Why is the website so dysfuctional and why the silent treatment from customer support?

[greenco25]

This is what happened -
I won 2 comics that indicated free shipping - I then got invoiced with not free shipping.  I notified the seller and I was told something is wrong with ebay's app because it's not free shipping.  Seller contacted ebay and said that he/she must honour the free shipping and I was like okay - well send me an invoice for the free shipping.  No invoice and no communication.  The seller wanted to cancel the transaction stating "Buyer is in country I don't ship to" and I declined.  Still no information about what's going on.  Out of nowhere I then get notifications for the unpaid items that I have to pay by a certain date.  I contacted ebay about the technical issue and the seller's horrible communication.  No reply and I even plead with the seller again to address the situation.  In result, ebay then notifies me that the unpaid items will be 2 strikes on my account.  When I go to appeal the case(s) within the resolution centre - it brings me to the item without any input boxes or options to trigger appealing the case.  It's just mind boggling going through the customer support tab and every link leads me to useless information for the actual issue. 

[007steveb16]

Can you please give us the item number.

[vintagenorth]

Did you buy this item using your phone or tablet? There is a known ebay glitch that sometimes shows free shipping when using the ebay app but if you look at the item on your computer it will show the correct shipping cost. I don't know why this doesn't get fixed, it can be a real problem for some sellers. Have you looked at the item using your computer to see if this is the case?

[dmil8030]

Hello 'greenco',

Would it be for this 191084949485   and this  191084948375 ?

If so, you are quite correct that the listings offer "Free shipping" and that to change

the terms of the listing post-sale is a violation of ebay policy.

However, that seller has a low feedback score, much lower than yours, and I suspect

he simply goofed.

He most likely intended to offer free shipping within the US, - which would cost very little,

but did a bad job of setting up his listings.

Shipping those 2 items to Canada would cost him far more.

What about a compromise?  Perhaps if he subtracted the amount it would cost him to ship

within the US, and you paid the shipping remainder?

You don't really want to squash him, do you?  Sure it's his mistake, but selling on ebay is far

more complicated that new users ever expect.  If you offer your understanding kindness in an

attempt to be fair, he may withdraw the Unpaid Item cases and you'll get your comics.

If he takes them to his local post office and mails them it will cost far less than if he prints off

a paypal mailing label.  And the little sticky-note-sized customs form the postal clerk sticks on

the parcel will provide you both with tracking and Delivery Confirmation.

Everybody wins.

Your other choices are pay the full price he is asking, -- Is it so unreasonable?  You didn't say.

Or wait for the Unpaid cases to run their course, then call ebay to have them removed from

your record because you were quite willing to pay the price of the listing but not the additional

charges he tacked on post-sale.

I wish you luck with it.

[pjcdn2005]

If he takes them to his local post office and mails them it will cost far less than if he prints off

a paypal mailing label.

I realize this is off topic but I don't understand why you say that it is less expensive for the seller to take the item to the post office. It is usually less expensive to print a label online.

[greenco25]

191084948375

191084949485

---

@007steveb16 wrote:

Can you please give us the item number.

---

[greenco25]

---

@dmil8030 wrote:

Hello 'greenco',

Would it be for this 191084949485   and this  191084948375 ?

If so, you are quite correct that the listings offer "Free shipping" and that to change

the terms of the listing post-sale is a violation of ebay policy.

However, that seller has a low feedback score, much lower than yours, and I suspect

he simply goofed.

He most likely intended to offer free shipping within the US, - which would cost very little,

but did a bad job of setting up his listings.

Shipping those 2 items to Canada would cost him far more.

What about a compromise?  Perhaps if he subtracted the amount it would cost him to ship

within the US, and you paid the shipping remainder?

You don't really want to squash him, do you?  Sure it's his mistake, but selling on ebay is far

more complicated that new users ever expect.  If you offer your understanding kindness in an

attempt to be fair, he may withdraw the Unpaid Item cases and you'll get your comics.

If he takes them to his local post office and mails them it will cost far less than if he prints off

a paypal mailing label.  And the little sticky-note-sized customs form the postal clerk sticks on

the parcel will provide you both with tracking and Delivery Confirmation.

Everybody wins.

Your other choices are pay the full price he is asking, -- Is it so unreasonable?  You didn't say.

Or wait for the Unpaid cases to run their course, then call ebay to have them removed from

your record because you were quite willing to pay the price of the listing but not the additional

charges he tacked on post-sale.

I wish you luck with it.

---

Yup - those are the items indeed.  The frustrating thing is that the seller is not so good with communication but he/she did give me the impression that there was a screw up with ebay on tablet/mobile devices.  Furthermore, mentioning that I'm still going to get free shipping regardless - I responded okay - well send me the new invoice.  Next thing I know...the seller attempts to cancel the transactions and I declined both.  Days later - I got 2 unpaid item notifications.

Trust me I tried to communicate with him/her throughout this process and I refuse to pay shipping on items I was bidding on that stated "FREE SHIPPING".  Regardless if it's a decent cost or not...it's the main reason I was bidding on these items to begin with (not to mention bidding on items I lost on with this seller).

I still do not comprehend though why Ebay has chosen to ignore this matter and it's incredible dysfunctional website support.  When I choose "APPEAL CASE"...it should bring me to a following page to well...appeal the case but it just brings me to the item page with no further options.