Dear eBay Queen: What should I do with a Non-Selling Seller?

Dear eBay Queen:

I’m not sure what to do in this situation I found myself in.  I was looking for some Disney items for my kids for Christmas.  One was a Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and the other was a Doc McStuffins item.  I found one seller that had EVERYTHING I wanted.  Some of her stuff was at auction and some on a buy it now.  I bought the items I wanted on a buy it now, and then bid on the items that were at auction.  I messaged the seller and let her know.  The auctions all started at .99 cents or 1.99.  I won 2 items at .99 cents, 2 at 1.99 and 1 at 10.50.  I paid for my fixed price and auction items, and thanked the seller for waiting for my payment.

I woke up this morning with my payment refunded.  I sent the seller a message, and she told me that she had already sold the items off eBay.  She then told me if I wanted the items, I would have to pay her a total of 165.00, instead of the 82.00 I paid her. Her messages to me were pretty rude, and she was not very professional with her grammar.

What should I do?  Should I leave this seller nine negatives?  I feel like I should not give her a second chance to do this to someone else.  The only thing that is holding me back is that she is a new seller with only 10 feedback.  She’s just been selling for a few months.

Negative Nellie

 

Dear Nellie:

This would make me mad too. I have mixed feeling about leaving negative feedback on this. You didn’t say, but it sounds like you might be an experienced buyer and seller, and since you did say that this is a new seller, I don’t think they know all the rules of selling.  Before leaving negative feedback I would do the following:

Report the seller, follow these instructions.

  • Help & Contact (at the top of the eBay page)
  • Click on “Report a Member”
  • Click on “Seller doesn’t want to sell”
  • You will then select the item that you purchased from the seller. (Do this individually with each item.)
  • Report the seller on each item they refused to sell you.

After you reported each individual item they refused to sell you, I would then send your seller a message. Something like this:

I see you have not been selling very long. I am a fellow seller and I wanted to give you a heads up on a few things.  As you are aware, I purchased 9 items from you, and you just refunded my money on those items, stating that you “sold them off of eBay”.  This kind of thing goes against eBay’s selling policies.  Since you are new, I thought maybe you might not realize this.  I purchased these for my son and daughter for Christmas.  Did you really sell them to some else, or were you hoping for a better price?  I know eBay pushes for .99 auctions, but I have found that if I start the item as the lowest price I am willing to accept, it ends up much better for me.  I hope that you will reconsider selling these items to me at the price I paid for them.  To read up on more information on eBay’s “non-selling seller” policy you can go here.

I hope that you will accept this message in the spirit it was given.  I am not trying to be a problem; I am hoping that I can save you some headaches in the long run.

If your seller does not respond to the message, or responds in a negative way to you, I would probably leave negative feedback on the buy it now items, and neutral feedback on the auctions.  If your seller responds and offers to sell the product to you at the price you paid, I would leave positives for her.  Make sure you do not threaten this seller with negatives or neutrals.  Be positive and hope for her to receive it that way.

By turning this seller to eBay she should receive information from customer support that backs up the message you send her.  Hopefully she will honor the bids/buy it nows and send you the product. 

bluemoonsanta

Strange eBay item of the week: 281507546995. I love to needlepoint, and each canvas is like a work of art to me. I found this Christmas canvas while perusing eBay. Once in a Blue Moon By Sandra Gilmore Heirloom Santa Needlepoint Canvas SOLD: $760.79.

 

A Couple of eBay Bad Sellers Don’t Spoil the Whole Bunch…

I don't know that I buy a lot of stuff on eBay, but I certainly BID on lots of stuff on eBay.  I've had pretty good service in my 14 years of buying.. but this year I've had a couple of pretty bad sellers.

My first bad purchase was these super cute giraffe wedges.  I bought them to wear on youth Sunday.. because I had the perfect outfit to wear with it. (of course)  I paid 4.00 for the shoes and 10.00 for the shipping.  When the shoes arrived, they were in a manilla envelope and shipped first class mail.  The seller said the weight on the shoes were .5 ounces!  When really they were 2lbs. BUT to add insult to injury, they were a size 5, not a size 6.  I contacted the seller, and she told me she would accept the return, but was not happy about it.  She refunded part of my shipping that I paid.. but never paid for the return shipping. 🙁

I bought these ugly Sperry Top Siders for my sweet #3.  I had shoes identical to this in the 1980's when wearing boat shoes.. but not owning a boat was popular.  I guess now in 2012 that same idea is back in fashion. Apparently the giraffe shoe seller and this seller are related, because they did basically the same thing to me. The title and description said they were a size 6… but when we received them, they were an 8.5… AND they were shipped in a manilla envelope saying they weighed .6 ounces.  The post office said they weighed 2lbs and charged me the extra money to receive them.  I paid 8.00 for the shoes, 9.95 for shipping + 5.85 for the extra shipping I had to pay to the post office. I'm waiting on the seller to tell me what they want me to do with them now. 🙁

I purchased a Wii game from a seller 10 days before Christmas.  The game had free shipping, and the seller live around 380 miles from my home.  The item was shipped 3 days after I paid.. and shipped media mail!

There's a couple things wrong with this.. 1. it's a video game which should not be sent media mail. 2. it's a TOY near Christmas it should not be sent media mail!

You might notice that it is wrapped in a odd silver paper.  That's WRAPPING PAPER..

The game with the silver wrapping paper.

This is the game that was pictured with the auction.

This is what I received. Slightly different figures.

 

This game should have been wrapped in another box.. for protection.  It had breakable stuff in it. 🙁  The miracle in this is that I received it without anything broken, and that the USPS delivered a MEDIA mail (14-21 day delivery time item) in 4 days.

 

Will it change the way I buy stuff on eBay… nope.