I bought a fairly cheap Yugioh card (less than $50) from a US seller about a month ago. The seller never sent the card. The tracking never updated. Don’t think they dropped it off at the post office at all. The package was supposed to be delivered mid-July. So a few weeks ago, I messaged him asking if he has a status update. He proceeded to send me two tracking #, one of the original one that was never updated and then another one of some other order.
Anyways, they seemed confused but said would refund me, but didn’t explain what had happened and only through Paypal. I thought that was weird. He could just do it on eBay and it’d be the same, and he’d be able to recoup his fees, I believe.
After another week of no response from the seller, I just initiated a refund through eBay. Just today, the seller responded saying he would like for eBay to refund me using his credit card because his Paypal has been suspended and he doesn’t have enough funds to refund. A few hours after, eBay made a decision on the case and declined my refund request.
I tried to call eBay but I guess it’s after hours, so no response? This is kind of bizarre.
Just checking if anyone has had a similar experience?
ebay customer support is bad normally and beyond useless currently with covid. @hypernova gave me this advice and it has been helpful. I have had decent success using the chat instead of the phone. Just keep in mind I have learned that the customer support agents don’t actually care about you or your case and will bold face lie directly to you to make you go away. Be polite but firm, and don’t get off the chat until they actually do something. Just keep trying until you get a support rep who will or can actually help. Don’t be afraid to ask to speak to a supervisor or someone else if your current rep isn’t helpful (most of them just say generic answers that do nothing).
Good luck!
Meanwhile I shipped a card that almost certainly got to a buyer, or at least it will reach him soon enough, who was being impatient even though COVID is affecting shipping times and ebay literally forced me into a refund lol
How long did they wait before demanding a refund lol. I don’t really understand why people can’t just wait a little longer due to unforeseen circumstances such as a pandemic! People just need to chill out a bit.
I had this exact same situation except I was in the sellers position.
As far as I understood the situation I was in eBay couldn’t refund the seller outside of the 1 month window that the buyer is given to initiate the case. If it is outside of that window it is up to the seller to refund through PayPal.
Like your seller I had a 0 balance in my PayPal account when trying to initiate a refund. Even though I have three different bank cards associated with my PayPal account, PayPal can’t give a refund in this situation unless you have a valid balance.
I had to initiate a bank deposit which took 6 business days (kinda crazy) to get deposited into my account.
And finally the weirdest thing… I had to get eBay to close the case before I could actually send the refund (weird) to the buyer.
All in all my buyer was really patient and I appreciated them for that.
I hope your seller is honest and doing all they can for you. I’m sure my buyer was getting nervous at some points but I was acting as fast as I could with the knowledge I had at the time.
I hope this helps and good luck!
I sold the card on July the 13th and shipped it either July the 15th/16th without tracking because it was a $25 sale. This guy opened up a case on the 23rd
I messaged him as soon as he opened up the request, telling him how COVID has affected shipping and how some of my other customers have gotten their cards delayed as much as a few weeks to a month, if not more.
He said, "“I don’t feel comfortable waiting another two weeks. At this point I’d like to request a refund.”
I absolutely hate the ebay clowns that you have to deal with sometimes
Wow all I can think is “yikes,” such a pain in the ass to go through damn, sorry you had to deal with that mate! Can’t wait 2 weeks for something worth $25 is something else man.
ah, i see. i might’ve just crossed the 1 month time frame. i was being patient since this order wasn’t that big and the whole pandemic situation. but i guess that hurt me. it’s just that eBay didn’t really provide any reason other than they decided that they can’t refund me. also, i thought the option for a refund would be disabled after the 1-month window. anyways, i’ll keep working with the seller. he did say he would send me a refund, so i will trust him. there is no reason to scam on such a small order. but really appreciate the insight!
@panama yeah I kinda wanted to be a little snarky with that buyer and say, “man it’s a $25 card, can you really not wait another week or two?” but he had already messaged me a few times before and I didn’t have the patience to deal with him any longer. I requested that he sends back the card or pays me the money again when it comes but he didn’t send a message after I refunded him so I’m guessing I was just scammed lol.
The answer to this is to use tracking. Shipping in PWE you will have this happen occasionally and really have no way of knowing if it got to the buyer or not.
@ozenigma I’ve saved more by not using tracking on orders under $50, it’s fine. After ebay fees I would take home $22 on a $25 order. Spending 20% of that on tracking isn’t ideal… yeah it would’ve been nice to actually take home the money but at the end of the day, I’ve saved more by not tracking cheap singles ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I do this too sometimes. It really depends on what the card is, the buyer’s reputation, etc. But if a buyer claims INR then I knew that was a risk going into it and I’m going to refund and move on. I don’t see it as me getting scammed - either I’m going to pay the tracking cost or I’m going to occasionally have an INR claim when I ship without. Either way it’s just a cost of doing business.
