Board 8 > Anyone on here buy stuff off of E-Bay? Weird situation here...

(+) Yeah! (+)

So since I've been playing Smash a lot I've been trying to collect different color Gamecube controllers and I've gotten almost one of every color, but then I stumbled across the custom Char Aznable red one and my eyes lit up. I found that this controller came packaged with its own custom Gamecube and I was sold. After waffling on it for a bit I placed an order with an international seller from Japan (this was on January 21st) and I was fully prepared to wait... a LONG time, given COVID and everything else going on with international shipping.

I generally check my mail every Monday and I figured a month after the order was placed was a safe time to start checking for it... so I checked on Feb 21st. Then again last Monday. And now this Monday.

The tracking number the seller gave me was for Japan only and it said that Tokyo had received it and sent it out but that was back on the 28th of January so I was starting to get a little bit worried. I figured I would start a dialogue with the seller and see if they could help me. When you file something on e-bay though your only two options are I Want A Refund or I Want My Item and I figured if the post office lost it somehow I should go with the former option.

I was super nice in my message to the seller, wanting to account for the language barrier and assure them I wasn't gunning to leave negative feedback and I just wanted to see if they could provide me any further tracking information.

Within about two hours they'd responded and given me a refund in full. The hell? This was a $600+ purchase and a super rare collector's edition console and they are now at a loss on BOTH. I'm extremely confused that they would be so quick to dish a refund out. Their message was along the lines of "Oh darn, another loss we'll have to chalk up to Covid! Sorry!"

For one I'm pretty sad if this console is actually lost in the mail somewhere because it's a seriously great looking system (and controller). Second, what if I'd received the item and just... lied? The seller would be totally fucked. They didn't ask for proof or anything. They have a ton of positive feedback too so it seems unlikely they're operating any sort of scam.

E-Bay's system sucks for finding specific accounts too so say a few weeks down the road I get my console, it's gonna be very hard to get this guy his money back.

I dunno. This just felt extremely bizarre. Anyone else on here encountered anything similar?

---

A game I ordered from Japan on November 14th 2020 didn't arrive until February 25th, 2021. Wasn't ebay though, but shipping everywhere is very slow

---

ninkendo posted...

A game I ordered from Japan on November 14th 2020 didn't arrive until February 25th, 2021. Wasn't ebay though, but shipping everywhere is very slow

Good lord.

Why didn't dude just tell me that? I would've been more patient! If this shows up in 6 weeks I'm gonna feel terrible.

---

Speaking from primarily a seller's perspective here:

Back in December (December 10th to be precise), there were two items I had sold to separate buyers (here in the US mind you, not even international) that seemed to be hopelessly lost in the post office system. Now, the items were definitely not as expensive as your $600 console but they were still sizable purchases. I had waited a good few weeks and there was some contact between me and the buyers, and they were patient and respectful but eventually after a month had passed, and with constant post office pestering & mail investigation claims turning up negative, I just simply refunded their money back with no item to show for it anymore. That's just the reality of being a seller sometimes. The kicker: both items eventually DID show up about two weeks later out of the blue. I kindly asked both buyers if they could either RETURN TO SENDER or just pay me alternatively (which they absolutely have no obligation to do BTW). To my surprise, one sent me a check, but the other was zero communication, so yeah. That's just the reality of Ebay sometimes.

It's really not too hard to find purchased items, everything should be in your history, check under hidden orders if you don't see it. I believe you can send a check like my buyer did, or request an invoice (I have no personal experience doing it this way, so take this with a grain of salt).

---

Yeah I wasn't even allowed to open an investigation until at least 90 days had passed. I don't think eBay has anything like that

---

Snake5555555555 posted...

Speaking from primarily a seller's perspective here:

Back in December (December 10th to be precise), there were two items I had sold to separate buyers (here in the US mind you, not even international) that seemed to be hopelessly lost in the post office system. Now, the items were definitely not as expensive as your $600 console but they were still sizable purchases. I had waited a good few weeks and there was some contact between me and the buyers, and they were patient and respectful but eventually after a month had passed, and with constant post office pestering & mail investigation claims turning up negative, I just simply refunded their money back with no item to show for it anymore. That's just the reality of being a seller sometimes. The kicker: both items eventually DID show up about two weeks later out of the blue. I kindly asked both buyers if they could either RETURN TO SENDER or just pay me alternatively (which they absolutely have no obligation to do BTW). To my surprise, one sent me a check, but the other was zero communication, so yeah. That's just the reality of Ebay sometimes.

It's really not too hard to find purchased items, everything should be in your history, check under hidden orders if you don't see it. I believe you can send a check like my buyer did, or request an invoice (I have no personal experience doing it this way, so take this with a grain of salt).

Alright well this gives me some hope that I'll still get my console. I feel bad for the guy. I don't know if I could send him a check, but if he were to give me his paypal e-mail address I could pay him that way.

---

I sell on ebay quite frequently (~10k a month in $100 items). I currently have a request open from a buyer for a similar but not quite as bad timeframe thing. He bought from me on Feb 19th, I shipped same day, last postage scan says Feb 24th and delayed. It's going from Florida to Hawaii so I'm guessing it's stuck waiting for a plane somewhere or is in a Hawaii sorting office.

He wants an update by Mar 12th otherwise a full refund. I am fairly certain he's going to get his refund then the item turns up later.

With your timescale, the seller can probably claim insurance if it doesn't show up soon. Not sure what timescale is in Japan but here the post office wants 60 days before doing anything on an insurance claim. He may have also just refunded you because I believe ebay only lets you open up and deal with requests like that for 60 days after purchase (least feedback can only be left for 60 days after purchase)

I ordered off eBay once

---

If I recall, air shipping from Japan is still suspended so that means they ship it via boat and it and takes 3-4 months or they use a private delivery service and it takes 3 days.

I'm guessing they never sent it as it was just out of stock and they didn't bother cancelling it earlier.

As far as the situation you described, yes, that is one of the situations that can occur and a cost of doing business but usually can't be abused too much by the same user.

---

Sellers get fucked by ebay all the time. Price of doing business I guess.

Well now I feel horrible for not just waiting.


---

ExThaNemesis posted...

Well now I feel horrible for not just waiting.

If it's a business and not some guy then he's probably insured

With stuff from overseas, it can sit in customs for weeks/months. I ordered a Super Console X from China, and I thought it was lost in the mail because the tracking wouldn't update. I ended up doing a pretty deep google dive and found out that stuff like that can sit in customs for ages before they actually do anything with it. This was with an Amazon purchase, but I would assume ebay sellers run into the same thing.

---

Dude, one time I bought a poster from an overseas seller off eBay, and it didnt show up until a YEAR later, after I had moved even.

Id already gotten a refund like 2 months after, and somehow it bounced around for 10 more months before getting to my old address, and the person living their at the time got a hold of me to give it to me lmao.

---

if the item gets to you can you just pay for it?

---

NeatoAnAccount posted...

if the item gets to you can you just pay for it?

Not how ebay resolution center works. Once an item is refunded, there's no way to reverse it or reopen the case

I'd also add that the way ebay treats sellers is complete shit. Everything goes in the buyers favor.

If you ever order an item where the seller doesn't accept returns then just mark it defective. Regardless of whether it's defective or not ebay forces the seller to take the return and pay return shipping. Once the seller gets the item back even if it's not defective ebay says seller now has the item therefore the buyer gets fully refunded. Ebay then won't do anything about the seller having to foot the bill for the return either. Had it happen multiple times to me and ebay never refunds my shipping costs, they just shrug their shoulders and say 'Every buyers expectations is different. What they consider defective may not be defective to you'. This applies to brand new items in perfect condition

Honestly I'd sell elsewhere if there was a better option.

While not as bad as in December (Covid, Trump, AND Christmas), orders are very slow all around, ESPECIALLY International

---

ShatteredElysium posted...

I'd also add that the way ebay treats sellers is complete shit. Everything goes in the buyers favor.

If you ever order an item where the seller doesn't accept returns then just mark it defective. Regardless of whether it's defective or not ebay forces the seller to take the return and pay return shipping. Once the seller gets the item back even if it's not defective ebay says seller now has the item therefore the buyer gets fully refunded. Ebay then won't do anything about the seller having to foot the bill for the return either. Had it happen multiple times to me and ebay never refunds my shipping costs, they just shrug their shoulders and say 'Every buyers expectations is different. What they consider defective may not be defective to you'. This applies to brand new items in perfect condition

Honestly I'd sell elsewhere if there was a better option.

Ugh yes this is all so true.

---

Man it sounds scary as hell to be a seller tbh

---

While there are definitely horror stories to selling, I will say things are smooth sailing for the most part! The negatives tend to stick out in memory but for every order defect there's 100+ orders with no problem.

---

Yeah, I have a little over 500 sales and there's like 4 which left me feeling wronged.

2 were returned defective when in perfect condition leaving me out shipping both directions ($35 and $20)

1 was ebay messing up their own authenticity process but refusing to admit it. I physically only had 1 of this item in stock ever. My pictures were of the item not stock photos. Ebay said I sent the wrong size. Item they sent back matched what they said but did not match my photos. I only had 1 of the item in stock so it was physically impossible for me to have photographed what I did and it also be the item they sent back to me.

1 was a guy claiming item did not match the photos. Bad contrast or something made it look a slightly different color on his screen than what it was. Even though the description and details and style code all specified the color of the item (he thought a black item was green). I had to refund him but he did at least pay return shipping.

There's been some close calls with USPS potentially losing items but they always worked themselves out in the end.

They have to favor the buyers, else all the scamming and shit would be so much worse.

---

I'm all for favoring the buyers when there's no evidence but they still favor the buyers even if you can prove they are lying.

Again I didn't threaten dude or anything I was like "bro just tell me what's up" and he must have had bad experiences or something and just issued the refund immediately.

---