Ebay- I haven't received the item and don't know what to do

[jubilee]

I won an auction at the end of June for baby clothes (about $9 shipped). The seller emailed and said she got the Paypal payment and she'd send them right out- but here we are 3 weeks later and still no clothes. I've emailed the seller 3 times and haven't gotten any response. This is the first time this has happened to me. What should I do?

edited to add- she has over 100 positives, no negatives for feedback. She has already left me a positive feedback too.

[AngelaS]

I would email her again and tell her you haven't received them and that if you don't have them in the next couple of days (give a date) you will be filling a complaint with PayPal.

[ChicagoMama]

You only have 30 days to file with paypal, so move quickly. If she has lots of positives, then you could consider giving her a courtesy heads up that you plan to file with paypal and maybe she'll perk up a little bit. Give her one business day to respond to your request since this is your fourth request.

Re-read your auction terms, though -- did you purchase optional shipping insurance, was it offered? She may not be responsible for a lost package, but at least if you file with paypal, I believe she has to provide proof that she mailed the package or your funds will be returned.

Becky

Mama to DDs Shelby 09/19/02 and Sydney 10/16/03

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I agree about the email to tell her you will file with Paypal.

also let her know that you will report her as a non-performing seller on eBay. Sometimes when they get that email from eBay, it perks them up and they respond.

But consider that she may not be getting your emails for some reason. Try using the "ask seller a question" link from the auction instead of emailing her directly.

...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[quikeye]

File with paypal as soon as possible, b/c you will get *nothing* when you wait more than 30 days. (I was on a yahoo group where someone bilked everyone out of $ for a carrier, and everyone who didn't file under paypal lost out of any claims.) You CAN retract the paypal claim, but you can't place it back again after 30 days! So, if you get the clothes or a response from the seller (I'd wait for the clothes though since it's already been so long) you can always retract the paypal claim.

You actually deserved the positive feedback since you already paid :) I wouldn't give her a neg until you hear back from either the seller or your paypal claim... don't feel guilty about getting a positive. Just wait & use paypal to try and resolve your claim since she's not responding to emails. If it's an honest mistake the paypal claim won't hurt her, and may get you what you won.

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext&eloc=975&loc=958&unique_id=2102&source_page=_home&flow=

[tinkerbell1217]

Usually the longest I would give a seller to ship something is 30 days and most people have told me the same. It may be an oversight, but I would find out soon. Contact EBay about it also.

[dr mom]

Something similar happened to me last month - I won an auction early in June (for baby clothes also), paid using PayPal the following day, and then waited as the weeks rolled by and no package. The seller's detailed listed claimed that she shipped twice a week, and I had paid for priority mail. I e-mailed four or five times and never got a response.

On eBay under Search: Find Members, you can request contact information for the seller, including a telephone number. I called the seller after 3 1/2 weeks to see what was up - a man answered, confirmed that the seller was home, and asked why I was calling. When I nicely said that I was calling about an ebay auction, they abruptly slammed down the phone! I immediately tried to call back, but no one answered the phone - all calls went straight to voice mail. The seller never returned any of my messages, either.

By this point I was pretty sure I had been scammed. I figured I wasn't going to get either my money back or the item I ordered, but I was angry, so I filed complaints with PayPal (Must do this within 30 days, as a PP said!) eBay, and SquareTrade. SquareTrade is a mediation service that sends nagging email reminders on your behalf. Both the PayPal and eBay complaint forms ask whether you have tried to resolve the issue by using a mediation service and strongly encourage it, so I filed with SquareTrade and then immediately made fraud complaints with PayPal and eBay.

SquareTrade determined that the seller was at fault but wasn't responding, so they closed the case. PayPal also found the seller at fault, but said that my only financial recourse was to file with eBay. Finally, eBay charges a $25 fee for fraud reimbursement, and I was only out a $5 item plus $4.50 for shipping, so I obviously wasn't going to go that route.

However, after recieving what I can only assume was a barrage of emails on the subject from SquareTrade, PayPal, and eBay, my seller finally relented and shipped the item. (6 weeks after I paid, and with no explanation about why it took so fricken long)

My situation was different from yours in that my seller was new to eBay and didn't have much feedback, and she never bothered to leave feedback for me. Your seller sounds a little more reputable, so you may want to start with a friendly phone call before you work up to a fraud complaint.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-fraud-protection.html

Hope that helps!

-Cindy