Dead Beat Sellers make life tough

[tdebuys]

For the third time I've purchased medical consumable items for my 98 year old mother.  I have to make several purchases of the same item each year which adds up to hundreds of dollars, and I always try to order ahead far enough that she never runs out.  Frankly I've gotten great prices on ebay which helps her financial situation and I'm appreciative of that.  However, I pay for my orders as I place them.  I have never failed to pay and I get nothing but a refund from eBay after we go days past the stated delivery window.   It's getting really really old.  This is just me venting, but surely some of these non-shipping sellers need to be gone.   It's great that eBay refunds without a hassle, but it's not great that I keep having to go through this same process over and over.   Frankly I don't want rebates, I want the merchandise that I order.  I guess getting a savings is not without it's perils, but getting refunds in stead of merchandise is rapidly diminishing my interest in shopping on eBay.

[downunder-61]

Did your regular seller leave eBay? or are the medications very hard to get at the moment?

Seems strange that this should just start happening lately, hope you find a responsible seller soon.

[eburtonlab]

What reason were those sellers using to cancel?

If a seller cancels as "out of stock", the seller's account receives a costly defect; several of those and the seller soon loses selling privileges.

If the seller is cancelling as "buyer requested" or "problem with buyer's address", you can report the seller for cancelling for an improper reason. Sellers that routinely cancel for inappropriate reasons and that are reported to eBay for that rarely wind up selling for very long.

https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicId=4850

What sort of feedback do those sellers have for selling? How long have they been selling similar medical items?

You may be able to avoid many issues by choosing to only purchase from experienced sellers that have a demonstrable track record of delivering similar items and getting positive feedback for those transactions, and by avoiding new or unproven sellers, or sellers that have drastically changed their selling behavior, or that show signs of being drop shippers -- using stock images and descriptions that appear to have been copied directly from another site, selling multiple quantities of random items that have no apparent connection, offering free shipping of bulky items where it seems unlikely that an individual would be able to profitably ship using retail services.

Often it is much easier for a buyer to avoid buying from marginal sellers than it is for eBay to suspend those sellers, because eBay has to have a justification for shutting down a seller, while a buyer can simply choose to purchase from a different seller based on nothing more than a gut feeling.