No communication from Buyer.

[ashvicbh]

I listed a piece of furniture on ebay over a week ago, it was listed as pick up only.  I received one bid on the item and after the auction ended I sent an invoice and two further emails to the buyer but didn't hear anything back. After the nominated amount of time I opened an unpaid item dispute.  The buyer then proceeded to pay for the item via Paypal and I haven't heard from them since!  What can I do now?  They have paid for the item but it's still sitting in my house awaiting collection! Is there anything I can do?  Kind regards.

[curraone]

Maybe try to ring them?    their phone number is available to you through ebay.

Maybe they are away from home or something bad has happened, so they are too busy to bother about your item just now.

[springyzone]

Ha! We had that happen once.

No there is nothing much you can do.

Our buyer claimed that since he had paid via paypal the rule was we then had to post it.

We didn't fall for that one.

The interesting thing though is our buyer then rang paypal and said he could not collect it (which I don't think was true as he lived next suburb) and paypal refunded them. There was then no strike against their name. My sister never was refunded the ebay fees on that transaction even though they said she would be.

I noticed yours is an item of furniture. What a pain. I suspect you'll be expected to hold it at least a month for them but I am wondering if there is some way you can send a message that storage charges of such and such an amount per week apply after that?

[phorum_junkie*]

Sending repeated emails within the first few days is often counter productive. I wouldn't have sent an invoice, I would have sent a message with my phone number inviting them to call to arrange pick up;  If I have heard nothing after four or five days I get their phone number through advanced search and call them.

Doing more than that just encourages them to pay using Paypal.

If they say on the phone that they no longer want it I tell them I will have to open a dispute to get my fees back and once it times out after 4 days they will no longer be obliged to pay.

In your case I would send them a message asking if they can pick up within X days and if they cannot you will have to refund them less any unrefundable ebay and Paypal fees as you cannot store it past that date.