Seller doesn't ship if auction win is too low

[forgotten*finds]

9 days ago i won an auction and the seller still hasn't shipped the item and has ignored every message that I have sent to him. It is now one day past the delivery due date so I am going to ask for a refund which will be ignored then I will have to go through the resolution center and it's just a headache. I know the reason he didn't ship it out is because he didn't get as much money for it as he wanted to but I'm curious if I can find out if a seller has done this in the past, before I bid on an item?

[mkaczorsee]

How do you know the seller didn’t ship?

The seller is NOT required to upload tracking. 

If the delivery date has passed, just open an INR case and you will get refunded. 

[akix026]

I believe the question was: is it possible to find out if a seller has a habit of not shipping items won during auction if the winning bid is too low or if seller habitually never responds to buyers messages, and is there a way, besides feedback, to find out if a seller does this regularly?

[mudshark61369]

@forgotten*finds,

  " I'm curious if I can find out if a seller has done this in the past, before I bid on an item"?

Before bidding did you check the seller's feedback profile?  You do that by clicking on the number in (parenthesis) next to their ID/name.  On the page that opens click on the As a seller tab.  If they have negative or neutral  feedback you can click on the numbers received to read only those comments.

  If you see that the seller has no feedback for selling, or has not received any feedback in over a year, then chances are they had the payment placed on a 21 dayHold by PayPal.  If the seller doesn't sell much and then sold something like a cell phone, that too could cause the payment to be held.  They do this to all new or returning sellers, even if they buy and have a verified account.  Your Paypal acct. should show the transaction as Completed but theirs says Pending, and they probably do not know what to do.

  "9 days ago i won an auction and the seller still hasn't shipped the item...  It is now one day past the delivery due date so I am going to ask for a refund which will be ignored then I will have to go through the resolution center and it's just a headache".

You won the auction the day before Thanksgiving, which means they might not have shipped until Monday.  eBay was telling me packages would be delivered on the 22nd, when there was no postal service.

Given the day you won the auction, and the beginning of the Holiday buying season a package being one day late isn't unusual. The street I live on is the 2nd to last on my carrier's route, she usually gets here between 3:30 - 5pm.  Last night she didn't get here until 6:42, because she had over 200 packages on her truck.

You can open your purchase history and to the right of the won item there's a Leave Feedback button with a More actions drop down menu. Click on that and select I did not receive my iten, skip the contact seller part an open a dispute.  The seller will have 3 working days to respond (next Tues) if they do not, ask ebay to step in and get a refund. That shouldn't cause you to get a headache.

  "I know the reason he didn't ship it out is because he didn't get as much money for it as he wanted to".

While that is a possibility, you do not know for sure that is the reason the package hasn't arrived, or that the seller hasn't responded. If the seller is new or inexperienced and has a hold on the payment, they may not have responded because they think you are trying to scam them. 

They may also have shipped without getting a tracking number, so they don't have any info to send you. Shipping with tracking is not required of sellers, though it is in their best interest to do that.

If you find that the seller is new or returning, and you want the item. Message them again, tell them to login to paypal, click on the Help button, then type Payment Hold into the topic search box. Then they will get the info they need to complete the transaction.

[akix026]

So in other words, no there is no way to find out if a seller has bad habits unless it's in their feedback. Thanks for the info!

[mudshark61369]

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@akix026 wrote:

So in other words, no there is no way to find out if a seller has bad habits unless it's in their feedback. Thanks for the info!

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@akix026,

No there is not. However sellers who do that more tan a couple of times get defects and it does not take many of those before they are sacntioned or banned.  Most sellers know to start auctions at the least amount they are willing to accept.  Some items it is very safe to start at a very low price and experienced sellers know when it is safe to do that. 

Generally, it is new or inexperienced sellers who take ebay's bad advice to start auctions at a very low price "to encourage bidding".  That is just another reason why it is best to check each seller's feedback profile, to see if they are new or a very ocassional seller. 

[pingpong517]

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@akix026 wrote:

So in other words, no there is no way to find out if a seller has bad habits unless it's in their feedback. Thanks for the info!

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same goes for buyer who bid and win...and then don't pay....AND seller can't leave negative feedback... 

they may have strikes, but who knows that at the time...or at all.

[airsheep]

Sellers haven't been able to leave negative feedback for buyers for over a decade, because bad sellers were using it as a club to keep buyers from leaving justified negs. Buyers may indeed have strikes, like sellers, but ebay is utterly opaque about letting other buyers and sellers know; feedback is the only guideline, and that is a weak reed to lean on.

[castlemagicmemories]

Just read the seller's feedback comments to see what issues other buyers have had or are having.  

[castlemagicmemories]

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@akix026 wrote:

I believe the question was: is it possible to find out if a seller has a habit of not shipping items won during auction if the winning bid is too low or if seller habitually never responds to buyers messages, and is there a way, besides feedback, to find out if a seller does this regularly?

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He never added the qualifier, besides feedback.

From the OP:

I'm curious if I can find out if a seller has done this in the past, before I bid on an item?

[lovett-1000]

These are the sellers e bay should boot. I am learning fast as my actions have not gone well. The traffic is just not out thier to do bids on e bay anymore.  I today sold over 7 items on bid that were very low ball sales. The items was worth much more. But as a good seller I honored all.  To bad for honest bidders that a seller will not stand by the deal E bay needs to up the game and punish any seller that dose not honor bid sales.  They do not because. Like me most sellers just do not like taking risk and then have to give it away. The bid thing on e bay is going away not near as many as in the past. If e bay dose not give offers on final discounts on bids.  Then they will fid out the sales will go.  How can you sell a item for .99 cent. Postage lowest lable on e bay $ 2.66. If it sells on bid $ 3.65 - .37 E bay - .41 Pay Pal. You made 21 cent if you charged for the postage. If you offered free mailing you lost $ 3.44 on the sale.  Even as all are not like me. So it hard to judge. But you are right do not list it if you are not willing to sell at your listing price. And E bay really needs to step up thier game on the bid thing. Are not going to be as many new dummys as before. 

[castlemagicmemories]

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@akix026 wrote:

So in other words, no there is no way to find out if a seller has bad habits unless it's in their feedback. Thanks for the info!

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Exactly.  

[seller*by*day]

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@akix026 wrote:

So in other words, no there is no way to find out if a seller has bad habits unless it's in their feedback. Thanks for the info!

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And unfortunately there are many self serving buyers who aren’t using the feedback system correctly. As long as there are buyers who won’t leave appropriate feedback seller will get away with their bad habits

[castlemagicmemories]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

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@akix026 wrote:

So in other words, no there is no way to find out if a seller has bad habits unless it's in their feedback. Thanks for the info!

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Exactly.  

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To clarify, not every little mistake needs to be documented, or warrants bad feedback, and if you do leave it like that, you will be blamed~sellers can claim pattern of bad feedback even if every one was warranted~so it is a catch 22.  You do the best you can.  You can hurt someone's livelihood as well.  In any case, the feedback may be removed, so there is no warning there~so it may not matter if it was left.  Buyers can't judge what they can't see, what has been removed.  

[castlemagicmemories]

To the OP:  Also if you do leave many appropriate negs, seller can use that to claim you have a pattern of leaving negs and leave too many, and they can get your negs removed on that basis.  I don't know if that has anything to do with sellers wanting buyers to leave more negs.  

But you might want to start leaving more negs because sellers are saying that buyers are irresponsible who don't leave negs.