Something funny going on here?

trrk

I've just discovered this forum and wanted to ask your opinions on something that happened to me recently on Ebay.

I posted about 10 items I had sold one day. After while I threw away the postage reciepts thinking they had all arrived (not noticing that one hadn't). Then I recieved an email from paypal saying that the buyer had started an item not recieved dispute (without first contacting me by email or through ebay). I then looked at Ebay and this buyer was not longer a registered Ebay user.

Does anyone else think it is strange that they closed their Ebay account when there was still an outstanding transaction (or maybe Ebay closed their account for some other reason) ?

Since the dispute was opened through paypal I had no choice but to refund the money and couldn't claim it from Royal Mail since I was stupid enought to have thrown away the receipt. Couldn't help thinking there was something funny about this buyer through...

steviebabes

They probably tried their luck once too often and got NARU'd for it.

soolin

trrk, firstly welcome to MSE and the ebay forum please join is some of our threads, new users are always welcome.

As for your question there will always be chancers like that but they usually don't survive long. It was a shame though that you caught so early in our selling career, but don't let it put you off it is very rare and I've been selling for over 10 years and have probably only had it happen a couple of times. There is a chance of course though that they live in a difficutl area and have problems getting post, one of our regulars posted on another thread a while back about problems getting items. It is just one of those things that you will never know for certain.

trrk

Thanks for your thoughts!

Is there anyway I can protect myself from this sort of buyer apart from being more careful about keeping postage reciepts?

soolin

There is nothing you can do really, but maybe you'll never run into another problem again.

Do get in the habit though of saving your receipts for at least 6 months.

chja

I keep the receipts until either I receive positive feedback or 3 months has passed.

soolin

chja wrote: »

I keep the receipts until either I receive positive feedback or 3 months has passed.

keep them longer.

Feedback means nothing at all, a buyer can still do a simple paypal chargeback for 45 days or a credit card chargeback for 180 days.

Also as a business seller it is best to keep them for the full 6 years anyway in case HMRC audit your accounts and you need to prove expenses.

Debt_Free_Chick

It's also worth scanning the postage receipts and saving them to your PC, perhaps using a file name that identifies the item and/or buyer, so you can find it quickly when needed.