Sellers seem never mailed item, use delay tactics to avoid my claim

[yhpoon004]

Hi there, I have been buying from eBay for some years and this is my first post.

I have been buying mostly from sellers from China and since I live in Canada I understand that the time for items to arrive by mail is long. Generally it took about one month for the items to arrive. I can live with it and never have anything got lost in the mail or did I ever made a claim.

Up till early this year things started to change. Purchases started to not arrived. When contacted the sellers will usually ask me to check my post office for undelivered items or claiming items delayed by customs. When pushed, one or two will offer to resend item or even “resend” again not realized that they had promised to do that already; another seller keep asking me to wait and swore that they have mailed the items.

I suppose starting this year eBay has new instructions to sellers when confirming item shipped the confirmation email has to include an estimated date of arrival. These estimated arrival days usually between 20 - 60 days. One such estimate was between 46 - 87 days!! These days went well beyond the 45 days (?) according to eBay’s rule whereby the buyers can claim non-receipt and get a refund from the seller. So our right to claim already expired even before the arrival day has passed. One particular seller even ignore my numerous messages.

Luckily it only happened to me a few times, and my purchases did not cost me much. On the contrary some purchases arrived even before the usual 20 days!

I went to eBay's resolution center and cannot find anywhere that I can send them a message about the sellers using this eBay loop hole to scam the buyers.

Lesson learned. From now on I will ask for a refund and not have item resend to me.

Cheers.

[reallynicestamps]

While you cannot leave feedback after 60 days, you can certainly open a Dispute.

You have 30 days from the last estimated date for DELIVERY to open that dispute in the Resolution Centre at the bottom of most eBay pages.

If the window is closes at Day 87 you have until Day 117 to open a Dispute.

If you are persuaded to wait past that date, you have 180 days from Payment to open a dispute in Paypal's Resolution Centre which is at the top of your PP account page under Tools.

And of course you are also covered by the chargeback provisions of the credit card you use to back your PP account. Those provisions vary.

As you have noted, offers to replace are themselves something of a scam. The replacement will either arrive after the window for dispute closes or more likely will never arrive because the seller is selling vapourware and never had anything to send in the first place. 

confirming item shipped the confirmation email has to include an estimated date of arrival.

I believe that has always existed, but there never was a 45 day window for dispute.

You may be thinking of the above-mentioned 60 days for feedback.

• Feedback is meaningless. It is not used by eBay to measure seller accounts and few buyers ever look beyond the percentage, which is subject to ratios.

Lesson learned. From now on I will ask for a refund and not have item resend to me.

Good.

Mark your calendar when you buy something with an extended delivery date. Most sellers, including Chinese sellers, are honest.

Even those long delivery periods, which indicate cheap but slooooooooow Surface shipping are usually accurate.

But remember, all you need to ask the seller is the date of shipping, the service used, and the tracking number.

And the only important part of that is the tracking number.
If the purchase is late and there is no number, open the Dispute without further discussion.

[yhpoon004]

Thank you very much for the info.

[regisname1]

I had exactly same bad experience. Placed the order in May 2019, haven't received yet till now. Requested refund once but accepted seller's solution after seller promised to send it again. Now I still haven't received the item but there is no way to open a case in resolution again because of the time frame.

[femmefan1946]

@regisname1 

You can be confident that if the seller offers a replacement, that he won't send it probably because he has no stock, just pictures.

This is a scam with several outcomes.

These are usually cheap items (under $10) and many buyers forget they ever ordered. The seller keeps the money.

The buyer complains and the seller promises a replacement, which is not sent either. Time runs out and the seller keeps the money.

The buyer complains, refuses a refund and the seller  promises a refund. He then doesn't and the frustrated buyer sends multiple demands to the seller who keeps the money.

Only a few buyers use the Resolution Centre at the bottom of most eBay pages to file a Dispute.

Some of these are fobbed off with a promise of a replacement.  None is sent and the Dispute window times out.

Some are told that to process the refund the Dispute must be closed. With no open Dispute, the seller keeps the money.

A small fraction of buyers actually are refunded. So few that the seller is way ahead on his intake.

Note that all three of these outcomes of the Dispute are considered to be satisfactory customer service by eBay.

• Because all three look as if the customer is satisfied even when she has been cheated. EBay can't see that.

there is no way to open a case in resolution again because of the time frame.

Welllll,  there is Paypal.

PP allows you to open a Dispute for 180 days from PAYMENT.  You may have missed that deadline by only a few days, unfortunately.

The PP Resolution Centre is at the top of each PP page under Tools.

There is also the possiblity of making a chargeback through the credit card you use to back your PP account. Card policies differ, but it may be worth phoning the 1-800 number on the back of your card.

[lady.stark]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

I believe that has always existed, but there never was a 45 day window for dispute.

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The 45 days dispute window was the old one from PayPal. It has extended to 180 days a few years back.

[lady.stark]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

@regisname1 

There is also the possiblity of making a chargeback through the credit card you use to back your PP account. Card policies differ, but it may be worth phoning the 1-800 number on the back of your card.

---

If you paid with a credit card. You cannot do that if you didn't use a CC to buy.

[femmefan1946]

This is why it is a good idea to back a Paypal account with a credit card, and not just with a Paypal balance or a bank account.

Like the PP balance the card allows you to pay immediately, but neither PP balance nor the bank balance payments can be refunded by PP. It's cash, for all practical purposes. Once handed over, it's gone.

Back your Paypal account with a card.

[yhpoon004]

You are right. All the items I bought were very cheap. I have always wonder how can these sellers make money? Now I know.