International Seller, missing items and now no contact

[deliciouswishes]

Hi Guys 

I purchase some items on here from users in China.

I've been in constant contact with them as my goods took A LONG time to arrive.  they kept telling me to give it more time, wait a little longer.  They seemed VERY helpful and so I gave them the benifit of the doubt.

What they were actually doing was pushing me past the 45 day deadline.

Half my items didn't arrive!!  Now I'm chasing them for a refund, but Ebay can't help, paypal won't help and I can't leave bad reccomendations for the seller as the time has passed for that too.

Me being too kind has now left me out of pocket and with damaged goods (the ones that did arrive were damaged in the shipping process).  

It's so frustrating that you've done all the right things, been in constant contact and now, no contact, no return emails - nothing.  It really sucks!!! 

[modestbods]

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@deliciouswishes wrote:

Hi Guys 

I purchase some items on here from users in China.

I've been in constant contact with them as my goods took A LONG time to arrive.  they kept telling me to give it more time, wait a little longer.  They seemed VERY helpful and so I gave them the benifit of the doubt.

What they were actually doing was pushing me past the 45 day deadline.

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Hi delicious.. welcome to the ebay discussion boards.

I'm sorry to learn of your issue. As with many others that have used ebay for any length, I too have learned the same lesson that you now have, as regards the 45 day time frame to open a dispute and sellers stalling/delaying until day 46 & then they suddenly go silent.

 As for the items you still haven't received, or that arrived damaged, you do still have one bargaining chip left, your feedback that you can leave them.

 Send them a message like this;

"Hi there,

this item has not arrived (or arrived damaged). It has now been 47 days since I purchased it, so I am too late to open a dispute through Paypal, as I'm sure you are well aware.

I am not however too late to leave feedback, which I shall be doing in 48hrs from now,

Perhaps the item will arrive by then, or perhaps you might now wish to respond to my messages & offer a solution to resolve the issue.

Kind regards"

Do not explicitly threaten to leave negative feedback 'if they don't do such & such for you'. Just inform them you will be leaving feedback & when, they know already what to expect if they don't do you right. If they still don't reply and make it right (not merely say they will, but actually do) then at the end of that time, leave them the negative feedback. There's then also a chance they might then make things right in return for your revising the feedback.

 But if it doesn't work, unfortunately there's not a whole lot more you can do, but at least the negative feedback you left will serve as a warning to others to beware of them & why. You should just try to view the incident as a lesson learned (hopefully a cheap one).

It may interest you to know (if you weren't yet aware of it) that starting November 14th the time limit to open a dispute through paypal buyer protection is changing from 45 days to 180 days.

Good luck.

[cherry*135]

from the opening post: I can't leave bad reccomendations for the seller as the time has passed for that too.

Sorry deliciouswishes  that you have dealt with an unscrupulous seller. As mentioned above, the date to open a dispute with paypal is to be extended to 180 days. Too late to help you, but as this trick/scam is pretty common (putting buyers off for over 45 days) with the new time limit of 180 days, those bad sellers ( mostly overseas ones) won't be able to get away with those delaying tactics anymore. 

I think the time limit for leaving feedback is still going to be 60 days, so that is something else to keep track off.

[modestbods]

Oops. Thanks am*3, I had missed that.

Sorry OP... all you can do now is chalk it up as a valuable lesson learned.

[repentatleisure1952]

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@deliciouswishes wrote:

Hi Guys 

I purchase some items on here from users in China.

I've been in constant contact with them as my goods took A LONG time to arrive.  they kept telling me to give it more time, wait a little longer.  They seemed VERY helpful and so I gave them the benifit of the doubt.

What they were actually doing was pushing me past the 45 day deadline.

Half my items didn't arrive!!  Now I'm chasing them for a refund, but Ebay can't help, paypal won't help and I can't leave bad reccomendations for the seller as the time has passed for that too.

Me being too kind has now left me out of pocket and with damaged goods (the ones that did arrive were damaged in the shipping process).  

It's so frustrating that you've done all the right things, been in constant contact and now, no contact, no return emails - nothing.  It really sucks!!! 

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Hi delish!

IMO you have not "done all the right things".

You have Free Buyer Protection from Pay Pal....use it.

You have 45 days to open a dispute....use them

I realise hindsight is a wonderful thing however on line trading is fraught with poor sellers/buyers so protect yourself.

Works for me !!!

[modestbods]

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@deliciouswishes wrote:

It's so frustrating that you've done all the right polite things, been in constant contact and now, no contact, no return emails - nothing.  It really sucks!!! 

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tuck's correct.

OP, I'm pretty sure you meant the above, which whilst admirable, is not 'right'. If you ask the sellers involved I'm sure they'd say you did the 'right' thing (by them), but you didn't do the right thing for you. If you had, you wouldn't be here posting this thread.

Hopefully though, if you find yourself in similar circumstances you will now know what are the right things to do. 

[deliciouswishes]

Thanks guys!!  Yeah, lesson learnt there.

$160 odd out of pocket for me, but won't be making that mistake again.  Paypal told me to contact my bank, but unfortunately, Paypal WERE the bank and I paid with my pay pal balance.

Ebay sent me some possible helpful links to report them, which I've done.  I wish I'd left feedback, but now even that time has run out to do that.  They were very clever, unfortunately I was not - I'm new to having a store and so was building up my products, I would never do to any of my customers what they've done to me, but Not everyone is honest hey?!

[repentatleisure1952]

Hey delish, you've won me. Lego ice cubes...cool!

I've just bought two !

Chin up !

[deliciouswishes]

naww thanks tuckcase 

I had to have the Lego Ice Cubes, they are very cool 🙂

[phorum_junkie*]

In future unless it is only a couple of buckswhich you are prepared to lose always use a credit card to make payments. If I have a Paypal credit balance the I withdraw the funds and wait a couple of hours before making the payment with a card.