Thank god I haven't had any experiences like that at all lately. Most of my sellers have been quick to reply to queries and get the items out straight away. That is what I expect, mind you.
My worst experiences were a few years back, before paypal, when I paid into a few bank accounts of people who had a good rating, only to find nothing arrived and the ratings suddenly went downhill straight after I bought, with buyer after buyer reporting non arrival of goods. The sellers then disappeared off ebay or were kicked off, i suppose. Even after paypal came in, I had an experience where the selelr explained my payment wasn't going trhough as their paypal account was playing up, so could I please pay into their bank account etc. Like a fool, I did. So did several others. You can guess what happened.
But after a run of experiences like that, I lost a bit of confidence and now won't pay unless by paypal or cash on pick up.
My sister and I used to sell-years & years ago- and we had some funny excuses from buyers. My sister was a bank manager and knew how banking worked, but so many tried to tell her they had paid for sure, she just couldn't see it. She used to tell them to go back to their bank and query it as it had obviously gone into someone else's account as it definitely wasn't in ours.
We had one buyer from interstate who bid on a pick up only item. She wasn't the only bidder, 2 of the previous bidders had been interstate too! Pick up was in big font-what were these people thinking of?
First the buyer wanted to us to arrange a courier for her, then, the next week, she said she was coming down to Melbourne by plane and would pick it up (a $77 desk on a plane?) and take it back with her. Then she asked my sister to take it over to a packing place which was 40 minutes drive away because they would supply wrapping and it was a do- it yourself place so costs were cheaper. My sister refused, but she did look around and find a cut price courier in a neighbouring suburb for about $100 or so, and after another week or so of discussion and waiting for payment(nasty people that we were, we insisted on payment for the courier up front first), we took it all in, got it securely wrapped, sent it off, only to have the buyer complain that a screw was missing (it hadn't been, they were in a secure plastic wrap) and that it wasn't as good as she expected for all the money she had paid and was unhappy.
By that stage, she had paid the best part of a couple of hundred dollars for it, but that wasn't our fault. It was a nice desk, too and very honestly described.
My god, my sister and I were exhausted by the whole ordeal.
After that, we vowed and declared pick up meant pick up!!
