Buyer paid for item but is no longer a registered user and cannot contact them

[wwjd1432]

A buyer recently paid for an item of mine on Ebay and I tried to contact them before I shipped the item.  They are no longer a registered Ebay user.  Now I am concerned that if I ship, I will lose out on the money they sent me, which supposedly comes within the next day or two.  I'm not really sure what to do because Ebay has not contacted me at all regarding this person.  Any ideas?

[slippinjimmy]

Sounds like eBay closed their account for some sort of bad behaviour, if the money is showing in your payments as "processing" or has finished processing and is now in available funds eBay will not take the money back from you.

Why were you trying to contact them?

FYI - a Buyer who is no longer registered no longer qualifies for Buyer Protection, they cannot open claims against you via eBay although they might be able to do a chargeback from their payment source.

I haven't had one of these situations in years but it was somewhat common in the distant past. I always shipped and never had an issue.

You can if you wish cancel the order and refund the money, when cancelling you may see a choice of "no longer registered", if that is not available use "problem with address".

[frommichel]

SlippinJimmy gives sound advise. Odd that eBay has not notified you. I don't recommend pocketing the money - this would be taking advantage of someone and we must be honorable. I had a similar experience a few years ago. I shipped and had no problems because I had communications with the buyer beforehand. So, shipping is a big gamble. I recommend that you do not ship, refund in full, relist and move on.

[varebelrose]

Just ship it.  This happens more often than you might expect, but they did pay for it so the right thing to do is send it.

[kaytees-kloset]

My advice is to ship it. EBay has done this to me 3 times in the past 6 months.

The first time, I shipped it and there were no issues whatsoever.

The second time, I did exactly what eBay instructed and turned into a long drawn out affair and a complete waste of time and money. The buyer re-registered (which is all that eBay really cared about) and cancelled the order.

The last time (just recently), I , again did exactly what eBay instructed (not to ship). The buyer eventually re-registered, filed a claim, was refunded and left me negative feedback. Of course, calling eBay and asking them to rectify the situation is an exercise in futility.

Those  that deal with customer service know what I mean. BTW, the negative feedback that was left for me cost me two additional orders.

In the future, I am shipping without hesitation.

[legalbeagle52]

I've had this happen several times in the past.  There was no notice from ebay at all.  I just went ahead & shipped the items. After all I just couldn't keep the money, they did pay.  As some of the others said, there was never any problem.   Never heard from them again.  I say go ahead & ship.   

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Has happened to me numerous times too, tho' not recently, in my case I had always already shipped & all of them were fine.  But, since you have a choice, my decision would be based on how pricey the item is & if you had any red flags about the buyer prior.  I do see that you sold a couple of fairly pricey items. 

[nidsel]

I'm having the same problem, the buyer is no longer a registered buyer after she made the purchase and I printed the shipping label.,  but eBay did send a message saying it cancelled the order due to  security concerns.  I voided the shipping label, but not sure if the Buyer will be able to re-register and file a complaint against me.

[ckimodog]

@nidsel 

If they do create another account that one will be shut down as well.  They are under eBay's radar and eBay is usually pretty good about keeping these types off of the platform.  They could not file a complaint against you if you didn't sell them anything on their new account & again most likely it will be shut down as well.  I wouldn't worry about it. 

[kh-cathy]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.