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Friend living in Belgium wants to buy a Laptop, and prices in US are much better, even after shipping and customs/VAT. Many sellers don't ship abroad. He asks me if he can ship it to my house, he will take care of documents, I just print and apply label and ship to Belgium via USPS.
he makes and offer slightly below Buy It Now and seller accepts the offer. Seller has 100% positive feedback.
My friend makes payment and gets FedEx tracking number via eBay next day (March 9). Item ships from Texas, due to my place in NJ on March 16th (today).
FedEx doesn't show any info on 9, 10, only on 11 it says "Label created". Same thing ever since, message didn't change. I suspect the seller never shipped the package.
Friend sent messages 2 days ago, seller didn't respond. Friend says he want to open a dispute, but he thinks today is too soon, probably tomorrow, 1 day after item was due. There is one small chance in hell the laptop shows up today, maybe he sent the wrong tracking number. I doubt it, otherwise he would have replied to messages.
hal and other eBay experts, what is your take on this? should friend open dispute with eBay, or with PayPal, and when? today? tomorrow? wait a few more days?
Thanks (and Merci from my friend)
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One thing you can try is the "find contact information" link, which might get you a phone number for the seller. Calling might get you the seller or a member of his household who would have an explanation that you may or may not believe. If the seller fell out of a tree last week, but the package is sitting on the hall table ready to go, a household member might be able to drop it at Fedex.
Once your friend loses patience, he can file an "item not received" claim and go from there. There may be some waiting period before he can escalate the claim and/or ask for a full refund.
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This is easy...
It's not uncommon for sellers to print up a shipping tag and not ship for a few days. It IS uncommon that a 'where's my package' question goes unanswered.
At least for ebay USA, in the 'my ebay area' you can see the expected arrival date. If the package doesn't arrive by that date, a dispute can be opened the next day.
I buy lots of stuff on ebay and I'm cold and calculating when dealing with sellers that do not do everything exactly the way it's supposed to be done.
I'll send one request for info like your friend did. If I get no response, I open a case at the first possible chance. If the seller is alive and well, THIS will get their attention.
DON'T FEEL BAD ABOUT IT.
If the seller had shipped when they were supposed to, none of this would have happened.
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Totally agree with being 100% by-the-book with sellers who have been paid and who aren't following prompt shipping procedures. Your obligation as a buyer is to PAY and then it is over. As the sellers, the onus is on them to get the goods to the buyer.
In my experience sellers who seem unresponsive and tardy turn out to be the sellers who won't ever ship, who come up with stupid excuses after multiple prods as to why they haven't already shipped but will need more time to do so, will ship you stuff with material flaws they didn't disclose in the description, etc. - and the sooner you get the ball rolling on those problems the sooner you'll have your money back so you can move on.
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Could this have to do with eBay's Global Shipping Program? As I understand it, the US seller ships the item to a central US location (Kentucky, I think), and eBay takes it from there.
It's new to me, and I'm still not sure I know the nuts and bolts of how it works.
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tenders wrote:
Totally agree with being 100% by-the-book with sellers who have been paid and who aren't following prompt shipping procedures. Your obligation as a buyer is to PAY and then it is over. As the sellers, the onus is on them to get the goods to the buyer.
In my experience sellers who seem unresponsive and tardy turn out to be the sellers who won't ever ship, who come up with stupid excuses after multiple prods as to why they haven't already shipped but will need more time to do so, will ship you stuff with material flaws they didn't disclose in the description, etc. - and the sooner you get the ball rolling on those problems the sooner you'll have your money back so you can move on.
I've bought quite a bit of stuff on eBay and I've never had a seller to just not ship something at all. I've had
some that were slow, some that can't pack something worth a crap but never a complete no show.
If I have a problem I prefer to contact the seller before opening a case. Some seem to think that's the only
way to get something corrected. I know when there's the least little problem with a Lego my wife sells
the first thing 99% do is open a case when she could resolve 100% of these cases by simply contacting her.
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pdq wrote:
Could this have to do with eBay's Global Shipping Program? As I understand it, the US seller ships the item to a central US location (Kentucky, I think), and eBay takes it from there.
It's new to me, and I'm still not sure I know the nuts and bolts of how it works.
good point. AFAIK my friend was not aware of this, since he wanted to ship the laptop at my house. Also the FedEx label clearly indicates my town as destination.
If the deal goes bust (I hope my friend can get money back) and he wants to buy another laptop, I will point him to this eBay program.
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Grateful11 wrote:
...
If I have a problem I prefer to contact the seller before opening a case. Some seem to think that's the only
way to get something corrected. I know when there's the least little problem with a Lego my wife sells
the first thing 99% do is open a case when she could resolve 100% of these cases by simply contacting her.
it seems that my friend did contact the seller 2 days ago (so he told me) and the seller didn't respond. I think it's time to escalate to eBay.
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hal at al,
should my friend open a case with eBay or PayPal?
I seem to recall that eBay is where one should open a case, just double checking my facts. Thanks.
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Next step after contacting seller and not getting a response is to get seller's contact info and call, as noted above. "Escalating to eBay" means selecting "item not received" to start the case, and eBay won't let you go through with that until a certain amount of time has passed (I think someone explained that avove as well.).
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