Bad ebay situation

[HorsingAround]

On 11/20/12 – 11/22/12 I won three auctions from a seller in the UK.  I paid for the auctions right after winning the third on 11/22/12.  In mid December I sent a message inquiring whether she had shipped the ponies.  She did not respond to me which made me a bit anxious. 

On 12/29/12 I went ahead and opened a case in the Resolution Center as 38 days had elapsed and I was worried that I would have no recourse if the seller did not address my concerns.  Ebay then forwarded the three emails I had composed through the resolution center to the seller.  In the case message, I wrote that I would like to work things out and that I was still interested in receiving the items that I purchased.  She failed to respond to the opened cases. 

Then on 01/07/13 I felt as though I had no choice but to escalate the case. After reviewing the cases, Ebay customer support decided in my favor and issued me a full refund for all three items. 

On 01/08/12 I receive an e-mail from the seller!  She said that she did not understand why I opened a case after she offered to send them again free of charge. 

This is what I wrote in response to her e-mail:

Hi,

I did not receive any messages from you until this one which was sent today. I felt like I had to move ahead and start a case because I received warnings from Ebay and Paypal indicating that I would have no recourse after Jan.3, 2013. I did not necessarily want to escalate things but I was getting anxious when I had not heard from you and there was still no sign of the ponies. I never started a case before so I am not sure how that impacts you as a seller... I am honestly very sorry if this was all just a mix up. If you produce the shipping receipt maybe customer service will reverse their decision? Believe me, if I heard back from you before having to escalate the case I would have definitely tried working something out.

After sending that e-mail yesterday I was feeling really bad… Had she sent me an e-mail trying to make things right that I had some how missed?????    I rechecked all of my ebay messages and did a search of my email inbox and there was no such message to be found.   

She wrote me today indicating that she would not try to reverse customer services’ decision.  That she had learned her lesson and would no longer be shipping to the US. 

I did not respond to her…

I am really at a loss here.  I can’t seem to make sense of this situation in my mind.  I mean, had she sent the package and it didn’t arrive why not send me an e-mail at least telling me when she shipped it?  Or, when the case was escalated why not send a copy of the shipping receipt to ebay customer service? 

Her feedback is generally quite good with 599 positive, 9 neutral, and 1 negative over the last 12 months.  I did not leave feedback.  She did not leave feedback for me either…

All I was asking for was COMMUNICATION!!!! Yet, I’m left feeling like I acted hastily…. And I am somehow the “bad” person for the way this situation turned out....   

 

[cyberunicorn]

I don't think you did anything wrong, she should have just posted the items to you.

then she throws a paddy about not shipping to the us is just kinda funny since she was the one at fault. I have shipped there many times as an ebay seller and have found that   you guys have got items before the ones sent with in the uk

[LadyStarCatcher]

It looks to me like you did what anyone would do in that situation. I think you handled it rationally and maturely. Sorry it didn't work out, but communication is so important! IMHO I don't think you should feel bad about this. These things happen and at least you didn't get totally ripped off like so many stories I've heard of similar transactions.

[ponylady]

I wouldn't feel bad at about it at all. It was your your only choice since she did not communicate with you in the first place.  If she had the outcome would oviously been different. It's funny though it took a case to be opened for her to respond, just my thoughts??

[HorsingAround]

Thank you all for the supportive comments!!! 

[blonde2themax]

Don't feel bad.  You were just trying to protect yourself.  I think that you made the right decision and if she had kept up on her part of the bargain things would have worked out.  It's a shame you didn't get the items you wanted. I hope your next experience is better.

[Ringlets]

There's no need for you to feel bad about opening the case - you only did what you had to do to protect yourself since there was no communication and also no ponies   
 Its possible that the seller sent a message that didnt get through - it happens sometimes... but then I think if I were the seller then I would have tried to send the message again when there was no response first time... and also if that was what happened then why didnt she respond to the messages you sent with the open case? and also if she is offering to reship the ponies for free, then does that mean she never sent them in the first place and never let you know that either?!