How long to wait before reporting an unresponsive seller?

ctsoxfan

This has probably been asked before, but how long should I wait before I contact PayPal on this? I won a relatively small auction on Jan 6, and paid with PayPal immediately after the auction ended. Almost three weeks have passed, and no card. I wouldn't be as concerned, but I have politely emailed the seller twice asking about the card, and he has failed to respond at all. I have won auctions last week, and received the cards already, so there would seem to be a problem here. If you don't report the issue to PayPal within 30 days of auction close, it states that they will not help you. Any opinions?

RobE

Hey Dave Parker,get the seller on the phone if you can before you go to any of the if all else fails method of dealing with the situation.

Good luck!

ctsoxfan

Thanks, man. That's not a bad idea, I always forget the request info option.

I was very happy to get that Parker card! My third 1980 10, hopefully many more to come!

RobE

I found that sometimes emails bounce.Big sellers are just too busy and it's sometimes best to get on the Horn when there is a problem because they just don't respond to emails in a lot of cases.

Hopefully a call will help out.

Congrats on the Parker, I just noticed it was you who nailed it before coming over here tonight.

Rainman

you have 30 days after auction close to file a paypal claim. i'd go thru the ebay routes- i.e., "user info request"- get the phone #/file whatever claim you need to w/ebay. if your seller uses aol like i do, i can tell you that many emails are blocked before i even see them- aol has a new spam filter and there's no easy way to know if something's been sent to the spam folder (i use an older version of aol, so this may not be true of the newer versions). normally i ship items 2x/week- if there's a delay (recently i've been unable to get to the post), i email all buyers. while some buyers say you should ship within 1-2 days after getting a paypal payment, that's not always possible (esp. not if you're like me and work full time and the post opens AFTER i have to be at work and closes BEFORE i get off work).

Snowball

Did you check sellers feedback if other buyers who bought the same date as you left their feedbacks? Could be your email is being blocked. I found out AOL blocks my email (msn.com). I have have to use contact member. Going on 3 weeks is kind of long especially paying with paypal. I think paypal's rule seller have to send it within 7 or 10 days of payment.

There are sellers who are really slow in mailing especially powersellers. I encountered one seller I paid by paypal. After 3 weeks I emailed and reminded that I insure the package. i received an email and seller was sorry and told me he was out of town. Strange thing I got the package from CA to NY in 24 hours. I looked and there's 2 metered postage on the package. First was dated the day after I paid by paypal and the 2nd postage is the insurance I paid for (date was the day I emailed him that the package was insured.) Both metered postage are from USPS. I don't know how the seller was able to take back the package with USPS metered postage on it. The 2nd metered postage showed that the package took less than 24 hours transit from CA to NY.

ctsoxfan

The seller hasn't had much feedback over the last month (488 total though), but I did notice one where the buyer left a positive, but said it took over one month to ship the card! His email isn't AOL, but I will try to call him and see if my emails were received. I understand the work/post office problem, since I have the exact same issue, but I can still ship items at least twice a week. Especially when payment is made the same day you win the auction, a seller should ship promptly. Thanks for the input thusfar!