what do i do now?

fsdss

i advertised a small piece of furniture on ebay, which clearly stated that the winner of the auction should arrange their own collection, and subsequently the item sold, heard nothing from the winning bidder with only 1 rating for feedback, so i emailed him (in America!!) who eventually replied that he cant afford shipping for the item, it has just cost me £2 to advertise, plus i expect a selling percentage fee.

what do i do? do i start the non paying process or just leave -ve feedback and jepodise my 100% rating with him returning it?

any advice greatfully received

Jellicle

This is the third time in the last three days I've posted this (TG for cut & paste!)


This happens a lot more than people realise, the best way to sort it out is amicably using the ebay system:

If you start a NPB and agree with your buyer that you will do it by the "mutual agreement" option then eBay will refund your FVF to you.
If you then use the "relist this item" option and it sells okay the second time around then eBay will (eventually) refund you the second Listing fee.

If your original buyer doesn't contact you then you can just continue with the NPB without the "mutual agreement" option, but to avoid the 'strike' most buyers in this situation will agree to do it "mutually".

- Yes, a bit of extra work for you but as a seller you have to expect a few xXx buyers who change their mind. It's not worth the hassle to pursue them and this is the best result you can hope for.

If you politely email your original buyer and agree the "mutual agreement" option then it won't cost him anything and he is unlikely to Neg you.
Hopefully he will leave you positive feedback (saying what a nice understanding person you are).

- You shouldn't leave feedback until he has done so.
If he leaves you positive feedback think carefully about what you leave him; many ebayers check the feedback a seller has left to evaluate whether to do business with them, a vitriolic negative from you - especially in reply to a positive or neutral - can do your reputation a lot more real damage than a negative.

bleugh

stuff that, if they dont pay you or contact you, strike them, and take any negs on the chin,

I had a yank a few weeks ago complain about shipping, i refused to budge

tell them straight that 'you will leave a strike and a neg UNLESS they leave you good / neutral feedback'

if they behave, leave them a nice neutral, and do it mutually agreed

yanks have a tendancy to leave negs regardless of what you've done anyway :-(

soolin

I tend to agree with bleugh, why offer the option of a mutual FVF when the buyer can respond unfavourably to that claim and lose the seller their FVF. For a mutual the buyer has to formally 'agree' or else not respond to the ebay email. If the buyer responds and says he doesn't agree then no FVF will be given and a new FVF claim cannot be started.

Sellers shouldn't lose out just because a buyer doesn't read the auction.

Soo

gravitytolls

Point out your terms and conditions, and request he refund your losses, tell him your feedback will reflect his genuine error and efforts to recompense.

Jellicle

soolin wrote:

... For a mutual the buyer has to formally 'agree' or else not respond to the ebay email. If the buyer responds and says he doesn't agree then no FVF will be given and a new FVF claim cannot be started....

- Are you sure that's correct???
- If so then thank you for pointing that out Soo!

soolin

Jellicle wrote:

- Are you sure that's correct???
- If so then thank you for pointing that out Soo!

Afraid so, which is why I won't use a mutual FVF option:

This is the relevant bit :

Sellers can file a mutual agreement not to complete the transaction immediately; however, if the buyer disagrees, the seller will not receive a Final Value Fee (FVF) credit and will not be able to re-file. The buyer will not receive a strike. eBay strongly recommends that sellers confirm mutual agreement before utilising this function. If the seller is uncertain about how the buyer will respond, the seller should send an Unpaid Item reminder to ensure eligibility for the FVF credit.

taken from here:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/confidence/upi.html

Soo