The MLP Arena
TCB => Trader & Shipping Support => Topic started by: Stars on February 17, 2014, 05:25:24 AM
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I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I'm really disappointed and confused.
I won a job lot of 9 G2 ponies on Tuesday night, hoping to be able to restore them over this week, which I have off college. I paid immediately after the auction ended, and from my end, Paypal is telling me my payment is fine and it has gone through. I've paid for and even recieved other items since then, so I know my card is fine. I know this isn't my fault. It's been six days and I've heard nothing from the seller, so I contacted them asking if everything was okay and would the ponies be dispatched soon.
She replied that paypal had put my payment on hold and she was waiting for it to clear. I've never sold via ebay and only started buying last year, so I googled to find out what that meant. From what I can gather, it is no fault of mine, but the only three ways to resolve it is either leave positive feedback, wait 3 days after proof of delivery, or wait 21 days.
I'm not leaving positive feedback until my ponies arrive and I am happy with them. She isn't going to post my ponies until the payment is cleared. I feel I'm now stuck waiting 21 days for my ponies just to possibly be dispatched, and I don't want to hassle the seller by asking her to ship via ebay (which I think releases the shipping costs from the held payment) or post them out of her own pocket so I can leave positive feedback. I'm very nervous about buying and selling online as I'm very inexperienced and I've never had this happen before on a purchase, so I feel rather helpless. I don't want to bother the seller further, but I don't want to leave feedback without recieving my ponies, but equally I'm hugely disappointed to be waiting that long for ponies that could have easily arrived by now (and other ponies bought after have)
Furthermore, the seller only had one recent negative feedback when I won the ponies, and it wasn't on a pony lot and she had tons of positive feedback on other pony sales, so I felt pretty confident. Now I find she's got another negative feedback since I won the auction, both to do with items not arriving, and now I'm just very stressed and anxious about what should have been a really exciting purchase =(
I've seen lots of support on held payments for the seller, but nothing from the buyer's perspective, and I don't know what, if anything, I can do.
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It sounds like maybe Paypal is holding the funds on her end for what ever reason. There could be many reasons why. Perhaps that she has had to many cases opened for items not received if you said she has received some negatives recently for that reason.
The thing is Paypal will release the portion of the funds you paid for shipping to her. They only hold the initial payment for the item, that is not your problem though. It's hers.
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She is probably a newer seller or has not reached the "magic number" yet, which means ebay/paypal hold her funds until the buyer receives the item. It's not the other way around. There is no reason she should be holding onto your items and refusing to ship them until paypal releases the funds.
Send your buyer to this page http://pages.ebay.com/pay/help/ and tell them to ship your stuff :\
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Is it possible that you paid with an E-check? To me, that's what it sounds like. If you didn't have the funds to cover the purchase available in your Paypal balance, Paypal will transfer money from your bank account, but it's like a check and it will take a few days to clear. It might take longer if the seller is in another country... I had someone from Canada recently use an E-check to pay me (I live in the US) and it took about a week for it to clear. I shipped the item the next day. It wasn't my fault, and there are no holds on my account, it was just that I wanted to wait until the E-check cleared before I shipped the item.
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It's (most likely) not an echeck issue. It's standard ebay procedure for funds to be held from newer sellers. The buyer should know this or be able to figure it out - it's explained right next to the item in their ebay.
And this absolutely does not excuse them from not shipping. They are required to send you your items after you have made payment, not after it clears to them. If you send your seller to the help page I linked and the seller refuses to ship because of the funds being held, which sounds like what is happening now with multiple buyers leaving negative feedback, then I'd open an item not received case :\
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I would send her a message as NoDivision is saying, ask for the shipping proof, and if she still won't provide it, then you need to open a case for a non-performing seller/item not received. Call Ebay if you need help!
Paypal does hold funds, but shipping money is supposed to come out of the seller's pocket FIRST and then be reimbursed by Paypal to them. If they don't have the "internal expenses" to ship, they should never have listed them on Ebay!
So sorry you are going through this! Please keep us informed. :(
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Yeah, she can't hold your stuff random until all her money clears. Contact her again, show her the page above and if she still doesn't get it, file.
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The thing is Stars mentioned this seller has tons of positive feedback with some recent negative, which leads me to believe she is not a new seller or new to the game. I am assuming the funds are being held because she is not meeting eBays performance standards. If that is the case they will hold the funds just the same as if she was a new seller.
As I previously mentioned Paypal will release the amount it costs for her to ship it to you. Do not let her tell you otherwise.
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Thank you for the responses and help everyone.
Freeindeed - I paid for it using my debit card through paypal, as I have done with all my recent purchases which I've had no issues with. On my end, Paypal is telling me it is completed.
I'm going to send her the link, having never sold anything I don't know the exact rules and obligations to when she should send the items so I thought the may be entitled to wait till the payment clears - thank you for clearing up that this is not the case.
She's got 15 positive seller feedback, all pony auctions. The 3 negative (2 recent, one from last june) are all for other items. I normally go for higher rated sellers, but this was a lot I really wanted for a great price and the other positive pony feedback felt like a good sign to me.
I'll keep you all updated
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Well, either way, when your funds are being held (whether for performance issues or being a new seller) there is a little link you can click on that will tell you why. At least there used to be - I assume there still is. So the seller should be able to look at that and realize its on their end, not the buyers'.
eta: 15 positive feedbacks means she is still under the 'new seller' umbrella under ebay's current standards - I think? At least when I was still having my payments held it was something like 25 positive sales and/or a certain dollar amount.
But yeah- either way, totally on the seller.
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I've not yet recieved a reply from her. How long should I wait for a reply before opening a case? :sad:
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I would maybe give it a day or two more to see if she responds. If not then I would proceed with the case, that should get her attention.
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Oh wow, yeah the seller can't hold onto your items that you paid for just because Paypal is holding her funds. You did nothing wrong. I agree wait a couple days then open a case. Make a comment in the message selection that "Seller stated she wasn't shipping until paypal released the funds to her."
Goodluck, hope you get your ponies!
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I opened a case and she responded today that she hadn't replied to me due to floods, which is entirely understandable, and my ponies will be posted around Wednesday =D
Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk
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That's good news, don't close the case until you get them though. You can't reopen if they never show.
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I know ebay Australia won't let me print an international shipping label (which is SOOO annoying, but I get it with proof of ID required and all that jazz!) so it'll take three days for the funds to get to my bank a/c to ship on international sales (because usually shipping is quite a bit and I can't afford it out-of-pocket). But that's why I have a 3-day handling time on my auctions, in case an overseas buyer purchases. When I was a new buyer, I just restricted my auctions to domestic only, and printed the labels from ebay. Ignorance of policy is not an excuse - read it before you start selling. I'm glad your items have shipped - good on you for standing up for yourself - that seller was definitely in the wrong!
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15 positive feedback is not a lot, and it sounds to me like eBay is still treating this seller as a new seller. So yes, they are holding her her funds. The responsible thing for your seller to do would be to ship your items immediately. But it sounds like she is refusing to do so until the funds clear, and it sounds like you are not the only one she is doing it to.
Don't leave feedback yet. I would keep trying to contact her and if all else fails, contact eBay and consider opening a case.
Ebay's purpose for holding funds is to ensure that each new seller acts responsibly with buyers (by shipping in a timely manner, and not stealing, etc.) but sometimes it can be counter-productive when sellers don't understand the limitations or feel their inconveniences should be passed on to their buyers.
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Well, she messaged me on the 3rd saying she has posted the ponies and would upload tracking details ASAP. Heard nothing by today and felt 4 days was plenty enough time to give me tracking details, plus the ponies haven't arrived yet, which if she had posted them on Monday like she says she has, with the kind of postage I paid, they would be here by now. So I escalated the case.
Customer service has refunded me the money I paid for the ponies, which I am grateful for, but at the end of the day I wanted the ponies more than anything =( maybe they will turn up at some point but I very much doubt it now, so I suppose its to negative feedback I go =(
At this point, I feel at liberty to mention this seller is mlpboutique, so others can be cautious of buying from her. I don't believe she intentionally tried to scam me of anything, but she just doesn't feel very reliable.
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Its good you got your money back. Hopefully the seller has learned that its simpler just to follow ebay rules in this case and ship as soon as she can.
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Awe, what a sucky thing to do to you! I know as a "new" seller they held my funds from every sale. I HAD to ship quickly because it said that was what was expected in order to get rid of the hold on the funds. Even now i don't put anything for sale unless i have enough in pocket to ship the most expensive way to the furthest distance possible. Sux, but at least it kept me on my toes :)
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Thank you for filling us in on this. I'm terribly sorry for the loss of a good lot of ponies. =(
Please make sure to leave her appropriate feedback, so future buyers will be made aware as well.
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Well I guess as a final resolution to this thread I left her negative and she responded with positive feedback that said 'seller could not wait to payment to clear' I'm gonna assume the first to was meant to be a for.
She definitely did not post those ponies so that was an outright lie on her part. Looking back I think she said that to try and pacify me while she waited for it to clear. I don't understand what wasn't clear about the message and link I initially sent - ship them and they'll release the funds sooner. She never seemed to respond to that suggestion either.
She's not relisted them at all (I'm too sympathetic and I did really want that lot so I was stalking her sales a bit) but I'm positive they weren't posted. Oh well.
I also dinged her stars on dispatch and communication because it was blotchy and forced through the case process.
What annoys me the most is an auction of hers for a non pony lot that ended the same day as mine left her positive on the first of March. Obviously she could find the time to post that but not for me =\
Thanks for everyone's help through this, it was extremely helpful for a non confident online shopper like me who had no idea what was going on! Hopefully other buyers won't be disappointed by her in the future
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Wow what a really disappointing situation :( Ok I do feel bad for new seller who have their funds held, but really they need to know whats going to happen and be prepared for it *before* they try selling - and holding the buyers item until the money clears is *not* right. Neither is lying to you about the ponies being sent, or sending someone elses item but not yours. I think she messed up bigtime due to inexperience rather than deliberately trying to scam , but she should not have messed you about like that and the bad feedback was deserved. I hope that you find the ponies you want from a better seller soon :hug:
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Her feedback for you is a touch misleading as well to be honest because it makes it sound as though the reason you left negative was because of something you had done. I would consider asking ebay for a feedback revision on that - its almost a false positive.