Here's an eBay question. Any experience with this?

jrdolan · May 21, 2004 12:21AM

This is a new one for me. I bid and won a Barry Bonds card on behalf of a customer. I paid up with PayPal. So far, so good. Later in the week, PayPal sent me a notice that the seller did not claim the payment within 3 days and I should cancel for security reasons. The notice gave instructions for doing this, which I followed.

The seller and I had a pleasant exchange of emails in which she admitted she is new and doesn't know how PayPal works. I gave her some advice and said I'd watch for the card when she relisted.

Then her husband sent an email stating I was still obligated to buy the card under eBay's rules. I explained that it was eBay's payment service that instructed me to cancel and it wasn't me who botched the transaction. He replied that it doesn't matter, the contract still holds, and I will get a negative feedback if I don't resubmit payment by Sunday.

Now the card itself and the money involved don't rate a second thought in my mind. I bought another one for my client. But this guy has p*ssed me off with his threat. I'm a powerseller and with the evidence of the situation I am sure I can get eBay to remove the neg. with no problem. But do you think he is right about still being obligated to pay?

CON40 · May 21, 2004 12:29AM

I hate to say this, but I think he's right... PayPal's notice to cancel your payment after it went unclaimed for 3 days was for security reasons, and as such I don't think it would relinquish you from your obligation to pay for the item. eBay's policy on sending payment is not 3 days, but 30 days. It just so happens that the method you chose to pay through failed, meaning you should pay via another method within a reaonable time frame. Couple this with the fact that you have had ongoing discussion with the seller and you kow their intention is to sell you the card, I think you should honor the bid and pay.

I don't want to p*ss you off, just giving my honest opinion. In your shoes, I would pay.

MorrellMan · May 21, 2004 2:18AM

I agree with Con40 - paypal isn't ebay or vice versa. The only thing I don't agree with is that hubby is right. It sounds like your communication with the seller led you to believe that she would relist the item. Thus, you went and bought one somewhere else. If you can't convince the seller's husband to back off, then you are in the middle of a textbook dispute. I can see why you're angry, but my guess is that you are not going to be able to strongarm him on this, since he kind of holds the cards (no pun intended). I would try to rationally reason with him, point out your conversations with the seller and see if you all can chalk it up to experience. If not, you're probably going to get negged and I don't think eBay will help you. Just my tusense - good luck!

jrdolan · May 21, 2004 4:23AM

Actually, eBay and PayPal are hand-in-glove partners. PayPal may even belong to eBay, if I understand the relationship right.

And yes, I bought another card for my customer when PayPal told me the payment was unclaimed and I should cancel. I didn't want my customer to wait (it was four days before I found out the card never shipped).

It's not the money so much as the threat to neg me when I paid up and then simply followed PayPal's instruction to cancel. Still, this $70 card is not worth all this aggravation. If he cannot be reasonable, I guess I will pay again and find another buyer. It just ticks me off that all the inconvenience is on my side and I receive threats.

CON40 · May 21, 2004 4:34AM

I agree that the guy is being a real tough sh1t with you. Maybe you can explain the confusion regarding his wife's willingness to relist the card, so as a result you moved on. Maybe he'll understand. Maybe he won't. But, you're stuck between a rock and hard place because he has eBay's policy on his side in addition to acting like a jerk so the neg would probably stick.

And you're right, eBay owns Paypal... but they have vastly different user policies.

WinPitcher · May 21, 2004 11:13AM

Id take the neg and in my reply Id call the guy an idiot. others do...J/K actually Id try once again to explain the situation and if that fails it would depend if I still wanted it seeing I had bought another already. I would take the neg and in my reply I would explain that the seller refused payment and her hubby is an idiot! lol see i wasnt just kidding!

SOM · May 21, 2004 12:02PM

If his wife has relisted the card, how can he then deliver the item to you, if it sells to another member? Hell...send him the $70, then neg HIM when he can't follow through with his portion of the deal.
Only because he's been such an uncompromising jerk, of course.

jrdolan · May 21, 2004 2:23PM

She hasn't relisted, she only said she was going to, and apologized for not accepting the money. It was all cool, we were both happy that it was just a mixup, no negs for anybody, I went and bought another Bonds for my guy, and then hubby arrived with his attitude. Whatever, I'm sure I'll resell the extra Bonds no problem. Never ran into a payment being unclaimed before, and I'm glad to know all the aspects. Thanks.

bill7549 · May 21, 2004 10:41PM

I sure as heck wouldn't pay the jerk. If he threatens you with a neg, throw a neg right back his way. Paypal was bought by eBay and if Paypal says to cancel the transaction, I doubt there's anyway eBay would leave his stupid neg sitting on you.

Buckwheat · May 21, 2004 10:50PM

Sounds like you didn't buy another card until after the pleasant emails. Why didn't you just go ahead and complete the transaction after you discovered the problem? Why ask her to relist the card??

Aknot · May 21, 2004 11:31PM

hmmmm Paypal Ebay......

So if I buy an Escort I can take it back to a Ranger dealership? Yes they are both "owned" by Ford but I would think the Ranger dealership would point me in the direction of the nearest Escort dealership.

I can go into a bunch of these. It does not matter if they are "run" by the same people. They are two seperate entities.

Thegradinator · May 22, 2004 1:23AM

Did the seller accept paypal? If so, you paid, he did not accept, so a FVF credit is not aloowed. I hope you saved all your emails. Threatening negative feedback is against ebay rules. If he threatened negative feedback, send all those emails with all the headers. If this doesn't work and he still leaves you negative feedback, and ebay doesn't remove it, I may have some other options for you. Private message me if he does leave you a negative and ebay does not remove it.

Thegradinator · May 22, 2004 1:28AM

Am I the only one that got the email? Ebay owns paypal. it is simmilar to the way 7up was a seperate company until Pepsi bought them, 7 up still runs itself, but Pepsi is the owner.

Buckwheat · May 22, 2004 1:30AM

<< <i>Did the seller accept paypal? If so, you paid, he did not accept, so a FVF credit is not aloowed. >>

More accurately, he did not accept within 3 days, and the buyer cancelled the payment. Kind of like if I don't cash your check in time, you will stop payment on it. It seems that an email to the seller before reversing the paypal payment was in order.

Reading between the lines, this sounds like a case of buyer remorse, looking for a way out of the deal. Probably found a cheaper one to buy, so wanted to get out of the first transaction. Once the seller understood that they had to claim the payment, why wouldn't the buyer just resend? Was the buyer using an "unconfirmed" address? Did the seller even say she accepted paypal? Probably did, but again, we don't have all of the facts here.

Thegradinator · May 22, 2004 1:35AM

Buckwheat has a point. I was thinking about the email before cancelation and the resending. You may have acting impatiently here, or the person for whom you bought the card. Either way though, the seller had three days to claim. You have proof that you paid. Did the seller offer paypal as an accepted payment?

jrdolan · May 22, 2004 1:56AM

Perhaps I didn't explain it well.

Yes, the seller offered PayPal. That's why i paid that way.

No buyer remorse. My customer was fine with the winning bid, even with my astronomical fee of $5 to find and buy it for him (and take the risks and headaches that can arise). We thought the card was on its way until PayPal instructed me to cancel the payment because it had sat unclaimed for 3 days. PayPal feared fraud or ID theft or some other shenanigans.

I emailed the seller, but did not wait for a reply before following the instructions. I wanted to meet my obligation to my own buyer as quickly as possible and so found another Bonds. As it turned out, it was slightly cheaper, but my guy has to wait longer to get it.

When she did respond, she was pleasant and apologetic and said she would relist. Out of politeness, I said I would watch for it (though I didn't have a home for it at that time).

The next day, angry hubby joined the situation and demanded payment. I politely said no and explained why. The he threatened neg. if I didn't pay by Sunday, and I got PO'd.

Now I have got over the first reaction and will swallow my pride and pay. It's not worth the aggravation. I'm beyond caring who is technically right and who is morally right. If I don't have a buyer for the card in a week, I know a kid who could not afford it but would be thrilled to have it.

Thegradinator · May 22, 2004 2:01AM

you have her email saying she is sorry and will relist. You can send that to ebay.

NickM · May 25, 2004 7:16AM

Buy it. You cancelled payment, not the seller. The seller has 30 days in which to accept payment under PayPal policies.

Nick

Buckwheat · May 25, 2004 8:25AM

jrdolan,

Very classy act to go ahead and buy it.

As I said before, I didn't have all of the facts. Sounds like you did nothing wrong, with the possible exception of not waiting for her to respond to email regarding paypal payment. You could make a case to not have to pay, but you have chosen the best way.

I have to say that I have received unconfirmed payments occasionally, and I don't get an email about them. If I don't check my paypal account frequently, this could certainly happen to me. I believe that I can set the option in paypal to automatically accept unconfirmed payments, and will do so.

habs71 · May 25, 2004 9:01AM

<< <i>I have to say that I have received unconfirmed payments occasionally, and I don't get an email about them. >>

But you do get an email about them....the "Notification of Instant Payment"..the shipping info in that email will tell you if the sender is confirmed/unconfirmed....depending on your settings to accept/deny unconfirmed payment, you know if you have to go to your Paypal account to accept/deny said payment or not.

Skip

speeder · May 25, 2004 9:41AM

hi john, lee here
john, do not, i say, do not let yourself get caught up in this nonsense. big bad bubba has threatned you, are you scared ? do you think he`s coming over to fight you ? of course not , on both accounts !
so step back, laugh at this guy, and move on. learn from it, of course. you tried to do the right thing (as you saw it) and it sort of backfired. thats life <<< keep doin the right thing. its a molehill, not a mountain.
your friend, lee

Buckwheat · May 25, 2004 12:27PM

Skip,

Thanks, I didn't know that. I just know that sometimes when I went to my account, I found payments that hadn't been accepted that were several days old. I since have changed my setting to acept all.

jrdolan · May 25, 2004 2:39PM

None of this would have happened if A) The money had been claimed and the card shipped or

PayPal had not instructed me to cancel payment. By the way, PayPal said it had contacted the seller. I am confirmed in every way with PayPal, so no reason why the seller could not accept. She just had it set up wrong or something.

No real problem with paying again, other than on principle... which about half of you feel I'm wrong about. Either way, it's pretty small taters even if I couldn't find an immediate home for the 2nd Bonds rookie (and I already have).

Just that the attitude of the seller's husband rubbed me the wrong way, as if I was the one who screwed up. I got over that in a couple days, despite his snotty response to my giving in: "I'm right and you're wrong. Get over it!" I swear, for some people it's more about the act of fighting than whatever it is they're fighting about. And he has a religious eBay user name. Go figure.

Oh well, I learned about unclaimed payments and a troublesome seller to avoid! Thanks for all the comments, whether you agreed with me or not. One more lesson in this hobby of ours as it exists today!

RobBobGolf · May 25, 2004 9:51PM

Latest Line;

5-1 He Negs you anyway
2-1 You get a Nuetral
8-5 No feedback at all
1-1 You still get a Positive

Good Luck!

RobBob

Here's an eBay question. Any experience with this?

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