Help in regards to seller "Buy It Now" on ebay
stevek
Posts: 32,060 ✭✭✭✭✭
I've been doing on ebay as a seller, some "Buy It Now" at a fixed price, with say ten items available. I received a BIN for one item from a buyer with an unconfirmed address and I want to cancel the transaction. He did pay by PayPal but I just want to refund his money and cancel the transaction simply because I don't trust the unconfirmed address and he will not respond to my e-mails. I go to the seller area about canceling bids, type in the right information, but the ebay message keeps telling me that I do not have this buyer bidding on the sale.
Any help as to how to properly cancel this transaction would be appreciated.
Also - does this get canceled so that this buyer can't leave a neg in case he doesn't like this?
Thanks!
Steve
Any help as to how to properly cancel this transaction would be appreciated.
Also - does this get canceled so that this buyer can't leave a neg in case he doesn't like this?
Thanks!
Steve
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Comments
<< <i> I go to the seller area about canceling bids, type in the right information, but the ebay message keeps telling me that I do not have this buyer bidding on the sale. >>
You can't cancel a Buy It Now bid.
<< <i>Any help as to how to properly cancel this transaction would be appreciated. >>
There's no way to "properly" cancel the transaction unless the buyer agrees to let you off the hook.
<< <i>Also - does this get canceled so that this buyer can't leave a neg in case he doesn't like this? >>
No. If the buyer doesn't agree to cancel the transaction, he will be able to leave feedback.
Maybe you can get his phone number and try one more time?
Brian
Confirming and address is not a difficult process. If he is unable to confirm his address there is very likely a greater issue. An unconfirmed address is the same as taking a personal check with no name on it or worse.
If you really want "out' of this transaction give him a deadline of 4-5 days explain that if he does not contact you (since he has not returned your emails so far) that you will make the "best" decision within the ebay/paypal guidelines. There is no need to tell him you are going to refund his money he may consider that a threat. Simply give him a deadline to establish contact and if he doesn't then refund his money within the "EBAY/Paypal guidelines".
Paypal tells you in the fine print that if you ship to an unconfirmed address even with delivery/signature confirmation and the ebay buyer claims they did not receive it, you are on the hook for the $$$. This is a tough situation because many buyers don't realize what a difficult position they put sellers in when they do this. I actually state in my auctions that I ship to "confirmed addesses only, No Exceptions".
Good Luck
Rob
"Those guys weren't Fathers they were...Mothers."
My understanding of PayPal as a seller, is ship to an unconfirmed address, and all the buyer has to do is say "I didn't get it" and it's case closed, the buyer gets a refund. Signatures and delivery confirmation don't matter to PayPal because I guess in their view, technically it may not have been the buyer who received it. That seems to be PayPal logic anyway.
Of course I don't have to ship the item and I can simply refund the buyer's money, but then I risk an ebay neg.
Ebay really needs to use a system whereby a seller can block ebay bidders and buyers who do not have a confirmed PayPal address. I mean it's the same company for crying out loud! From what I can see right now, a seller can block a PayPal transaction from an unconfirmed address, but not an ebay transaction. Once the auction is over or the BIN is activated, unless there is some other way of doing it which I'm not aware of, a seller can't know until then if the buyer's address is unconfimed or confirmed.
Perhaps unconfirmed PayPal addresses can somehow be blocked on ebay, but I have not found a way to do that yet if a way exists.
Really, an unconfirmed address scammer could click BINs all day long, or win auctions all day long, pay for them, then hope a percentage of sellers ship to his unconfiirmed address, then place the claims to PayPal that he didn't get the merchandise, and automatically receive the PayPal refund. Maybe "eventually" PayPal will cut this buyer off, it might be 3 claims in a given time period (I'm not sure), but in any event that's money in the scammer's pocket.
Of course the scammer buyer runs the risk of a seller not refunding his money after he pays with an unconfirmed address, but most if not all reputable sellers who refuse to ship to unconfirmed addresses, are going to immediately refund the buyer's PayPal money when seeing it's an unconfirmed address, and they won't ship to that unconfirmed address. But the reputable seller then risks negs from the scammers, who couldn't care less about negs they get because they're going NARU soon anyway, and then they quickly open up another scammer account - the seller though could get punished with a neg for running his business in a proper businesslike manner.
That's the way I see it unless I'm missing something here. I think I'm beginning to understand why some sellers won't take PayPal. But yet there are many large sellers who do take PayPal, so it is not some consistent thing across the board.
In any event, because of your responses, I believe I am now clear on what the procedures are and again...very much appreciated!!!
THANKS AGAIN!
Steve
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<< <i>You probably are committed to this sale. If you do not want to accept, or have the option to not accept PayPal, you need to go into your seller preferences and check the appropriate box. I checked the option that gives me the choice to accept or deny the payment. On USA sales I do not give a lot of weight in my decision on the unconfirmed status. I give the greatest weight on their rating. If the rating is solid, I ussually accept the transaction. I have not had a problem yet. However, I do accept that I am forfeiting any seller protection that PayPal offers. >>
I think I'm going to follow this advice and ship the item. It's "only" $150 so it's not a killer if I get scammed, but I certainly don't want to get into bad habits either. That's good to know that at least your experience has found that you "have not had a problem yet" - I do intend to at least check that PayPal option of not accepting unconfirmed addresses.
My business also accepts merchant cards such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express - the procedures for "problems" with the merchant cards are so much more logical than PayPal that it's not even funny!
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