eBay

stoph-88 · ‎09-01-2020

I had to contact a seller in china to ask for a left handed variant of an archery bow. They said they could do it but the listing had no left hand option. They told me to make an offer on the listing as the price they could do was better than the advertised price. I did this and there was no response.

Then a paypal invoice came to my private email address for the item. I had not given the email address to the seller.

Anyway, I paid it and then heard nothing more.

I waited until the payment had been processed, about 3 days and emailed the seller at their paypal email and finally got a confirmation of the sale.

This was 10 days ago and I've asked 3 times via email when or if the item has been or will be sent.

I've had no reply.

I'm not sure what to do and wonder if I've lost my AU$145

PayPal says they only have the same email that I have as a contact for them. I still wonder how they got my email address.

stoph-88 · ‎09-01-2020

Thanks tippy toes, that sounds like good advice. The post is free, so I would think a month to six weeks max is reasonable.

The irony is, I found the same bow on al**xp**ss for $10 less than I paid! 12-20 days delivery to Aus!

We live and learn!

gutterpunkz05 · ‎09-01-2020

@collect247 wrote:
So what you're saying is OP will be punished as the buyer?
We all know that the seller won't get any punishment.
@gutterpunkz05 wrote:
It would seem you have breached ebay rules and completed the transaction outside of ebay, does the transaction appear in you ebay purchases list, if not you have no protection via ebay, and will have to rely solely on paypal.

Did not say anyone was getting punished, just pointing out that they have no buyer protections via ebay.

If Ebay are aware of the transaction, then it is up to them what they do. They can and do penalise both the buyer and seller, but most seem to get an innitial warning.

tangledstitches · ‎09-01-2020

I can't see how they could get your email address unless you actually bought it. I'm thinking that if you made an offer they must have accepted it (which means you'd then bought the item) and got your address. I know you said it doesn't show in your purchase history but maybe that's a glitch.

They may have sent you an invoice through paypal to avoid you paying through ebay and being covered under the money back guarantee, OR they may have done it that way to avoid paying ebay fees on the sale. They'd have to cancel the sale on ebay later on to get their selling fees back (assuming they listed on ebay AU).