I was asked to order in this fabric now buyer will not answer emails

[mumspinupgirl]

Hi I am a hobby seller - pretty small really - however a buyer, who had bought from me before asked me to provide a larger amount. I explained that I would have to order it from the US and it would be here at this time.

I have now sent the buyer emails and they will not answer. Do I have any recourse?

I ordered based on a request which can be validated by the email and because I stupidly trusted this buyer - I now have a particular piece - 2 yards of fabric - that will probably be hard to sell because it is designer and not a run of the mill.

Could an experienced seller give me some advice of what to do now - but more importantly what to do in the future should the situation arise again. Thank you in advance.

[lyndal1838]

How long have you been trying to contact the buyer?

It could be that they are away on school holidays.

I would wait a while before doing anything more...give them a chance to get your messsages and answer you.  You may well find that they will happily complete the transaction.

[justkidzbiz]

Ooooooh that is so annoying! I'd be pretty peeved.

what I hate is buyers who contact me asking to relist an item because they missed the auction and then don't buy! Particularly annoying when Iv'e used all my freebies!

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

I had a buyer once ask me to list a photography enlarger timer for him.  I gave him a price in an eBay message before listing and the price included free delivery in person to Sydney (from Mildura VIC).  Well, he b!tched and moaned about the price and said that he had paid less for an enlarger and couldn't understand why the timer should cost more but that he would reluctantly pay the asking price.  So, I told him the offer to sell was withdrawn and I wouldn't be listing the timer.  He messaged me giving me a sob story about being a pensioner.  I looked at the feedback he had received and it was mostly for silverware that had cost him hundreds of dollars, so I ignored his messages and put him on my blocked list.

[mumspinupgirl]

Many thanks I do appreciate you all taking the time to reply. I am now well advised. I will wait another week because of the school holidays and then I will try to sell in listings. I will know in future that I can list with the 20day wait - certainly did not know that and that is probably the best solution because the buyer would have to pay.

[lyndal1838]

The NSW school holidays don't end till the 9th October so if your buyer is in NSW I would not do anything till after that.

Pre-order is a well accepted listing practice for sellers of DVDs....they list them 20 days before new series are due for release then send them out after the official release.

[englishrosegardens]

If you're buying anything in from the US I'd be very wary about listing it for sale before you get it. 20 days isn't very long to allow for overseas postage - most of the time things might arrive in a week but what are you going to do if they don't arrive till after 20 days, or if it doesn't arrive at all? You'll end up in trouble with ebay and with the buyer, and your selling career might be ended before it even gets started!

[motherbear2003]

Most of my items are handmade using mainly fabric from the US.  When a prospective buyer orders an item, especially if I have to order fabric from the US, I always get them to pay up front.  So far, I've never had an issue with fabric not arriving 🙂

[*tippy*toes*]

I suppose if there is ever a hiccup with delivery you could give the buyer the option of waiting a bit longer or a refund.