Dilemma caused by stupid buyer ...

[Vroomfunkel]

Some time ago I sold two Action Replays on ebay. The buyer was from the US, and despite payment methods stated clearly in the auction and invoice, wanted to pay me by US cheque.

I declined and suggested bank transfer, cash in dollars, Paypal, Bidpay etc etc

He asked for the bank details as he would do a bank transfer, and I gave them. He then emailed me to say he'd tried and found it cost too much, so had sent a 'cashier's cheque' instead.

I replied and said this was fine as long as it was in UK sterling, not dollars. He then replied and chewed me off, telling me how "I'm in the US and here we pay in dollars"

I replied and told him that I was in the UK and here we do not.

Didn't hear anything else, so filed an NPB. Got a whiny email asking why I had done this, when he had sent me a cheque and I had returned it.

News to me. I never received anything! I told him as much. He insisted he sent it and I had sent it back - utter nonsense.

Didn't hear anything else, so I completed the NPB process, and sold the ARs to someone else.

Finalised the NPB process, as the guy seemed obviously a jerk - and a fibber too. He got his strike, and sent me another email asking why I had done this as he had "sent a cashier's cheque"

By now I just ignore him, because it is all so much b-s, as far as I am concerned.

Then, today - nearly two months after the auction ended ... £36 turns up in my bank account marked as "Foreign Cheque".

Now, this is slightly less than the sale amount - presumably because the bank has deducted a transfer fee - or because the exchange rate has dipped.

However... what the hell do I do? I don't have the items any more. It will no doubt cost me more than it's worth to transfer the money back - and I don't even have his bank details to do so. I don't think I did anything wrong in this process, but I would feel bad keeping the money ...

SUggestions on a postcard please!!

Vroomfunkel

[jonjandran]

Well the guy tried, and he told you he paid and you didn't believe him. :/

You really owe it to him to apologize and refund his money despite the costs.

And you need to do a Negative feedback removal.

I know that most of the time people lie, but when it ends up that they weren't lying, you need to step up and be the bigger person and rectify the mistake.

[Vroomfunkel]

OK, one thing is certain. I am not going out of pocket to sort this mess out. Yes, he paid - but he appears to have paid by a method that I clearly stated on multiple occasions that I do not accept.

I don't know how the hell he got a cheque to my bank without it coming via me - or without my bank telling me about it, but that seems to be what has happened.

And when someone is telling me that I have sent things back to them that I never received in the first place, I think I have a right to be disbelieving.

I guess I will do what I can to refund him - but the cost of making a bank transfer to US is about £12 .. and I sure as hell am not going to pay that out of my pocket because of someone else's pig-headedness.

I'll deduct whatever charge there is from the amount I received. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to keep the money - that would be stealing.

But I am incredibly frustrated that I am having to sort this shit out, when I made it abundantly clear what sort of payments I do and don't accept.

It's late at night here now, and I have been working stupid hours all week, and have to go on a conference tomorrow for four days which I am helping to run, and this, now has really pissed me off.

Anyway .. here is the transcript of the communications via the NPB dispute process. Tell me what you would have done in the circumstances
... (it goes in reverse chronological order)

The Unpaid Item dispute has been closed for the following reason: The seller has ended this communication and filed for a Final Value Fee credit.


joelthejester 22-Aug-05 at 14:41:46 BST


I still have not received any payment in any form, nor any response that would indicate you are willing
to pay in a way that I can accept. Therefore I am closing this dispute.


joelthejester 16-Aug-05 at 16:59:22 BST


Well, in the UK we don't use dollars, only pounds.

All of my auctions state the payment
methods I accept:

Paypal, UK Cheque / UK postal order, Bank Transfer, US $/ UK£ / Euro cash I do not include cheques in dollars on this list for the very good reason that I get charged to bank them!

zadeak60 16-Aug-05 at 15:41:04 BST


Hello, This is Jaleel Small. I sent the check in us dollars 77 dollars which you ask for which was equal to the price of the item in pounds. In the united states we don't pay with pounds only dollar. Can your bank convert the dollars into pounds with the cashiers check?


joelthejester 16-Aug-05 at 01:29:48 BST


Once again, as long as the cheque is in UK £ sterling, that will be fine. If it is in dollars, I cannot accept it. If I receive payment via bank transfer, in dollars cash, or in pounds sterling (in any form) then the item will be sent and the unpaid item strike will be removed.

Many thanks

Joel


zadeak60 15-Aug-05 at 22:30:05 BST


Hello, This is Jaleel Small. I used a cashier check and I sent it to today on Aug 15 . Please let me know when you recieve the payment.


zadeak60 15-Aug-05 at 01:05:49 BST


Hello, This is Jaleel Small. you said that you have not recieve anything from me how come the post office ship me back the payment I open it and it said sorry for the delay no account number to cash into and the letter have your name on it . Do you have me mixed up with someone else?


joelthejester 15-Aug-05 at 00:17:47 BST


I have not received anything from you yet. If anything has been returned to you, it is the postal service who have returned it. The last communication I had from you was that you would send payment
via a bank transfer, for which I provided all my details. If I receive payment, either via bank transfer, or in dollars / sterling cash in the next ten days I will remove the unpaid item strike.


zadeak60 14-Aug-05 at 23:59:01 BST


Hello, This is Jaleel Small zadeak60 I will ship the payment tommorrow on Aug 15. Why are you about
to send me an unpaid item strike when you ship me back the payment to fix.


eBay 14-Aug-05 at 23:53:28 BST


Buyer has indicated that they will pay for this item. The item details are as follows:
Item: Pro Action Replay 1 & 2 Megadrive / Mega Drive FREE P&P(#8205504135)
Buyer: zadeak60
Transaction date: Jul-17-2005


eBay 11-Aug-05 at 02:01:03 BST


An Unpaid Item dispute has been opened for the following item: Pro Action Replay 1 & 2 Megadrive / Mega Drive FREE P&P (#8205504135)
Reason given for Unpaid Item: The buyer has not paid for the item.
Buyer actions reported by seller: The buyer has refused to pay.



P.S. If anyone wants to help out here, the best solution I can think of is to Paypal the money to somone in the US and have them send this guy a cheque - or else if someone has a couple of Pro Action Replays they want to get rid of .....

[Vroomfunkel]

Oh, and I didn't leave negative feedback yet. I just filed the NPB strike in order to reclaim the ebay fee. I don't know if they can be removed, but when I actually have a spare moment to myself again not at 1am in the morning I will have a quick look what can be done. But again, I am not going to be spending a great deal of time on it, because this whole damn mess is not my fault in any way.

Vroomfunkel

[jonjandran]

Oh I understand it's not your fault.

All I'm saying is the person did send the payment like he said.
he wasn't lying about it.

He didn't do it the right way, but he did better than most people would have.

And you should deduct the cost of the transfer, when I said "despite the cost" I meant despite the hassle of having to send it back.

And I thought you had given a negative, my mistake.

[chaoticjelly]

Sounds like a moron.

Just send him the money in cash or use some american money service (taking off what it costs you to send it back)

I used to get loads of people from the USA asking me if they could pay by Personal "Check" - thats why I made a paragraph in every ebay auction I run stating that I dont accept them

(My bank charges a lot too, and gives a crap exchange rate)

[Darren870]

That doesn't make sense how the money got in your account though...

Are you SURE thats it, maybe you are just forgetting about something.

Id call your bank first.

[jwl]

That doesn't make sense how the money got in your account though...

Are you SURE thats it, maybe you are just forgetting about something.

Id call your bank first.

That's what I was going to say. Make sure it did come from him before you send it back.

[Griking]

It sounds strange to me that a bank transfer took over two months to complete. Contact your bank and ask them when the person transferred the money on his side and if it gererally takes that long to complete. As far as the refund goes tell the customer you'd be more than happy to refund it to a Paypal account but that you don't expect to have to pay anything out of your pocket to do so.

BTW, you seem to be getting all the winners lately. :roll:

[anagrama]

Just send him a Sterling cheque for about £20 LOL

[kevincure]

You're clearly not at fault, Vroom, but it's important to realize that in the US, paying a fee to bank a check would be considered absurd. At most you'd pay a slight fee for the currency conversion. I think the easiest thing to do would be to simply explain that the money actually showed up in your bank, and you'll send it back as a refund, but since it's quite expensive to transfer, you'll have to deduct the bank fee.

Or else just send it to him Western Union - 12L = US21 or so, which is far more than it would cost to simply wire him the money.

[silver_surfer]

Give him back the 36 pounds and call it a day.