eBay

liabjaan · ‎07-28-2015

So for my first purchase ever on Ebay (In this case it was on Ebay.com not Ebay.ca if that matters) I tried to buy the Sennheieser HD598's. This didn't work out as for whatever reason my card kept getting declined. I had no clue why so I decided to try Paypal and created an account at the checkout, still, it didn't work. After trying those two things a few times and making sure everything was in order I just gave up trying to buy them for the time being. I check my bank account balance later only to find that I've been charged 39.11$ CAD by Pitney Bowes 5 seperate times in the span of a few minutes. I've never even purchased anything on Ebay so how is it they can charge me? So I go to check Paypal and it says there's only one transaction wherein 39.11$ CAD was converted into 29.19$ US, and that the transaction was reversed. Despite this it's not showing any funds on either my Paypal nor my bank account being credited back.

So really all I want to know here is what should I do to get my money?

momcqueen · ‎07-28-2015

If it were me, I'd place a call to my banking service provider to see what is going on. It sounds to me as if this problem arose as a result of the incomplete purchase transactions and that paypal is in the process of cancelling the import fees that would have been collected on your item if you had bought it BUT you will need to talk to your banker to know for certain. They have access to information that we do not.

mr.elmwood · ‎07-28-2015

@liabjaan wrote:
So for my first purchase ever on Ebay (In this case it was on Ebay.com not Ebay.ca if that matters) I tried to buy the Sennheieser HD598's. This didn't work out as for whatever reason my card kept getting declined. I had no clue why so I decided to try Paypal and created an account at the checkout, still, it didn't work. After trying those two things a few times and making sure everything was in order I just gave up trying to buy them for the time being. I check my bank account balance later only to find that I've been charged 39.11$ CAD by Pitney Bowes 5 seperate times in the span of a few minutes. I've never even purchased anything on Ebay so how is it they can charge me? So I go to check Paypal and it says there's only one transaction wherein 39.11$ CAD was converted into 29.19$ US, and that the transaction was reversed. Despite this it's not showing any funds on either my Paypal nor my bank account being credited back.

So really all I want to know here is what should I do to get my money?

Yes, you have purchased on eBay, possibly several times. By repetitively pushing a button, you are "buying".

Besides that, I went looking at an example of what you were trying to buy. The one I looked at showed approximately $29 US shipping and import fees, otherwise known as GSP, but, why would you see that? All shipping is collected by the seller and they remit to PB? That is perplexing.

The other thing I saw on the listing I looked at, was that it was six payments of, yep, $29 each.

Without knowing which specific listing you were looking at, hard to tell what is happening. Know that every time you click on a button, a signal is being sent somewhere. As a seller, I have had buyers buy the same widget twice, in error.

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momcqueen · ‎07-28-2015

@mr.elmwood wrote:

"....Besides that, I went looking at an example of what you were trying to buy. The one I looked at showed approximately $29 US shipping and import fees, otherwise known as GSP, but, why would you see that? All shipping is collected by the seller and they remit to PB? That is perplexing....."

If I may, it does not. The seller is largely unaware of any import fees collected by the Global Shipping Program. It shows on the paypal record as going directly to Pitney Bowes. This causes major confusion for many buyers and sellers who are not familiar for how the GSP works.

hit_the_icebox · ‎07-28-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
This causes major confusion for many buyers and sellers who are not familiar for how the GSP works.

Or doesn't work.

Try me -- I just might buy it!

mr.elmwood · ‎07-28-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
@mr.elmwood wrote:

"....Besides that, I went looking at an example of what you were trying to buy. The one I looked at showed approximately $29 US shipping and import fees, otherwise known as GSP, but, why would you see that? All shipping is collected by the seller and they remit to PB? That is perplexing....."

If I may, it does not. The seller is largely unaware of any import fees collected by the Global Shipping Program. It shows on the paypal record as going directly to Pitney Bowes. This causes major confusion for many buyers and sellers who are not familiar for how the GSP works.

That makes sense. So, now it looks like the OP has bought six headphones, five through their bank account and one through Paypal? All the charges are the GSP part of it.

OP should be trying to get a hold of the seller and cancel five of the sales, otherwise, well, I'm doing the math.

I'm just WAG.

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momcqueen · ‎07-28-2015

@hit_the_icebox wrote:
@mjwl2006 wrote:
This causes major confusion for many buyers and sellers who are not familiar for how the GSP works.

Or doesn't work.

Yes, you're right there. I should revise my earlier comment to read: "This causes major confusion for many buyers and sellers who are not familiar for how the GSP is supposed to work."

As a buyer, I do everything within my power to avoid purchasing through it. It's not even the import fees that are the biggest problem for me, it's the additional difficulty that arises if and when something goes wrong with the transaction. Plus, the inability for sellers to combine postage on an item or order listed with GSP is a major downer for me. I like to maximize my postage payments and in many cases, three items can otherwise ship for the same postage cost as one.

momcqueen · ‎07-28-2015

@mr.elmwood wrote:
@mjwl2006 wrote:
@mr.elmwood wrote:

"....Besides that, I went looking at an example of what you were trying to buy. The one I looked at showed approximately $29 US shipping and import fees, otherwise known as GSP, but, why would you see that? All shipping is collected by the seller and they remit to PB? That is perplexing....."

If I may, it does not. The seller is largely unaware of any import fees collected by the Global Shipping Program. It shows on the paypal record as going directly to Pitney Bowes. This causes major confusion for many buyers and sellers who are not familiar for how the GSP works.
That makes sense. So, now it looks like the OP has bought six headphones, five through their bank account and one through Paypal? All the charges are the GSP part of it.

OP should be trying to get a hold of the seller and cancel five of the sales, otherwise, well, I'm doing the math.

I'm just WAG.

Ebay/paypal does some weird thing where the payment gets split before it ever reaches the seller and I'm thinking that even if the processed payment for the item/order didn't go through, pitney bowes started collecting their import fees as soon as the 'commit to buy' button is pressed. This is going to be a tricky one for the buyer to sort out. Contacting the seller isn't a bad idea. He might be looking at five unpaid items in his sales manager as well.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-28-2015

Plus, the inability for sellers to combine postage on an item or order listed with GSP is a major downer for me.

If you put gsp items from the same seller in a cart, it will combine shipping.

00nevermind00 · ‎07-28-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Plus, the inability for sellers to combine postage on an item or order listed with GSP is a major downer for me.

If you put gsp items from the same seller in a cart, it will combine shipping.

I guess that would work (never tried it) *IF* the seller uses a cart. I buy collectibles from small sellers and I don't remember a single one ever using the cart. And even if they did, can you combine two items purchased on different days?

And since this "combine through the cart" scheme has been explained as well as the rest of the GSP, most buyers don't know about it and most sellers don't know about it either, and nobody can figure out what to do.

liabjaan · ‎07-28-2015

Thank's a bunch in advance for the help everyone!

So I've tried all the suggestions and I still haven't gotten much of anywhere. The buyer says no fees ever went through to him, so he was unable to assist me, saying I should try Ebay customer service. As for my bank they also said I have to get help through the merchant, which I did, and, yea that didn't work out. I'm gonna ring up Ebay now, but are there any other suggestions you guys have in the meantime?

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-29-2015

@00nevermind00 wrote:
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Plus, the inability for sellers to combine postage on an item or order listed with GSP is a major downer for me.

If you put gsp items from the same seller in a cart, it will combine shipping.
I guess that would work (never tried it) *IF* the seller uses a cart. I buy collectibles from small sellers and I don't remember a single one ever using the cart. And even if they did, can you combine two items purchased on different days?

And since this "combine through the cart" scheme has been explained as well as the rest of the GSP, most buyers don't know about it and most sellers don't know about it either, and nobody can figure out what to do.

It's not up to the seller whether or not they offer the cart. It depends on the site that you are shopping on and in some cases, which site the item was listed on. If you shop on .ca, there should be an add to cart option on every item. On .com you will only see it for listings that were done on .com

You're right, most people don't seem to know that gsp items can be combined. It has been available for quite a while but I don't think that it was at the beginning so most people assume that it still isn't.

But there is nothing to figure out...you just add the items to your cart and you will see that the total shipping is less than if you had paid separately. You do have to pay for the items at the same time from the cart so no, you can't combine purchases from different days.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-29-2015

I would wait a few days and then check again. Even though money gets taken out of a bank account instantly, the refund is not instant.

I don't remember if you said you phoned Paypal about it. If not...I would talk to them before ebay as they are more likely to know what happened.

lady.stark · ‎07-30-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

You do have to pay for the items at the same time from the cart so no, you can't combine purchases from different days.

Unless you do not use the cart, "Commit to Buy" on eBay.CA and do not pay immediately.

It's a good thing that GSP now offers combined shipping. It was not possible at the beginning and when I saw I could combine 2 items together, I thought it was a mistake. LOL! Good to know!

lady.stark · ‎07-30-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I would wait a few days and then check again. Even though money gets taken out of a bank account instantly, the refund is not instant.

I don't remember if you said you phoned Paypal about it. If not...I would talk to them before ebay as they are more likely to know what happened.

I would contact PayPal too. And if your payment was funded by your bank account*, your money will be refunded as PayPal funds. They will not send it back to your bank unfortunately.

*They do refund your credit card though if a credit card was used.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-31-2015

Unless you do not use the cart, "Commit to Buy" on eBay.CA and do not pay immediately.

I didn't realize that is was possible to do it that way and still get the combined shipping rate. It has worked for you like that?

If so, that's great and thanks for the info.

I also didn't realize that when a buyer used bank funds for a purchase that they aren't refunded directly back to their bank account.

I learn something new almost every day!

lady.stark · ‎08-05-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

I didn't realize that is was possible to do it that way and still get the combined shipping rate. It has worked for you like that?

Yes, I bought a few items not long ago with this method. From the same seller, two items were "Best Offers" that were accepted and the third one I used BIN on eBay.ca. Then I paid and GSP combined them all together.

Of course, if Immediate Payment Required is added by the seller, it won't work.