Regarding Unpaid Item Cases, what does this mean?

[justajunk]

Over the Australia Day long weekend, I had two buyers win auctions from me and then not pay for their items. With Unpaid Item Assistant in place, disputes were automatically opened after 4 days and were closed 4 days after that without payment or communication from the buyers in question. For both transactions, I received the standard eBay message (You've received a final value fee credit. Also, an unpaid item has been recorded on the buyer's account.).

Two days after the strikes were issued, one of the buyers contacted me, apologising for taking 10 days to communicate, explaining that they did not have internet access for over a week. They wanted to pay for the item still, and I had to apologise and explain how eBay had blocked them from paying for the item because they took more than 8 days to pay/communicate. Never heard back from the buyer after that.

I noticed something curious today though went I went to re-list to the two items sold to non-payers.

For the other transaction (the one where I never heard back from the buyer at all) the standard eBay note appears: "eBay note: This unpaid item case closed without payment and you received a final value fee credit."

For the item where the buyer communicated with me 10 days later, it says next to it: "eBay note: Unpaid item case is removed from your account. See case details".

When I click on the "See case details" link, it brings me to a screen that says: "Your request could not be processed at this time. The unpaid item case for this transaction was closed on Jan 31, 2015."

So... what exactly does all this mean?

Does this mean that the buyer appealed the strike and had it removed?? Does it mean that eBay decided to go back on giving me a final value fee credit??

All very confusing. Any thoughts or ideas are greatly appreciated!

[i-love-my-sheep · Accepted solution]

Yes, I have had this exact same message and it definitely means the buyer rang eBay and had the strike removed. What concerned me with that one was, the 2 blue lines didn't strike out the feedback box so I was worried the buyer could leave me feedback. EBay assured me that she couldn't.

Mine was a US buyer who refused to pay the postage cost because my title said free postage and the description said free postage to Australia, overseas buyers wait for an invoice so postage cost can be calculated correctly. She was a crafty witch who knew how to play the system. She was the reason I stopped selling overseas.

[justajunk]

Thanks for providing a definitive answer, sheep. 

But now, knowing what has happened, it only opens up more questions.

- Are there seller repercussions if a buyer appeals a strike?

- How can a buyer really appeal a strike? On what grounds?

I suppose your buyer could have claimed ignorance to the second question, but mine? How isolated can she really be to be unable to access internet anywhere for 10 days???

Ah well. I suppose there's no reason not to relist the item, I guess (I still have 5 freebies after all) - but maybe I'll wait until tomorrow morning to avoid it ending in the dead of night.

[i-love-my-sheep]

They just call eBay and request the strike to be removed. They give some sob story about how done by they are. Apparently eBay will do one courtesy removal, but I reckon if a buyer knows how to play the system, they'd get them removed more than once.

There were no repercussions for me. Not as far as I know anyway!

[justajunk]

Ah. Good to know (about no repercussions). Not that it would make sense if there were any, but eBay don't always make sense all of the time.

I suppose I should look at the ease with which strikes can be removed as a positive in a way. After all, I do buy things too and I have had my run of shonky sellers in the past...

[*sparklz*]

Some time back we ran a test to see how the strikes worked.

So an item was purchased from me and she did not pay and I did the dispute process.

She was given an email to advise the strike was issued and it had a link to appeal the strike.

She clicked on the link and put a lame excuse like did not want it and the strike was removed.

So we did the process again and the same thing happened .

But the strikes did nothing to affect my selling account.

We were going to try a third time but never did