Buyer wanting to arrange own courier, when item listed as Collection Only

soolin

You only get one chance at an NPB, so you have lost your FVFs now.

chancesare_2

I would ring Ebay and explain the buyer paid and wanted a courier. Don't go into the ins and outs, but say you were not prepared to send it as it was not an option on the listing. You may get a favourable response from them as they can override and manually credit FVFs.

stormCat99

Oh no, that looks like I am stuck then. How much I wish I had just refused in the first place, I would still have ended up with a negative but avoided all this worry and hassle.

Thanks for the suggestion of calling. I will give that a go as I guess I have nothing to lose. Currently stuck in bed ill but will ring when I'm up and about again. Maybe someone will take pity on this mess I am in - thanks again everyone.

jasmineswhiskers

Don't worry about the neg - any potential buyers will realise this person was in the wrong. It really won't make any difference to future buyers.

botanical

boots_babe wrote: »

Hi,

Hoping someone one here with more eBay experience has some good suggestions on what I can do.

I listed a large unwieldy item as Collection Only, as firstly I can't see how I could safely package it to ensure no damage, and secondly it is actually too long for most couriers to accept anyway.

Was pleasantly surprised to get a lot of interest and sold the item. Great I thought. Then noticed the buyer location was a couple of hundred miles away and thought there might be trouble...

Soon as auction finished, I messaged the buyer to say thanks, and explained that although auction was listed as accepting Paypal, to please not pay as this was a cash on collection item (I know this is a grey area, but as eBay FORCE you to use Paypal, I had to do this as otherwise I am not protected if the item is collected as I cannot track online etc).

Buyer responded to say, he wanted to collect with their own courier. Didn't sound good. Thought I'd give him a chance though, asked which courier firm, and explained I needed to check their tracking facilities.

He replied asking for my mobile number, which I reluctantly gave. Said he would call me to arrange collection by 'his' courier. I again replied asking for courier details before agreeing to anything.

3 days later he has replied. Says he owns a courier firm, and it will be them collecting. Still doesn't provide courier firm's name. By now I'm fed up, he is either hopeless or purposely not giving me the courier firm's name.

So, having given the benefit of the doubt in offering to consider his courier option, I have now had enough. I am not happy for some random courier firm to collect from me, with no tracking and no further information. He also mentioned in his last email that he would pay via Paypal.

Have just sent polite reply. Said that as he still hasn't provided courier name, I am unable to check their tracking - also explained why regarding Paypal etc etc (although I'm sure he knows, he's had 2 previous eBay IDs I've noticed so must be a long-time user).

Said I will have to revert to what I said i listing i.e. collection only in person. Gave him until end of tomorrow to reply, thought that reasonable?

So, I'm assuming he won't travel a couple of hundred miles to pick up an item less than £50, and so I would like to cancel transaction and offer to second bidder (although prob too late by now after all this messing).

Any ideas how to approach this, how to word it so as not to upset him and get a negative? He has been polite enough so far, but I am rather suspicious of his refusal to provide further details so I do feel as though I am heading for a negative here (would be my first too).

Any ideas?

Thanks.

The very same thing happened to me. The buyer wanted to arrange their own courier. I got advice from eBay which was that by allowing the buyer to arrange this, you as the seller are still responsible for any damage.
It's a terrible idea to allow the buyer to arrange a courier. You'd lose your seller's protection.
(And what rubbish about having his 'own courier firm'!)

However, a seller cannot cancel a transaction unilaterally as you seem to suggest. It must be by mutual agreement and you must have agreement before applying, because if it's refused by one party, then you're not allowed then to open a case, so you have only one chance to sort it.

I would wait and open an NP case as soon as you can, 4 days.
But if the guy pays, contact eBay to say that someone has bought an item against the terms on your listing.
eBay cancelled my transaction for me, so it does work.

stormCat99

Hi botanical,

I know you can't unfortunately just cancel a transaction, I was meaning I wanted to approach the buyer to see if he would agree. But I had never had this sort of issue before and had no idea to approach it. I had already had a non paying bidder case opened after advice from on here, but it was closed when the buyer then paid my via Paypal. We still had the whole courier instead of collection issue, so I was stuck in a corner and had no choice but to refund, and despite sending a very nice, polite email to the buyer explaining the position (i.e. collection only, not courier) he still gave me a negative.

Anyway, it turns out I've had a reasonably happy ending :-) I realised that I still seemed to have the option to do a 'second chance offer' to the next bidder. I'm sure this must be a mistake because as far as eBay are concerned I've sold it to bidder number 1. And they wouldn't purposely let me sell the same item to 2 people?

Anyhow, thought I'd give it a go. The guy was still interested and came and collected last weekend, I'm so glad His bid was £33 and I was just going to say, call it £30 as it's way more than I'd have expected to get and was just glad to get rid of it and to be dealing with a nice reasonable person! But he was so nice that he insistsed on rounding UP to £35!!!

I have to say this has slightly restored my faith in people on eBay. Having gone through what felt like a long saga for what was a non-issue, I felt pretty fed up and hard done by, and wasn't really keen to sell in the future on there. But this 2nd bidder has shown me that there ARE still some nice, genuine people out there. I guess I have just been unlucky.

lovinituk

I recently won a couple of auctions for some printer toner. The seller also had a printer for spares that I wanted but the auction said collection only. The auction for the printer ended without any bids so I contacted the seller and asked if I could buy the printer and arrange my own courier to collect it along with the toner. They agreed and were kind enough to package everything up into one parcel for me and attach the couriers labels (I paid them a little extra for packing materials). Items were collected and delivered to me as planned in perfect condition. Both the seller and I commented to each other that it had been one of the nicest/smoothest/friendliest transactions we had ever been involved in on ebay!

botanical

boots_babe wrote: »

Hi botanical,

I know you can't unfortunately just cancel a transaction, I was meaning I wanted to approach the buyer to see if he would agree. But I had never had this sort of issue before and had no idea to approach it. I had already had a non paying bidder case opened after advice from on here, but it was closed when the buyer then paid my via Paypal. We still had the whole courier instead of collection issue, so I was stuck in a corner and had no choice but to refund, and despite sending a very nice, polite email to the buyer explaining the position (i.e. collection only, not courier) he still gave me a negative.

Anyway, it turns out I've had a reasonably happy ending :-) I realised that I still seemed to have the option to do a 'second chance offer' to the next bidder. I'm sure this must be a mistake because as far as eBay are concerned I've sold it to bidder number 1. And they wouldn't purposely let me sell the same item to 2 people?

Anyhow, thought I'd give it a go. The guy was still interested and came and collected last weekend, I'm so glad His bid was £33 and I was just going to say, call it £30 as it's way more than I'd have expected to get and was just glad to get rid of it and to be dealing with a nice reasonable person! But he was so nice that he insistsed on rounding UP to £35!!!

I have to say this has slightly restored my faith in people on eBay. Having gone through what felt like a long saga for what was a non-issue, I felt pretty fed up and hard done by, and wasn't really keen to sell in the future on there. But this 2nd bidder has shown me that there ARE still some nice, genuine people out there. I guess I have just been unlucky.

I'm so glad!
eBay can feel like a very harsh place sometimes, but there are wonderful people out there!

stormCat99

lovinituk wrote: »

I recently won a couple of auctions for some printer toner. The seller also had a printer for spares that I wanted but the auction said collection only. The auction for the printer ended without any bids so I contacted the seller and asked if I could buy the printer and arrange my own courier to collect it along with the toner. They agreed and were kind enough to package everything up into one parcel for me and attach the couriers labels (I paid them a little extra for packing materials). Items were collected and delivered to me as planned in perfect condition. Both the seller and I commented to each other that it had been one of the nicest/smoothest/friendliest transactions we had ever been involved in on ebay!

It's good to hear a nice story like this and to know there are still plenty of nice 'normal' people on eBay