Buyer asked me to post item but hasn't paid for postage

[baudrillard2013]

I sold an item to a buyer who had good feedback and seemed to have communication. They have only been a member though for over six months. 

They asked if I would post a buy it now item (pick up only) to Qld which I agreed to. 

The postage cost me $13.85. 

They went through the checkout and paid for the item before I could send a revised invoice to allow for the postage so I contacted them after finding out from the PO what the postage would be and said there were two options. 1. They  could put the money in my bank or 2. I would send a manual invoice through paypal. They said they would pay by paypal and I sent the invoice. 

I told them I sent the invoice for the postage. 

I didn't tell them I had actually sent the item when I went to the po. My instincts told me that they were trustworthy. From the time they approached me and asked me to send the item interstate they replied instanteously however they suddenly stopped communicating. 

I just trusted them because I had gone out of my way to post the item and they were so prompt in their communications. 

It never occurred to me that they wouldn't pay for the postage having asked me to send it. 

[bettyboopsadaisy]

Sorry to hear about your situation.

I have never had this issue myself but unfortunately the increasingly vulnerable position that sellers on ebay have found themselves in over recent times has made me very untrusting with regard to the conduct of buyers.

I read an article, citing some research done into online fraud (in all its wonderful variations !!) and this found that most fraud in committed not by serial fraudsters but by otherwise reliable users, who engage in 'one time' fraud, as they are apparently well aware that the risks of being caught out increase with repeated bad buying conduct of this sort.

This observation, makes sense to me because it has been suggested on a number of occasions on these boards and elsewhere that the new policies that ebay has adopted (Money back guarantee etc) actively encourage some otherwise honest buyers to try their luck !

I should stress of course that I still believe that the vast majority of buyers continue to trade in a trustworthy and exemplery manner despite apparently being handed the opportunity to easily commit fraud.

[lyndal1838]

Australia Post also has a bit to answer for too.

Just before Christmas I bought and paid for an item in Victoria, not expecting to receive it till well into the New Year.   I am in Sydney and at the time the mail was taking 10+ days.

On the 29th December the item arrived.  It was a few days before I had a chance to leave feedback and I had forgotten exactly when I paid for it.  I checked my receipt and the AP tracking and found that I had paid on the 22nd and it had been posted the same day.  But the tracking also showed that it had been delivered to an address in Victoria on the 23rd.   There has never been a further update to show that it was delivered to me in Sydney at any time.

If I had been less than honest I could have opened a dispute for Item Not Received and the seller could not prove that I had received it as the AP tracking showed it was delivered in a different state.

[fmurphy2005]

I'm sorry to hear of your situation and hope that your buyer has simply been busy to respond and fix you up for the postage.

As someone once said to me, I should never have to pay out of my pocket for the postage from selling something.  It should all be paid upfront every time and not sent until everything has been taken care of. 

I've learnt over the years that I need to be more rigid in making sure of this stuff and to expect a few rotten apples every now and then who agree to something unusual and then turn around and leave bad comments and label me a scammer.

With eBay now taking a cut of the postage price too, it takes a little more effort to set it up right so I'm covering myself with all the costs relating to postage, and to make sure I raise my prices in March as Australia Post does.

[phorum_junkie*]

You now know better than to trust somebody just because they are good communicaters. I would have told them I was happy to post but if they had already paid I would refund them and re invoice with the cost of postage added. Aside from not getting the postage their is no seller protection for pick up items so if they were reallyu good scammers they could now do a chargeback if they used a credit card and you would lose.

[bettyboopsadaisy]

Not my situation. The initiator of this thread is baudrillard 2013.

[gheorghi00]

WE are the customers of ebay & paypal - we sellers MUST ALL insist on being able to share the names of these dodgy 'buyers' who try to screw us - I just copped their nonsense & put them on my exclusion list - it is simply 2 hard to get either paypal or ebay to help because their only focus is on their profits - the BEST way is to have a shared seller list of rejected clients - then those who have had genuine difficulties in a transaction are not penalised BUT those others will be QUICKLY & quietly be thrown out with rest of the garbage

[5kazam]

So is the PP invoice still showing as waiting for payment?

What happens there?

Do PP do a follow up at any stage?

Just curious - not something that has been answered on these boards (as far as I know) before.

[designers*n*more]

Paypal won't follow it up. You could send the buyer another email asking if they could please send the payment for postage. Or, pull their contact details and give them a polite phone call just to let them know in case they didn't receive the invoice for postage could they check their Paypal account and send the funds at their earliest convenience. You could add something along the lines of - this is the first time you've had to do an invoice directly from Paypal so not sure if they received it. Apart from that there's not really much you can do to make the pay. I would however ask ebay for a credit on the postage as the buyer did not pay for it.they will most likely say no but you have nothing to lose.

[Anonymous]

baudrillard 2013

Look on the bright side. Because the item was listed as 'pick up only' then the buyer

has no chance off winning a SNAD dispute.