How would you handle this???

[beerman_1001]

Had an auction won by a buyer in Florida several days prior to Irma.  Minor item ($20 or so shipped). No communication since.

This is a experienced Ebay'er.

Sent an PM indicating I would cancel the sale, or handle however they wished.  Nada in return.

Under the circumstances, I do not wish to open an unpaid item case, in the event this person was negatively affected by Irma, and add to their woes.

Thoughts on how to handle this????

[pvcliff]

I'd continue to wait for them to get back to a little normalcy in their life. I believe you have 30 days (anyone??) before you'd lose the opportunity to file a UPI to get your fees back. I know someone who just got home today after having evacuated a week ago. They came home to power, but had trees and shingles and things to deal with even though they came through pretty much unscathed. Give the buyer some time.

[fossil_diver]

Give them some time. I'm in Florida and I still have no power. The power companies are lying about the restoration progress. 

[femmefan1946]

Check the Weather Channel to see if his area was even affected.

I'd give it another week, if he was, before opening an Unpaid Item Dispute.

If it was days BEFORE the storm that he won, he had time to reply before anything happened.

If he was prepared enough to move out, he moved to somewhere with internet access because, why not?

[loveyourimagination49]

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@fossil_diver wrote:

Give them some time. I'm in Florida and I still have no power. The power companies are lying about the restoration progress. 

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Are you on the west coast?

a few days ago, I heard the east coast would be up Sunday and the west 10 days. Glad to hear you're semi-ok. Having no power is awful.

[mistwomandancing]

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beerman_1001 wrote:

Had an auction won by a buyer in Florida several days prior to Irma.  Minor item ($20 or so shipped). No communication since.

This is a experienced Ebay'er.

Sent an PM indicating I would cancel the sale, or handle however they wished.  Nada in return.

Under the circumstances, I do not wish to open an unpaid item case, in the event this person was negatively affected by Irma, and add to their woes.

Thoughts on how to handle this????

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It's your call on this.  We both are likely understanding that your buyer was in an area hit hard by Irma and unable to pay/receive/send communication yet.

If it were me, and especially since this is such a small sale, I'd set the item back and just wait.  Maybe try to message them every few days, but some of those areas are predicted to be out of power for quite a few more days....

There's no real hurry as far as eBay is concerned, so if you don't hear from your buyer or receive payment after AWHILE (your definition here) then you can open the UPI case and get your selling fees refunded, and be freed to relist your item.

I don't think you're the only one going through this sort of thing here.  Storms really can throw a monkey wrench into sales going smoothly whenever a Bad One hits some part of our country.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

Did you google the house address to see if they are in the flooded area? 

I sold something to Tampa yesterday. I'm going to be very surprised if I get an order from Houston anytime soon.

Sad to see two very populated states hit so hard, so many lives affected, so many houses, so much land, so much destruction. 😞 

[mistwomandancing]

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ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

Did you google the house address to see if they are in the flooded area? 

I sold something to Tampa yesterday. I'm going to be very surprised if I get an order from Houston anytime soon.

Sad to see two very populated states hit so hard, so many lives affected, so many houses, so much land, so much destruction. 😞 

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When storms are really damaging, tornados as an example, there sometimes ISN'T a home/building left standing at that address to make delivery to!  Nor a person there anymore to accept delivery. 

I expect there will be mail being returned from some of the hardest hit areas...

[candd205]

I have family in Orlando. They finally got power back yesterday and they still don't have internet. If you can, I think they would appreciate it if you could hold the item for them until they have a change to reply.

[southernfriedbelle]

Thanks for your empathy and understanding for our plight down here. Many still with no power. We got power back yesterday. Still no Internet, landline, cable. Spectrum saying could be a month or more. Give buyer time.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@mistwomandancing wrote:

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@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

Did you google the house address to see if they are in the flooded area? 

I sold something to Tampa yesterday. I'm going to be very surprised if I get an order from Houston anytime soon.

Sad to see two very populated states hit so hard, so many lives affected, so many houses, so much land, so much destruction. 😞 

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When storms are really damaging, tornados as an example, there sometimes ISN'T a home/building left standing at that address to make delivery to!  Nor a person there anymore to accept delivery. 

I expect there will be mail being returned from some of the hardest hit areas...

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Let's hope the ebay bots don't decide sellers in these areas have to relist their items this week. This is why ebay should NOT make these auto relist decisions on seller's behalf.  Sorry buyer....I can't mail it because my house washed out to sea. Ebay bots decided I still had the item for you, I'm just not sure what part of the ocean to search to find it. 

Or sorry buyers........my ebay inventory here in Houston is under 12' of water in my warehouse. Do you still want the item soggy wet? I'll send in a fishing boat next week to see if I can find it....

[southernfriedbelle]

Also, forgot to say even if your buyer is able to access the Internet from another location, he/she may not want to risk the possibility of receiving  a permanent restriction of buying and selling privileges on eBay, as a result of using an IP address that someone else may have used who has been banned. We all know that can and does happen. 

I'm in a quandary because I have a pair of shoes listed as a 10 day auction. I thought we'd get Internet back concurrent with restoration of power, or at least within a week thereof. I'd had the shoes listed with a bid on them when we learned Irma was on track to hit us, so I cancelled the bid and ended the listing.

I relisted them last night, and today I'm hearing the gloomy service restoration forecast (30 days is the projected timeframe our service provider is actually stating to customers!). So if the shoes sell, how do I print my shipping label from a secure site? Right now, I'm using my smartphone's data, since that's all I've got. 

Hate to complain about something so petty and first world, but there are gonna be some real snafus if they can't get Internet connections up and running quickly.

My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been hit harder and continue to suffer in Irma's wake. We are incredibly blessed in comparison, and I truly am grateful.

[zzydny]

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@southernfriedbelle wrote:

Thanks for your empathy and understanding for our plight down here. Many still with no power. We got power back yesterday. Still no Internet, landline, cable. Spectrum saying could be a month or more. Give buyer time.

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Glad you're okay.  Hope you get all your services turned back on soon!

I suggest patience, too, because sometimes individual circumstances can be crazy in hurricane aftermath and you never know what is gonna come into play.  Just for example:  after Katrina, my mom's house didn't have power for a couple of weeks; my place next door didn't have power for four months.  (Yeah, months.)

[mistwomandancing]

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ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

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mistwomandancing wrote:

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ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

Did you google the house address to see if they are in the flooded area? 

I sold something to Tampa yesterday. I'm going to be very surprised if I get an order from Houston anytime soon.

Sad to see two very populated states hit so hard, so many lives affected, so many houses, so much land, so much destruction. 😞 

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When storms are really damaging, tornados as an example, there sometimes ISN'T a home/building left standing at that address to make delivery to!  Nor a person there anymore to accept delivery. 

I expect there will be mail being returned from some of the hardest hit areas...

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Let's hope the ebay bots don't decide sellers in these areas have to relist their items this week. This is why ebay should NOT make these auto relist decisions on seller's behalf.  Sorry buyer....I can't mail it because my house washed out to sea. Ebay bots decided I still had the item for you, I'm just not sure what part of the ocean to search to find it. 

Or sorry buyers........my ebay inventory here in Houston is under 12' of water in my warehouse. Do you still want the item soggy wet? I'll send in a fishing boat next week to see if I can find it....

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So true here.  Funny in a real sad way.  lol  and 😞

[zzydny]

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@mistwomandancing wrote:

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When storms are really damaging, tornados as an example, there sometimes ISN'T a home/building left standing at that address to make delivery to!  Nor a person there anymore to accept delivery. 

I expect there will be mail being returned from some of the hardest hit areas...

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One little town I know here in Mississippi was so devastated by Katrina that the USPS revoked their ZIP Code.  Hurricanes are tough stuff.