Britboy
12-03-2002, 01:02 PM
Hi guys, Britgirl has recently begun selling stuff on ebay. She's had a lot of stuff sell with no problems, but this weekend she ran into her first questionable buyer. I told her that you all might have some experience with this type of thing and could offer advice. So, I had her type up exactly what the problem is so I could post it here. She thanks you very much in advance!!! :D
Britgirl asks...
Two of my e-bay auctions were won by the same user: Let's call her LUSERUSER. These two auction wins, combined, were $64.00. She won the auctions late Saturday night. On the one auction, she had a bidding war going with another user that went on over several days. So she was actively looking at these auctions up until at least two days before the auction ended.
Luseruser was sent an e-mail form eBay that she won these two auctions. I sent her invoices, through eBay, for these auctions. PayPal automatically sent her an invitation to pay for her two auctions through them.
PayPal notified me on Sunday that the e-mails sent to LuserUser were returned to them as "no such e-mail address." I then tried to e-mail Luser User, at the e-mail address on file with eBay, but the e-mail was bounced back to me immediately as "no such e-mail address." I tried this through both my Yahoo and Hotmail addresses. I have e-mailed eBay and asked them to look into this. They will get back to me within the next few days.
LuserUser opened her eBay account in the summer of 1999. She had one feedback, positive, from that time. She has had no feedback since then (over three years). I do not know if LuserUser is using her account again but forgot to change her current e-mail address or if someone, somehow is using her account to place phony bids.
Here is my quandry: My auctions state, "Please contact me within three days of winning the auction to arrange for payment; payment is expected within ten days." If I do not here from LuserUser by late Tuesday night, do I:
1) Send the follow-up invoice through eBay and wait the ten days to see if I receive the payment. If I don't receive payment by December 10, send a second chance offer to the next highest bidders.
2) Send the follow-up invoice through the eBay system and state, in the invoice, that she has not lived up to her end of the auction agreement (contact me in three days), and she has X number of hours to get back to me before I contact eBay, file a NPB claim, and leave negative feedback. Then If I hear nothing, send my second chance offer. (I was thinking of giving her until noon the next day, which would be an additional 14 hours.)
3) I have a phone number for LuserUser through eBay. Do I call it? Am I obligated to make a long-distance call ($$) to a auction winner? (Who I don't know is the real bidder?)
I don't want to be unfair, and I don't want to be mean. But this is new to me, and if I create terms and someone agrees to them, I need to stick by them. I would probably let another winner go for a longer period of time, but I have a bad feeling because of the e-mail address not being valid.
The best part of this is that the buyer's real user name IS the invalid e-mail address; so her user name would be LuserUser@yahoo.com.
That's my question! What's the coolest way to handle this? The way that is fair to the buyer (if she does exist) but does not screw me? Or is the simple fact that sometimes the seller just gets screwed?
Britgirl asks...
Two of my e-bay auctions were won by the same user: Let's call her LUSERUSER. These two auction wins, combined, were $64.00. She won the auctions late Saturday night. On the one auction, she had a bidding war going with another user that went on over several days. So she was actively looking at these auctions up until at least two days before the auction ended.
Luseruser was sent an e-mail form eBay that she won these two auctions. I sent her invoices, through eBay, for these auctions. PayPal automatically sent her an invitation to pay for her two auctions through them.
PayPal notified me on Sunday that the e-mails sent to LuserUser were returned to them as "no such e-mail address." I then tried to e-mail Luser User, at the e-mail address on file with eBay, but the e-mail was bounced back to me immediately as "no such e-mail address." I tried this through both my Yahoo and Hotmail addresses. I have e-mailed eBay and asked them to look into this. They will get back to me within the next few days.
LuserUser opened her eBay account in the summer of 1999. She had one feedback, positive, from that time. She has had no feedback since then (over three years). I do not know if LuserUser is using her account again but forgot to change her current e-mail address or if someone, somehow is using her account to place phony bids.
Here is my quandry: My auctions state, "Please contact me within three days of winning the auction to arrange for payment; payment is expected within ten days." If I do not here from LuserUser by late Tuesday night, do I:
1) Send the follow-up invoice through eBay and wait the ten days to see if I receive the payment. If I don't receive payment by December 10, send a second chance offer to the next highest bidders.
2) Send the follow-up invoice through the eBay system and state, in the invoice, that she has not lived up to her end of the auction agreement (contact me in three days), and she has X number of hours to get back to me before I contact eBay, file a NPB claim, and leave negative feedback. Then If I hear nothing, send my second chance offer. (I was thinking of giving her until noon the next day, which would be an additional 14 hours.)
3) I have a phone number for LuserUser through eBay. Do I call it? Am I obligated to make a long-distance call ($$) to a auction winner? (Who I don't know is the real bidder?)
I don't want to be unfair, and I don't want to be mean. But this is new to me, and if I create terms and someone agrees to them, I need to stick by them. I would probably let another winner go for a longer period of time, but I have a bad feeling because of the e-mail address not being valid.
The best part of this is that the buyer's real user name IS the invalid e-mail address; so her user name would be LuserUser@yahoo.com.
That's my question! What's the coolest way to handle this? The way that is fair to the buyer (if she does exist) but does not screw me? Or is the simple fact that sometimes the seller just gets screwed?