What to do about an unresponsive seller?

[topsman]

Just wondering what you all think I should do in this situation. I won a BIN auctin on ebay on 9/14. On 9/17 I recieved an invoice from the seller via eBay. I emailed the seller the next day, 9/18 to ask a question about payment. I again sent a follow up email on 9/24, yet needless to say it is now 9/26 and I have yet to hear back from the seller. Since both of us have aol email I noticed he has yet to even read my email. I did request user info last week and attempted to call the seller on 9/24 which ended up with no one answering.

 

The seller has feedback of almost 2500 with a 98% rating, which is rather good, but in my opinion a lack of communication such as this does not make me confident as a buyer. I chatted with someone who told me just to send my payment and assume I fullfilled my part of the sale agrement, but I hate to just ship off $60 to someone who can't even email me. I have no problem losing out on the deal, I could easily purchase this item elsewhere (it's not one of those rare find items), and honestly I could care less if he ended up leaving me a negative feedback, and filing a non-paying bidder before he could even email me.

 

So what should I do? Send the payment? Just keep trying to contact the seller? If I still cannot contact the seller do I have to report anything with eBay about the transaction? I think it is to late now to pass on my bid, correct? Any comments are appreciated, thanks.

[Hoot]

Does the seller accept PayPal? If so, you could pay with a CC and if he doesn't send it, then you have recourse through your CC company.

 

I'd try contacting him again by phone and see if you get a response.

 

You can also try contacting eBay and asking them what the procedure is that they recommend. It'll take a couple of days for them to get back to you.

 

BTW, did you use checkout? You could try that and see if it gets his attention.

 

Hoot

[michael]

 

 

i read hoots reply and for me it is excellent

 

i would myself do what hoot says exactly

 

this way you are protected by asking ebay what they recommend you do and then take it from there

 

paying by credit card through paypal then you got some recourse if you choose this route

 

good luck and please let us know how it turns out

 

michael

[papag]

I don't mean to sound cute or anything by this but did you happen to notice what part of the US the seller was from. They usally give a region, town, or state where the seller lives on Ebay. Is it possible that he lives in Florida? I know I keep hearing the problems with power and phone lines being out of service down there with all the hurricanes that have hit. Just a thought.

PapaG

[TomB]

I wouldn't knock myself out trying to get in touch with the seller. After all, if they can't bother responding to you then how have they earned their money? Also, a 98% rating on 2500 feedbacks means they have received approximately fifty negative feedbacks, which seems like an awfully lot to me.

[thebeav]

approximately fifty negative feedbacks, which seems like an awfully lot to me.

I agree.....

Much good advice here on paying.....

Paul

[HaydenTubbs]

All the advice has been great

But as Papag brought up if he is in FL he most likely could be without power.

In my city,Gulfport,I have power but most of the city does not as many large trees have fallen down on the wires and no power companies have not even gotten to our city yet.It is interesting to see how many houses are now deserted and are up for sale.

[topsman]

Yeah one of the first things I noticed was that he lived in Tampa, I know they didn't get a direct hit but the whole state is mess. Still no luck trying to contact him, although he has had 2 new auctions pop up a few days ago, unless they were auto scheduled. Kinda funny how one of those auctions is the same as the item I won... I'm following Tom's advise not to kill myself trying to contact him. I did my part as a buyer in trying to contact him on several occasions, but if he does not feel the need to respond to my questions about how to pay him then I really don't feel the need to send him my payment.