Bought Old Vacuum, Seller Unresponsive, What Should I Do?

[huskyvacs]

I bought an old Kirby on eBay on the 19th of December and paid for it that day. It's well over a week now and it has not been marked as shipped and he has not responded to the two emails I send this past week. His handling time on it said greater than 5 days, but he has been online listing items since the time I emailed. I was very nice in the emails and asking what the status is on the order. I have been ripped off twice on eBay since thanksgiving with sellers ignoring me and refusing to ship items and it's starting to get on my nerves. I just don't know what to do at this point.

 

[huskyvacs]

I have no idea if he left on holiday, or was pissed that it didn't sell for a lot of money and is refusing to ship it or what.

 

[luxflairguy]

What should you do? Be more patient! It's not been very long and there's both a Sunday and a holiday thrown in! Do you expect the seller to drop everything and expedite shipping your machine? Line this time of year are long at Post Offices and UPS type stores. Seller might yes, be on vacation and doesn't know enough about Ebay to know how to mark the item shipped or such. You need to give the seller TIME to get the Kirby boxed, taken to be shipped and time for delivery. Patience my friend! Greg

 

[toddk13]

I’ve had a few vacuum and parts fails. Most of the problems involve poor packaging. Only one was an unresponsive seller. EBay has a safety net for buyers. I had a refund within weeks. Like already noted, weekends and holidays can slow down processing.

On the other hand, I’ve had a couple overseas EBay purchases which took a month or more to fulfill from Russia and England. They weren’t big money buys, so I just waited it out. No disappointments with those.

 

[real1shep]

I agree you need to wait. eBay will tell you the same thing.....the seller has like three weeks to ship an item before you can get serious with a complaint in 'Square Deal'. I know it's not customary to take that long and it's a PIA, but wait it out before you complain. He's just gonna use the Holiday as an excuse anyway.


 


Kevin

 

[dysonman1]

The problem is an unresponsive seller. Open a case in eBay, which will make the seller actually respond. The seller has only ten days to get an item to you before Paypal takes the money from your account, so be sure to file a complaint with eBay so you've covered your own butt. You don't ever have to pay for something you never received.

 

[phaeton]

eBay protects both the buyer and the seller

Hello All and huskyvacs,
I have bought items that were not marked as shipped and they turn up a day before they should.
I also bought an item that was marked shipped and I had to wait about 30 day for the Mars Rover to send it back to Earth.
Don't forget on eBay you can set items to have a start date for today, tomorrow or next week.
eBay Customer Service is the best and they will take care of you.
I would call eBay first and go from there.
I buy and sell on eBay from cars to odd household items.
Thank you for looking,
Pete

 

[human]

Also, check the seller's recent feedback. Are other buyers complaining about not receiving their items? If so, this could be an indicator of a larger problem that would warrant aggressively seeking a refund. You can go ahead and try to enter an "item not received" complaint and eBay will tell you whether enough time has elapsed and how long you will need to wait. But once the allotted time is up, don't hesitate to go after a refund.

I sold several items on eBay Christmas Eve night while I was out of town. As payments came in, I messaged the buyers to let them know I would ship their items when I got home. I shipped out a big load of packages yesterday. I realize that's probably the exception rather than the rule, but it's the way I like to treat my customers. Everybody's happier when they know what's going on.

 

[luxflairguy]

Let me add too! Ebay now has a line for "estimated delivery date." I too have an item I purchased right before Christmas. The estimated delivery date is Jan 3. Seller just sent email saying shipped. Yes, it's been 8 days since I paid for it. But! Many sellers want to make sure your payment clears Paypal first. then they ship. I've bought and sold lots on Ebay and rushing a seller doesn't get you anywhere! G

 

[huskyvacs]

He has good feedback, but two negatives from a year ago about broken items. I told him I understand it's the holidays and it's hard to find a big box, but I sent two emails 3 days apart, with the last email being 2 days ago. He has not replied to any of them.

His listings that he has been listing all have random times of 1 minute, 3 minutes, 7 minutes, 14 minutes, between the times the auction was published, so I know they are being manually listed and not automatically listed.

The fact is there is no communication from him, and after being ripped off twice in the past month with not receiving items I paid for, I am being really skeptical and unsure what to do.

Because he set such a long handling time on eBay, eBay will not let me open a case until the end of their ridiculous "estimated delivery" time, which is January 8.

 

[huskyvacs]

I am not rushing him either, it's been 9 days wait time. That's a perfectly reasonable length of time to start being concerned. The most he can do is reply to my emails and explain what's going on if there is a problem, or if he can't ship it right now, then say so, but not having any communication at all can say a lot.

 

[steve]

eBay only works with good will. Your seller has none. Having well over 300 purchases it is not good selling practices to leave a buyer hanging even for an item costing only a few bucks. A good sale happens when seller sends a tracking # and or a note saying when they shipped and for an item with packing concerns something about how they packed. It takes only a minute to do this and is the ONLY way any buyer has the ability to track item. Anything else is simply unacceptable and it matters NOT what time of year it is. You have every reason to be concerned as often sellers remorse sets in as soon as someone has to deal with boxing and packaging.

I just bought a $155 vacuum and paid $75 for Priority shipping. Seller totally disappeared after the sale but did in fact send it. Never sent me tracking and got nasty with simple polite requests. There really are stupid people on this planet and we should not excuse them. Getting clarification ahead of sale in my circumstance was meaningless but in any case is critical...

 

[real1shep]

I agree that he should have replied by now. But by eBay rules, I still think he has more time. I've had sellers tell me not to try and reach them through eBay PM....that they say in their auction how to contact them. But eBay saves all those PM's to the seller in review of your case. So it's good to stay after him in eBay PM's. But don't lose your cool or be disrepectful....play the innocent victim card always.....don't go personal even if he does.... 


 


I waited forever once for some OE chainsaw parts and received a boat prop instead. I told the seller and he got angry with 'me' and wanted to know where the chainsaw parts went. I said probably check with the boat guy! Then to make matters worse there was significant postage due on the boat prop when I picked up the package. He found the chainsaw parts, but held them at ransom until he got the boat prop back. He owed me about a $40 refund from shipping the boat prop back and forth. I said I'd take that in OE parts. Instead he sent me a refund through PayPal. Said he didn't read the eBay PM in time...that his wife reads those. OK, so why didn't SHE say something?? This was an outdoor equipment dealer too....so imagine his customer satisfaction quotient.  My point to all this is that many people are dicks, even dealers.


 


It's just a waiting game with eBay....you'll get an entire refund from PayPal if noting else.


 


Kevin


 


 


 


 

 

[real1shep]

 


This got me thinking about other eBay sellers.  I bought this electronic unit once from a seller. I told him in the transaction part where it says "Message to seller", to pack in bubble wrap carefully, because if the unit comes broken I'll have absolutely no use for it. Somehow that triggered the seller. He sent me a note in eBay PM that asked why would I think he would deliberately send something broken? I replied back that it wasn't anything personal, I just wanted the unit unbroken when it gets here. Then I got another note saying he was going to refund my money. I said fine, just make sure it's a full refund, there were plenty of these units listed on eBay and I didn't need the hassle. He agreed he didn't need the hassle either. Then I got another note from him saying that he had talked this over with his wife and they both felt I was psychologically 'damaged' and must have a miserable life. THEN...he went into eBay, posted a negative feedback and said I was a nutter...to stay away from dealing with me.


 


At that point I turned it over to eBay's complaint staff. They were great....they removed his negative feedback and gave him a warning after reading all the PM dialog. I felt vindicated from dealing with a true 'nutter'. I'm sure to this day, he thinks I'm the crazy one.



Hang in there, this will work out if nothing else you'll get a full refund.


 


 


Kevin


 







 


 

 

[huskyvacs]

@ Real1shep

Sounds like the guy was a fraudster. I lost my eBay powerseller rating years ago when some idiot from Europe tried to buy a 99 cent phone from me when I stated I only shipped within the USA. He said he would be contacting a lawyer, etc etc, and a few days later my powerseller rating was pulled.

 

[real1shep]

Wow....wonder why in the world eBay took his side?? Were you able to get your seller status back?


 


Kevin

 

[huskyvacs]

@real1shep

No, I wasn't able to because you would have to work your way up from the bottom again to earn it back. With what I have for sale now, that is not possible since I do not sell enough to make those figures anymore. I don't really care though, it's fine just being a normal eBay seller, no pressure, I just wish I could sell anything these days.

 

[huskyvacs]

Also as an update, the seller had family trouble and that is why he was delayed in shipping.

12/29: "so sorry it will ship today. It has been a bad couple weeks as my mom was in the hospital but is home now. I will get you your tracking number today"

12/30: "Once again let me say how sorry I am but here is your tracking number [redacted]. I sent it pri mail so you should see it on Tuesday as Monday is a holiday. I was going to get this done yesterday but my heat went out. It sure has been a bad couple weeks with my mom. She has blood clots in her leg and I made a big Christmas dinner and had to pack it all up and have it at her house as she couldn't get out. I got up this morning and packed it right away before anything else happens. They will pick it up today so you will have it soon"

 

[real1shep]

Well of course being the Internet, one can never 100% believe anything. I'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt though....but I'm a sap.


 


 


Kevin