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Problems Selling on Ebay - Buyers Not Paying!
- Thread starter redman042
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Of course there is lol, just didn't mention it above, sorry didn't mean to mislead.
Don't mean to get OT, but I've also started selling on Amazon since about a year ago. Amazon's fees are a bit cheaper than Ebay, but the biggest drawback is you have to honor Amazon's A-Z guarantee meaning you have to accept return requests within 30 days, but so far knock of wood I haven't gotten any return requests. Actually the very first thing I've ever sold on Amazon was an iPhone 4.
PS Amazon pays a lot faster than Paypal. Make a request to transfer money to your checking account early enough in the day and it's usually there the next day. Paypal likes to sit on your money for an extra 2-3 days
Actually it was two days after the sale during which I tried three times to contact the guy. I moved kinda quickly this time after two previous attempts to sell the phone where I waited a full 4 days, heard nothing, filed unpaid item, heard nothing for the 4 additional days, then finally could relist the item.
According to this page (which admittedly isn't the clearest in the world) if the buyer doesn't respond to the cancellation request in 7 days, I can close the case and get my fee back without buyer approval.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/cancel-transaction-process.html
Specific language on the subject:
3. We contact the buyer and they respond.
Timeline:
We contact the buyer immediately after you open your case.
The buyer has 7 days from the time you opened your case to respond.
The buyer either agrees to or refuses to cancel the transaction.
If the buyer doesn't respond within 7 days, you can close the case and you'll receive a final value fee credit.
Timeline:
We contact the buyer immediately after you open your case.
The buyer has 7 days from the time you opened your case to respond.
The buyer either agrees to or refuses to cancel the transaction.
If the buyer doesn't respond within 7 days, you can close the case and you'll receive a final value fee credit.
So the only way I'm out the dough is if the buyer is a d**k and responds by refusing to cancel. Which is why I spent the time writing him a nice message, to try to avoid that.
Buy it now is the far better option. eBay is getting ridiculous for fees now that its becoming hardly worth selling on there.
Next time put in description "Payment required within 24 hours or I'll relist it." It may not be enforceable but you at least let them know you're serious about getting paid and moving quickly.
Although you can put what ever you want, ebay gives the buyer 7 days to make a payment. eBay/Paypal will side with the buyer 99% of the time.
I had my excellent 500+ 100% 8 year old account suspended because of a 80% buyer that wanted to complain when I sold my MacBook Air and he wanted a refund because it sold a day before the refreshes when I clearly stated no refunds. Of course he then escalated that there were scratches and dents and asked him to send pictures which he didn't. Paypal sided with him. Oh well. I removed all my checking/CC info from PP before hand and I got to keep the money as well as I got my MBA back.
LOL at craigslist over ebay. In most cases yes its the easiest method. But you gotta deal with people and their low ball offers even if you put the word firm in your ad. Also you get people asking if you will trade for all sorts of things. I had one guy offer to trade me his iphone 4 for my 4s.. just straight up. I was like what are you smoking dude?
They both suck honestly
They both suck honestly
I once tried to sell a car on Craigslist. I learned that:
- Buyers are flaky as hell. Couldn't count how many times I heard "I'll be there in 30 minutes" and then they never show and never call.
- Every buyer tries making insulting offers. Many times a buyer expressed great interest over the phone only to give me a firm offer of 20% less than the asking price and not budge.
- It can take forever to sell on Craigslist.
Plus the risk to life and limb. No thanks.
Luckily, I read more than a few posts about just this problem before I put my IPhone 4 up on Ebay. I want to thank whoever posted to actually video the packaging of the phone and shipping of the phone at the FedEx/UPS facility in front of the employees. I did this just in case whoever received my immaculate phone claimed the phone was either damaged or missing from the box when they received it. This came in very handy...
I listed my phone with accessories, typical of the hundreds of other posts on Ebay. I had a BIN price listed, and about an hour before the auction expired, it quickly got bid up way past the BIN price. Of course the person who "won" immediately deleted their account and email address and I couldnt contact them and Ebay's automated system makes you wait a number of days to relist, get your listing fees back, etc, etc.... and you have to relist and hope some idiot doesnt win.
Anyhow, relisted, someone seemingly legit wins. They contacted me immediately, broken English and all, asking me to put a "fake" invoice for over $100 less than the purchase price so "my mom wont get mad I spent so much". In the meantime they already had scooped up 4 other phones and accessories in other auctions in the last month with no seller feedback. I, of course, refuse, and demand payment and a real address or no go.
Thank god I taped the packing. As predicted, they receive the phone, claim it's damaged, doesnt work, etc, etc... I confront them with the video evidence of the phone in working, undamaged condition, and they completely cut communication. They leave me a bad rating, which I cant remove or dispute (thanx ebay...) and I'll never use Ebay again. Listing fee, seller fee, paypal fee.... I've sold plenty of items on craigslist previously and this whole experience affirms that's the way to go. Luckily I'm not a 16 yr girl, so meeting some creep in a parking lot to exchange goods for cash doesnt bother me that much.
BTW, I may be completely naive to ebay practice, but you cannot withdrawl your paypal payment until several days after the buyer receives the item per the shipping number, so you really need to have your ducks in a row and required signature and proof of delivery. Yes even more expense in using Ebay. Driving to the local gas station to hand someone the phone and get cash immediately seems like a much better idea, even if you get $50 less than I would have, definitely not worth the risk, hassle, and stress to use eBay.
I listed my phone with accessories, typical of the hundreds of other posts on Ebay. I had a BIN price listed, and about an hour before the auction expired, it quickly got bid up way past the BIN price. Of course the person who "won" immediately deleted their account and email address and I couldnt contact them and Ebay's automated system makes you wait a number of days to relist, get your listing fees back, etc, etc.... and you have to relist and hope some idiot doesnt win.
Anyhow, relisted, someone seemingly legit wins. They contacted me immediately, broken English and all, asking me to put a "fake" invoice for over $100 less than the purchase price so "my mom wont get mad I spent so much". In the meantime they already had scooped up 4 other phones and accessories in other auctions in the last month with no seller feedback. I, of course, refuse, and demand payment and a real address or no go.
Thank god I taped the packing. As predicted, they receive the phone, claim it's damaged, doesnt work, etc, etc... I confront them with the video evidence of the phone in working, undamaged condition, and they completely cut communication. They leave me a bad rating, which I cant remove or dispute (thanx ebay...) and I'll never use Ebay again. Listing fee, seller fee, paypal fee.... I've sold plenty of items on craigslist previously and this whole experience affirms that's the way to go. Luckily I'm not a 16 yr girl, so meeting some creep in a parking lot to exchange goods for cash doesnt bother me that much.
BTW, I may be completely naive to ebay practice, but you cannot withdrawl your paypal payment until several days after the buyer receives the item per the shipping number, so you really need to have your ducks in a row and required signature and proof of delivery. Yes even more expense in using Ebay. Driving to the local gas station to hand someone the phone and get cash immediately seems like a much better idea, even if you get $50 less than I would have, definitely not worth the risk, hassle, and stress to use eBay.
I'm aware of that, but they can't make you give the product to the buyer. Just relist it and refund the money.
I thought there's no such thing as a 80% buyer anymore because negative feedbacks are no longer allowed. Yes, I'm aware we have no choice but to accept a return even if we say no return allowed. Just get it back and relist it. That's part of the game at ebay.
Lots of times the return is the scam though. Not as easy as get it back and resell it.
They either send back another broken/faulty iphone for example or an empty box or something that weighs about the same like a tv remote or something then they kept your item and they got their money back too.
Scary sometimes how easy it is to get scammed on ebay.
I don't get this. Some shady highest bidder contacted you and you sent them the package anyway instead of reporting them to ebay?
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That happened to someone here who received a different iPhone back (all dirty and scratched up). Fortunately, he had taken lots of pictures of the original iPhone so he sent photographic evidence of both iPhones to Paypal. Paypal refunded him the sales price that he had to return to the scammer earlier, indicating that paypal seller protection does work.
What a major pain though to fight to not get scammed.
Stories like that scare me.
Im lucky I never had any issues like that but I only sell ike 3-4 items a year if that.
I've ebayed several iPhones without problems too, but I try not to worry about those horror stories. It may suck, but $400 isn't going to break me and I'll live. Ditto with all those horror stories about the various iPhone problems/issues here, which I never seem to get.
Limiting your auctions to only US based costumers is a sure fire way to limit the target audience!
Don't forget you can request the buyers phone number form ebay, a phone call normally gets them to pay.
I tried to sell my PS Vita on ebay this year. The buyer didn't pay or contact me and when i phoned them it turned out that the buyer was a 12 year old girl. Her parents were pretty annoyed at her after my phone call
I tried to sell my PS Vita on ebay this year. The buyer didn't pay or contact me and when i phoned them it turned out that the buyer was a 12 year old girl. Her parents were pretty annoyed at her after my phone call
Wow one hour really? I buy and sell a lot in eBay and a lot of times if I'm at work I don't even know I won the auction until hours later but I pay that day. That would make me angry as a buyer that you give only one hour to pay. I would give at least a day. Unless you are listing as a buy it now option then of course one hour is fine.
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I hate selling on Craigslist. I had done it a few times and most of the time people wouldn't even show up so I wasted my time or if they showed up they wanted to pay less and I refused so they didn't buy. I mean its almost like eBay except I worry about getting robbed lol.
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I hate selling on Craigslist. I had done it a few times and most of the time people wouldn't even show up so I wasted my time or if they showed up they wanted to pay less and I refused so they didn't buy. I mean its almost like eBay except I worry about getting robbed lol.
I ebay all my iPhones internationally (except I exclude Russia, South America, Africa and Southeast Asia). Even so, I find that the vast majority of the bidders are from the US. Two of the highest bidders happened to be from APO/FPO though.
that is why I got off of Ebay.
Too many unreasonable people.
I used to make a little bit on the side selling parts off of computers that were going to be junked. There is always someone out there running an old computer that needs an AGP video card or an internal Zip drive.
But so many bidders tried to pull stunts, acting like I sent them the wrong thing. I never had anyone successfully ding me or rip me off. But I did have to fight about a dozen of them, and even if you win, it is still tedious and annoying. That, and once I got my Paypal hacked and dealt with paypal customer service/fraud dept, I swore off Ebay/Paypal.
Craigslist for me.
If you're going to sell a bit open an eBay store and save large amounts in listing/closing fees.
One thing I have noticed lately is that ebay has come up with a procedure to delete negative feedback that is undeserved - say if a buyer has threatened you with negative feedback (or even implied) unless you do a partial refund - they will delete it - AS LONG AS YOU can prove it via ebay messaging - so NEVER communicate with an ebay buyer via regular email or telephone - you have no recourse.
I recently sold a pair of star wars toys - one was perfect, and the other had a crumpled blister - the buyer contacted me and stated the box arrived crushed and both toys were damaged. I asked for pictures - he sent me a pic of the crushed box and a picture of the toy that already had the crushed blister. He demanded a 50% refund on the whole order. I asked for a pic of both crushed items in the same frame - that picture never arrived. He asked again for a refund or I would get negative feedback - At that point I figured there was no damage to the other toy and he was trying to rip me off. I offered a full refund if he shipped both items back to me and offered to pay for his shipping cost - never heard another word from him, but got negative feedback.
I submitted the correspondence to ebay and they deleted the negatives.
So never communicate with an ebay buyer via regular email or telephone - they can see every message in their system and use it to determine who is full of ****.
I recently sold a pair of star wars toys - one was perfect, and the other had a crumpled blister - the buyer contacted me and stated the box arrived crushed and both toys were damaged. I asked for pictures - he sent me a pic of the crushed box and a picture of the toy that already had the crushed blister. He demanded a 50% refund on the whole order. I asked for a pic of both crushed items in the same frame - that picture never arrived. He asked again for a refund or I would get negative feedback - At that point I figured there was no damage to the other toy and he was trying to rip me off. I offered a full refund if he shipped both items back to me and offered to pay for his shipping cost - never heard another word from him, but got negative feedback.
I submitted the correspondence to ebay and they deleted the negatives.
So never communicate with an ebay buyer via regular email or telephone - they can see every message in their system and use it to determine who is full of ****.
They had already paid, I sent the package.
I think it's been well documented reporting anything to eBay as a seller results in no action whatsoever.
No, you don't send the package if there's anything shady going on, including them asking you to send a fake invoice and mail the item to a different address other than paypal confirmed address. You report them to ebay, get your fees back and relist the item. That's your mistake right there.
Retracted Bid
Uhh...ready to punch myself repeatedly for trying to use eBay agin after swearing it off once before.
I have a current auction going for my old iPhone 4. Last night when I went to bed the bidding was up to $270. When I awoke this morning the person who had placed two different bids up to $290 (he was the high bidder at $270) had retracted their bid citing that they had entered a wrong amount. Now the auction is back down to $200 with only a few hours left.
And after reading all of this stuff in this thread I am thinking I may just end the auction and sell it on craiglist just to avoid the hassle. To hell with my perfect feedback on eBay. Its just not worth it anymore.
Uhh...ready to punch myself repeatedly for trying to use eBay agin after swearing it off once before.
I have a current auction going for my old iPhone 4. Last night when I went to bed the bidding was up to $270. When I awoke this morning the person who had placed two different bids up to $290 (he was the high bidder at $270) had retracted their bid citing that they had entered a wrong amount. Now the auction is back down to $200 with only a few hours left.
And after reading all of this stuff in this thread I am thinking I may just end the auction and sell it on craiglist just to avoid the hassle. To hell with my perfect feedback on eBay. Its just not worth it anymore.