Around a week ago I bought some flush cut nippers off of ebay from ebay user widget. After I sent the payment (that same day) I emailed him to see were my stuff was-- he didnt respond to my email for a few days, so I put a complaint in his feedback section. After I did that I checked my email and guess what...he finaly responded. I went back to fix my complaint and when I did I saw his responce to my comment. He said "I did not respond to his payment email he sent me". Now what made me mad is the fact I sent him an email telling him I would send the payment in a day or two. In his recent email he said he just got the payment that day. Well even though he said I didnt respond to his payment email, my responce to it was on the email he sent me along with other emails I sent him asking were my stuff was!! I guess if he wanted to make a good case he shouldnt have hit the reply button when he emailed me back because by doing that it also sends the original message that I sent him. So if you deal with this bastered be careful that this dosnt happen to you. Oh, one more thing, it took a week for him to get my payment in the mail even though he only live 2 hours away from me. I dought it took that long, it would have taken 3 days MAX for it to get to him. Grrrrr, I am not happy.

It's clear you're not a happy camper; however, I'll play a bit of devil's advocate here. Whether you're two hours or 2 days away, ground mail can take time to get through, that's whey they call it snail mail. Depending on when you dropped it in the mail box, it may have been the next morning before it got touched by a postal employee, maybe even a couple days if it went in the box on a Saturday. A simple ZIP code error or misreading on either your or the Postal Service's part can slow things down. A while back, at work, a doctor's office sent me a document that took over a month to travel les than 10 miles. I know it went out when they said it did by the postmark on the envelope.
You might be safer using Paypal and/or a credit card.

This is why I always pay with paypal, they work with ebay and if something is not recieved, they immediately take the money back, but you have to wait thirty days, I don't mind waiting though. They are very good about their service.

Rob

AJLaFleche, the reason I said it should have been to the seller is because during the same time I got a letter from Verginia that was sent after I sent my money order. The letter from Verginia only took 4 days.

A little lessen can be learnt here...never buy from things like ebay unless you can be sure. E.g. using PayPal will help and make you life a little less stressful.

I've bought off ebay twice now and everything went off without a hitch Only complaint is that I paid promptly and they never gave feedback, so I show a zero when I bid. Glad when someone does get a bad seller to be notified.

Snail mail takes time where ever you live. I use the following to estimate how long the mail will take. One day for drop off, one day for sorting, one day for each 1000 miles or part thereof, one day for sorting, and one day for delivery. So even if the guy lives 2 hours away, it will still take 3-4 days.

I too usually use PayPal or BidPay. While they charge a fee, it is usually in line with the fees I'm charged for a postal money order.

I've had hundreds of successful Ebay transactions, with about 100 as a seller and the majority as a buyer. I've yet to be burned as a buyer, I've had a couple of bidders never pay, but have always done the deadbeat bidder notification, relist and then resell the item. No real problems. My current feedback is in the high 400's (user ID rgronovius).

I've paid with personal check, money order (both postal and store type), PayPal, telelphone credit card deals and some face-to-face cash transactions (seller lived close by), haven't had a problem yet. I even mailed an item COD before.

One thing I have learned is to always get the receipt from the post office, and always mail things with the 45¢ delivery confirmation as a minimum and insure a kit if it is over like $20. Piece of mind is worth the price of a candy bar.

I agree with Sabot. The other thing you have to realize is that some people that sell deal in high quantities sold on eBay and may not be as responsive as you want them to be - even if you are very responsive.

I always email the seller within 8 hours of winning an auction (usually it is within 1hour) letting them know that I won and how I will be paying. I also let them know that I expect prompt feedback as soon as they confirm receipt of payment and that I will leave feedback upon receipt of the item. Usually, if I pay via paypal - I will forward them the receipt confirmation even though I know they will get one as well.

To date, I have always gotten positive feedback from everyone I bought from and have left positive feedback in return. Just be patient with the sellers and be as communicative as possible with them until you get your item or until you dispute it.

There are a few people that take longer than others to ship but as long as the item arrives as described, I note it, and then decide whether I want to buy from them in the future.

GR8Voyager

I have also noticed a phenomenon that occurs based on the ending price and expected price.

If the seller gets more than he had thought he would, the transaction gets completed extremely quickly. For instance, selling a kit that originally cost you less than $30 for over $60. Seems like that baby's in the mail and at your door in record time.

On the other hand, say someone is trying to sell a $50 kit and it only brings him maybe $20. It seems like it takes several days for the seller to answer your e-mails and a couple of weeks for the kit to arrive.

The inverse also works with the buyer. If he thinks he got a great deal, you get payment quickly. If he thinks he's paying too much because he got sucked into a "fierce bidding war" (he just had to beat that other bidder), payment arrives more slowly.

Just an observation that I have made and not a set law (now watch all the people say that they ship as soon as payment is received and the buyers who say they run to the post office 2 seconds after auction end).

Hi Matrix

Sorry you were unhappy, but I think you were too impatient. Great eBay transactions take a few days, but it's common for transactions to take longer. Leaving negative feedback, or general feedback comments should really be near your last resort. I'm not saying the seller wasn't a jerk, or slow, or whatever, but you do need to take into account the irregularities of the mail, and didn't you do this over Easter? The mail is always disrupted by days off.

Did you get your product in the end?

I've only had a couple of bad experiences on eBay, and I have over 200 feedbacks thus far as buyer and seller. Sometimes it takes a LONG time for the mail, and sometimes what is a big deal for one party (needing those decals or parts or $$ right away) is not a big deal for the other party.

One way to avoid (but not eliminate!) bad service is to buy from sellers with lots of feedback, and 100% ratings. Of course, new sellers can be just as good, but if you are unsure, only buy from those with lots of positive feedback.

my 2 cents.

Andy

Actually, I should mention that I have had a semi-bad transaction this year. Someone offered me something called a "Second Chance Offer". I guess this happens when the high bidder backs out of the deal and the seller offers it to the next highest bidder, which was me.

It was a Zvezda T-34/76 model 1942 for $11.11+$4 s/h and I paid immediately with PayPal. About a month later, I still hadn't received the kit so I e-mailed the the seller. His reply was that I hadn't paid him.

So I forwarded the PayPal payment received info to him. He then gave me a story about being overwhelmed and just behind, but added that I wouldn't care about that. I informed him that if he had just let me know I would have been understanding, but when you tell me I haven't paid when I know I did, that's just plain lying. I had to threaten to have PayPal reverse the charges to get him to admit I paid him. Needless to say I did not get feedback from him even though I left positve feedback for him.

I'd avoid user ID "Seaford2002" if I was you. I did learn never to accept a second chance offer though.

Hi Rob

Now there's a case where I would not have left positive feedback!! You're too nice.

It's too bad the second chance offer didn't work out. I think that's a great idea for eBay, but when I've tried it, the second bidder hasn't taken the offer. I think eBay does that to avoid sellers contacting second or third bidders to offer them the same product outside eBay. That way eBay gets a little more money and can regulate the transactions.

I'll avoid that seller if I run across him!

Cheers
Andy

herberta, the negitive feed back WAS my last resort. I tryed to contact the seller the other avalable ways, but he would not respond. I sent him several emails asking if he had recieved the payment and many more trying to get a hold of him. No matter what I did he would not respond, This was over a period of a week. I think a week is plenty of time to check, read, and respond to emails. When I left the negative feed back I stated that he didnt respond to any of my emails that I sent to him. Then he gave me negative feed back and said I never sent him any emails, but the one that the seller sent me had all the emails I sent him on it, this happend by clicking the "Relpy" button. So I think I tryed to not put negative feed back on him but it was the only way to get him to answer my emails. After I posted the negitave feed back he sent me an email stating he did recive my payment, yet the negitive feedback he posted on me said I did not sent payment and that I was a dead beat bidder. In the end I got the product (2 weeks after the "negitive feedback war").

LOL well it seems a lot of people who buy things online want them yesterday!!! I have seen a few of these types of postings and it has amazed me at the differences in time periods that some people seem to think snail mail should take to different areas....and also they assume their email to that seller is the only email that seller has to answer....a friend of mine is an ebay power seller and he recieves over 900 emails a week from people asking questions about items he's selling...plus as far as shipping goes....he waits until he has a load of stuff to ship before he goes to the post office...with him most of his sales get shipped within 4 days....then it is up to the postal service.
I have bought quite a few items off of ebay now....and 2 items were shipped together from 1 seller even though she claimed to have sent the 1st item before I had even won the 2nd....so it was obvious that she didn't ship it when she said....it took over a month to receive both items but I didn't pester her with emails as to where our items were....I knew she had better things to do and I would get the items sooner or later....I would have waited 8 weeks then asked where they were.....some people are busier than others and also some people have a life that takes top billing over sitting answering impatient people's emails on where their items are after only a week has gone by...that's just silly.

I'm just a small time seller on e-bay, maybe one or two items a month, just enough to finance part of my plastic addiction! For me this is not a livelyhood at all, if I respond to an e-mail in 24-48 hours I think that is fine. If I am out of town for the weekend it may take 3 or 4 days. I work until 4:30 and if anything holds me up more than 5 minutes at the end of the day I won't make it to the Post Ofice till tomorrow. In short lots of things can cause a delay of a couple of days, so take a deep breath and relax a little. So the guy as a bit of a jerk, try to de-escalate the problem, at the least it will make you feel like you did what you could to help him join the human race.

Coop

Coop

I have done about 12 "buys" on ebay over the past 6 months. Everything from a lamp to a new digital camera (just got it today!).

Altough I am very anxious to get what I bought, I tend to cut the ebay sellers some slack. Most of these people do NOT do this for a living and expecting the same service as Squadron, GreatModels or Amazon is not reasonable.

If you are unhappy, always escalate. Start out with emails and be patient. 24-48 hours respnse to your email is very reasonable.

Keith

Well I have only had pretty good experiences with ebay (as buyer and seller), but if you think a few days is bad for not getting an email response I think that's where you might want to rethink the situation. There are always reasons why people can't access their mail for several days. Look at me. I just went to Disneyland over the weekend and was away from a computer for 3 days.

Jim

You do realize also that this is likely not an individual, but a company. With 31,000+ positive feedbacks there is almost no way this is a one-person show.

Jim