eBay seller still continuing to operate despite failing to send item

[wylywyld]

I bought a $411 bronze statue from Spain back in June 27th. The seller told me they mailed it out on July 2nd and provided a tracking number.

I trusted the seller as I had previously purchased the same item from them in March - but it arrived in May. It came late but wow, the quality of the statue was utterly amazing.

On this occasion however, I was unfortunately lax in chasing after the item when it had gone pass the 30 day and 45 day period due to a serious health problem in my family; someone suffered a stroke.

When the parcel had not arrived after 90 days. I contacted the seller again but after an initial "hello, let me recheck the order" - I received absolutely no further emails from the seller. I rechecked the tracking number email which was in Spanish and found out through Auspost that it was for another person - but same country. I contacted the seller about this but nada. No response.

I contacted ebay and paypal but both have effectively told me they don't want to help because its gone pass the 45 day period.

Even after I told them that the tracking number was (later) confirmed by Auspost to be for another person - they just shrugged their shoulders.

Paypal did on my behalf attempt to contact the seller too but they ignored Paypal messages. This and the fact that the tracking number was incorrect should have raised a couple of red flags.

The irritating thing is that Paypal has told me they will continue to let the seller operate and there is nothing they can do - but can they help me with anything else ?

[wylywyld]

By the way the seller did have a good track record - they only received complaints from one seller who was irritated with a minor problem over the statues he purchased.

I actually also contacted some of the other buyers and one of them told me he experienced the exact same problem from the seller but he had contacted Paypal on the 40th day and got his money back.

[phorum_junkie*]

Under their terms and agreements neither ebay or Paypal can help you after the 45 day limit.

If you funded the payment with a credit or Visa debit card you may be able to do a chargeback through your card provider.

You could also report them to the on-line auction fraud police report site but there will probably not be anything they can do as it is an overseas transaction.

There may be a local system the same in Spain but you would probably need to find a Spanish speaker to proceed along those lines.

[create_fashion-com-au]

It's unfortunate that these situations happen.

Even though Paypal and Ebay have strict rules and guidelines when trying to lodge a complaint towards a seller within reference to non receipt of goods.

The only thing I can think of in this situation is, emailing Paypal your situation and actions you have taken to try and locate your shipment.

Its good that your emails have been recorded through Ebay so this may help. You also may want to note that you have bought from the seller before hence the reason why you have let this go on for a while.

Also shipping from Spain to Australia, (I'm assuming such a heavy item), would take sometime maybe longer than 45 days epecially via ship.

It does not help you either, when the tracking number you have been provided is incorrect or they have shipped your item to another person in error.

Mistakes, can happen & it does not help when the seller is not good with communicating.

Parting with $411, would not be easy especially when you've paid for an item that you have not received.

All you can do is try and put a case together and email PayPal and see what comes of it. (they might just reimburse you out of good will)

Good Luck 😄

[rajah]

Well Mate from my experience with the ebay rules ,Is it all favours the seller and whenever anyone asked for a ruling ,they dont answer directly it is all hairy fairy..Heres a Instance,I am having probs with 2 sellers right at this moment ,I have not recieved items from both,I gave bad feedback ,and guess what Ebay removed it without discussing any reason ,So this whole systems sucks if your the buyer .The rules are made to protect there bread winners ..Aka THE SELLERS""

[wylywyld]

I have contacted eBay and Paypal on numerous times over the matter - the only ray of hope is that Paypal can take action against the seller within 180 days if the seller has had adverse complaints.

But the problem is that the seller is quite a low volume seller and virtually all of the feedback is positive.

I suspect the seller mailed the item to another buyer by mistake or something and just don't want to admit they erred.

Other buyers in Australia have also reported that the parcel did take over a month to arrive.

But really the annoying thing for me is that eBay and Paypal - apart from stonewalling me - continue to let this seller operate and do not even warn other potential buyers that the seller has had problems.

Of course what I should have done was to have lodged a Paypal dispute on the 30th day - the seller did tell me that it would take 15 - 20 days for it to arrive.

I actually did place a note on my calender on the 30th day to remind myself of this. But it was a one day note - and on that particular day I was at the hospital and it slipped my mind.

Its a real painful and shocking lesson - I've never experienced this before.

[phorum_junkie*]

No help this time but in future for any expensive item always fund with a credit card that allows cover for 3rd party payments and one that allows chargebacks up to at least 6 months, preferably a year.

[carly2579]

rajah  you shouldnmt tar alll elelrs with the same rush im a new seller but i  have sent everything   in good time etc

[carly2579]

oops i mean  sellers and brush lol    sorry i have been in the car all day im stiff

[wylywyld]

I used my Gold Visa card issued by Westpac - I thought it would cover at least 6 months too. But as I keep on calling the card centre - I can the distinct feeling they are trying to stonewall me too. They got my phone number wrong twice and used that as an excuse not to call me back. Then they also screwed up my initial complaint and I wouldn't have found out if I hadn't called back to ascertain the progress of the investigation. "What complaint?" they said.