Ebay Etiquette
 

Last Monday I won an auction for some car parts and paid immediately.

Upon payment I noticed the seller is an High End shop that has been mentioned here and Rennlist with extremely positive reviews. It has now been ten days with no shipping confirmation or acknowledgement of the transaction. There is also a brand new negative feedback saying the seller is refusing to ship one of the other parts he had listed.

I'm hoping it's just bad communication and the part will show up in the next day or so as his listing says that shipments usually happen within two days of the auction ending.

How long do you wait before hitting up the resolution center or cancelling the transaction?

I have been an active ebay user since 1999 and haven't ever had an issue like this.

The first thing to do is contact the seller.

Contact the seller. I buy stuff on Ebay all the time for shows. Arrival times are critical for filming. Last show I ordered items from 2 different sellers with the "more than 10 available", and "ships within 48 hrs after payment".

After receiving no tracking info, I contacted the sellers. Both times, items arrived after the scene was shot leaving me (production company actually) with over $1k in worthless props. Both sellers were holding the auction and then would order the items from the manufacturer. Both items had a 2 week backorder.

Beware when bidding on new stuff, these sellers are just middle men offering a discount, which I think is BS. If you don't have the item in hand, don't list it on Ebay. I almost exclusively order from Amazon or manufacturer now.

^^
+1
After being similarly burned I started asking the sellers if they were drop shippers before I placed a bid. After a while one of them lied to me, and now I go to Amazon.

Did the seller state a time period for the payment? Did the seller state that the product would ship within a set period of time?

Quid pro quo.

After ten days, I'd message the seller. If two additional days went by and I heard nothing then, I'd file a claim in the resolution center.

Most of the time I get a notice from the seller that item has shipped and here's your tracking # within 1-2 days max.

As Patrick and Craig said - contact the seller and let him know you need the part asap. If you do not receive a response with a day or two then I would consider another alternative....such as the resolution center.

This. This is what has made eBay useless. Thousands upon thousands of wanna-be middlemen keyword spamming trying to flip run-of-the-mill goods. Ebay doesn't GAFF as long as they get their cut.

Seller stated in his ad that shipping happens typically within two days. It was a used part as were all of his other listings. The seller had over 700 transactions with 100% positive as of Monday, though had not sold anything in a couple years. That's when the first negative came through.

I really want to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Seems like he runs a successful/popular shop in all other aspects.

If he hasn't sold anything actively in two years, I might be inclined to suspect his account was hacked.

If you know his real shop location and have a telephone number, you should call. If he stated two days then he should abide by that or be able to give you a reasonable explanation why he was unable to deliver.

That would be my first thought as well.

Have you tried contacting them by phone? For an actual brick and motor shop, that's what I would do.

I did a search for a specialty clamp, found an ebay seller with just what I needed, and cheaper than Amazon for the same exact thing... so I bought it....

It shows up a few days later. Guess what the name on the box was?

Central Forge.

That's right, I bought a harbor freight clamp.

On ebay.

For a premium price.

And some seller on Amazon was/is selling the same damn thing!

D'oh! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...oilet_claw.gif

Scum Bay.....

Isn't the thread title a bit of an oxymoron?

Etiquette? How 'bout paying for the goods? So I recently listed my drag bike on Ebay with very specific terms in the main body of the ad "$1000.00 deposit due immediately from the winning bidder at auctions end. The difference by direct wire transfer -or- cash in person at time of pick only"

So one bidder calls me and we talk like 6-7 times prior to ending of auction, not including lots of emails in spite of being very detailed and clear in my descriptions. At this point I just about know his (and family's) life history. He wins the auction (Sunday evening early pm) and after 2 hours - no deposit. I email him and then receive a TEXT that now he wants to change up payment terms.

I call him and I now agree that I would take $5K through Paypal with an additional 3% added for the fees on my end to be paid by close of business Tuesday. I don't see it by 6:30 and then just about as I go to call him - he sends a message .........by text. Guess what it says?....................

So I messaged the seller last night. Got a reply this morning apologizing for the delay and it included a tracking number. Tracking the shipment shows it left his place early yesterday.

I may chalk this one up to crappy communication...

Lots of crappy communication going around these days... there's a thread elsewhere on this forum about a seller of parts who was 3 months late without responding to a buyer. I don't get it. Email or messaging through eBay take seconds.

I've been on eBay since 98 and really don't see any downside to using that medium. Well, except for the guy in Italy who bought a Fuchs from me. He never was able to resolve his registered eBay email with his Paypal account. It was more of a language trnslation problem than anything else.

To follow up... I got my items today and I am very happy with them. Brey krause camera mount and targa harness bar. It was an excellent score at $100.00 plus shipping. That it went for so little was one of the reasons I thought the seller might bail. I still don't understand the lack of communication around the simple task of marking something shipped in the eBay UI or shooting a quick note saying you can't ship right away etc...

As usual thanks for all the great advice!

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