I just bought an item recently and am having troubles with the seller. He is refusing to ship the items I bought. Is he allowed to do that?

[minigengen]

Is the seller allowed to refuse to ship my order? Can I report him? He is asking me for more money before he will ship the order. I don't feel right about it. What can I do? I do really want the items.

[femmefan1946]

While nothing can force him to ship to you, he is not allowed to ask for more money than his listing advertised.

Tell him that you bid on the basis of his advertised prices and that you expect him to fulfill his contract.

If he offers a Mutual Cancellation, you can agree, ending the transaction and giving his fees back. Or you can ignore, which will eventually end the transaction and give his fees back. Or you can ignore which leaves the transaction open and does not allow him to reclaim his selling fees.

In any of these cases you can leave appropriate feedback. The most effective feedback is calm and factual. "Would not ship without extra payment".

He cannot leave you negative feedback.

You will also be asked to leave appropriate Detailed Seller Ratings. The normal rating is Five Stars. The lowest rating is ONE Star. No stars is a free pass.

So you have tools. Keep calm and carry on.

[hereiam87]

In the future, you may want to contact seller and ask for a shipping price up front, this way there are no hidden surprises for either parties.

]:) 

[dmil8030]

Hello 'minigengen',

Did you ask the seller about the cost of shipping these items beforehand?  Does it say anything about a combined shipping rate in the listing?  Does it specifically state a shipping fee, or is it 'free' shipping?

A seller cannot charge more than it says it the listing, and here is where you will find ebay's word on that:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/selling-practices.html

Note under Terms and Conditions where it says what a seller is not allowed to do, "Entering an amount for shipping costs when you're listing an item, and then indicating that you charge a different amount either in the item description or after the buyer has committed to buying the item".  So clearly your seller is in violation of ebay policy and can be reported.

But, as 'femmefan' says, you cannot force the seller to ship.  It's for that nail polish stuff, isn't it.  Your seller's feedback shows that this behaviour is an ongoing problem.  It is my opinion you would be best off getting out from under the whole mess.  Look at the feedback, - even if the seller agrees to ship, you either won't get your items or won't get all of them.  You could end up having to file a claim for reimbursement if you pay.  But go ahead with it if you wish.

If, however, you would like to cancel and the seller does not offer the cancellation but instead slaps you with Unpaid Item cases, - in theory you must either pay or get a strike for each item.  In this case, however, if you called ebay they would remove them.  If you are willng to pay what it says in the listing but the seller is asking for more money, that is not allowed and nor is issuing a subsequent Unpaid case.

To contact ebay go to the Customer Support at the top of the page, choose the top option (Customer support, again), click the Contact eBay tab and you will get a phone number to call.  Save all your messages with this seller.

[dmil8030]

Oh, I meant to include some links for you (more links!), - it sounds like a lot of dull reading, but this is all so important.  You have probably seen this one about Unpaid items, but like I said, only a really foolish seller would try to scam you for more money but then file an Unpaid if you don't play along:

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

More to your interests (perhaps) is the one about items that don't arrive.  You have only 45 days - just over 6 weeks - from when you paid (if you pay for these) to file for non-receipt.  If you have not received anything after 4 weeks you can contact the seller for good measure.  In this case, though, I expect you would get empty promises, but that is just my increasingly jaded perspective.  This link will tell you how to file a claim, should you ever need to know:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/item-not-received.html

If ever you do open a claim, never close it until you have either your items or your money back.  A closed claim can never be reopened. 

And of course, if you pay or cancel, you have 60 days in which to leave feedback.

Good luck. 🙂