Ebay - what do you think of this buyer?

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=tarumi

Bought a lens from me for about $400 (buy it now), paid PayPal instant a few days ago but I am unable to reach him. Should I back-out? I have the option according to the terms of my auction...

Thanks for any thoughts!

Am I missing something? You are the Seller, the Buyer has paid and you want to back out of the transaction? Why not just wait him out and see what happens? What do you have to lose? I think that it could create all sorts of problems for you if you were to re-sell the item, having already been paid.

Did you have any "Terms" in your listing stating "U.S." sales only? I see Buyer is from Japan. I do no oversee sales and advise bidders bidders up front.

(This is comment based on you are not from Japan)

I am a buyer and seller on eBay as well.

It's not clear what your issue is with this buyer. Is it just that they haven't established contact after the auction? Are there unresilved issues such as shipping costs?

If the paypal payment went through you should have a shipping address for the buyer on the notification email that paypal sends. I've noticed that a lot of paypal buyers make fast payment but forget about contacting the seller to confirm details. If you have not had a response to any of your emails to the buyer after three days it would be reasonable to ship to the Paypal shipping address (insured of course). Or, you could just wait longer until you hear from him/her.

Seems reasonable to wait. I recently waited 5 days to hear from a seller who claimed to be away for a few days. Bad way to run an auction but the transaction ultimately went through w/ no probs...

You should know (I learned the hard way) that Paypal will only cover you if something goes sour if you ship via a trackable method (not USPS international) to a PAYPAL CONFIRMED ADDRESS ONLY.

I got hurt to the tune of $550 when I shipped a camera to the Ukraine (duh) after the buyer (instant payment) told me I should ship the camera to his nephew in Kiev as it was a birthday present. I did. A month later, Paypal tells me that the sale was fraudlent as the buyer paid with a stolen credit card and the credit card company was standing up for the actual credit card owner who claims not to have made any paypal purchases. Since I shipped to an uncomfirmed address, paypal said, sorry, nothing we can do for you... Learned my lesson... Had I simply shipped to a confirmed address I would have been able to keep my money...
--
Composition is job #1!

--Is he a verify paypal user? if not paypal will not fight for you money if the post office or someone else misplace your item.
NIkondude.

'Be your best'

I've been asked to wait for the funds to clear before. I'd do that then send him the lens. I'm curious as to why so much of his feedback is from users who are no longer registered?

I just had a look at your sale page for the 35mm PC Nikkor and there don't look to be any issues regardng selling to a buyer in Japan. I wouldn't have used insurance optional since of it gets lost you would likely be held accountable as sender. I trust there are no issues regarding the shipping methods and amount paid since you used the calculator in your sale.

Your sale ended on Friday and it's only Monday. There was nothing that I could see in your sale terms about contact after the sale payment.

Again, your choices are to send to the Paypal address as per the shipping and insurance paid for by the buyer or wait for another 4-5 working days. But, barring any unresolved issues, and presuming you can ship insured by Global Priority or Express, I would send it off. If you must cancel the sale you will need to return the money sent to you via a Paypal transaction to the buyer. The buyer's account is part of the details. You would be within your rights, I believe, to deduct any Paypal and eBay costs incurred by you, but no more and you should document this precisely in the correspondence (or message area in Paypal's transaction) with the buyer.

Good luck

... and let me add why I'm weary sending the item as of yet. Of course, I'll wait a little longer, but am asking here now so i can think it thru when time comes to decide

Buyer's PayPal address is unconfirmed, the buyers is unverified. His feedback shows no activity for about two years. Half his transactions are with sellers that are no longer registered (but this might just be time). He has only left feedback for about 1/3 of the transactions - I hate when people do not leave feedback...

He has not provided a phone # (I asked in my invoice to him) and that's needed for the shipping label.

PayPal will NOT cover me at all should it turn out he (or someone else posing as the buyer) used a stolen credit card. And this can happen for up to 60 days or more from now. So even though I got the money now, I have no guarantee whatsoever against a fraudulent transaction...

I had very explicit rules for international buyers, but unfortunately, in my last edit of the auction text I omitted a quotation mark from the HTML and they did not show. They are in the HTML source but not visible - Grrr!

Anyway, I'll wait and see. Thanks and any additional comments are welcome. I'll let you know how it goes...

Do you have anti spam filters on your email?

I once sold something on ebay and never heard from the buyer. I was getting ready to go postal on him until I went to paypal for some other reason and realized that he had paid me the day the auction ended!

It turns out that I was getting so much junk from hotmail that I filtered out any mail from that domain. And of course the buyer was using a hotmail account.
So eggs on my face there. To his credit he still left me positive feedback.
Now I just assume people are good until proven otherwise

Bruno.

I've never been burned on Ebay, but only because I'm paranoid. People try to scam me all of the time. I would NEVER do a deal that isn't covered by PayPal's buyer protection and I think most other buyers/sellers should understand why.

I personally wouldn't use hotmail for anything important, too many filtered out legit emails or even emails that just got 'lost' never to be found again...
-Chris

I do initiate all such e-mails thru eBay's messaging system, so I can go back and trace any transactions. The buyer should be able to do the same...

The buyer's e-mail is @aol.com, so it should not be considered spam by my Yahoo filters (though I keep looking at my junk mail folder more carefully these days, just in case)...

I'll wait a few more days to see what happens, then contact eBay to assist me in contacting the buyer...

GothtinPowers said:

I personally wouldn't use hotmail for anything important, too many
filtered out legit emails or even emails that just got 'lost' never
to be found again...
-Chris

Click to expand...

Your the seller,the buyer has paid.Why not just send him the lense you no doubt have his address.Its not what do we think of the buyer.Its what do we think of the seller.At this point not a lot.

Yes, you are missing something - read the thread.

Cheers

Worst case: spend the extra $$ out of your pocket and insure the item.....

of course I guess this won't help if it's a fraud deal though, huh?! Many times when I've sold something, I have thought I asked enough for shipping and duh! haven't.....I will dip into my own pocket and send something insured......for my peace of mind.

You're right to be very cautious with what you've detailed here. I would not accept the payment.

Facts are you've got an international bidder using a PayPal account which has limited activity asking to ship to an unconfirmed/unverified address. Bad news.

I recommend rejecting/refunding the payment and requiring the buyer to get verified/confirmed through PayPal and then you'll accept the payment.

I've done this multiple times with buyers. I explain to them very nicely that they just need to take the few days to get confirmed by PayPal so the payment will go through and the item can be shipped. I'm very clear that I'm happy to wait as long as they're in regular contact with me.

Nowadays, I will ONLY ship an item of value to a confirmed PayPal address and clearly state so in my auction terms. And, I'll only accept USPS money orders - go to the Post Office and get your cash before shipping. Lastly, for most auctions I now block international bidders and add them on a case-by-case basis.

Had to share my $0.02 on this one. Hope it all works out.

j.

kocho said:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=tarumi

Bought a lens from me for about $400 (buy it now), paid PayPal
instant a few days ago but I am unable to reach him. Should I
back-out? I have the option according to the terms of my auction...

Thanks for any thoughts!

Click to expand...

FYI - After five full days, still no contact with the buyer. I issued a refund and gave him till Friday to contact me to establish escrow payment if he is still interested. Ebay is notified that his contact info is invalid (his phone is incorrect, no response to e-mails) and they are checking on his contact information; supposed to either fix it or ban him in 48 hours.

Will let you know how it goes, but it looks like I'll need to cancel his bid and relist the item on Saturday...

Thanks again for the support.

He won your auction and paid for the item. He has 100% favorable feedback and a history going back to 2000. You ship to him.

It might help if you spend the time and read the thread before responding.