Ebay does not step in upon request
Hello, I reported twice (once on Jan 26th and once on Mar 3rd) a seller for policy violation (see described below) and asked ebay to step in, but nothing happened. What to do? I want my item, compensation or other solution?
Just a minute after I won the auction, the order has been unilaterally cancelled (had no time to pay it) by the seller and immediately sold to another buyer without any communication with me. The order was cancelled with reason "do not ship internationally", despite my regularly used primary shipping address is in US and was automarically added in the order with $6 shipping cost. I've opened communication and the seller answered that it was a confusion, but refused to cancel the 2nd sale or to find another solution for me.
gator08041971
·2 years agoFor me, its not a matter of fear, its a matter of hassle.
For the record, the land mass I have the most trouble with is to our south when it comes to eBay.
But, hey, everyone can think what they like. I said my piece on it above.
kathiec
·2 years agoAll buyers have a 100% rating. Sellers haven't been able to give negative feedback to buyers since 2008.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoWell as a buyer with a 100% positive rating I was shocked because of this particular seller's reaction. Now I am also shocked to understand that many more US sellers thing that EU citizens are a kind of dangerous, more risky or even a lower level buyers, since both US and EU citizens are free to travel btw both countries and have similar standard of living index. I do not exactly understand what is the problem, since I can pay with US credit card and of course my US shipping address is a private house in OK, where I am registered while I stay in US, and how exactly my EU citizenship reflects on your payment charges or shipping costs in this situation? And why do you think that ebay did not filter the buyers - they have all my addresses in their database ? I have not even a single sale in ebay, but as a buyer I can assure you that Paypal currency exchange rate is for our expence (always pay in $) and you know that the risk to be cheated is a 100% for the buyers, since the sellers do not ship anything before they get their money, but sometimes we get nothing or not exactly what we've ordered and then waiting weeks for the support to investigate.....And yes, I agree that ebay has 2B transactions every day, but since they collect profit from each sale, they also need to provide fast support for everyone.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoBuyers can only have 100% feedback, because they can't receive anything but positive.
As far as getting cheated, now days, I think there are as many buyers as there are sellers that scam each other.
bonjourami
·2 years agoFast support for 175 million users? You also must shock pretty easily.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agosince I can pay with US credit card and of course my US shipping address is a private house in OK, where I am registered while I stay in US,
OK.
If you can pay with a US credit card and have a US address, I can presume you also have a US bank account with a US bank?
Then open an account using those to register.
...and how exactly my EU citizenship reflects on your payment charges or shipping costs in this situation?
Otherwise, eBay will charge your seller with the international fee, which is related to your registration not your payment.
Otherwise, the policy will stand.
US sellers thing that EU citizens are a kind of dangerous, more risky or even a lower level buyers, ...,
Yes they do.
As a Canadian, believe me, Americans live in a tiny bubble of fear.
The Money Back Guarantee basically doesn't apply to non-US purchasers.
If a seller is using eBay International Shipping, a Seller Protection program , or a buyer is using a forwarder the Buyer Protection provisions of the Money Back Guarantee don't apply.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoEveryone who stays in US has a bank account. I mainly buy from ebay.de so I will not change my registration address, but I can use another account with US registration and shipping address for items from USA, if this will relax the sellers. So far all of my US purchases were shipped with USPS with no additional charges, no forwarders and etc. It seems that you are right about the tiny bubble of fear 🙂
I do not expect any phonecalls or any fast support. I work only in written when it is about such cases, so just an e-mail or at least a case status update within a few weeks after I submit my report and ask them to step in would be enoght. Just like Paypal for example.
Thank you all for this discussion and wish you a pleasant weekend.
zoda99
·2 years ago@skirtchev82
What you said is false. My sister lives in the U.S. and does not have a bank account. You need to fact check what you write before you post misinformation here.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoOk, lets say that if you stay in US legally even for a while and would like to have a bank account, there is no problem to open such account. I've opened mine long time ago, while I was still with J1 student exchange visa...
gator08041971
·2 years agoAs someone that doesn't sell internationally myself, here is a view from my seat on the issue:
I prefer to sell only to other people from my country. Part of it, is that I wish to support my country, and part of it is to avoid issues that I have ran into selling to other countries in the past.
I have my account set to block anyone that has a registered address from another country. Unfortunately, eBay still hasn't set a flag option to also block anyone with an account that is also registered in another country. So that means, despite my settings, and my warnings in my listings, I still get buyers from other countries that try to bid or buy my items because they are using a spoof address (forwarder)
With auctions, if I happen to see a bidder from a country other than the US bidding on my item, they get blocked. No warning, no message, just added to my block list.
Unfortunately, some buyers manage to succeed in buying an item from me, even with all these precautions in place. Its so frustrating for me to not have the option to unilaterally block any buyer with a non-us address for their account OR their ship to from buying.
Now, I haven't gone so far as to cancel a sale on an item to someone that buys internationally as I don't want to be an ass, but I do notice I get hit with conversion fees too once in a while on some, which is yet another reason I prefer not to conduct business with out of country buyers. However if it were an expensive item, I would most likely cancel the sale.
And finally, the highest chance of my auctions getting a winning buyer that doesn't pay? Yep. They are almost always from another country. Especially South America ones. Not sure why, but it happens a LOT.
And now you know why I try to avoid it, and actually dislike the work around that eBay has allowed on the platform for those of us that refuse to sell to anyone outside the US.
I have nothing against anyone in another country personally, but with regards to my items I sell, I want to sell them to my fellow Americans and avoid the headaches dealing with international.
That is simply my view.
Thanks,
bonjourami
·2 years agoI have always thought Ebay shouldnt force sellers to sell to ff buyers if they dont want to.
gator08041971
·2 years agoWell they don't force it, but they will penalize the seller in some cases if they cancel, despite having it even stated in the listing description. Every listing I have, has a statement somewhere about it. And its listed in the item page shipping info. But the buyers ignore that and look right past it and don't care about what the seller requests.
Sure, I could cancel every single one as bad address, but eventually that will catch up to me somewhere. I shipped a pair of hard drives the other day to a forwarder in DE bound for Nigeria! I mean, why even have the **bleep** option in the first place?
bonjourami
·2 years agoTrue enough.I think Ebay forces it by allowing payment to be made with a foreign cc so the transaction goes thru. And many of these newbie sellers dont understand the fee they pay for that international cc transaction.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoThat's one thing I like about Pay Pal, being able to block foreign payments.
I wish Ebay had that.
bonjourami
·2 years agoYes I remember those days too. When sellers had some rights about who and where they wanted to sell to.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoOk, thanks you again, but still seems to me that except the chatbots (useless in non standard cases), there is no ebay support at all (except PayPay). I am surpriced that to place a wining bid on ebay action actually means nothing. Maybe I live in EU and do not understand US law, but lose nothing to request confirmation by the authorities that I am wrong.
bonjourami
·2 years agoYou are making a mountain out of a molehill, maybe time to move on from this?
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoHas nothing to do with US law, they can't make the seller sell to you either.
It's time to find another seller that will sell to you.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoWell I am sure there is, for example federal trade commision and have time for wastin..... Thank for clarifying the situation, but in this case the biggest issue not with the seller, but ebay no reaction on my two step in requests, no support at all, no even a single e-mail.....
kathiec
·2 years agoThe US Federal Trade Commission, like all other US regulatory agencies, is only concerned with upholding US law. As has been explained to you, nothing in your case is a violation of US law.
With an estimated 2 billion transactions a day, eBay isn't able to send emails for every report, particularly when you consider they aren't allowed to tell you if they took action against the seller. You reported, eBay may or may not have given the seller a defect. That's all you're going to get.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoThere's nothing for Ebay to step in for, the order was canceled, so it's over.
Ebay can't force the seller to sell the item to you.
woodland_gnome
·2 years agoThe seller should have automatically gotten a "defect" when s/he cancelled the transaction, but the reason s/he chose (from a list of 3 at that time--a 4th is added after 4 days if the buyer hasn't paid by then) blamed you and avoided that. "Defects" are the primary tool eBay uses to weed out bad sellers, downgrading the selling status of those who get too many relative to their sales volume (as opposed to having to pay employees to actually investigate to see how likely it was that the seller had a legitimate reason to cancel vs. deliberate policy violations).
In my opinion a seller doesn't know that there is a "Problem with the address" when s/he hasn't yet gotten a shipping address from the buyer (either at payment or when s/he pre-authorized payment to make an offer or place a bid). Sellers tend to panic when they see someone with a Registration Address (which is what they see until you have provide a shipping address at payment or pre-authorization) and are quick to cancel, and that ("problem with address") appears to them to be the issue. I highly recommend communicating with the seller BEFORE you bid or offer or commit to buy to reassure him/her that s/he will be shipping to an address in his/her shipping zone AND that you understand that the seller's obligation ends when it arrives there as described (the Money Back Guarantee is voided when it is forwarded).
You can try to report the lie or stretching of the definition at https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicId=4850 I don't know if eBay will do anything about it (give the seller the defect s/he should have gotten if s/he had taken the blame him/herself, keep the cancellation blaming you from counting toward your Open Transaction Limits) but it's relatively easy to do it that way.
You may leave appropriate (calm, factual--if the seller said that x was the reason say "seller said x. . ." so people don't think you are just jumping to conclusions) feedback to warn future buyers/bidders. If the usual links have vanished, go to anyone's Feedback Profile (doesn't matter who, click on the feedback score in parentheses behind the username) then scroll down to below the last comment on that page to find a "Leave feedback" link that doesn't vanish (it brings you to a list of items you can leave feedback for).
Theoretically you could sue the seller for breach of the contract of sale (for the difference between the auction price and what you ended up having to pay for a replacement), but that is almost never practical.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoThank you very much. I already left negative feedback and seems this will be all. But it is a clear policy violation, since it is written that the seller cannot cancel any order without any communication with the buyer. And actually the problem is that ebay hasn't stepped in immediately upon my request, to ask the seller to re-issue the order using my primary us address (as I said I use this address for many years without any issues by now).
In the meantime, is there any US regulator, where the customers can report such issues? It seems that ebay sellers can do whatever they want, without any penalty.
bonjourami
·2 years agoCompensation for what?
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoI've won this item for $120 and not possible to find it for less that $200 in the same quality - 80$ compensation is fair i believe. Is seems the sellers can violate ebay policy without any action from ebay ..... why is then this policy existing ?
kathiec
·2 years agoYou have no idea if eBay took action against the seller. If they did it would be in the form of an account defect, as per their policy. They won't tell you if they took any action, as per their policy. You are entitled to nothing else, as per their policy. Ebay has no policy to compensate buyers beyond refunding any monies they paid. Since you paid nothing, you're not entitled to any further compensation.
bonjourami
·2 years ago'I've won this item for $120 and not possible to find it for less that $200 in the same quality - 80$ compensation is fair i believe.'
LOL!!!!
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoThat listing didn't provide International shipping and some sellers will not ship to a freight forwarder.
What do you do, find another seller.
stainlessenginecovers
·2 years agoMany sellers see that you are not in the US and using a 'freight forwarder' which they do NOT want to chance/ship to someone outside the country, even if 'going through' a US destination first.
As stated by another poster- nothing can be done, you cannot force anyone to do anything except get your money back, which you have $0 owed.
kathiec
·2 years agoYou're seeking a solution eBay doesn't offer. They can't force the seller to ship the item to you. And there's no compensation in play, because you're out no money. All they can do is give the seller an account defect for using a false reason to cancel. They may have done that, but due to privacy concerns they won't tell you any action they took.
You've reported the seller. All you can do now is find the item elsewhere.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoHello, so as far as I understand the sellers can cancel immediately the order (don't giving a chance to be paid) if they don't like the price, and ebay do nothing to push them or to compensate the buyers?
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoI don't think them canceling the order had anything to with the price, but with not wanting to sell/ship outside the US.
Compensate for what, you're not out anything, but a little time.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoI've spend hours to communicate with the seler, to find out how to contact ebay support (to understand that basically there is no support), to report twice and now to search answers here. And a lot of nerves of course. And my primary shipping address is US as already mentioned and automatic order with US shipping for $6 was generated.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoYou might use a US address, but some sellers don't want to sell to International buyers using freight forwarders.
Beside using a freight forwarder, sellers also get charged an extra fee for International buyers that they don't think they should have to pay.
Maybe Ebay should start charging the extra fee to International buyers and not the sellers that don't want International buyers?
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoI offered to pay additional up to 30% price just to have this item, but the seller said that he re-sold it 5 min after I won the auction, so it is not about a coule of $.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoHas nothing to do with the money
It has to do with you being in a country the seller doesn't want to sell to.
Nothing you can do but find another seller that will sell to International buyers.
reallynicestamps
·2 years ago@skirtchev82 how to contact ebay support (to understand that basically there is no support),
If you mean you want a voice on the other end of the phone, you will be disappointed.
The phone reps have a terrible reputation for getting you off the phone as soon as possible even if that means giving you the advice you want to hear instead of the advice you need to have.

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.
https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.


The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.
ed8108
·2 years agoSome of us have a hourly time rate, so non billable time is money lost
Seller wasted a buyer's time by canceling the transaction & not shipping to a US address.
Discouraging buyers is not good.
bonjourami
·2 years agoDont we all wish we could be paid by the hour for all the time we've wasted. I waited two weeks for an Amazon item that was then canceled, do I think Amazon owes me money? Hardly.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoA seller can cancel for any reason or for no reason at all.
What would the buyer need to be compensated for unless the buyer had already paid and I gather from your message here that you had not yet paid.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoFor the ended auctions ebay policy says they can't just cancel the order without communication with the buyer. My bid would not be acceptable for the system if my address was not in the US.
kathiec
·2 years agoYou've misinterpreted eBay policy. If a seller cancels they're required to give the buyer one of a few standard reasons. This seller did that. That doesn't mean the buyer has any choice in the matter.
And no, there is no US regulator to which you can report it. The seller has violated no US laws. You need to let this go. You've done all you can do.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoWell the seller's reason is obviously fake and for sure there is such regulator, even in Bulgaria there is.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoThere maybe in Bulgaria, but not in the US.
skirtchev82
OP2 years agoAnd below is the link to the auction:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/296167613320?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11051.m43.l1123&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=f577ed7272354cd5aef0b42944921798&bu=42996140596&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20240126050013&segname=11051