Is it possible to report a seller that you only suspect of wrongdoing?

[ful213254]

I recently won an auction and waited until the date that it said my item should arrive. I have contacted the seller and the purchase has been cancelled (for reasons that don't seem to add up to me). I have been given a full refund but I have been out of pocket for almost 2 weeks and there seems to be no way I can report my concerns to Ebay. On the resolution centre page that I got to, it just seems to get to a point where it says that because I recieved a full refund, I can't take any further action.

[cuppa500]

I feel for you just having had a similar buying experience. I came to this forum looking to see if there were a way  I could complain about a seller & have found the same as you. That once a refund is issued there is no ebay process to complain. If Ebay were to examine the message content between seller & myself I have no doubt that they would recognise the deceptive behaviour exhibited by the seller & could then ban them from selling, but now, because the seller issued a refund just hours before I could take the matter further with ebay's processes, it has essentially become an item never arrived/lost in the post situation, leaving the seller to continue to treat any selling problem with disdain. In my case - the seller advertised use of Australia Post. I included an explicit note with my purchase that Australia Post MUST be used as, due to my remote location & mail coming from an Auspost Mail centre to me via a weekly RASS mail plane, & that sending via Courier service would be undeliverable. I included a request that if they could not send via Auspost  to cancel the order & refund me immediately. (I include this messagewith every ebay purchase to avoid delivery problems & picked this particular seller because their ad said the send via Auspost). They sent via Fastway Couriers but  refused to tell me who they had sent it with when asked & once tracking had failed to show up on Auspost & I found  with Fastway almost a week after they said it was posted  they ignored everything  I said about how this would not work, instead sending me multiple meaningless platitudes & promises not kept. They then kept me waiting until the very last moment, with increasing & repetitive  formula letters which never once addressed anything I had written. I was even asked to change my negative feedback  to positive as a condition of receiving a refund! (I didn't).  I now believe that the seller who claimed to be in Australia is in fact in China.

[twyngwyn]

yes, your seller is in China (check their feedback - that's where they're registered)

[padi*0409]

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@cuppa500 wrote:

 I now believe that the seller who claimed to be in Australia is in fact in China.

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One look at their atrocious feedback would have shown they were registered in China,

[cuppa500]

Yep, 'Live & learn' .  It was an inexpensive item & my usual due diligence was lacking. Neverthless I do feel that like the OP of this thread, that there should be a means of asking Ebay to look into something like this where essentially the ebay processes which are in place are abused as much as they can be before & up until a refund halts everything, & there is no means of having ebay look at the issues whilst they remain 'live' prior to a refund being made. Without any possibility of 'calling in' Ebay as I have experienced in this instance, it appears that Ebay condones poor seller practice by being willing to 'not look' & thus encourages such behaviours. Thankfully in my 20 years of ebaying this occasion was very much the eception to the rule.

[padi*0409]

The problem with, in particular, Chinese sellers is that if a complaint is made to eBay Australia about them eBay passes the complaint on to eBay China - who will do nothing about it.

Hence the name "Teflon Sellers".

[digital*ghost]

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@cuppa500 wrote:

In my case - the seller advertised use of Australia Post.

I included an explicit note with my purchase that Australia Post MUST be used as, due to my remote location & mail coming from an Auspost Mail centre to me via a weekly RASS mail plane, & that sending via Courier service would be undeliverable. I included a request that if they could not send via Auspost  to cancel the order & refund me immediately. (I include this messagewith every ebay purchase to avoid delivery problems & picked this particular seller because their ad said the send via Auspost).

They sent via Fastway Couriers but  refused to tell me who they had sent it with when asked 

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Not that it makes it any better, but the seller is probably using UBI - a service which is fine in and of itself, but is used often to facilitate item location misrepresentation, because what happens is parcels from China will be shipped in bulk to Aus, and then given individual postage labels once they get here.

Not so long ago, Australia Post was the only delivery service that handled the Australian leg of the delivery, but Fastway decided to put their finger in that pie too. I'm not too sure if the sender has ultimate control over which service is used when they send their packages, because they only deal with the Chinese company that facilitates the whole thing, and a seller may not even be dealing with them themselves, if they are pooling packages with other sellers - this would explain why a seller can have a tracking number but not know who will be delivering it to you. 

It irks me too, I don't like Fastway, or Aramex, or whatever the heck they want to call themselves, and all the sellers I use that provide UBI still have it listed as the "Australia Post" option....sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. 😒

To be clear, I am not saying what you experienced is ok, or that the seller is not to blame for it, just hoping to provide info that clarifies what can cause a problem like this, and why the seller didn't have any answers (it can still be described as deception and / or incompetence - they always had the choice to come clean about what happened rather than continue to buy time and hope it all goes away). 

[cuppa500]

Thanks 'digital ghost' that explains a lot.  And yes  your final comment "- they always had the choice to come clean about what happened rather than continue to buy time and hope it all goes away" is so true.

Sadly I think the experience will now result in me avoiding Chinese sellers, even though I am certain that many are honourable. I recall advice I received from a friend, when I first joined ebay, who said "Never buy anything which costs more than you are prepared to lose".  I haven't always followed that advice & over the years I have become very comfortable with ebay.  There have been the occasional hiccups, but this has been the first time in dealing with a seller whom I have felt deceived by. 

I am probably being overly optimistic, but I would like to think that Ebay monitors forums like this & sooner or later if enough folk raise concerns about something that Ebay may recognise that it is their best interests to take action to make poor practice less likely.

[4channel]

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@ful213254 wrote:

It was won on what seems like a very good price for me a few days before Christmas (I don't understand why people on here think you can just ignore an auction result, can anyone post me a link to where it says in Ebay's rules that sellers can just ignore auction results if they choose). They just got back from holidays apparently and found the item had been stolen when they got home. I don't really understand why someone would set an auction to end after they had left for a holiday and not inform potential buyers, or the buyer, that they were going away and wouldn't be able to post the item.

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If a a bidder puts in a high amount and the auction attracts a bidding frenzy (as usually is the intent on a low start bid)  and it goes for a massive price, then the bidder is expected to pay for the item.  Sellers who start an item on low bid, even inexperienced ones as I once was know that there could be a bidding frenzy or there may not. Sadly in the minds of some, or rather the view that some folks choose to express (for what ever reasons disclosed or not ), sellers should not be bound by the same requirements, rules etc..

This caper happens all too often and there are many disappointed people around who have had their joy at winning that desired item smashed right in front of them. And to further rub salt into the wound, they get some outlandish story laid on them.

[4channel]

There are a couple of IDs on this thread that I do not interact with. I find it better this way. So if you see me on occasion not replying to clarify things further and correct some mis-info about me, this is why.

[padi*0409]

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@4channel wrote:

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If a a bidder puts in a high amount and the auction attracts a bidding frenzy (as usually is the intent on a low start bid)  and it goes for a massive price, then the bidder is expected to pay for the item.  Sellers who start an item on low bid, even inexperienced ones as I once was know that there could be a bidding frenzy or there may not. Sadly in the minds of some, or rather the view that some folks choose to express (for what ever reasons disclosed or not ), sellers should not be bound by the same requirements, rules etc..

This caper happens all too often and there are many disappointed people around who have had their joy at winning that desired item smashed right in front of them. And to further rub salt into the wound, they get some outlandish story laid on them.

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4chanel, you would be very well aware that there are consequences for both buyers and sellers who reneg on their buying or selling.

If buyers don't pay they can get a strike on their account and if sellers have their BBL's in place they won't be able to purchase items from those sellers, too many strikes and eBay will close their account permanently.

Sellers themselves, if they don't honour a purchase for whatever reason leave themselves open to negs and/or account defects, too many negs or defects will cut short their selling career on eBay.