Hi! I am a new seller and the very first item I sold was to a person who selected local pickup, paid for her order and has since disappeared. I messaged her immediately after getting the purchase notice from eBay, and every day since. She made the purchase on 11/9 and it's now the 11/15. My settings are configured to cancel this order if I've not completed the transactions after 7 days.
Also, this woman doesn't appear to be local to my town. At first I didn't put much weight on that fact because there are so many people universities, colleges and teaching hospitals here that it's not uncommon for people, especially college-age and young adults, to keep their parents or hometown address on their personal business, but maybe I should reconsider my perceptions.
Or maybe I should just forget about local pickups though eBay all together. It wouldn't be so bad if these customers who do this were charged a penalty. This person is essentially "squatting" on the item so that I can't do anything except wait for my 7 day clock to roll over, as I miss opportunities to sell it to anyone else.
I guess my question is --- is this common? I mean if she accidentally purchased without realizing she selected local pickup, I'd expect a person to be concerned and contact me for a refund. Or is this a common behavior by some people who never contact the seller because they know the rules and are confident that they'll get a refund automatically once the clock runs out.
The part that irks me the most might actually be because she won't answer my messages, argh! 😬 And I've been super nice and helpful, telling her if she selected local by accident that I'd be happy to ship it for free if she'd just contact me to approve me sending it....but still no answer. Then again, for all I know, she may have met a tragic fate after completing her purchase. It's possible I may never find out.
Thanks in advance for any advice or feedback!
