posted on August 3, 2001 07:15:54 PM
A new member of eBay (0 feedback) bid and won two of my auctions in June. In July, the winning bidder sends me a letter telling me that her computer died so therefore was unable to contact me for a month. With the letter, she included money order payment, but it was $5 less than the actual amount she owes. I tried to contact her 2 times by regular mail and 3 times by e-mail to tell her the error and to request the remaining payment. She has not contacted me at all. I did however, find her phone number by checking eBay's member search. But, she lives in NY and I'm in CA, so I don't really want to waste my money by making a long distance phone call just to request payment.
What should I do? Should I just send back the money order she sent me? Advice is much appreciated...Thanks!
posted on August 3, 2001 07:22:08 PM
A short phone call shouldn't be that expensive. You already spent $0.68 on postage to write to her, plus the cost of your paper and envelopes.
posted on August 3, 2001 09:12:18 PM
It would depend on what percentage of the total sale is represented by the $5. If it is a significant percentage, then do what you have to do. If it is a small percentage, just forget it and write it off. Even if you get her to agree she owes you $5 more it sounds like it will take a month or more to get her to pactually pay it! Sometimes the cost of the aggravation just isn't worth it.
Gerald
"Oh but it's so hard to live by the rules/I never could and still never do."
posted on August 3, 2001 09:44:05 PMIt would depend on what percentage of the total sale is represented by the $5
My thoughts exactly. If this is a $200 or $300 sale, ship it and forget it. I'm not fond of people "short changing" me, but I'm not going to hassle back and forth with some one over 5 bucks on a $300 deal.
If it's a $20 deal, and you can't get her to respond to email or snail mail, I might be inclined to mail her money order back.
[ edited by Microbes on Aug 3, 2001 09:44 PM ]
posted on August 4, 2001 04:39:09 AM
While I agree with the fact that it depends on the cost of the auction, it would be interesting to know if this is a common practice for her...she wants the item but the price is more than she is willing to pay, so she wins the auction and pays the price she thinks she should? Maybe I'm just too suspicious.
posted on August 4, 2001 05:02:20 AM
WHAT IS YOUR TIME WORTH??????????? I AM WATCHING TV (PIP) ON MY WEB-TV AS I TYPE THIS, HAVING COFFEE & BREAKFAST, LISTENING TO WABC 770-AM (NYC), PLANNING MY DAY, ON THE PHONE CHECKING OUT MY BANK ACCOUNT BALANCE (Scratch That, I'm Done on the Head-Set Phone), & LOOKING AT 3 NEWLY ARRIVED eBay ITEMS. $5 is NOTHING, BITE THE BULLET, SHIP THE ITEM WITH A "Balance-Due Please" Note enclosed! If you do not get the $5, It's Time for your Buyer to receive some Feedback! (eBay should have a "MINUS" Feedback Available!) (-1) LOOKS GOOD TO ME! (Worth $5 in Laughs!) - PJ38 -
posted on August 4, 2001 05:30:20 AM
do not ship for anything less than what the auction stated.........call them, 10-10-220 is only 99 cents for up to 20 minutes....u.s and canada
posted on August 4, 2001 10:40:34 AM
Thanks for the advice everyone! This will be the first time I've ever had to call a winning bidder.
But, actually the percentage of that $5 less in payment is significant in my opinion. The total she was supposed to send was $46. That extra $5 she forgot to add to the money order, would have covered shipping. I'm tempted to just send the items anyways, but if she hasn't even contacted me (by mail or e-mail) about why I havent sent the items to her in over a month since she sent payment, that tells me that she doesn't really care.
[ edited by chainletter on Aug 4, 2001 10:41 AM ]
posted on August 4, 2001 01:30:49 PM
chainletter--
If calling doesn't get you anywhere you might want to just hold the merchandise until you hear from her. If she hasn't paid for the shipping then you aren't obligated to mail it yet. I say this because I once had someone do this and it was $4-5 short-- I went ahead and mailed it and also enclosed and note requesting the additional shipping $ that they shorted me. I also emailed them requesting it. Never got it. If something like that ever happened to me again I would just put their box up in the closet until I heard back and they send the money to mail it. Mine was on a $20 (or so ) item.
posted on August 4, 2001 01:42:47 PM
I wouldn't send her a darn thing until she sends you the money. She must have received your mail. Don't waste another minute on this bidder. Hold her merchandise until she contacts you. Then tell her to send the $5.
posted on August 4, 2001 03:19:19 PM
By holding her item until you hear from her about that $5, you may be risking a neg. From what I read on this boards, lots of people have been know to neg first, ask questions after.
posted on August 4, 2001 04:09:38 PM
"I don't really want to waste my money by making a long distance phone call just to request payment."
If you have an intelligent long distance plan, a three minute call shouldn't cost more than 30 cents.
Why wouldn't you spend 30 c. to recoup $5 ?? That's less than the cost of a stamp !!
posted on August 4, 2001 08:01:07 PM
Sounds like we have the same bidder, only difference, my bidder has 100+ positives and no negs, auction ended June 11, didn't hear a word for almost a month, and that was after I filed the NPB alert, then she finally sends me payment but it was $5.00 short, well the auction ended at $3.00 and will cost $7.70 to send, it weighs almost 5 pounds, so that $5.00 she shorted me is directly out of my pocket if I ship.
I emailed several times to no avail. sent her a letter threw the mail stating that I can not ship until it's received, finally she emails and says she mis read the auction and will send ASAP, that was two weeks ago and still nothing.
I thought about sending it postage due, that way I don't take the loss, but haven't done it yet, but I won't pay the entire shipping if she doesn't come threw, it'll just sit here until she does.
