Seller not allowing me to pay after "Buy It Now"

[bryan_d]

Hello all,

I apologize in advanced if this topic was covered prior, but I used the search and came up with nothing.

Back to the topic, I bought a new heatsink of a seller using a buy it now option, and proceeded to pay. Instead of being able to send the funds to the seller, paypal sates that "the person could not receive funds at this time". So I go and send the seller a request for total, and he/she emails back stating he cannot do anything because he/she is on vacation and does not tell me when he/she will be back.

Now I am wondering, is there some sort of wrong doing or technicality with ebay that should prohibit this? What I mean is that I used the "Buy It NOW", so that I could buy it NOW. Is it right for a seller to advertise his item as buy it now, and to turn around and say the item cannot be bought because he/she is on vacation?

Help me out all, or tell me I'm wrong and he/she is right and why?
Bryan d

PS - No where on the ad listing did it say that the seller was not available, I might add.

 

[Malpine Walis]

Well, from what you say, I think that you could view this as two separate issues.

First, why is his paypal account not working? If he listed the auction with the but it now option and then some other auction went bad, could paypal have frozen his account during the resolution? If that turns out to be the case, then I would tend to give the guy a bit of leeway on that matter.

Second, when is he back from vacation? I would agree that it is in poor taste to just leave the matter up in the air and not even tell you when he will be back to take care of the matter. Perhaps you should send him another email asking him for a date when he will be back to attend to matters.

Quite honestly, any of us could be on the short end of a series of errors. Perhaps his paypal email is not the same one that he uses for his auctions (and he can get to the second but not the first from where he is).

 

[Slayer2003]

Run away from this sale. It just doesn't sound right.

Guy made an auction, then went on vacation? No. Fishy as heck. Run swiftly.

Tell em a relative found what you were looking for for ya at a local shop n bought it for ya not knowing of the auction.

If anything, he will try and stretch the 30-day Ebay policy out and then insist you pay. After 30 days, you have no protection from Ebay/Paypal.

Good luck with this.

 

[Malpine Walis]

No, don't be as slimy as the other guy might be. Give him the one chance and ask how long it will take to fix the problem. If he does try to stretch it out like slayer suggested, then ask him to let you off the hook and email ebay to ask them to cancel the sale.

I have had auctions go weird on me before and if you try to do the right thing you have the full 30 days to get ebay to let you out of the deal. At the end of the process, you can know that you did the right thing and feel good about the matter.

Case in point:

Last year I won an auction at like ten at night. I pay-paled the guy right away. When I woke up the next morning, there was a charge back on my credit card. I actually had to resort to google to find the seller but I called him on the phone (it turned out to be a store in Pennsylvania) and he told me that he has had problems with pay-pal in the past. He has an unwritten policy of not taking pay-pal for people who do not have huge positive feedback.

Now the auction said that pay-pal was fine and it did not say anything about him only honoring pay-pal for people like me (perfect score but only on like 30 items). However, I gave him the same credit-card number that is pegged to my pay-pal (and told him that it was the same card) and he not only accepted it but gave me an upgrade to second day shipping because I did the right thing.

Weird, yes. But I did the follow-through and we both ended up happy and with positive feedback.

Oh and allow me to point out that I had sniped the guy and possibly cost him a hundred bucks. But he was an honest businessman and all is fine and well.

 

[masakabassist]

Give the guy a chance. In october I went on vacation to cuba and bought a graphics card off e-bay. Little did I know due to cuba's political state I could not pay for the item, so I e-mailed the seller and he allowed me to pay when I returned two weeks later.

 

[bryan_d]

Thanks for all the replies all,

I went ahead and got the contact information of the seller using eBay's system. I called the seller but only got a few rings and then a loooonngg Beeeep, then nothing. So I emailed the seller and have yet to receive a response.

What if this seller is trying to screw with me and does that waiting till 30 days thing? I really do not want to screw up my 100% feedback. Does eBay have the authority to nullify a transaction?

I have never been this worried over ebay before...

Thanks again all,
Bryan d

 

[Captain Slug]

Does eBay have the authority to nullify a transaction?

Yes it's called a bid cancellation should you not be able to get ahold of the seller.

 

[bryan_d]

Yes it's called a bid cancellation should you not be able to get ahold of the seller.

Thanks Capt,

Should I wait the whole 30 days, or should I already be taking action?

Thanks for all the patience all,
Bryan d

 

[Malpine Walis]

OK so you called him on some phone number that may have gone to an answering machine when you know that he is on vacation. that by itself is not really a fatal deal. Then too it has been what, like 5 days now?

Try emailing the guy first since you know that that works. If that goes nowhere then retract the bid. But don't play the waiting game. That could leave you unprotected.

Honestly, you could back out right now and you would be just fine. But if you don't give the guy one chance to do the right thing, then you have lowered yourself to the level of people who use ebay for fun and games and don't really intend to do business.

 

[bryan_d]

Honestly, you could back out right now and you would be just fine. But if you don't give the guy one chance to do the right thing, then you have lowered yourself to the level of people who use ebay for fun and games and don't really intend to do business.

Point taken,

How long do you think I should wait for his email? Oh, I forgot to mention that I emailed the seller back, and within less than a second I got a auto respond back from his email account with nothing in it?

All have been great help and I thank you,
Bryan d

EDIT: Dang I just read this on Ebay's site,

"Note: There is no equivalent for bid retraction in Buy It Now listings, or for listings where the bidding has ended. Once you've confirmed your purchase, you are obligated to pay the seller. There is also no equivalent for bid retraction for item listings using the Best Offer feature."

I wonder if I am screwed?

 

[deathman20]

I had a few of these problems just not with a buyit now. I called eBay up and got help on the matter and was able to walk away with it.

Downside though even though you canceld the auction he can still leave you feedback and you to him the same. Of course the feedback can be canceled or entered as neutral but it still be shown in your profile.

 

[tom10167]

Run away from this sale. It just doesn't sound right.

Guy made an auction, then went on vacation? No. Fishy as heck. Run swiftly

haha I love the intense paranoia that everyone has about Ebay.

WHO GOES ON VACATION?? IN JULY?!?!

 

[Captain Slug]

haha I love the intense paranoia that everyone has about Ebay.

WHO GOES ON VACATION?? IN JULY?!?!

Well, it's more like "Who is stupid enough to list an eBay auction and then go on vacation preventing them from being able to ship the item?"

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^ and at least not have the curtesy to say in their auction "on vacation"

i have seen many people state they are away and so they can not do anything until they are back.

 

[bryan_d]

Thanks for all the replies everyone,

The seller finally got back to me, but now he is saying that he cannot accept Paypal, even though his item description says so.

Basically we agreed that I do not have to pay, and I have talked to eBay help and notified them of the incident. The guy still acts like he is not at fault at all, and I am hoping he does not pull some BS, like making me pay after a month or something.

Do you all think that I should be doing more for this situation? Or perhaps I have missed a step?

This was the most upseting thing to happen while online shopping.

Bryan d

 

[Nathan0490]

Was it an ebay store or just a regular seller? I know ebay store has a function made specifically where you can say "ON VACATION... WILL BE BACK ON... etc. Eitherway he should have appologized for making you wait a week or more. Then he says he can't take PayPal? Very fishy, slayer may be right on this one. I would contact ebay on live chat and speak to them and make sure they nullify the transaction so he can't come back at you requesting funds later on. I would tell them, he was gone for over a week and i waited patiently but now he is refusing to accept paypal and I feel like he may be a scammer.

Good luck

Thanks for all the replies everyone,

The seller finally got back to me, but now he is saying that he cannot accept Paypal, even though his item description says so.

Basically we agreed that I do not have to pay, and I have talked to eBay help and notified them of the incident. The guy still acts like he is not at fault at all, and I am hoping he does not pull some BS, like making me pay after a month or something.

Do you all think that I should be doing more for this situation? Or perhaps I have missed a step?

This was the most upseting thing to happen while online shopping.

Bryan d