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Author Topic: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*  (Read 4736 times)

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Offline LadyAmalthea

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What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« on: June 30, 2020, 05:57:41 AM »
Hypothetical situation:

What would you do if you won multiple Ebay auctions from a seller who claimed to offer combined shipping, but then is nonresponsive to requests to send an invoice reflecting the discounted shipping amount? Would you keep waiting and just not pay until they do? Or suck it up and just pay the full amount to ship them individually (I wouldn't have made offers on these ponies if she hadn't had the claim of combined shipping printed in her store description)? I really don't want want these badly enough to pay almost $25 to ship 4 fair/bait-condition ponies within my same country, even though the purchase prices were cheap.

I say 'hypothetical' because while she still has time to respond, I don't think she's going to. I have sent this seller multiple messages regarding a question I had about a 5th item (a Brush-n-Grow pony I was trying to inquire whether her neck mechanism still worked, as the description was sparse and the few pics only showed her with her tail sucked all the way in...or was it cut short?) I was interested in and hoping to add to my order. She hasn't responded, but has apparently been online, as she has since sent me 2 more discounted offers for other ponies I had in my watch list.

FYI, this seller has a fair amount of negative feedback, some of which includes buyers complaining of her not returning messages...guess I should have checked this out before making offers on her stuff  :huh:
« Last Edit: July 06, 2020, 10:16:18 AM by LadyAmalthea »

Offline banditpony

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2020, 08:55:13 AM »
:/ Hm.

Well, usually I ask upfront what shipping would cost.

You haven't mentioned how long you've been waiting for a response. I'd give it at least 3 days, then I'd try to figure out how to get out of the purchase. If she mentions combined shipping on her listings -- and she isn't providing it, I think that's completely fair.

How have you been trying to contact her? Are you only requesting an invoice, or are you also asking a question through the message system?
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Offline LadyAmalthea

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2020, 10:31:54 AM »
:/ Hm.

Well, usually I ask upfront what shipping would cost.

You haven't mentioned how long you've been waiting for a response. I'd give it at least 3 days, then I'd try to figure out how to get out of the purchase. If she mentions combined shipping on her listings -- and she isn't providing it, I think that's completely fair.

How have you been trying to contact her? Are you only requesting an invoice, or are you also asking a question through the message system?

I should have done that (ask for shipping costs up front). Although given her lack of response so far, she probably wouldn't have answered...but then I would have known then that buying from her was a bad idea in the first place  :pout:

I've been waiting for 5 days total. I've been messaging her via Ebay's messaging system, although this morning I also logged onto my laptop to send a 'request invoice', since my mobile app doesn't give me this option. Last Thursday morning I made the offers for 4 out of 7 ponies I had in my watch list. Thursday evening she accepted them, and also made me a discounted offer on the BnG pony I was interested in. That was when I messaged her about whether the BnG worked or not. I gave her 36 hours to respond, and then Saturday morning messaged her again, saying I had messaged her once already about the BnG, and wasn't wanting to be pushy, but was really hoping to get an answer before her offer expired in a few hours, plus I wanted to keep all the ponies on the same order to save on the shipping. I expressed a desire to get her paid as well.

Sunday night I figured I had given her enough time to reply, and logged into Ebay to send her a message to just send me an invoice for the 4 original ponies so I could get her paid, and that's when I saw that she had sent me the other 2 discounted offers for the remaining ponies in my watch list. This confused me; I had been giving her the benefit of the doubt that she had just been too busy to pop onto Ebay and see her messages, but this was an indicator that she had been on in order to send me those offers, so why wasn't she responding to my messages? Did I breach some eBay etiquette protocol by asking about the BnG mechanism? I messaged her once more this morning, asking her to just please send me an invoice with adjusted shipping.

Her listing says she wants payment within 3 business days, or she will relist the items; this evening will mark 3 business days if you consider Sat and Sun as non-business days. I'm hoping to get this resolved before then, I don't know if she can file against me as a non-paying bidder if there is evidence that I've tried multiple times to contact her about paying or not? So far, the items are still in my cart and she has not relisted them.


Offline banditpony

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2020, 10:38:04 AM »
Oh, yuck. You've been more then patient with her.

I would just see on how to go about canceling the transaction at this point. I've only done it once or twice, so I can't quite give advice on how to do so. Try to contact ebay.

It's not fair for you to pay full price shipping, when she has made a statement she combines shipping. And it's not your fault she doesn't answer you. I'm crossing my fingers you can get ebay to step in with no punishment to you.
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Offline LadyAmalthea

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2020, 11:07:31 AM »
Oh, yuck. You've been more then patient with her.

I would just see on how to go about canceling the transaction at this point. I've only done it once or twice, so I can't quite give advice on how to do so. Try to contact ebay.

It's not fair for you to pay full price shipping, when she has made a statement she combines shipping. And it's not your fault she doesn't answer you. I'm crossing my fingers you can get ebay to step in with no punishment to you.

Thanks! I think I will do this. I might give her until this evening, and if I don't hear anything from her, I'll try to get eBay to step in. Too bad...the ponies themselves were pretty good deals, and looked like they would clean up well. Oh well.  :huh: :sad:

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2020, 05:05:49 PM »
I can empathize, and feel your pain. Non- responsive sellers can ruin a decent transaction!
Fingers crossed Ebay can get a response.   
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Offline LadyAmalthea

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2020, 10:15:41 AM »
UPDATE:  The situation is no longer hypothetical. It has been 11 days since this started and still not one word from the seller, not even a 'hey, it's been xx-number of days, are you going to pay this, or what?'. It's almost like they're not getting my messages, but they are there in my 'sent messages' folder, and I've been in touch with Ebay about it twice, and the 2nd time the Ebay person sent them a message on my behalf and still no response, although the seller has now filed a non-paying bidder claim. Both Ebay representatives said that that would be removed from my account when it goes through (I had a transcript of the conversation sent to my email just in case).

It's so tempting to leave her negative feedback for these 4 transactions, to warn off other potential buyers, but I don't want any retaliatory behaviour from the seller. It's too bad there's no seller hall-o'-shame here on the Arena like there is for bad buyers...I imagine those 4 items will be relisted after the non-paying bidder claim goes through, and I'd hate to see someone else on here go through this ordeal.

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2020, 12:27:33 PM »
the Bad Trader List also includes sellers!    ;)

I seem to remember that Ebay has allowed sellers to not follow through with combined shipping.  This is because ebay charges a fee to sellers for a % of the shipping cost.  so they don't actually want you to be combining shipping

Oh and clearly you are newer to Ebay because the seller CANNOT retaliate in any way shape or form.  They cannot leave you negative feedback.  crappy when you actually have a bad buyer but... ebay favors the buyers
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Offline banditpony

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2020, 12:41:26 PM »
I seem to remember that Ebay has allowed sellers to not follow through with combined shipping.  This is because ebay charges a fee to sellers for a % of the shipping cost.  so they don't actually want you to be combining shipping

eBay sellers don't have to provide combined shipping. However, in this case the seller stated they do combined shipping based on the listing.

This does give OP the upperhand here, and why eBay (knock on wood) won't allow the account to get pinged with the nonbidder claims. If the seller didn't have that claim, I think OP would of had to eat that cost or get hit with the claim.

And in this case, eBay doesn't get their fees for these listings, so it's in no interest to eBay if the seller isn't communicating. They do lose out here.

And as I mentioned before, I ask in advance of what the combined shipping actually is. Because sellers can say "50 c off each item after the first", and then it still ends up being a ridiculous amount.
« Last Edit: July 06, 2020, 12:43:12 PM by banditpony »
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Offline LadyAmalthea

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2020, 02:24:36 PM »
the Bad Trader List also includes sellers!    ;)

I seem to remember that Ebay has allowed sellers to not follow through with combined shipping.  This is because ebay charges a fee to sellers for a % of the shipping cost.  so they don't actually want you to be combining shipping

Oh and clearly you are newer to Ebay because the seller CANNOT retaliate in any way shape or form.  They cannot leave you negative feedback.  crappy when you actually have a bad buyer but... ebay favors the buyers

Thanks for this information.. it does help me understand a bit more. I'm not really *new* to Ebay per se, I had an account going back to the early 2000's (back in those days a seller could actually leave a buyer negative feedback; I know they've changed some of their policies in recent years), took a long hiatus, and then got back into it this past year or so. But I have never sold...only bought, so in some ways I am new, and even a bit ignorant on the selling end. I know nothing about how the fees work; my time on this site talking to sellers has really been educational!

I guess I was thinking that she could retaliate by finally giving in and saying 'fine, I'll give her her combined shipping just to shut her up and get Ebay off my back, but instead of charging $6 per pony, I'll just charge $20 to ship all 4 and still call it "combined shipping" to cover my butt,' rather than charging what it actually costs to ship them. And then I'd just be stuck into eating the cost, because she would technically then be playing within the rules, even if it wasn't exactly fair.

So if I'm understanding correctly, one would think the seller would WANT to combine shipping in order to pay less in fees, right? That makes sense why Ebay would turn a blind eye to it though.

Post Merge: July 06, 2020, 02:34:47 PM

I seem to remember that Ebay has allowed sellers to not follow through with combined shipping.  This is because ebay charges a fee to sellers for a % of the shipping cost.  so they don't actually want you to be combining shipping

eBay sellers don't have to provide combined shipping. However, in this case the seller stated they do combined shipping based on the listing.

This does give OP the upperhand here, and why eBay (knock on wood) won't allow the account to get pinged with the nonbidder claims. If the seller didn't have that claim, I think OP would of had to eat that cost or get hit with the claim.

And in this case, eBay doesn't get their fees for these listings, so it's in no interest to eBay if the seller isn't communicating. They do lose out here.

And as I mentioned before, I ask in advance of what the combined shipping actually is. Because sellers can say "50 c off each item after the first", and then it still ends up being a ridiculous amount.

Yes, the #1 lesson I have learned from this experience is to always ask in the future what the shipping will look like, even if it's already stated in the listing, so I have it in writing. Then if they don't respond, I know not to bother doing business with them. I just will never understand why people don't respond to direct questions, even with a simple yes or no answer.
« Last Edit: July 06, 2020, 02:34:47 PM by LadyAmalthea »

Offline banditpony

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« Reply #10 on: July 06, 2020, 02:59:43 PM »
So if I'm understanding correctly, one would think the seller would WANT to combine shipping in order to pay less in fees, right? That makes sense why Ebay would turn a blind eye to it though. 

So in regards to the fees.

The fee thing was to get at sellers who were recouping costs with high shipping prices. It wasn't completely specific to combining shipping costs, but it did cover that too. Once upon a time people would do silly things like list something for $1 but $15 shipping, when shipping was purely $5.

I don't think it exactly applies to your situation, because it pretty much comes down to your seller isn't communicating with you about the specifics listed in their auction. eBay doesn't get anything out of this situation at all.

I guess I was thinking that she could retaliate by finally giving in and saying 'fine, I'll give her her combined shipping just to shut her up and get Ebay off my back, but instead of charging $6 per pony, I'll just charge $20 to ship all 4 and still call it "combined shipping" to cover my butt,' rather than charging what it actually costs to ship them. And then I'd just be stuck into eating the cost, because she would technically then be playing within the rules, even if it wasn't exactly fair.
She would of been ok to do this, and it wouldn't of been considered retaliation.. since sellers don't have to be transparent about what their combined shipping costs are. I don't like this about ebay.

ETA:
:) I think people end up always learning the hard way.
I ended up buying some lightweight crafting stuff (like under 1oz). I bought a couple things, and shipping was $3-ish each. Well, I got charged up the nose ($9 for what cost them $3 to send). And their response to me was I should of asked them in advance before I bought it. (I would of been ok with the $9 shipping cost, had that been actual cost).
« Last Edit: July 06, 2020, 03:03:23 PM by banditpony »
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Offline LadyAmalthea

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« Reply #11 on: July 07, 2020, 07:20:09 AM »
I've seen those auctions before...the item listed for a dollar and then some ludicrous shipping cost. I just roll my eyes and move on from those...I don't do business with people who do that. I actually wondered a little bit if this was what this seller was trying to do on a smaller scale; was she regretting accepting my offers on these ponies (I would have been getting 4 ponies, 2 in good shape and 2 in fair/bait condition for $7!) and thought she'd try to recoup the loss by not combining the shipping...but now that you explain about the fees, I don't know the percentage Ebay takes, but I would think she wouldn't stand to benefit all that much by not combining it, plus then she'd have a happy customer/good feedback.

Honestly, my biggest issue is her unresponsiveness. People not replying to direct questions online is my biggest pet peeve. If she had just messaged back and said, 'hey, look, I made a mistake and shouldn't have let these go so cheap and it's not worth my time/fuel costs/packing expenses etc to get these out to you, I can't change the shipping on this particular purchase', I would have just sucked it up and paid it. Don't get me wrong...I'd never buy from her again, and left neutral or no feedback, but I would have let it go as a lesson learned, like you did with the craft stuff.

As for sellers not being able to leave negative feedback...that's crappy. There are a lot of bad things that buyers can do to ruin a transaction. I get that it's to discourage retaliatory behaviour; I used to leave no feedback at all when negative was deserved for fear of retaliation back in the early days when it was allowed (not that I've left negative since either), but it really puts sellers at a major disadvantage. A better policy would be that negative feedback for buyers (sellers too, really) should have to be run through and approved by a modifier.


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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2020, 07:48:18 AM »
eBay takes 10%! And it does include shipping cost.
I'm very confused as to why she would not have combined shipping, unless she just flat out didn't know how to. It took me a bit to find out how to do it on my end the first time someone asked for combined shipping.
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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2020, 01:21:32 PM »
As for sellers not being able to leave negative feedback...that's crappy. There are a lot of bad things that buyers can do to ruin a transaction. I get that it's to discourage retaliatory behaviour; I used to leave no feedback at all when negative was deserved for fear of retaliation back in the early days when it was allowed (not that I've left negative since either), but it really puts sellers at a major disadvantage. A better policy would be that negative feedback for buyers (sellers too, really) should have to be run through and approved by a modifier.


Unfortunately, that's not likely because it would require eBay corporate to shell out the money for staff to moderate feedback on the millions of transactions. And since corporations take the approach of "Maximize executive and shareholder profits above all else" unless forced to behave otherwise...

Sellers no longer being able to leave feedback is an iffy thing, but I understand why it happened even if it's not a great solution; same for feedback being locked in. Based on some Bad Trader Warning threads I read in 2010 and 2011, dodgy and fraudulent sellers blackmailing buyers with negative feedback had gotten extremely out of hand.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2020, 01:23:57 PM by ZeldaTheSwordsman »
should be perma-moderated

Offline LadyAmalthea

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Re: What to do...nonresponsive seller *Updated*
« Reply #14 on: July 08, 2020, 06:32:25 AM »

Unfortunately, that's not likely because it would require eBay corporate to shell out the money for staff to moderate feedback on the millions of transactions. And since corporations take the approach of "Maximize executive and shareholder profits above all else" unless forced to behave otherwise...


That's what I figured. Too much manpower, and fees would likely go up. It's a problem without a great solution, I guess. I'm terrified to try to sell on Ebay.

Post Merge: July 08, 2020, 06:42:04 AM

eBay takes 10%! And it does include shipping cost.
I'm very confused as to why she would not have combined shipping, unless she just flat out didn't know how to. It took me a bit to find out how to do it on my end the first time someone asked for combined shipping.

I'm confused, too. Since she offered combined shipping in her listing, I would assume she had done it before and knew how, but who knows. I recently dealt with a very lovely new seller who had a hard time figuring out how to combine it; it was her first selling transaction, and she just asked for my patience and we worked it out together. Why can't all people be like that?

No, this was almost like she wasn't getting my messages at all. But if she wasn't, then wouldn't she be getting in touch with ME to try to get payment, rather than just filing a claim after 12 days of silence? I noticed a new bad feedback went up for her today...another buyer who was disgruntled that she didn't send their item and wouldn't respond to messages about it.

Post Merge: July 08, 2020, 06:49:12 AM

Well, it's done now. After hours of effort into this, Ebay has officially cleared the claim and restored my account's good standing.

Say, would you guys still leave feedback on a transaction like this? Technically the transaction never completely went through, but it still gives me the option to leave it. Might be nice to warn others away from this train wreck... :bolt:

Or should I just let it go?
« Last Edit: July 08, 2020, 06:49:12 AM by LadyAmalthea »

 

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