You know when you think something isn't quite right?

Goldiegirl

Last weekend a buyer won an auction for a shirt, only £1.99. He's a long standing eBayer, with over 1000 feedbacks. He paid on Sunday 3rd, and I posted Monday 4th. Seemed like a straightforward transaction.

Anyway, yesterday evening I got this message from him

'when will i recieve my shirt then '

I messaged back, confirming postage date, and suggested he could ask his neighbours if it had been delivered there and the local sorting office if it was being held there. I asked him to get in touch to let me know the outcome.

Haven't heard anything back yet.

But, when I checked out his feedback left for other people, I'm starting to wonder what is going on.

He always buys shirts, sometimes several a week, but the really odd thing is he leaves feedback as soon as the auction ends, on the lines of 'great shirt can't wait to receive it'. But there's a significant amount of feedback along the lines of 'when will i recieve my shirt then', about 4-5 days after the auction ends

It's just a bit weird that the ones that he doesn't leave immediate feedback for, are the ones he doesn't seem to receive!

I haven't had any feedback yet, but I can't help wondering if the lack of immediate feedback, which seems to be his norm, indicates if I've been selected for a non receipt!

I'll wait and see what happens next, and if he says he hasn't received it, I will refund, as I can't be bothered to get into a dispute for £1.99.

But I'm wondering, am I paranoid, or is this all not quite right?

Strapped

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Last weekend a buyer won an auction for a shirt, only £1.99. He's a long standing eBayer, with over 1000 feedbacks. He paid on Sunday 3rd, and I posted Monday 4th. Seemed like a straightforward transaction.

Anyway, yesterday evening I got this message from him

'when will i recieve my shirt then '

I messaged back, confirming postage date, and suggested he could ask his neighbours if it had been delivered there and the local sorting office if it was being held there. I asked him to get in touch to let me know the outcome.

Haven't heard anything back yet.

But, when I checked out his feedback left for other people, I'm starting to wonder what is going on.

He always buys shirts, sometimes several a week, but the really odd thing is he leaves feedback as soon as the auction ends, on the lines of 'great shirt can't wait to receive it'. But there's a significant amount of feedback along the lines of 'when will i recieve my shirt then', about 4-5 days after the auction ends

It's just a bit weird that the ones that he doesn't leave immediate feedback for, are the ones he doesn't seem to receive!

I haven't had any feedback yet, but I can't help wondering if the lack of immediate feedback, which seems to be his norm, indicates if I've been selected for a non receipt!

I'll wait and see what happens next, and if he says he hasn't received it, I will refund, as I can't be bothered to get into a dispute for £1.99.

But I'm wondering, am I paranoid, or is this all not quite right?

I have started to tell buyers that I'm happy to refund but ask them to open a case so I can action it - that way, these type of habitual scammers will build up a record of opening cases for INR that will enable ebay to identify, and hopefully ban, them.

soolin

Now that open cases don't count against us as long as we refund, I think I would do the same as Strapped for any buyer I felt uneasy about.

porto_bello

Goldiegirl wrote: »

But I'm wondering, am I paranoid, or is this all not quite right?

By the way, no, you're not paranoid. 'when will i recieve my X then' displays an inappropriate attitude.

When a buyer's opening message is confident, abrupt and contemptuous it's often an indicator that they're going to be trouble - and they're experienced at causing it!

To be fair, in this case, the buyer has apparently been waiting a week, so it's not unnatural for them to chase it up - it's just the form of words that looks problematic.

Goldiegirl

I'm glad I'm not being paranoid!

If he comes back and says the parcel still hasn't turned up, I'll follow the advice here and ask him to open a case.

Many thanks

makemineadouble

I totally agree about making buyers open a dispute when an item has not arrived however small the amount is for (you might think it's not worth the hassle for the sake of refunding £1.99 but how many others might think the same and if the same buyer is doing it over and over to different sellers, lots of £1.99 refunds can add up to quite a tidy sum). Had more and more buyers claiming non receipt lately and started doing this for every one. It's absolutely amazing how many items suddenly appear within the next day or two!

ivavoucher

Trouble is, if you make him go to dispute he may neg you.

eBay should but most likely wouldn't help in this situation.

Strapped

ivavoucher wrote: »

Trouble is, if you make him go to dispute he may neg you.

eBay should but most likely wouldn't help in this situation.

Not if you word it right. You're not making them "go to dispute", you just need them to open a case so that you can process their refund straight away