Need ebay experts help

[chniki88]

I'm a new seller on ebay. Have sold 8 items- no problem. I sold this one item ot a person in Alaska with a feedback rating of 0. She won and asked if she could pay with a money order. I said OK. In my auction I stated that payment must be recieved within 7 days of the end of the auction. After 7 days I emailed her again - she said she she mailed out the money order yesterday, and that her address on ebay was wrong and gave me another address to mail it to. A few days later I recieved a paypal notice that she payed with paypal. I was confused - since she said she mailed out thte money order the days before. I mailed the package and left postive feedback for payment. Its now been 10 days and I had not recieved feedback- so I emailed her and asked her how her son was enjoying the backpack and to please leave feedback. Today I recieve a email stating that she never recieved the backpack and she says she has sent me several emails and I have not responded - WHICH IS NOT TRUE.

WHAT do I do?? I think she is trying to scam me - HELP-- THANKS

 

[Laurajean1014]

How is it a scam? You received double the money and sent out the backpack to her.

If it was insured then wait 30 days and if it does not arrive, then the post office will refund the backpack's value to the winner.

Ask the winner to re-send the emails that she sent. (Most emails have sent folders that she can retrieve them from).

Technically, you should send back one of the payments (if you did receive two) and if the item was not insured, then the winner is out of luck. It may show up within a few days or week. Sometimes winner say they are paying by one entity, but then do another (she may of had to wait a day or so for her paypal to get started; once it did, she decided to pay that way).

If not insured, don't worry. Also, it's not manditory to leave feedback, although, I think it's polite and completes the transaction for all parties. You can suggest feedback, as you did, but that's about it.

 

[swilshire]

My guess is that it would take several days for mail to get to and from Alaska. That is probably contributing to the problem. Did you use delivery confirmation on the package? It's always a very good idea to do so.

Sheila

 

[HayGan]

I highly doubt that she did send the mo since she sent paypal a few days later. I know I wouldn't pay for something twice

Did you send it with delivery confirm. I always send with delivery confirm as I hear more and more people reporting that buyers are saying "Oh, I never received it"

I know that people have different perspectives on this but I never leave feedback until the transaction is complete (as a buyer or seller.) While a buyer's primary responsibility is prompt payment, issuses can arise following payment which would warrant neutral or negative feedback.

Hope everything works out for you

 

[chniki88]

She DID NOT pay twice.

The reason Im nervous is because she lied. She said she mailed Money order and she did not. SHe said she has sent me emails regarding item and she has not.

I have emailed her regarding feedback -

She only paid once by paypal two days after she said she mailed me a money order. Which I never recieved. She emailed me to mail to another address which I did.

 

[ceecee]

Within the last few months I have gotten so much of this garbage. I sell new things and two people have insisted they were not working. One guy said he didn't receive it (I had delivery confirmation) but he did "find" it on the back porch a week later! And I have had three people (maybe 4, still waiting on a money order she sent on 8-1) who have not paid. One girl had a 0 feedback and by the time I went through the late notice, final fee credit process she now has -4 so I can't even leave feedback because she is no longer a reg. user. I have never had so much trouble.
Use delivery confirmation on everything you sell.

 

[floridagirrl2]

Use delivery confirmation on everything.

Don't mail to unconfirmed Paypal addresses unless it's for a low-cost item and the person has a reasonable amount of positive feedback.

My guess is either 1. Mail is taking awhile to get to Alaska, or 2. this person is scamming you and is lanning to do a Paypal chargeback (you are completely unprotected against a chargeback if you don't use Delivery Confirmation adn mail the package to an unconfirmed address).

Also, this is why many of us do not leave positive feedback upon receipt of payment--it leaves you open to feedback blackmail by a scammer.

Hopefully it will all turn out well and that mail is just a little slow.

 

[disneymom3]

Until recently I was thinking people were just getting too uptight about ebay, but I no longer do. There are just too many stories like yours out there. I always use delivery confirmation now. No way is someone going to claim they didn't get an item I mailed to them. I am also considering going to Paypal only payments as the last several money orders I have received have taken forever to show up or have not shown up at all. At least with Paypal there is no excuse to take more than 4 or 5 days to pay.

I have several items up right now, but I am getting close to throwing in the towel on ebay.

 

[disneysnowflake]

I hope you used delivery confirmation.

Please, anyone using ebay to sell items, use delivery confirmation EVERY time you ship something. That is your only proof to paypal that you shipped an item.

I don't trust anyone anymore on ebay. I've been selling since 1998. Everything used to go fine until last year. That's when the weirdos starting appearing.
I got people doing chargebacks. Then I was out my item, my money and I still had to pay fees. These people are eventually kicked off ebay, but they just come back under a new ID.

I've had buyers tell me they want 1/2 of their money back because the item "wasn't as described". When this happened they filed a claim with paypal. I then went on ebay and looked to see what else this scammer won. I contected those sellers only to find out that she did the same thing with EVERY auction she won. I didn't have to pay her, but if I hadn't contacted those other sellers I would have been out 1/2 of my money.

In my collectors group it is well known that if someone ships a package without delivery confirmation they pretty much guarantee that the buyer will tell paypal they didn't receive it just to get a full refund. Always use delivery confirmation. You can add the cost of delivery confirmation right into your shipping charges. I've even seen long time collectors in our group who people trusted take advantage of people who mailed packages without delivery confirmation just to get a refund. Sad and disgusting, imho.

Now if someone pays with paypal I will only ship if the buyer has a confirmed address. If they don't and the buyer says the package isn't received paypal won't help you.

If someone pays with paypal I immediately withdraw the funds so my balance is $0. Nothing stinks more than having paypal hold my funds for over a month while the "investigate" something a scammer says.

Most of the time things go smoothly, but since all this crap with scammers started last year I've been very leary of selling. I used to love selling. Things would go smooth. Not anymore for me.

Anymore when I sell I have to deal with psycho people emailing me about my auction. They will ask very demanding questions like wanting 18 photos of my item as specific angles or wanting me to mail the package for free to them if they win, or even want to know if I'll give them the item for free to a dying relative.
Then when I mail out the item (if I get payment) I have to worry that the buyer won't demand a refund or file a chargeback or whatever.

I have a bunch of stuff I want to list this coming week, but I'm so leary anymore.

I hope everything works out for you. I sure hope you used delivery confirmation.

 

[lbgraves]

If you didn't use delivery confirmation she will be able to file for a refund from paypal and since you didn't ship to her confirmed address with paypal she will get her money back. It's a hard way to learn this lesson but unfortunantly there are scammers out there. She is probably a very experienced ebayer who has done this alot & registered with alot of IDs since she will be unregistered after three complaints. I sure hope this works out differently for you, but this is usually how it goes.

 

[DMRick]

Boy, this is sad. I'm so glad I haven't had these things happen to me (I've been selling since '99). What type of items do you sell, that have so many strange people? I want to make sure I don't get into that category LOL!

By the way, by you emailing other people about her auctions..YOU could end up suspended, since that is considered auction interference (even if the auction has closed). eBay has a way to deal with non payers..and that is by filing a npb report. Also, even if you empty your Paypal account, Paypal can still take the money by whatever account you have connected. And if that account is empty, they can file with a collection agency. I haven't heard of anyone's entire account being frozen since eBay bought them, but I know they will take the amount of the sale and freeze it until it's settled. We all agree to that, when we sign up for Paypal, or continue to be members of Paypal. Since I did a chargeback, I'm happy they hold on to the money until it's settled.

For the OP, even if you had delivery confirmation it wouldn't help in this case, because you didn't mail it to the Paypal addy, but the addy she emailed and asked you to ship to. I would still tell her that at the end of the Post Offices 30 days, you will file a claim..if she's lying, and really rec'd it, that usually stops them in their tracks. If she's being truthful and didn't get the item and enough time has gone by, it may truly be lost in the mail.

I don't trust anyone anymore on ebay. I've been selling since 1998. Everything used to go fine until last year. That's when the weirdos starting appearing.
I got people doing chargebacks. Then I was out my item, my money and I still had to pay fees. These people are eventually kicked off ebay, but they just come back under a new ID.

I've had buyers tell me they want 1/2 of their money back because the item "wasn't as described". When this happened they filed a claim with paypal. I then went on ebay and looked to see what else this scammer won. I contected those sellers only to find out that she did the same thing with EVERY auction she won. I didn't have to pay her, but if I hadn't contacted those other sellers I would have been out 1/2 of my money.

 

[cinmell]

This thread has been very informative for me since I'm thinking of trying my hand at Ebay very soon. Thanks to the OP for starting this thread.

I've learned from this thread that delivery confirmation is key. My question is, do you insure (shipping insurance) everything you sell or do you only insure items over a certain price?

Thank you!

 

[etwinchester]

I'm thinking that someone may have obtained the buyers information and changed the email address & when they stated the address was wrong on ebay, they gave you theirs to obtain the package.

A scammer could have gotten her information, emailed you to inform of address change. In the meantime, the real buyer send you money via PAYPAL but it got mailed to wrong person.

Does this make sense? Could this sound like a possibility.

 

[DMRick]

That would be difficult to do, (send an email using the buyers email address) and in any case it's up to the seller to send to the Paypal addy, and to be able to prove delivery.

I'm thinking that someone may have obtained the buyers information and changed the email address & when they stated the address was wrong on ebay, they gave you theirs to obtain the package.

A scammer could have gotten her information, emailed you to inform of address change. In the meantime, the real buyer send you money via PAYPAL but it got mailed to wrong person.

Does this make sense? Could this sound like a possibility.

 

[etwinchester]

That would be difficult to do, (send an email using the buyers email address) and in any case it's up to the seller to send to the Paypal addy, and to be able to prove delivery.

If they obtained the buyers ebay password, they could have logged in with it on ebay and went to the auction and clicked on "send an email to seller". Not that hard to do. They could have then informed the seller of the new address to send item to.

 

[swilshire]

One guy said he didn't receive it (I had delivery confirmation) but he did "find" it on the back porch a week later!

This is not really as crazy as it sounds. I went round and round with UPS once regarding a package they insisted they had delivered. It finally turned up in front of a screen door in an older part of the house that we never go through. It had been there all along, but since it wasn't the front door or the next most obvious entry door, we never thought to look there.

Our USPS carrier has our blessing to leave packages when we're not home, so he opens the door to whatever vehicle happens to be there at the time and puts it in there. Since we have more vehicles than drivers, sometimes it a few days before we discover the package.

Sheila

 

[DMRick]

Not that hard to get an eBay password? Well maybe if it's someone you live with. Plus, when she responded, the email would have gone to the "correct" person. I personally think it's farfetched. I could see someone going through all this or an expensive item (and even that would be farfetched IMO) but for a backpack? And then this same person would pay via Paypal? Nay.

If they obtained the buyers ebay password, they could have logged in with it on ebay and went to the auction and clicked on "send an email to seller". Not that hard to do. They could have then informed the seller of the new address to send item to.

 

[tinksmygal]

As a seasoned ebayer here's what I always do:
1. Use delivery confirmation (free for priority, small fee with paypal shipping) to show proof that the package has arrived.

2. If you have 7 days in your TOS, then open up an unpaid item dispute at 7 days. This will "jumpstart" most people into paying if they haven't, since they can get a strike against them from Ebay and eventually become a non-registered user if they get enough strikes.

3. Never leave feedback first. I know some may disagree on this, but I've burned. I always send a small note with the purchase saying something along the lines of I will be leaving feedback once I know the item has arrived safely and they are pleased with the purchase. This way you can work out problems without the threat of negative feedback hanging over you.

4. Never ask for feedback. Most will leave it on their own, the PITAS you don't want to mess with anyways.

4. Try to ship to a confirmed address. I do sometimes break my own rule on this if I have a good feeling about the person and they pay quickly and without problem.

Thank goodness after selling things to hundreds of people about 95% of time it's gone well or I would have quit long before now.

Obviously your buyer was lying about the money order, but it may be possible that the package hasn't arrived yet. Unfortunately it sounds like you only have her word to go on, and her "word" doesn't sound too good.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

 

[etwinchester]

If she (seller) hit the "reply" button, it would have gone to whomever sent the email. If the hacker changed the email address in ebay, clicked on "ask seller a question and their email address was "abc@1234.com" and the seller hit reply, it would have gone back to that same email address.

It was just an idea. Apparently it's not that hard to obtain someones ebay password for a hacker. It happened to me and that's why I mentioned it.

I was on my computer but logged off of ebay and left the house for 10 minutes to go to the post office. When I returned, I had emails on my computer verifying ebay password and email address changes that I NEVER made to my ebay account. DH was working (doesn't use ebay or computer) and I took DD (age 3) to nursery school. Neither one of them even knows my ebay password and no one else was in the house (family of 3)!!!

Good thing I was home within minutes from this happening. Think of the damages that could have been made as I had stuff listed on ebay to sell...they could have instructed buyers to send money orders elsewhere or have sellers ship my items elsewhere as I buy on ebay as well.

I was able to contact ebay and tell them I never made any changes. They were able to suspend my account quickly and change my passord & put my original email address back in for me. They also instructed me to change my email password incase they got ahold of that as well. They said that this happens frequently. The hackers/scammers get your information, contact your buyers for payments or sellers of new mailing address to send packages to.

I now change my password every 6 months. Again, it was only a suggestion since I was affected and was told by ebay what the scammers/hackers do. I don't use ebay as much as I did just because of this reason. It was really scary and I just "THANK GOD" I was home within minutes after the emails came through to correct the problem.

I'm sure that's not the case since the original buyer would have received emails from ebay confirming changes but again, it was just a thought.

 

[DMRick]

Sorry, I still think this is all so far reaching, and personally I doubt it has anything to do with the problem the OP is having. It's not that easy to change your email, if you aren't the one the email will go to on eBay. All this for a backpack? I don't think so. I can just see someone going into myeBay, then my account, changing my email addy, (and somehow getting the note from eBay at the old address, telling you it would be changed, oking it) and then signing onto ebay under my name, and sending out a letter telling someone to send a backpack to me. Of course then going into Paypal, knowing the password and paying for. Many more people lose their eBay password because of phishing, not because someone hacked into their computer in a few minutes while someone was off, to try and get a cheap item from eBay.
Our responsibility as sellers remains the same. Ship to the Paypal address, use DC, and even you will be usually be covered.

If she (seller) hit the "reply" button, it would have gone to whomever sent the email. If the hacker changed the email address in ebay, clicked on "ask seller a question and their email address was "abc@1234.com" and the seller hit reply, it would have gone back to that same email address. .