Non-selling seller on ebay?

[seank]

We've all dealt with buyers who don't pay on eBay, anyone dealt with a seller who won't sell the book?

 

Last month I won a Sugar & Spike comic on ebay for about 25% of the guide price. The seller has not responded to my emails asking where to send payment. From his feedback it looks like he's actively selling books, but he's also not responded to another buyer who got a good deal.

 

I sent an email right after the auction then another one recently. No response on either. No request for payment. Any advice on the situation? Whether or not I get the book is not a big deal because I still have cash in pocket, but the principal of it seems wrong -- agree to sell a book then don't sell it because you didn't get the price you wanted.

 

[CosmicBob]

It's the same thing as ending an auction with ten seconds to go because you don't like the price. Only in this case he can get stuck with negative feedback.

 

Ebay has the Payment Reminder and NPB thingie, too bad they don't have a Selling Reminder and Deadbeat Seller program. But it probably doesn't happen as often as the NPB.

 

I would keep after him until you get a response. I don't know if you can involve ebay or not. I bet if you start emailing other bidders on his auctions you'll get some action.

[ArAich]

Get his phone # via contact information and call him...

[CosmicBob]

Get his phone number and start faxing stuff to it!

[joe_collector]

This is the big problem with EBay, they side with sellers while hammering and deleting buyer accounts. For example, 3 NPB notices and you're toast, but a seller can literally not sell hundreds of items and get away with it.

 

I emailed EBay about this a few weeks ago, and that's exactly their stance. If a seller takes your money and doesn't send goods, they'll act, but not if he/she continually lists items and then picks and choose which bids to honor.

 

Some of these sellers even submit NPB alerts so they can get back the final value fees.

[Gorgo]

Good input from Forum members on this. I just bought an early high grade ASM at 3/4 guide, and the seller took 10 days to finally e-mail me. When you put the request in for information through e-bay, that is a mechanism that seems to get the ball rolling, next step is a phone call. Good luck!

[scottish]

I think I've maybe run into this problem once in the past. I seem to recall that since I didn't receive any contact or problems from the seller I just let it go. I obviously didn't want whatever it was that badly.

 

Contact information is a great suggestion. I've found that some emails I should receive get plugged into my 'deleted' folder due to some misguided spam protection so maybe the seller hasn't seen any of your emails though that wouldn't explain why they haven't sent you any.

[thecomicsheet]

I would not recommend depending entirely on email either as a buyer or a seller. There are a LOT of reasons why emails do not make it to their final destination, including but not limited to:

 

1) Mistyped email address - just like writing the wrong address on snail mail.

 

2) Over-aggresive SPAM filters anywhere along the path may inadvertantly block your mail. You can't do business on the internet without spam filters these days, but the spammers (may they burn in @@@@) make it very hard for the anti-spam software to keep up. (Just today I rescued a payment notificiation from my blocked message queue. It was about to be deleted. )

 

3) Your ISP or the other parties ISP may be running off a shared server that a SPAMMER (may they burn in @@@@) is using. This results in the shared email IP address being blocked by some routers. Your email winds up going into a black hole that you know nothing about and noone will tell you about it.

 

4) Your email inbox may be full because a spammer (did I mention may they burn in @@@@) has filled it up.

 

5) The packets carrying your email may just have been lost on the internet. It happens.

 

 

I recommend offering a second email address in your eBay 'about me' page. I am going to do so and I am going to invite anyone who wants to to CC important messages to my secondary mailbox. And try snail mail before going negative on someone.