometimes the seller is out of town when the auction ends, or they have a family emergency. One time, I won an item from someone, paid for it, and finally heard back from them about a week later. She had been in the hospital, bless her heart. I got my package a few days after that.

I don’t worry about my packages until it’s been over 2 weeks. If I don’t hear from them after that time, I send a complaint through the ebay system, which will send an email to the seller about the problem. This usually “lights a fire” under them, because they don’t want to get negative feedback or lose their seller privileges.

If I never receive my item, I just ask for a credit through paypal. (I never pay any other way, because paypal is SO good that way.) I get my money back, and ebay cancels the auction. The seller will get a negative strike from the eBay system. If the seller gets 3 strikes, they lose their selling privileges.

When I’m bidding, I pay close attention to the seller’s feedback. I look to see if they have any negative feedback, and I read the feedback that was left. I only work with sellers who have positive feedback of 98 percent or higher. I also examine what they charge for shipping. Some sellers will gouge you with that!

I understand the system pretty well, because I’ve been buying and selling on eBay now for over 6 years. So, if anyone else has a question, I’ll be glad to help.

Be good!

#14

I am happy to say that I have been able to resolve all problems I have had with any buyers OR sellers. I really like eBay alot. When we were short on money but had my husband collection of authentic Japanese toys from the 80s, ebay saved us. It’s hard to believe how much money people will pay for things, but there is a buyer out there for everything!

Let us know what happens. We’ll be there with our scowls and DPNs to back you up!

#15

I’ve been ebaying for years… YEARS and I’ve had so few problems. In the month from April - May this year they all hit me at once.

A lot of users (especially those with high numbers of feedback) don’t send much correspondence, since they work like a production line and whack it in the post almost as soon as payment has cleared.

Some people send oceans of emails telling life stories and all and others never correspond at all - not even a “received your payment thanks!”

It is a real mix. What I do is this, look at the feedback of the seller before I bid. If there is bad feedback recently, find it and read what it says - if it looks like a bitter buyer or someone just being snotty ignore it. If it is something like “goods never received, no reply to emails” but its a one off weigh up how many people have had good experiences with the seller vs the bad.

I wanted to buy a book the other day - the seller had 20,000 + feedback. 11,000 of that 20,000 were negative! Varied from “never received” to “book not in stock - didn’t say so on auction money refunded but I needed the text book urgently!” I passed on buying the book. More than half the people had complaints - it wasn’t worth the risk to me.

The 20k feedback seller had an overall feedback rating of 98% this is because the more you sell the lower your bad feedback is. I have ONE bad feedback from a spiteful seller who sold me something as solid silver and it was silver coloured plastic. I reported them, and they left me negative feedback. My overall feedback is at 303 - my rating is still at 98%. The bad feedback was left 18 months ago!

I need to buy or sell much more for it to eventually not show up.

Anyway what I’m saying is this - I give people 7 days to respond / send the item. If after 7 days I’ve not received either the item or any contact at all then I start chasing big time.

I start with an email - a friendly approachable email. Then two days later a second email, a little less friendly, mainly asking if they got my first email (and I put return receipts on the mails). I give it another two days then I email them again this time not so friendly and advising them unless I hear from them I’ll be contacting Ebay for further details.

Next step is to use the contact seller option and get their address / phone number and call them.

After this step, thats when I hit up Paypal / Ebay for refunds.

#16

Hi everyone. Well, she finally replied to my email last night. She was apparently out of town. Thank goodness. I don’t know if I’m up for this whole ebay thing, I too high strung. :roflhard: I need a nice big pill that’ll calm me down. :thinking: Wonder what that would be?? :rofling:

I guess I’m just living in the land make-believe by wanting someone to reply to my email the same day. :??

Thanks again for all of your support. I also appreciate the DPN back up!!

You guys rock!! :heart:

#17

:roflhard: No, not make believe land…just “doglover” land. I get really frustrated too when I don’t get any kind of response. I always try to at least have an auto-respond letting people know if I’m away. Of course, it depends too on whether or not ebay is their whole business or not…if they’re at “real” work all day they might not have the time to respond like someone who has their store as a full time job. I’ve always had great experiences with ebay although I have dealt with several people who were unresponsive. I guess everyone just has different ideas of how often communication should happen.

#18

I LOVE ebay, but did get burned to the tune of $75. From a seller I had bought from before too!!! I’m in the dispute process and will probably get $25 back. Ugggg…

Repeat after me…ONLY USE PAYPAL!!! I have learned my lesson.

#19

Bless your heart! I know how you feel.
:frowning:
I went through something like that once, and decided that I would never send a money order again. Paypal is AWESOME! So easy to get your money back that way. :smiley:

#20

Credit cards have a dispute process too. I used my AmEx once for something that was a huge problem and they were able to get a refund for me.