Help! Have I been too patient or just stupid?

ailey

Lego_house wrote: »

Agreed - but a lot of sellers have a block on buyers with 2 or more strikes...

Where can I find out if this seller has any strikes? She has now asked me "if I can close the case and sort it out between us as she is a good payer". It's a fortnight yesterday since she purchased 7 items and keeps promising to pay. Now I'm feeling that I was lousy eventually taking that course of action. If I were to close the case at this stage, then unblock her and she does decide to send a Postal Order, can I cause myself any problems closing the case before payment? If she still decided not to pay (although promising to and that she still wants the items) would I be able to reopen the case? I don't want to shoot myself in the foot as I have never experienced this before. I've had over 30 messages from her and I'm just finding it so stressful.

Lego_house

ailey wrote: »

Where can I find out if this seller has any strikes? She has now asked me "if I can close the case and sort it out between us as she is a good payer". It's a fortnight yesterday since she purchased 7 items and keeps promising to pay. Now I'm feeling that I was lousy eventually taking that course of action. If I were to close the case at this stage, then unblock her and she does decide to send a Postal Order, can I cause myself any problems closing the case before payment? If she still decided not to pay (although promising to and that she still wants the items) would I be able to reopen the case? I don't want to shoot myself in the foot as I have never experienced this before. I've had over 30 messages from her and I'm just finding it so stressful.

Leave the case open. If she pays, she won't get a strike.

You would not be able to reopen a case if you close it.

ailey

Lego_house wrote: »

Leave the case open. If she pays, she won't get a strike.

You would not be able to reopen a case if you close it.

Thanks so much for your advice. I'll explain to her that she won't get a strike if she pays.

SlowCooker

ailey wrote: »

Where can I find out if this seller has any strikes? She has now asked me "if I can close the case and sort it out between us as she is a good payer". It's a fortnight yesterday since she purchased 7 items and keeps promising to pay. Now I'm feeling that I was lousy eventually taking that course of action. If I were to close the case at this stage, then unblock her and she does decide to send a Postal Order, can I cause myself any problems closing the case before payment? If she still decided not to pay (although promising to and that she still wants the items) would I be able to reopen the case? I don't want to shoot myself in the foot as I have never experienced this before. I've had over 30 messages from her and I'm just finding it so stressful.

You don't have to reply to her messages, just ignore her. If you close the cases and she never pays, you'll lose eBay fees for the 7 items.

You can't find out how many strikes a buyer has, but you can block buyers who have 2 or more strikes, by going to: site preferences >> buyer requirements >> edit >> Block bidders and buyers who have 2 unpaid item(s) recorded on their accounts within 12 month(s).

ailey

SlowCooker wrote: »

You don't have to reply to her messages, just ignore her. If you close the cases and she never pays, you'll lose eBay fees for the 7 items.

You can't find out how many strikes a buyer has, but you can block buyers who have 2 or more strikes, by going to: site preferences >> buyer requirements >> edit >> Block bidders and buyers who have 2 unpaid item(s) recorded on their accounts within 12 month(s).

I didn't think you could find out how many strikes people have as I've never seen anything like that on EBay. A good idea then to go through what you gave me above and block bidders with 2 or more unpaid items in 12 months. I wasn't aware you could do that.

I don't like not to reply to her messages but I did message her back last night with a short message to her to reply via the Case or EBay will think that she has not responded but she still sent me the next message through the normal route today to 'sort it out between us'. I'll send another brief message for her to go through the Case route and that I won't close the case as she now needs to take action.

Many thanks for your help and good advice.

Lego_house

If I open a case I never get into discussions with the buyer or leave any messages for them. The case is open and the email ebay send them has clear instructions of what they should do next.

techspec

Lego_house wrote: »

If I open a case I never get into discussions with the buyer or leave any messages for them. The case is open and the email ebay send them has clear instructions of what they should do next.

Same here - every day my inbox is full of stories of how their cat bid in error etc etc and then several begging messages etc. I wont cancel no more because if they then dont accept it i lose fees. They can also leave negative feedback - and its amazing how many people who cancel think its then ok to have a pop at the seller.

I just ignore them all now - its bliss. Winds them up though.

arcon5

Op --

Your too nice.

But sadly turning in to a pushover if you are considering closing the cases. It's not your fault she hasn't paid! With online banking and debit cards payment is easy even without an eBay account. Even POs are usually with you in no more than 5 postal days really.

She probably genuinely wants the items but can't afford them. Not your problem really

ailey

Lego_house wrote: »

If I open a case I never get into discussions with the buyer or leave any messages for them. The case is open and the email ebay send them has clear instructions of what they should do next.

Because I opened the Case I wanted her to go through the case to reply but she said she didn't know how to do this on her phone and could I contact EBay for her to say that she had responded. I know I care too much and like to help people and, yes, on EBay it can cause me problems. Anyway I did this for her last night and spent 1 hour all except 2 minutes on EBay Live chat and seemed to go round in circles trying to get answers for her. Believe it or not, I was asking how she can now prevent getting a strike against her and it took me almost one hour to get the answer. They said she has 32 days now to pay from when the dispute was opened. I thought it was only 4 days so maybe the rules have changed from years ago. If I don't receive payment by 4 days from the date of the dispute being opened I can then close the case and they said I will not lose by final value fees but they will be automatically refunded (7 items so too much to lose). I think, at that point, she does get a strike against her. I will wait though to see if her Postal Order arrives by Friday as I do hate people getting strikes and I don't think I've ever done that to a buyer as sometimes there are genuine reasons for the delay in payment. I also tried to get the answer as to how she is having problems paying for multiple items on a combined invoice through Paypal on her mobile phone but didn't quite get the answer to that one. It seems very difficult to get direct answers from Live Chat. I do feel kind of sorry for her and do want to help but, on the other hand, would rather not send her the parcel as she possibly will give a negative or negatives even though the items are good and nothing wrong with them. She might just do this out of spite because I opened the case.

arcon5 wrote: »

Op --

Your too nice.

But sadly turning in to a pushover if you are considering closing the cases. It's not your fault she hasn't paid! With online banking and debit cards payment is easy even without an eBay account. Even POs are usually with you in no more than 5 postal days really.

She probably genuinely wants the items but can't afford them. Not your problem really

Thanks arcon5. I know I care too much and probably am a pushover lol. I wasn't considering closing the case as I knew I would probably lose out if I did that. I just wanted other people's opinions on that just to confirm my thoughts on it.

She seems to buy and sell on EBay with just her mobile phone as she says she doesn't have a computer. She has sold lots of gold scrap items and other good priced items (I've just had a look and it amounts to £315 minus the fees) so I don't think it's a problem with not having the money to pay for the items at it's only just over £30 she's to pay me. The real problem seems to be paying for multiple items on one invoice through her mobile phone but I didn't get the answer to that one last night through Live Chat.

Anyway I told her last night that I had contacted EBay Live Chat on her behalf and she said she will definitely get the Postal Order by today (Tuesday) and that she would send me a message with the number of it so that I knew it was on its way.

She then sent me another message 11 am-ish this morning to say that her Post Office is closed today due to an electrical fault (which may or may not be true) and that she'll send me the Postal Order tomorrow. If she had said 2 weeks past on Sunday that she couldn't pay me for 2 weeks, I would have gladly kept the parcel for her but it's the fact that she got the invoices combined then wanted them uncombined, then wanted them combined again then wanted them uncombined then, for the third time, wanted them combined again then wanted them uncombined again and this was all due to not being able to pay for multiple purchases on her mobile. Also that she was going to send the Postal Order then that she wouldn't send the PO because her Paypal was to be fixed in 4 days. I don't think any of us would have a date for it being fixed but I may be wrong. Anyway it wasn't fixed so she would then send me a PO and it's been one excuse after another. Is it any wonder I then checked her feedback to see if this was a problem she had at other times. That was when I noticed that she had been buying items every day, except one, for the 2 weeks since she had bought my items. She had paid for the rest quickly and got good feedback. Strangely enough, one person above thinks I was sneaky doing this but I was getting so frustrated. Feedback is there for all to see for whatever reason. I don't normally turn detective lol. I now wonder what tomorrow's excuse will be or I might be lucky and the Postal Order will be on its way. Fingers crossed!

SlowCooker

ailey wrote: »

She then sent me another message 11 am-ish this morning to say that her Post Office is closed today due to an electrical fault

I'm sorry OP, but she is messing you around and you are letting her take advantage of you over and over again.