Unpaid item strike :-(

[Vroomfunkel]

I bought a game from Ebay France a while ago, and did not receive an address to send the payment to. I got an unpaid item reminder from ebay, and responded that I had not received the address. The seller then sent me the address, and I sent him cash payment. A little while later, I received the game (although not in the "good condition" it was described as .. the manual was sellotaped together!)

Anyway, I didn't leave feedback as I was not sure I wanted to leave positive in this case ... and today I have just received an 'unpaid item strike'!!

I went to the bit where you can challenge the strike, and it says you need to provide proof of having paid ... well, I sent cas - how the hell am I supposed to prove that?

Any suggestions anyone? Apart from the obvious one of leaving a big flaming negative on the seller's account??

Vroomfunkel

[yok-dfa]

Did the seller already leave feedback? If so, you could use that as proof.

[jajaja]

Whats bad about ebay.fr and ebay.de is that very few accept Paypal.
I have bought alot from Germany tho and it have allways turned out good. Had some small problems now and then, but all have turned out fine.

I guess all you can do is to e-mail ebay and explain that you have payed. And if you havnt recived feedback tell the seller to give it to you, as proof, mentioned above.

[yok-dfa]

Whats bad about ebay.fr and ebay.de is that very few accept Paypal.

I don't see that as a bad thing. The alternative is much better (a free international bank-transfer). I have more trust in local banks that are supervised by a government controlled national bank and European banking laws then in Paypal (which basically pretty much sucks judging by all the horror stories i hear frequently on these forums).

Only problem might be if that you are in the UK those free international bank transfers might not be so free for you, but hey, that's the price you have to pay for sticking to your pounds

Cheers,
Raymond

[76pinto]

Does the game look like the picture in the listing? Just tell them since you have the game and hopefully the envelope it came in - that should be at least some proof you got it - especially with postage stamp or info.

[jajaja]

Whats bad about ebay.fr and ebay.de is that very few accept Paypal.

I don't see that as a bad thing. The alternative is much better (a free international bank-transfer). I have more trust in local banks that are supervised by a government controlled national bank and European banking laws then in Paypal (which basically pretty much sucks judging by all the horror stories i hear frequently on these forums).

Only problem might be if that you are in the UK those free international bank transfers might not be so free for you, but hey, that's the price you have to pay for sticking to your pounds

Cheers,
Raymond

Well.. i had a case in france now where he only accept checks and cash, no bank transfer. Besides, many times when I do bank transfers to Germany i get invalid SWIFT number, so I have to pay via another bank in Germany.
Sometimes it have gone wrong and the banks down there have charged me like $30 in fees because of bad transfer.

Also, I dont know if its easy for ppl in USA to do bank transfer to Europe. And as you say, banks in other countries might take fees for international bank transfers.

Paypal is instant payment and its very very easy. You dont have to fill in names and anything, much quicker and your 100% sure the money gets there. I prefer Paypal over bank transfer when it comes to paying. Both are free for me so thats not the case.

[Mayhem]

You can now get proof of posting receipts from UK Post Offices... I've requested a couple just to backup myself in case the payment was disputed as not being sent.

Fill in the address and the PO will stamp it for you to show you sent something to that address.

[slapdash]

Also, I dont know if its easy for ppl in USA to do bank transfer to Europe. And as you say, banks in other countries might take fees for international bank transfers.

In Europe it's cheap or easy to do bank transfers, but in the US it's HIDEOUSLY expensive, at least for small amounts and international transfers. For instance, with my bank, which is pretty reasonable about fees for the most part, it would cost me a base of $30, plus any costs they would run into (phone charges etc) to make the transfer. That's just crap. I mean, if I'm buying something worth $500 or more, I could justify it, but I'm not going to be buying a game or two and spend that kind of money on top of it.

[Mayhem]

It's expensive in the UK as well, even to go to Europe. Look at roughly the same costs that you listed Slapdash.

[jajaja]

$30 for bank transfer is madness
It was like that here many years ago. Now I can transfer to around 30 countries for free

[SoulBlazer]

Right, it's very strange to us Americans to hear about 'bank transfers' to people in Europe because the way our banks work over here. If we give someone our banking information so they can put money into our account to pay for a item or whatever, nothing stops them from doing it the OTHER way around and taking money OUT.

Believe me, even though I've had very few problems with PayPal, I'd love to do bank transfers.

[Mayhem]

Which is daft considering your bank details are on EVERY cheque you write and send to people!

No such danger here in the UK... you need explicit permission from the account holder to take money out so you'd have to somehow dupe the bank into making them believe you were. Which usually involves needing to know the security questions.

[Vroomfunkel]

First off, I appealed the unpaid strike to eBay immediately, stating that i had paid in cash, and had received the item. In less than 24 hours, I had a reply saying they had removed the strike.

Thank you for contacting eBay concerning the Unpaid Item strike you received.

Our records indicate that this is the first Unpaid Item strike you have appealed. Based on your effort to contact us, and the information you have provided, we have removed the Strike from your file.

Please note that any action taken by eBay SafeHarbor in removing the strike will not be reflected on your dispute console through "My eBay." The information on this dispute will remain in your dispute console.

Bizarre! They have removed the strike from my record, but not from the dispute console. What sense does that make?!?

I suspect the swift decision may be in part due to the fact that I registered my repsonse to the reminder in the dispute console, stating that I needed an address to send the money to, and the seller responded there with his address.


As for paying with bank transfers, I don't know about $30 (I think you should consider changing your bank, Mayhem!!) However, I do get charged £8 ($15) to transfer to a European account. I still find this somewhat exploitative, since it definitely doesn't cost the bank anywhere near that to make the transfer. It's not as if they post the money over .. they just tap in the details I give them and click a button! Plus they make money on the exchange rate anyway - I think they ought to be banned from charging for the transfer too - certainly on personal accounts.

Vroomfunkel