I have been trying to purchase an item I won, seller will not respond to emails, I no longer wish to purchase from seller. What can I do?

[ciarrai34]

I recently won an item and immediately tried to pay for the item, was receiving error messages, advised me to contact seller. I have  sent seller 3 messages and I have yet to receive a response. I know the issue is not with my account as I have purchased other items with no issues. I no longer want to purchase this item from the seller. I would like to bid on other similar items but can't until this situation is taken care of...any thoughts on what I can do?

[dmil8030]

Hello 'ciarrai',

I hope you're not saying you found it cheaper somewhere else.  That may be what the seller will suspect.  It is considered very poor performance to win auctions and then change one's mind.  Alas, only the seller can cancel for you, -- and it seems this is becoming difficult.

The seller may have his listings set to start the Unpaid Item process automatically after 4 days, hence, when the auctions end he is not bothering with his messages much.  That means you may have to choose between paying for the item and getting a strike.  Have a look at this link regarding ebay's position on Unpaid Items:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/questions/unpaid-item.html

If you simply cannot get in touch with the seller, - and at this point there is not a lot of use to further nagging, - you should know by the end of day 4 if you will need to pay for this one or not.

I wish you luck. 🙂

[ciarrai34]

I have no problem paying for this item. I got it at a very good price, the issue is not on my end. I am being told by ebay that I need to contact the seller to go through with my payment. I have sent seller 3 messages and have not received a response. I do not want to get an unpaid strike against me when I have gone through all of the options to try and pay for this item. I have been trying everyday more then once a day to pay but still getting the error messages. It's concerning me as if there is this many issues trying to just pay for this item what other issues could be involved.

[dmil8030 · Accepted solution]

Aaah, I see, - hmmm, you don't say what the item is, - could it be a shipping issue?  Does the listing have a clearly denoted shipping fee to Canada?  Sometimes when there is no shipping fee stated for the item you are unable to process payment until the seller sends a shipping-included invoice. 

When did you buy it, very long ago?  Even if the seller has his listings set up to start the Unpaid process, that is still 4 days from the end of the listing.  If it is a major seller - those ones with 'shooting star' feedback - they aren't great at communication.  For that matter, some small sellers aren't either, and yours may be away for a few days.

If the seller tries to start an Unpaid case against you, and you have clearly tried to pay and make repeated efforts to contact the seller (save all your messages with this seller!) just call ebay and they'll remove it.  You are obviously trying to pay, so an Unpaid case, even an 'automatic' one, makes no sense.

To contact ebay, find the Customer Support drop-down in the upper right corner here and use the Contact eBay tab.  You'll get a phone number and code to use (which expires so do it when you are ready to call).

What does the seller's feedback indicate?  Are there continued problems with customer service, or could this be a 'one off', whereby something has suddenly come up?

[ciarrai34]

I guess all I can do for now is wait and see if an unpaid form gets opened and then go from there. It's been 3 days so far. The item is DVD's and the shipping was stated as free. Thank you so much for your input...reassures me for sure 🙂

[scifan57]

If the seller does open an unpaid item dispute against you, reply by stating that you were unable to pay and received error messages and were advised to contact the seller which you were unable to do.

If you remember the error codes you a received, add them to the dispute.