Ebay policy weak and fraudulent

[lim_harr]

I have recently sold a bike on ebay, the buyer is in Denmark and I'm in the UK, shipping takes some time and is delayed but I reassure the buyer the bike is on it's way.

Whilst on holiday last week the buyer opens a case as the bike has still not arrived, within three days 5th-8th September ebay with no correspondence from me refunds the buyer the cost of the bike £234, two days later the bike arrives with the seller.

I return home and immediately query the case, send ebay the tracking details and request they reverse the new invoice amount of £234 which they are now charging me.

They query the tracking details and suggest I contact the seller for the money.

After another day ebay now accepts the bike has arrived with the buyer however that it is now my responsibility to get the money from the buyer to pay the invoice and in true patronising ebay style they list details of how I can avoid this happening again.

Has this happened to anyone else? 

[annasunicorns]

Ouch, I am so sorry. It happened to me once but it was a shirt and I just messaged the buyer to say, enjoy the free shirt. There is no way to directly contact your buyer like an email, just ebay invoice and hope they pay, so for what was a $40 item, I never bothered to try collecting payment. Hopefully someone has a better plan (or, your buyer is honest).

[castlemagicmemories]

For the future, you can call Ebay CS before delivery, show that tracking shows movement, and ask for an extension.  They can give you up to ten days.

Hopefully the item is delivered in that time.

[luckythewinner]

why doe's ebay let these people get away with this

Because they have no prudent way of stopping them. 

need to be able to give negitive feedback people will know to stay clear of these bad buyers

First, negative feedback would do nothing to help a seller steer clear when the item is a Buy It Now or when an auction bid is placed in the closing seconds. Second, if sellers did leave negatives for buyers, buyers would simply take a few seconds to create a new account and wipe the slate clean. 

Right now, eBay doe snot have nearly enough buyers for the items already listed, so they have no incentive to put up barriers for buyers or to worry about retaining sellers. I suspect eBay could lose 10% of its sellers overnight and not even skip a beat. 

Unless the balance between buyying and listing changes dramatically, I doubt you will see much sympathy from eBay.