topic Re: Non-responsive sellers in Buying

Non-responsive sellers

gumleaf_goodies — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 09:30:06 GMT

The last two items I have wanted to buy on ebay have unfortunately both been from sellers who do not respond to questions. Both of these sellers have low feedback, very few items for sale and have not sold anything in the last 6 months. I realise they may not be checking ebay all that often but the first has not replied to any of the 6 messages sent early Feb to early March (have given up on that one).

The second seller has 2 items I wish to purchase and I have asked her twice about combined postage cost without a reply. I don't think actually buying the items will elicit any sort of response either and will leave me with having to submit an INR. Seems silly to go in that direction. Is there anything else I can do to contact the buyer?

Re: Non-responsive sellers

katistrophik — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 10:13:35 GMT

Newbie sellers, no replies, it is the weekend but still.............

Unless it is something you really want I would look elsewhere, give a good seller your custom, as you say you are protected by MBG but who needs the hassle LOL

Re: Non-responsive sellers

eburtonlab — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 19:41:27 GMT

In general, you can avoid a lot of headaches by choosing to purchase only from established sellers that have recent and past positive feedback as a seller for selling items in the same category that you intend to buy. If someone is selling a dozen apple watches, but has no feedback, or only has feedback as a buyer, or only has feedback for selling dress patterns or fishing lures (actual examples I have seen), perhaps wait until they have a track record of positive feedback for selling electronics before you buy from them.

You might miss out on a good deal from a new seller once in a while, and nothing can guarantee that you won't still run into an issue anyway, but you can avoid a lot of potential problems by choosing to do business with established sellers. Anyone can put together a listing that looks nice -- it is not hard at all to simply copy an existing listing -- but it is much harder to create a history of consistent sales and positive feedback.

Re: Non-responsive sellers

sugar249 — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 20:18:49 GMT

And if all buyers were to follow this advise, how do new sellers start out. We were all new at some time, with zero sales and zero feedback. This sounds like a great approach for existing sellers to keep newbies out of the business. A protection squad,

Re: Non-responsive sellers

springyzone — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 00:17:39 GMT

@gumleaf_goodies wrote:
The last two items I have wanted to buy on ebay have unfortunately both been from sellers who do not respond to questions. Both of these sellers have low feedback, very few items for sale and have not sold anything in the last 6 months. I realise they may not be checking ebay all that often but the first has not replied to any of the 6 messages sent early Feb to early March (have given up on that one).

The second seller has 2 items I wish to purchase and I have asked her twice about combined postage cost without a reply. I don't think actually buying the items will elicit any sort of response either and will leave me with having to submit an INR. Seems silly to go in that direction. Is there anything else I can do to contact the buyer?

Okay, so they are newbie sellers on ebay. Everyone has to start somewhere and I have no problem as such with buying from someone who is new. I was once, too.

But here's the thing. When we started selling, we were all over ebay every day to check if there had been any bids (there was no such thing as buy it now in those days, or not that I recall).

In my opinion, most new sellers, those with maybe only a few items listed, would pop in at some stage of an auction to see how their items were doing. Normal curiosity if nothing else.

And if you are going to get a reply and seller attention, it will usually be before a sale. The majority of sellers are keen to answer a query to make a sale. I'm not saying they love doing it, just that they will usually do it because they see it as in their interests to.

So let's see what you have got. You've got new sellers, they may not be popping in to see how their sales are doing (so they have close to zero interest;-they may even have the stuff listed elsewhere) and if you're not hearing from them now, odds are you may not get a great response after a sale either.

If they have seen your message but aren't replying, much the same thing. They may not want to combine postage or may not be sure how to do that after a sale etc and may be thinking of it all as too complicated so ignoring you.

It's your call: You can either buy both items separately (but if you do so, be prepared to pay two lots of postage, don't rely on getting combined postage after the event) OR you could just forget it and wait to see if similar things come up again another time, with a more reliable seller.

That is hardest if the items are not new, if they are collectables of some kind you are after.

I am not sure there is any other way for you to contact the seller. If you have sent several private messages, that's about all you can do, it is not as if you have their email address or phone number.

You could look at the wording/title of the ad though and copy & paste some of it into other sales sites eg marketplace & GT and see if it comes up there. If it does, you could contact them that way.

Re: Non-responsive sellers

digital*ghost — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 00:47:44 GMT

@gumleaf_goodies wrote:
The last two items I have wanted to buy on ebay have unfortunately both been from sellers who do not respond to questions. Both of these sellers have low feedback, very few items for sale and have not sold anything in the last 6 months.

Sounds to me like the items have been listed for a while as BIN, which means GTC, which could also mean they were listed once, no sales or inquiries and pretty much forgotten about, maybe they didn't even realise the items would auto-relist and be perpetually available- lots of people use email addresses other than their primary one for signing up to eBay, and don't use the app, so getting notified of messages or sales is no easy task unless the seller checks for it.

eBay can contact members on someone's behalf, but again the member needs to be checking in on their messages / emails, so there's not much you can do to ensure your messages get attention and a reply.

Re: Non-responsive sellers

eburtonlab — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 03:09:57 GMT

And if all buyers were to follow this advise [to purchase from established sellers], how do new sellers start out. We were all new at some time, with zero sales and zero feedback.

There is no shortage of buyers willing to risk purchasing from new sellers with zero feedback; if you want to join them you should do so by a conscious decision, not by accident or oversight.

If you have enough experience buying on eBay you may be able to discern the difference between a listing from a legitimate new seller and one from a hijacked or a scam account (or even one from an otherwise honest seller that intends to drop ship an item from a source that turns out to actually be a scammer). But you should at least acknowledge the risk you are taking and make an informed decision to take a chance on a new seller account, and realize that any transaction with an inexperienced seller (or an experienced scammer) can be risky.

Even with eBay's money back guarantee, new sellers may require extra time and hand-holding to complete a transaction, and some scammers can provide fraudulent tracking numbers that appear to show delivery to your location, greatly complicating the process of obtaining a refund.

As I said, you can avoid a lot of headaches by choosing to purchase from established sellers.

Re: Non-responsive sellers

gumleaf_goodies — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 03:57:11 GMT

Mmmmm... I don't recall saying that either of these sellers were 'newbies'. The first one has been an ebay member for 2 years, the second admittedly much newer.

I no longer buy much on ebay, but when I do, it is usually something very specific - in the latest case, I am after a certain style of clothing, in a certain size, preferably in a certain brand and colour. And the seller must be located in Australia. Believe it or not, when I enter all my search criteria, I get 8 results, but choosing an item in my price range, brings it down to 2 results. So how is it possible to choose 'only from established sellers' given these results?

Re: Non-responsive sellers

shoppingbag* — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 05:49:44 GMT

I wouldn't buy from someone who doesn't respond to messages. The reason being that if or when things go wrong with the sale, you won't get a response then either. I have bought from newbies and sold to newbies, and they do not pose a problem for me, as long as they answer my messages, and appear to have at least half a brain. Everyone on here was a newbie once. I have had more problems with so called "seasoned sellers" than I have had with newbies.

Re: Non-responsive sellers

katistrophik — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 09:47:29 GMT

@gumleaf_goodies wrote:
Mmmmm... I don't recall saying that either of these sellers were 'newbies'. The first one has been an ebay member for 2 years, the second admittedly much newer.

Both of these sellers have low feedback, very few items for sale and have not sold anything in the last 6 months.

Sorry, that was my bad - I read it as newbie and burton probably saw that in my post

Re: Non-responsive sellers

gumleaf_goodies — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 12:52:38 GMT

@katistrophik wrote:
@gumleaf_goodies wrote:
Mmmmm... I don't recall saying that either of these sellers were 'newbies'. The first one has been an ebay member for 2 years, the second admittedly much newer.

Both of these sellers have low feedback, very few items for sale and have not sold anything in the last 6 months.

Sorry, that was my bad - I read it as newbie and burton probably saw that in my post

That's OK. You're forgiven.

Re: Non-responsive sellers

eburtonlab — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 17:19:29 GMT

I don't recall saying that either of these sellers were 'newbies'. The first one has been an ebay member for 2 years, the second admittedly much newer.

A user with an old account and lots of feedback for only buying can still be considered a new seller, and the seller's payments may still be subject to an automatic hold by eBay. A gap of six months since last receiving feedback for a sale might simply be the sign of a low-volume or sporadic but otherwise trustworthy seller, or it might be a warning sign of a hijacked account.

It may not be possible to buy every item in every price range from established sellers. There are certain items in certain price ranges where every item listed is a scam listing, though I do not get the sense that most clothing categories are filled with scam listings (with the exception of certain high priced or hard to find items such as sneakers). Then again, I would not have guessed that things like bubble wrap and epoxy resin would be popular scam items, either.

Given the choice between buying from an experienced seller with an unbroken track record of sales in the same category, and buying from a seller with little or no history of sales in the same category, there are many good reasons to prefer doing business with the established seller.

Given a choice between buying from a seller that answers reasonable questions in a timely manner, and buying from a seller that does not respond at all, there are many good reasons to prefer doing business with the responsive seller.

If your two sellers are the only option for those particular items in that price range, then you will have to weigh the risks and decide for yourself whether you want to take a chance or possibly pay a bit more for an item from a seller with an established track record.

Re: Non-responsive sellers

gumleaf_goodies — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 13:33:41 GMT

There's a happy ending to my story....

The seller emailed me today and said that "I’m so sorry for my slow response, eBay has not been notifying me of any of these messages."

So I was able to purchase the two items.