Seller Won't Let Me Pay

[thebarterersdog]

I've requested the cost of shipping five times and the seller responded with a Request to Cancel The Transaction. I do not want to cancel the transaction, I want the item I won honestly and expect the seller to invoice me showing shipping costs that are not over inflated to compensate for the low win. I expect  the cost for 2lbs of buttons shipped from the states to Canada should be somewhere around 20$ since that is what the seller quoted me,  and am fine with that amount even though I think it could be a bit high. Yet, the seller won't send me an invoice. It looks like I haven't or won't pay for my win but I'm quite willing to. 

Any ideas on how to proceed? 

Help please.

[pierrelebel]

"this type of practice should warrant a suspension of selling rights."

I agree.  Should a seller repeat this behaviour, he should have his selling privileges revoked by eBay.

"The seller is a jerk, plain and simple and no one should buy from this person if this is how they conduct business."

Once again, I agree.

"but not without the seller being penalized"

Why? Buyers who are victimized should take a stand and leave the appropriate negative feedback.  Keep it simple: "Seller refused to complete transaction". 

Leaving negative feedback is the only way a seller will change his way as buyers will eventually stop purchasing from him as negative feedback piles up.  To let the seller off the hook by not leaving negative feedback does not help anyone.  Stand up and be counted.

[i*m-still-here]

Ahhh.......... but you are assuming that the seller cares about FB.

A seller who behaves like this one is does not care about FB the same way most do or he would have sent the invoice long ago.

I've come across a few sellers like this, and when you encounter one who has no regard for FB you can sense it early into the transaction.

What you have in the end is the fact that you left NFB on your record and unless ebay changes the system IT'S THERE FOREVER!!!!!   (Or as long as this id is functional.)

Trust Me:  sellers do pay very close attention to that.

............ and barterer........... you seem to be using the same id for selling as well as buying so it's even more risky.

What it means is that you've hurt yourself while in many cases the seller has moved onto another id or another venue or just doesn't care.

These sellers are few, but this one seems to fit the bill.

So, while it might feel good in the moment.............. in five years?  Not So Much!!!!

[pierrelebel]

"but you are assuming that the seller cares about FB."

???

I am not assuming anything.  I know better.

The seller may or may not care about feedback.  It is irrelevant.  We all know that some buyers do care about the seller's feedback.  That is where it has an impact.

We also know that eBay cares about negative feedback and low DSRs.  They may affect the ability of sellers to list on the site.

[i*m-still-here]

For a seller.............. NFB rolls off after a year and no one much cares.

For a buyer............. NFB left matters forever.  (Who isn't familiar with Toolhaus?)

Really makes you wonder:  

What is the purpose of the Feedback left for others function?

We know what the effect is................ Serious buyers do not leave NFB.  You can find buyers of thousands of items when you do an an advanced search who have never left NFB.

What would happen to FB if that function were removed?

[rose-dee]

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@i*m-still-here wrote:

What you have in the end is the fact that you left NFB on your record and unless ebay changes the system IT'S THERE FOREVER!!!!!   (Or as long as this id is functional.)

Trust Me:  sellers do pay very close attention to that.

............ and barterer........... you seem to be using the same id for selling as well as buying so it's even more risky.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

I disagree.  If the OP leaves factual and unemotional FB as suggested by Pierre (although I might add at the end "despite multiple requests"), such a comment reflects well on the buyer and her intentions, but puts the seller in a very bad light.  If I were the OP I would give 1's across the board on the DSRs, which nobody else will see anyway. 

The only negative FB that will reflect poorly on a buyer are those sorts of ranting, raving lunatic-like comments that we've all seen.  Keeping it professional simply makes the seller look like what he is: a jerk. 

As a buyer, I always check potential sellers' FB and DSR scores; as a seller I really only pay attention to the raving lunatics, so I don't see your argument there at all.  Besides, most buyers have already made a purchase before the seller can check on their FB anyway.  Are you going to refuse a sale to a buyer because of a couple of factual neg FB comments they've left for other sellers?  I certainly wouldn't.  

This seller is headed for oblivion if he keeps this up.  If she's lucky, the OP's negative FB/DSRs may just be the ones that result in eBay finally slapping restrictions or penalties on this buyer.  As I understand it, this would mean he would not be able to change IDs for a while in any case, so he'll be stuck with his dirty laundry hanging out there in public for everyone to see.  Even if he manages to switch ID, he may learn a lesson or two in the meantime.   

If there was ever a situation that deserved a negative response without question, this is it. 

[i*m-still-here]

rose............. I understand what you're saying.......... and I think that if buyers stopped leaving NFB on eBay the system could well fall apart.  

They've created a site that requires a LOT of policing.

I certainly don't advise that everyone do as I do, but it is a valid way to do business here.

Who needs the added hassle of sellers avoiding you because you left NFB?

Not Me!

You might not, but sellers do check FB left for others and my time here is easier because I never leave NFB.

If you really think that leaving NFB doesn't made things more difficult for a buyer, then consider what would happen if sellers could no longer review FB left for others.  (What is the point of that function???)

My guess is that there would a lot more honest NFB left.

[i*m-still-here]

barterer left NFB for the seller, as I knew she would..........

Now there's a small chance that the seller will agree to ship in return for FB removal........... 

........... but if that doesn't happen the seller has 130 FB and will simply move to another id and let the FB roll off before using this one again.

No harm done.

Buyers don't check or care what happened a year ago.

Sellers, on the other hand, do care.

Barteresdog will have that on her record FOREVER .......................... 

Maybe that's something eBay should fix.

I can't really think of a legitimate reason that FB left for others should be visible at all.................. and certainly not for the life span of the id.

[thebarterersdog]

Hi Mr. E

I did try all sorts of different ways to contact the seller just in case it was a glitch, but same response--no response. I've left feedback that is factual. I have already reported them. Thanks for the advice though.

[thebarterersdog]

Just a little interjection here. I left factual feedback, no name calling (except in here 🙂 ) lol 

I feel it's necessary to warn others for however long it's there. As for my id's I have trouble just handling one, but 2??? lol not a smart move for me. 

[rose-dee]

Well, I just took a look at his ID, and if I were a seller looking at your comment on his page, I'd conclude that a relatively inexperienced seller (the jerk) did something very stupid to upset a very experienced buyer (you).  And over an $11.50 sale to boot!!  No, no, this will not reflect badly at all on you, in fact it looks like supreme restraint in the circumstances. 

Whatever the effect on his overall rating, that FB does not look good for him and looks quite reasonable coming from the buyer (you).  Judging from the fact that this seller is fairly new (under 200 FB score), and now at 95.8% positive FB, I'd say he may only need to cause one more problem before eBay clamps down on him.  

[pierrelebel]

"No, no, this will not reflect badly at all on you,"

I totally agree with rose-dee.

[i*m-still-here]

OK...........  but I've been told otherwise by numerous sellers and I believe them.

Never leaving NFB saves me a lot of money in shipping costs and opens up a lot of doors that are closed to others.

There is a reason I get such great co-operation from sellers while other buyers don't.

Just sayin".

[i*m-still-here]

BTW.........  I am not saying everyone should do as I do.

If they did then it wouldn't have any clout for me any longer.

The only reason it works so well for me is because most buyers do leave NFB now and then.

[mr.elmwood]

My math says they slid from 97.1 down to 95.8. Ouch.

[recped]

If a seller didn't want to deal with me because I left one or two factual negs over a period of years that would be a seller I would not want to buy from (even if I really wanted whatever they sold).

Sellers who come down on buyers like this are just as bad as the OP's seller. They should both get the smackdown from eBay or if not then buyers should give them the message but not buying from them.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

[i*m-still-here]

OK.......... but if I had left exactly that FB word for word every time a seller refused to plug in a shipping cost (and worse)..........

You'd all be here calling me the Buyer From You Know Where and advising each other not to sell to me.

AND NO............ I don't have a greater percentage of negative experiences than others do (in fact, quite the opposite) so please don't start that (again)  ................. I just buy more.

[femmefan1946]

This scenario is not unusual at all since eBay changed the way items get paid when no shipping cost has been plugged in by the seller.

It used to be that buyers could plug in a shipping cost if sellers hadn't done so prior to the sale, but that hole was plugged some time ago.

This may be a silly question but... if the buyer has an invoice with no shipping on it, couldn't the buyer just pay the invoice she has? I mean, Free Shipping and all that.

I suspect that this seller would still not ship, but he also could not start an Unpaid Item Dispute, while the buyer could go for the Non-Performing Seller Dispute.

Gee, we rarely see so many sellers demanding the head and other dangly bits of a fellow seller, do we?

[pjcdn2005]

This may be a silly question but... if the buyer has an invoice with no shipping on it, couldn't the buyer just pay the invoice she has? I mean, Free Shipping and all that.

No, if there is no shipping cost in the listing, the system won't let the buyer pay even if the listing states that they ship to that particular country. It hasn't always been like that. At one time the buyer could go ahead and pay and/or enter the shipping amount in certain situations.

[i*m-still-here]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

This may be a silly question but... if the buyer has an invoice with no shipping on it, couldn't the buyer just pay the invoice she has? I mean, Free Shipping and all that.

---

It used to be that a buyer could plug in a shipping cost when the seller did not but they plugged that hole some time ago.

There are problems with both systems.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just force seller's to plug in shipping costs to all countries they ship to?

That said.............. a seller can change the cost of shipping if he/she beats the buyer to the checkout.

I've had that happen to me as well.

I recently bought an item with free shipping but the seller changed it to $10 before I could pay.

I refused to cancel the transaction, but I can't recall if she sent a formal request to cancel or not.

Then, when I didn't pay her she filed an unpaid item dispute and so I paid.

The item she sent was badly damaged and I filed a case.

After all that she left me FB saying I  was at fault.

Now, that's a Seller From Hell.

[mr.elmwood]

other dangly bits

Eh?