eBay Customer Support - Is there any point?

Mista_C

I won an auction on eBay earlier in the week and paid for the item immediately after the auction had ended. I later received a message from the seller asking me to notify them when I pay for the item.
I logged into Paypal and noticed the transaction was marked "unclaimed" so I replied to the seller explaining the problem was most likely their end as suggested by Paypal. I said I would cancel this transaction and attempt to resend but could the seller check their Paypal account to see they could see a problem their end.

A couple of days later I'd still had no reply so I logged into Paypal to find the status was still "unclaimed". I went back to eBay to send another message to the seller but instead of clicking "Contact Seller" the mouse or myself had a funny and I accidentally hit "View sellers other items". They only had 2 items, one of which was the item I had won previously, relisted after my response. I tried to contact the seller again but still no response back. I then cancelled the second transaction and contacted eBay Customer Services to explain the situation.

I outlined the scenario to eBay, asking them if they could remove the item from my purchased list as it was now reset to "Pay Now". I informed them that the seller was no longer responding to my messages and that the item had been relisted by the seller.

What do eBay do? They tell me that the reason the status is "unclaimed" is probably because the sellers email address is wrong or they need to take action their end (I've already explained this to the seller and eBay). They also sent me instructions on how to cancel a transaction from the sellers point of view and tell me I should contact the seller to give them this information.
Not only that but they also give me instructions on how to contact the seller to pass on the information. I sent a simple reply to tell them I've already put enough time and effort into this and I don't intend to put in anymore.

Well thanks eBay, totally unhelpful and completely useless.

Mista_C

I had another response from eBay (now understanding the problem a little better) who say they will take action against the seller. Unfortunately, while they have the item and item number correct, they have the wrong user name against it. The seller they claim to have taken action against is from a completely different item I bought afterwards.

I have informed both the innocent seller and eBay of their mistake, hopefully they'll rectify it quickly.

NBLondon

I think eBay have messed up their Checkout.

I listed a couple of things in January. Both sold, I sent the invoice and it just stuck at "Payment in process". I contacted the buyers and they said it was "Unclaimed" at their end. If I logged directly into PayPal - it didn't show anything, If I tried to go from My eBay to PayPal it didn't recognise the transaction.

All PayPal help said was to tell the buyer to cancel and send again.

One did with the same result; one replied with nonsense.

So I ended up relisting and hoping they got their money back from PayPal 'cause I never got it.

Of course Ebay don't really give a damn as long as they can automatically bill me for their cut :mad:

Mista_C

I finally got a reply from the original seller that simply said "I didn't get paid, I relisted". Well thanks, that was nice.

On the plus side eBay replied this morning agreeing they got the sellers mixed up and the mistake has now been rectified.

bitemebankers

eBay Customer Support - Is there any point?

None that I can see.

soolin

NBLondon wrote: »

I think eBay have messed up their Checkout.

I listed a couple of things in January. Both sold, I sent the invoice and it just stuck at "Payment in process". I contacted the buyers and they said it was "Unclaimed" at their end. If I logged directly into PayPal - it didn't show anything, If I tried to go from My eBay to PayPal it didn't recognise the transaction.

All PayPal help said was to tell the buyer to cancel and send again.

One did with the same result; one replied with nonsense.

So I ended up relisting and hoping they got their money back from PayPal 'cause I never got it.

Of course Ebay don't really give a damn as long as they can automatically bill me for their cut :mad:

If you mistype your paypal id when you list the buyer only ever sees the payment as unclaimed.

OP, you can leave the seller feedback and stars to reflect the fact the they are no longer communicating with you. It is not your fault that seller gave you the wrong address to pay, and there was actually nothing at all that either ebay or paypal could do to correct the sellers mistake.

Mista_C

soolin wrote: »

OP, you can leave the seller feedback and stars to reflect the fact the they are no longer communicating with you. It is not your fault that seller gave you the wrong address to pay, and there was actually nothing at all that either ebay or paypal could do to correct the sellers mistake.

That's pretty much what I did. I initially contacted eBay pre-emptively, once I noticed the seller had relisted, in case the seller attempted to claim I was a non-paying bidder. I'm not worried about not getting the item, I haven't had it before now so I'm not missing anything and it's nothing crucial to our continued survival, it would have just been a bloody good bargain.

The item in question was an old rare(ish) games console that normal sells for quite a high price, for an old console (there's currently one with an almost complete game set 22/25 going for £1000). At the end of this auction my winning bid was just under £20. With the lack of communication from the seller I suspected he had been expecting a much higher price and was looking to wangle his way out of the sale.
I decided if he wanted to try and get a higher price then he could by all means do so but I had no intention of being penalised for it.

Great username btw Soolin. I wanted to call my first son Avon but his Mother wouldn't let me although I did once work in a team of 7 managed by a man called Blake so, swings and roundabouts I guess.

NBLondon

soolin wrote: »

If you mistype your paypal id when you list the buyer only ever sees the payment as unclaimed.

No need to type it - it comes from the eBay checkout - which is why I think that's screwed up...

soolin

NBLondon wrote: »

No need to type it - it comes from the eBay checkout - which is why I think that's screwed up...

You still have to put it on the original auction listing , usually you don't notice it as it is picked up from your previous listing.

Some of us though switch between 2 PayPal IDs (premier and micro) and have to type the ID in when we list if we want to change it, and that's where mistakes happen.