TubeNet

I need advice. I bid on, and won, a printer on ebay. The auction closed sometime Wednesday and I emailed the seller yesterday telling him I would pay via paypal on Monday. He wrote back and said that the 2nd highest bidder had already paid for it because he had been unable to contact me (duh, over Thanksgiving holiday...)

So ebay is still demanding that I pay for the printer, and will assign me non-paying bidder status if I don't. Since he already sold it to someone else....

Now what? The seller is apologetic, but I wrote him back and very courteously told hm that I thought he had violated ebay contract and that I'd have to report him in order to protect msyelf. I suggested he refund the other guy's money and sell me the printer that I legally won. I gave him two phone numbers to reach me at.

Anything else I should do? My concern is primarily that I don't want non-paying bidder status; I do want the printer but it is not the primary concern. I'm really close to stopping doing any and all business on ebay...it is just too damn big a hassle. I haven't reported the seller yet because I'm giving him a day or so to do the right thing.

MA

Mary Ann, report the seller for an infraction of eBay rules, unless the seller called out in black and white that payment wouild have to be made within a short period of time, particularly if you put your bid in much earlier.

The seller needs to take the flack, not you.

Actually the bidding closed on Thanksgiving day.

I can't find a way to contact ebay; the only dispute resolution seems to be Sqare Trade. The seller has not responded to my email, and ebay is still demanding that I pay for the printer that has been sold.

How do I report him to ebay? He has been courteous but does not seem willing to change his actions. I don't care about the printer, I care about the non-paying bidder status. And I'm certainly NOT going to pay for it when he already told me he sold it to someone else.

MA

Mary Ann, you might start here:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/welcome/cust ... pport.html

Well I reported him to ebay quite a few days ago and have heard zero from ebay. The bidding closed page is still asking me to pay for the printer (I have since bought not only a printer but a new computer here at home) but there has been no feedback posted, and I have not been assigned non-paying bidder status. Since ebay didn't write me back I guess I'll just blow it off until something happens.

There is a problem that ebay does not have my correct email address (it is a defunct work address) and I refuse to change it because they want a credit card number to do so. Nope. I _always_ supply my correct email address when corresponding; to date it has not caused a problem. But if ebay insists on trying to reply to the incorrect email they have, well, I sure won't get it.

MA

MaryAnn wrote: The bidding closed page is still asking me to pay for the printer

Are you talking about "My eBay" under the items you have won is asking for your payment, or are you saying the auction page for that item is asking for your payment?

If you mean My eBay, you can change the payment status yourself. If you meant the auction page, just ignore it. That page only knows if you use their system for payment.

The seller would have to give you bad feedback or take other action against you for eBay to do anything with your rating.

schlepporello wrote:You can't be sure that the message you're recieving is legit, it could very well be a scam to get your card number. I keep getting credit card verification messages supposedly from Ebay and PayPal. They tell me that I dropped from both unless I provide an updated credit card number to verify my account. Guess what? I've never submitted to those requests and my accounts are still alive and well.

Absolutely true. No company asks for credit card numbers to "verify" an account.

When my stolen tuba showed up on eBay, some TubeNetters made some calls to have it pulled off the site, and also called the pawn shop themselves. Here's the event as chronicled on the old TubeNet:
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/feb2002 ... 86767.html

I'd think that eBay will listen more closely if you really dig in there and speak to someone. No guarantees, though...

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My ebay page says I need to pay for and leave feed back for the item.
The bid page for the item says "congratulations you have won" and wants me to pay for it.

There has been no feedback left for me. If I post negative feedback for the seller, which he deserves, there is not much room to blab about the story, and likely it will get a feedback war started....not sure I want to have a bunch of that in my feedback, except that i'm about done with ebay after this.

Ebay asks for a credit card number when I go into their site and try to change my email address; I have not received any email solicitations and would ignore them if I did.

Remember I'm not upset about not getting the printer, since I already bought the replacement model for about the same price....it is the feedback/non-paying bidder thing that I'm not happy about.

MA

MaryAnn wrote:My ebay page says I need to pay for and leave feed back for the item.
The bid page for the item says "congratulations you have won" and wants me to pay for it.

You can "fix" the My eBay page. In the items I've won section, go to the item in question. There is an arrow just to the right of the Action column. Click on the arrow it will give you options that get you beyond the payment status. These statuses are based on what you've done using the eBay system. They have no way of knowing if you don't use their system. I sometimes pay by check or money order. There is no way their system is going to know if I pay so I change the settings by hand. EBay won't do anything if you don't make this change.


EBay also won't do anything if you don't leave feedback. In fact my experience is that only half of the buyers and sellers leave feedback. Sure this seller was a jerk so leave the feedback you want. Just know that if you do nothing, eBay won't automatically do something to you. I also wouldn't expect the seller to do or say anything because they screwed up badly.