eBay Help Please!!!

[scottishgirl87]

I've started selling some bits and bobs on eBay to put money away for Florida! Not really anything expensive, however, I'm now in the situation that someone is saying an old university book I sold hasn't arrived.

I have a receipt from the Post Office which confirms I have posted it, and also the person at the post office has wrote the person's house number and postcode on the receipt. The item was posted a week ago now. The buyer contacted me a few days ago to say it hadn't arrived, I e-mailed back a day or so later asking if it was still the case and now he's left me neutral feedback saying the item still hasn't arrived.

So what do I do?? I've never had any problems before so I'm slightly worried that Paypal are gonna freeze my account or something and it has money in there from a few other sales.

I've just checked the Feedback he's left for others, he's only got a rating of 5, 1 being left by me. He's also said to someone else he's not received the item, and every other feedback he's left he has mentioned something "bad" about postage like "took about 6 days to arrive" or "if not for postal strike would have received 2 days early" which is obviously nothing to do with the seller!

HELP!

 

[Deedee]

Can't help unfortunately, but DH has just been to our post office to collect a parcel which DD has got me for my birthday she has just opened it and it is broken she is so upset.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I've started selling some bits and bobs on eBay to put money away for Florida! Not really anything expensive, however, I'm now in the situation that someone is saying an old university book I sold hasn't arrived.

I have a receipt from the Post Office which confirms I have posted it, and also the person at the post office has wrote the person's house number and postcode on the receipt. The item was posted a week ago now. The buyer contacted me a few days ago to say it hadn't arrived, I e-mailed back a day or so later asking if it was still the case and now he's left me neutral feedback saying the item still hasn't arrived.

So what do I do?? I've never had any problems before so I'm slightly worried that Paypal are gonna freeze my account or something and it has money in there from a few other sales.

I've just checked the Feedback he's left for others, he's only got a rating of 5, 1 being left by me. He's also said to someone else he's not received the item, and every other feedback he's left he has mentioned something "bad" about postage like "took about 6 days to arrive" or "if not for postal strike would have received 2 days early" which is obviously nothing to do with the seller!

HELP!

I'm sorry for what you are going through. I've had similar experiences as a seller. It is frustrating! Can you get delivery confirmation? It won't help in this case now, but it would help in future transactions.

 

[joolz1910]

If the item was less than £40 (I think) then you can claim compensation from the Post Office if you have proof of postage. If your buyer paid with paypal, they will force you to refund. You don't have to refund the postage they paid. If he's already left neutral feedback, there's not much incentive for you to sort it out for him!

 

[Pegasus928]

Royal Mail wont allow you to claim anything back until 15 working days from the date on your receipt has passed. With all the current strikes etc I would have thought your buyer would have been aware that items may take longer than 6 days to arrive.

PayPal may only get involved once the 15 days is up. If you do have to refund the buyer then at least then you can claim your money back for the item from RM.

With regard to the feedback you could post a reply to the neutral feedback and have your say so to speak. Explain that you felt that the buyer didn't wait a fair amount of time for you to act. Think carefully about what your response will be as you don't get many characters to put your point across.

Good luck

Mrs Pegasus

 

[wayneg]

I used to sell a lot on Ebay, gave up with high fees and hassle, they just don't look after the seller.
If I started selling again I would only send if recorded. Last twice I put claims in that were not recorded were ignored and never recieved comp.
In future only leave feedback for buyer after they have recieved and left you feedback.
Even without postal strikes standard post can take 2 weeks to get to destination, majority of times it gets there within a couple of days but some of mine took so long.
If its only a week and with current strikes it could easily turn up yet. Trouble is you have no idea if its got there or not.
good luck with it.

 

[scottishgirl87]

Thanks guys. It's really put me off putting stuff on eBay and I was doing pretty well too.

I thought about the postal strike as well, but a week is a long time to wait for 2nd class Luckily the item isn't expensive, so I'm considering just refunding it to save hassle? But could I ask him to remove his neutral feedback if I do that? He hasn't contacted me directly since first letting me know it hadn't arrived.

And how do I go about claiming from RM? Obviously I'll have to wait another few days.

I also don't know what to say in my response. My feedback is otherwise fantastic, and I left him good feedback in response to his payment, so I feel like I should remove that if possible. I just don't know where to begin!

 

[joolz1910]

Someone left me neutral feedback for a coat I sold because she didn't agree it was 'gorgeous' as I'd described it! She said she'd liked it and wanted to keep it though. I sent a polite message through ebay's resolution centre and asked her to remove the neutral feedback, which she did. It might be worth trying.

In future it might be a good idea to set you buyer preferences and once this is sorted, I would block this bidder.

 

[Lizzybear]

Unfortunately you can't retract feedback, nor can the buyer. It sounds to me like he or she is just awkward though, you do get the odd one but most of my selling experiences have been positive (been selling on eBay since 2002 but it's more sporadic nowadays) As others have mentioned if the buyer files a Paypal claim you'll be forced to refund but should be able to claim the money back from Royal Mail if the item was lost (I believe with RM claims now the buyer gets sent a letter with something to post back stating they genuinely didn't receive the item so hopefully he/she will cooperate with this!)

 

[Cyrano]

Ebay definitely errs on the buyers side now. As a seller you cannot leave negative feedback... even if you have a problem with the buyer

 

[Laurafoster]

Ive sold quite a few things through ebay but to be honest now i rarely bother. Ebay only looks after the buyer now, not the seller. That with the high fees means i usually only buy on there nowdays.

If i do sell anything i make sure i send it either recorded/special depending on the item value as that way atleast you can prove if the buyer has received it.

It is possible to have neutral/negative feedback removed by ebay but i believe it has to go through the resolution centre.

 

[joolz1910]

Ive sold quite a few things through ebay but to be honest now i rarely bother. Ebay only looks after the buyer now, not the seller. That with the high fees means i usually only buy on there nowdays.

If i do sell anything i make sure i send it either recorded/special depending on the item value as that way atleast you can prove if the buyer has received it.

It is possible to have neutral/negative feedback removed by ebay but i believe it has to go through the resolution centre.

Yes, it's definitely possible to have neutral or negative feedback removed. I think you do it through the 'revise feedback' section on the site map. It's up to the buyer whether they want to change their feedback.

 

[scottishgirl87]

Yes, it's definitely possible to have neutral or negative feedback removed. I think you do it through the 'revise feedback' section on the site map. It's up to the buyer whether they want to change their feedback.

Thanks for this! Buyer contacted today to say he received the item today! Still have the issue of negative feedback and I'll have a look at the resolution centre tomorrow as it's not really my fault if there's a postal strike. I'm not too sure of the specifics of the strike as I'm sure it's an England thing, we're not affected in Scotland so not really anything I can do.

Glad he's received it though!

 

[Pegasus928]

Hi

I can cofirm that I received the post in your thread this very morning, and have read it in its entirety - but I am refusing to leave any sort of feedback, either positive or negative, until you have read one of my posts and left me appropriate feedback first.