Background: Sold a couple of items on eBay a couple weeks ago, unfortunately on the journey to the post office i had a emergency phoned in from a family member meaning it had to be postponed for a few additional days. Buyer A opened a case. Understandable but i explained it to him and apologized multiple times, In the same instance i contacted Buyer B and explained while providing the tracking number for his item. Buyer A's was sent 1st class while Buyer B was Parcelforce. I hadn't heard anything for a while so i went back to the case and tried contacting him on multiple occasions with no reply. Noticed in my Paypal the money had been held while the case was ongoing so i got concerned it would end up being refunded. Today i asked eBay for help and they came back very quickly saying they had refunded the money.... No reply from Buyer A since he asked me initially and accepted my reasoning. I'd contacted him a couple extra times asking if the item had arrived to solve the case for both of us. I would understand if he outright continued to claim he hadn't received the item still! but absolutely nothing has come back It wasn't a huge amount, about £90 but it wasn't money i could afford to just throw away. Now... I have the buyers address, receipts from the post office sending both packages (with weight and postcode i believe) which could be clarified on technical docs for the item and the obvious communications between both Buyers at similar times. I've got 100% positive feedback with (188) rating while he (unfortunately) has only (1) all the records of constant communications while he retained none. I'm also sure i can get confirmation Buyer B's item turned up successfully to prove my honesty Anything that can be done? I was thinking possibly a calm formal email/letter regarding the predicament and 'Hints' towards small claims court in order to make him sweat? I don't intend to go through with it but i don't exactly have anything to lose now. Put all my cards on the table and see if he bites Either that or i find creative uses for his address
With one exception, every time I have sold something to a member with a rating less than 5, I've had problems. When I see a rating of 1, I no longer think new member, but new account opened to scam a few sellers before closing again. I sincerely hope you manage to resolve this, but I seriously doubt you will.
Sadly, no. If you don't have proof-of-delivery, then you don't have a leg to stand on, regardless of any extenuating circumstances, at least from ebay and paypal. Small Claims would also be a difficult without proof of delivery.
I don't send anything of value without at least recorded delivery so I can prove it got there or have at least half a leg to stand on if things go wrong. Recently I sold my 3DS to a buyer with zero feedback and it was plain sailing. I agree you have to watch for the scammers but at the same time everyone has to have their first auction. Also in my experience the scammers tend to up their feedback with fake auctions and/or just steal someone else's account.
Similar thing happened to me around six months ago. Bought a Blackberry Passport and after about two months I decided I should sell my white Q10. It sold for £130, what I wanted, and I received payment. However the seller's Paypal authorised address did not match up to the one Ebay had given me. I contacted him several times and he ignored me so I used his Paypal email address to contact him directly. Two days later he sent a reply mumbling a new address. So I did a Google Earth and found his house, all happy, sent him the phone (the original address did not even exist). All happy, phone send my RMSD and signed for by "Mohammed". Few weeks went by and I hadn't received any feedback so I decided to simply hide the sale and continue my life as I normally would. Around two months after the initial sale I got an email from Paypal saying that the seller had disputed the sale, claiming he never bought the phone. An immediate hold was placed on the total (£150) and it just said "ongoing hold" or something like that. I left it for about a week, then needed to buy some vaping coils from Ebay so I bought some at £6 or so. Then I go to my bank account and noticed that Paypal had taken £156 out of my bank to settle the held fees. I went absolutely ballistic and phoned Paypal, showing them the emails that I had exchanged with him via his Paypal email address. Then I just supplied the tracking number and got my money back. Vowed never to sell anything on Ebay again. Just too many skank artists and chancers out there. Thankfully at the time I had that £156 in my account or I would have gone overdrawn and faced fees of anything up to £60. I don't have an overdraft and never wanted one because I'm not into spending what I don't have. Edit. When you send with the PO you get two receipts. One is for the sale (and shows money amounts) the other should have a barcode on it ending with GB. This is a tracking number and works even on second class. Run it and see what it says. If it says "Delivered on xxxx" then you will 100% get your money back as that is proof enough for seller's protection on Paypal.
Dropped him a message, looking at the situation again its completely feasible he is completely unaware of this. I only realised on second glance 'eBay has made the decision in favour of the buyer' so apart from him opening the case its technically my own fault. I asked eBay to step in (never again) I did jump in with my stance though incase he gets comfortable with the cash and item. I've sent him and email along the lines of. 'Hey, Sorry about the inconvinience, eBay has done this yada yada yada.... You're probably unaware yada yada yada.. can't afford to let this go as an expensive mistake yada.... hopefully we can come to some form of agreement... yada yada. My fault to start with yada.... couldn't get hold of you.... paypal withholding my money. If i don't hear from you yada yada yada... will post a copy of this email to the address given through paypal. if i still hear nothing within ____ i will pursue the case through small claims online as appropriate. Look forward to hearing from you, .......' - Or something along those lines I know it sounds pretty rash but i haven't been able to get a reply to previous messages so i'm hoping this will get his attention Hopefully he'll come forward and own up to receiving the item and getting a refund else i might have to be mean. I have asked for the sale price of the item and i'll front postage costs as omission for my mistake. maybe i'm being cheap Kind of accepted i've potentially lost this one. bit irritating but lesson learnt
Got scammed a few times, always when it was international sells, now I use tracked packet with delivery confirmation and signature whenever I can. I haven't been scammed ever since : )
I can't say that I've ever been ripped off bar the one time during the cryptocurrency craze. Tracked delivery is an absolute must, or you're asking for problems. It's only 60p (or it was) more to send it tracked, and it saves you losing your item and the money they paid for it. It's the best 60p you can spend in my mind (well, when it comes to eBay). Go for it and fight your cause, don't give in to the scammer.
I've sold so many things and always post tracked, it's just not worth the hassle. Since you've got the guys address, what about: http://www.sendshit.co.uk/ You now have a choice of Pig, Donkey, Cow or Horse **** to send to someone that's jaded you. £19.99, free P&P
If I can avoid it, I don't sell on eBay any more due to the issues I've had in the past. Also recorded/signed delivery won't stop you getting scammed and in some cases will help you to get scammed, I know this from experience! I sent out a Mobo/CPU/RAM parcel a few years ago now, buyer received package and almost immediately opened a dispute as the items were 'faulty' I went through various diagnosis steps with the buyer but eventually eBay ruled that I had to refund the items on receipt of them back. The problem was the buyer actually sent back a package containing a dead Socket A Mobo and an optical drive, this was sent to my work address and signed for by the receptionist. Because I had received the package eBay refunded the buyer and left me with a negative balance, I argued with them for about a month before I decided to give up and mark it down as an 'experience'. If I put anything up for sale on there now it's for collection only and I only take cash!
Personally, I've given up on Royal Mail Signed For (what used to be called Recorded), as I now regularly receive "signed for" items which are just shoved through the letter box. The latest example was when an insurance company returned some very important documents by "signed for" - they were just posted through the box and still show, a month later, as "in the system". I now won't trust Signed For when sending stuff out! I use Collect+ or, for documents, the more expensive Registered Post from Royal Fail.
I got a pretty quick reply from him. Claims he still hasn't received the item (which could very well be true) and asked me to check tracking as he still wants it. Technically eBay gave the refund by me asking them to step in so if he genuinely wanted to scam me he could have claimed a refund earlier. Although he might have wanted me to do it knowing eBay would go against me. Decided not to instantly respond, It should legitimately arrive by the end of the week (when i told him i would send the letter regarding court) so if its a legitimate royal mail issue with a delay he should get back to me immediately as the item arrives. I'm not too pleased about the whole situation but its definitely a learning experience
Ok, I'm a little confused. My paypal claims i had a refund dated 23rd September from the original buyer. Date of the sale from eBay... of initial sale. So i've been refunded the money from the eBay refund i was forced to make... from the buyer? Last thing that happened was having to fix my paypal balance because i was -£70.82 Not sure whats happened but i've got the money back and i feel victorious, just been walking round the house like - Definitely worth the punt
