Ebay help

[sparky69]

Hey there, does any one now what I can do about receiving a damage item from ebay? I tried contacting the seller and they did not respond to me. I've look all over ebay and can not find any information on damage items... only on items that where not sent out. thanks

[ken0042]

Did you pay with Paypal?

[sparky69]

yeah i did pay with paypal

[SaprykinPWNSjoo]

just file a complaint with them and in 10 days you will most likly see the money or else the guy will respond to them and everything will work out. If he doesnt respond in the 10 days or so you get your money back and keep the item

[sparky69]

Contacted paypal... didnt think of going though them. thanks

[ken0042]

OK, good. Now, let's look at why he hasn't responded. How long ago did you email him? If it was Friday evening; keep in mind some people aren't on their computers all the time; some only during business hours.

The bottom lines are:

- keep you communication friendly and without accusations. "It somehow arrived broken" is better than "why did you pack it so poorly."
- Seller is obligated to ship with insurance; even if you didn't pay for it.
- If the item arrived damaged, you can file a chargeback with Paypal.

So I would give the seller enough time to get back to you. They may also be looking into how the insurance works before responding. After 3 business days without a response, send an email through eBay's "ask seller a question" (in case your is getting blocked.) Once again, saying "not sure if you didn't receive my last email." Then paste your original response, and ask him how he'd like to handle it.

After 2 more days if you don't hear anything, do a chargeback.

[hulkrogan]

The one time this happened to me I contacted UPS. They sent me a cheque no questions asked. Since they kindly take over $60 for every single thing I've ever had the misfortune of recieving from them, I briefly considered telling them a perfectly good item I recieved was damaged too.

[FlamesAddiction]

just file a complaint with them and in 10 days you will most likly see the money or else the guy will respond to them and everything will work out. If he doesnt respond in the 10 days or so you get your money back and keep the item

I had problems before, and Paypal did nothing to help. I found them to be pretty useless.

[Hack&Lube]

Paypal and Ebay are pretty much useless at compensating you for your goods. The fact is that if you didn't pay for shipping insurance, unfortuantely I have bad news for you. There's really nothing you can do unless the seller wants replace the item or refund you. If the seller doesn't reply, you are sadly out of luck and all you can do is file a negative feedback review. This has happened to me on many occasions. Fortunately, the sellers are usually kind and make things right.

[ken0042]

I guess I'm in the minority- I've never had a problem getting my money back from Paypal.

[mykalberta]

OK, good. Now, let's look at why he hasn't responded. How long ago did you email him? If it was Friday evening; keep in mind some people aren't on their computers all the time; some only during business hours.

The bottom lines are:

- keep you communication friendly and without accusations. "It somehow arrived broken" is better than "why did you pack it so poorly."
- Seller is obligated to ship with insurance; even if you didn't pay for it.
- If the item arrived damaged, you can file a chargeback with Paypal.

So I would give the seller enough time to get back to you. They may also be looking into how the insurance works before responding. After 3 business days without a response, send an email through eBay's "ask seller a question" (in case your is getting blocked.) Once again, saying "not sure if you didn't receive my last email." Then paste your original response, and ask him how he'd like to handle it.

After 2 more days if you don't hear anything, do a chargeback.

Sorry to nit pick, but where does it say the Seller is obligated to ship with insurance?

The seller is obligated to offer insurance, if none is offered its implied to be in the cost of shipping - from what I have read on the Ebay site.

Where did you hear otherwise - sorry, I just ship alot of stuff with Ebay 7-8 items/month and only about 2 take the insurance option, the rest dont and I want to make sure I am not obligated to compensate incase shipping is damaged.

MYK

[ken0042]

Sorry to nit pick, but where does it say the Seller is obligated to ship with insurance?

The search function within Paypal is down right now, but it is listed within the "Seller Protection" policies. The meat and potatoes of it is you must ship within 7 days, and ship using a trackable method with insurance. That's why on my auctions I show shipping and handling as including insurance- the buyer doesn't have the choice seeing as it's me who will eventually be on the hook.

Edit- found it. (you may have to log into Paypal as this is an https address.)
Shipping and Shipping Documentation Qualification Conditions


The seller ships the item(s) to the buyer within 7 days of receiving payment.


The seller provides reasonable proof of delivery from an independent shipper. The delivery must be trackable online. Proof of delivery should show that the address shipped to corresponds to the address on the Transaction Details page (see 3.c above). If a reversal occurs, you will need to provide PayPal with the name of your chosen shipping provider and the online tracking number. For your convenience, PayPal provides a list of popular and currently approved shippers.


For transactions equal to $250.00 USD or more in value, the seller needs to provide a proof of receipt signed, or otherwise acknowledged, by the buyer. A proof of delivery from the shipper which does not contain the buyer’s signature or other acknowledgement will not be sufficient. (https://www.paypal.com/row/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_spp)

So, technically you are right with the no insurance thing. But with Canada Post tracking and insurance go hand in hand.

[Alpha_Q]

The search function within Paypal is down right now, but it is listed within the "Seller Protection" policies. The meat and potatoes of it is you must ship within 7 days, and ship using a trackable method with insurance. That's why on my auctions I show shipping and handling as including insurance- the buyer doesn't have the choice seeing as it's me who will eventually be on the hook.

This is very true. As a seller if you accept Paypal from someone who lives in an area where the 'seller protection' policy does not apply, (or even if a buyer request no shipping insurance) you as the seller are on the hook if anything happens. When I last sold on ebay the 'seller protection policy' applied only to Canada, the US and the UK. Any other country you were shipping at your own risk, (whether it was insured or not.)

I sold an item to a person in Spain who filed a claim after 10 days, as she had not received the item. The shipping estimate for surface mail which she requested was 4-6 weeks. The very second she filed the claim the funds in my account were held, and after 'revewing' the case, even though she requested the surface shipping, she was awarded her money back. (However, in my case it turned out not so bad, as she repaid after the item arrived.) I suggest if you sell on ebay and use PayPal to accept payment you routinely empty the funds from your account. If you are buying on ebay and a problem arises you might want to go through PayPal first, as you may not receive a full refund. For example if you buy a 1,000.00 dollar item and file a claim and the seller only has 2 dollars in his account, guess how much you get back.

Sorry for turning this into a novel...

[FlamesAddiction]

In my case, I purchased an item that never arrived.

When I bid on the item, the person had excellent feedback. After trying to contact the person several times, and no reply, I looked at their feedback and noticed that they had several recent negatives left from people who never received their items. I don't know if the person died, or they just decided "screw it", and left ebay with a bang... or what.

I contacted Paypal and pointed out what was going on, and not only did they not refund my money, but they didn't even respond to me. Ebay ended up suspending the person's account, but I was never given a explaination (which is all I really wanted).

I still use ebay, but I never make a purchase larger than what I am will to write-off.

[ken0042]

Another suggestion when buying using Paypal- drain your funds out first, then when the time to pay comes make sure the Paypal funds come off your Visa or MC.

That way if Paypal doesn't give you your money back, you have another recourse with Visa. Just don't make a Visa chargeback your first response; or you will lose your Paypal account.

[Sainters7]

I know this is an old thread, but wow does it ever make me nervous to shop Ebay! I just made my first ever purchase on Sept. 16, and as of Oct. 10 had still not received it(its a New Orleans Saints Marques Colston jersey btw). I finally emailed the guy, and he apologized and said that was the fourth time recently that someone in Canada has not received his item(he's out of Pensacola, FL). He told me he was out of Colston jerseys so would just give me my $ back, but I said the hell with it, if you have a Bush jersey just send me that. He obliged, and I received an email from US Postal Service saying it was sent out this morning at 10:50am.

Of course Im not out of the woods yet, but it sounds like everything should be ok anyways. Also the guy has a 99.3% feedback rating. At the time I didnt even consider the posibility of being screwed over, I just assumed if something happened I'd take it up with Paypal, get my money back and he'd get in some shyte. But after reading this thread that doesnt seem like it wouldve been the case at all. Thank God this seller seems like a good guy. I think I'm going to be a little wary purchasing off Ebay in the future...

PS- Just curious for those Ebay vets, especially sellers: so what did become of the Colston jersey then you think? Does the fact that he's sending me another jersey for only 1 cent(just so he could print up a new label, I had to send him a cent via Paypal) mean he's now losing $ on this transaction? Or will the Colston jersey eventually find its way back to his residence? I find the whole thing very confusing.

[Dan02]

PS- Just curious for those Ebay vets, especially sellers: so what did become of the Colston jersey then you think? Does the fact that he's sending me another jersey for only 1 cent(just so he could print up a new label, I had to send him a cent via Paypal) mean he's now losing $ on this transaction? Or will the Colston jersey eventually find its way back to his residence? I find the whole thing very confusing.

You know how luggage gets "lost" at the airports? same sorta thing. I doubt he will get the jersey back assuming he ever shipped it in the first place, but he probably has some sort of coverage through who he shipped it through.

The only problem i ever had on ebay was when i bought something from overseas, "yeah it should get there any day" "oh the order got misplaced" " its must be held up at customs", the good thing was it was a useless 10$ item i bought on a whim one drunk night, so i pretty much forgot about it til well after i had any recourse :p

[STeeLy]

Another suggestion when buying using Paypal- drain your funds out first, then when the time to pay comes make sure the Paypal funds come off your Visa or MC.

That way if Paypal doesn't give you your money back, you have another recourse with Visa. Just don't make a Visa chargeback your first response; or you will lose your Paypal account.
I wonder why you would lose your paypal account if u went and do a visa charge back before a paypal one?

[ken0042]

^^ I'm pretty sure its in the terms- basically you are telling them "screw you" and going over their head.

[STeeLy]

Ok ken, so if Paypal doesn't give me my money back, I can go to my credit card company AFTER I go through paypal, as long as I'm using my credit card, is that right?

[ken0042]

Yes, that is correct.

Here's a good way to think of it. Paypal is a business, just like a regular store is a business. If you were a store owner and a customer had an issue; would you rather see it in the form of a chargeback on your merchant Visa statement, or would you rather the customer come to you with their concerns first?

Plus from Paypal's perspective- they would rather be able to deal with trouble clients on their own. If they have a deadbeat seller on their hands; if they get a few chargebacks through them it easy to spot the problem, and suspend their account. However if people just do chargebacks on their Visa cards, it adds an extra level to it all.

[STeeLy]

ahhh... I understand now, thanks ken!

[HockeyPuck]

I've had to do a Visa chargeback twice now - but I used the 'resolution' centre thing that Paypal has first. You just have to write a report and Paypal will open a case. I then called Visa and explained the situation and they give you a case number. They then usually tell you to wait a month to see if the seller contacts you. If you get no response, you contact Visa again and tell them you've had no contact, and then Visa will start the process to get your money back.

The only time that visa did a direct chargeback right away was when I found out that the seller was fraudulent.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

I have an interesting situation as a seller...this guy buys an item to be shipped to the US standard shipping, I ship it Canada Post expedited (regular) shipping and it takes about 2 weeks to go across the border. The guy cancells his payment because he says the item was time sensitive (news to me) and he says he will ship it back when he recieves it. I have tracked it and it arrived the day after he cancelled the payment.

So I tried to talk to him via Ebay and PayPal (no response) and have now have thrown it up to PayPal for dispute resolution this morning.

[ken0042]

I learned that lesson the hard way too Fozzie; my only neutral was from an impatient American who thought 2 weeks was far too long. Now in my auctions I indicate the shipping method and ETA- as well I have a line stating "If you would like to use a different method for shipping please email me before bidding and I can let you know the costs." That line is a hybrid- partially for the American situation you mention and partly for the guy in Buttfata Saskatchewan who wanted me to "just put it on the bus" for him, then got mad when I explained that I wanted a $20 handling fee; as the bus depot is 30 km away from me and would take 60-90 minutes more of my time than Canada Post.

As for your current situation; looks like you have to decide between taking the item back, and getting a negative. (This is also why I don't give buyers a positive just for paying- they still have the chance to make the deal go south.) If you want to risk the neg, respond to the Paypal chargeback indicating that you shipped within 7 days of receiving payment, used a trackable method with insurance, sent it to the buyers confirmed address, and tracking indicates the buyer received the item. (Hopefully all of those apply.) From my understanding, the seller protection policy kicks in if you've done all of that.

[Regorium]

I have an interesting situation as a seller...this guy buys an item to be shipped to the US standard shipping, I ship it Canada Post expedited (regular) shipping and it takes about 2 weeks to go across the border. The guy cancells his payment because he says the item was time sensitive (news to me) and he says he will ship it back when he recieves it. I have tracked it and it arrived the day after he cancelled the payment.

So I tried to talk to him via Ebay and PayPal (no response) and have now have thrown it up to PayPal for dispute resolution this morning.

Why did it take 2 weeks to get through the border?

I recently ordered something internationally off Ebay, time sensitive so I kinda paid a premium for an auction that specifically said "Shipped internationally in 5-7 days". So before I go and cancel/leave neg rep, just want to make sure it's normal for this to happen.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Why did it take 2 weeks to get through the border?

I recently ordered something internationally off Ebay, time sensitive so I kinda paid a premium for an auction that specifically said "Shipped internationally in 5-7 days". So before I go and cancel/leave neg rep, just want to make sure it's normal for this to happen.

With cross border shopping at an all time high I speculate they are busy...but I don't really know

I shipped it regular post and was expecting 10-12 days +border time, so in your case it should be significantly quicker...

[ken0042]

Keep in mind what constitutes a "day." For example, lets say you had an auction end October 1st at 4:00pm. You paid at 5:00. Seller shipped the next day. It's now only been 6 days, as far as how the post office counts them.