luv2crochet
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posted on August 22, 2001 01:56:51 PM
My mailbox has been the black hole so far this week. I was so happy to see I had a payment in today's mail, especially since I think about 5 of my outstanding unpaid auctions will end up deadbeats. I sit down at my desk, open the envelope and find a note that says "thanks for the great deal! I accidentally made the money order for XX so you can keep the change. Thanks!"
No name. No item number. No reference to eBay auction name. Nothing. So not only do I have to figure out what item this is (which usually can be done through some research by figuring out the total minus shipping) but I dont even have an amount to work from because the money order was made out for more (not a lot more, but more). I have approximately 15 items not paid for that fall in the 'price' category of the payment.
I'm happy I got paid. But yikes. No way to contact this person.
Just venting a bit as I know there are others who have the same thing happen.
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Capriole
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posted on August 22, 2001 02:01:35 PM
Great...nothing like emailing a deadbeat: Did I get your payment today?
"Oh yes!!!"
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wbbell
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posted on August 22, 2001 02:03:16 PM
There have been several cases where this happened to me. My action is either to sebd them a postcard on US Mail and ask them to email you the vital info, or just sit and wait. Eventually (may take weeks!) they will ask you where their stuff is and you just tell them you had no way to match the payment to the person.
I'd recommend the former. The last time I waited it out, I got a big old neutral for slow service.
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rarriffle
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posted on August 22, 2001 02:16:45 PM
I got the same type of payment on Monday. I only had 5 items waiting to ship, two of them I had heard nothing from, so I emailed both,
"received payment for an auction today but have no idea if it is yours or not. I cannot ship until I receive confirmation of your address through an email"
I got an answer back within an hour and was able to ship the item.
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WeRuleWithTechnology
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posted on August 22, 2001 02:58:52 PM
luv2crochet,
I've had this happen to me. In your situation I would e-mail all fifteen of them asking if it was their payment. It's a hassle, but better than a neutral. In the future you may want to say something in your EOA like "Please reference the auction number with your payment for speedy processing. Failure to do so may delay shipping."
I started doing that and haven't had any more without the auction number. I'm assuming it helps, if they read anyway.
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granee
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posted on August 23, 2001 01:17:54 AM
It's not enough to email the 15 'outstanding' buyers and ask if it's his/her payment, because all 15 could say, "Yes", and you won't know which 14 are lying.
Ask that all those who have sent payment tell you the **exact amount** of the money order they sent, along with a name/address/item number.
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icyu
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posted on August 23, 2001 02:01:45 AM
Doesn't the sender of the money order have a (carbon?) copy of it which would include at least the check number? This would ID the real buyer and eliminate the thieves who also responded.
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sadie999
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posted on August 23, 2001 04:33:08 AM
If you're going to do this via email, I think I'd recommend getting verified addresses instead of asking if they sent payment. This way, unless you have two buyers in the same city for two items close to the same amount, you'll know who sent you the MO.
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snakebait
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posted on August 23, 2001 11:34:27 PM
Jeez. Simply pull up all your NPB's 'Contact Info'.
I get payments like that all the time. Never a problem.
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amy
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posted on August 24, 2001 12:06:58 AM
Was there a name and return address on the envelope?
If so, go through the 15 unpaid auctions and see if any of the Ids and/or emails match in any way ...like, [email protected] and the money order was sent by Robin Scott.
another way is to pull contact info and match the city/state to the city/state the money order was sent from (good side affect of this is the other 14 non-pays might get motivated to send payment when they see you have pulled their info)
[ edited by amy on Aug 24, 2001 12:08 AM ]
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dejapooh
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posted on August 24, 2001 11:09:44 AM
I once received a money order. No name on it. No return address, no ebay item number, nothing. The envelope was postmaked from New York (oh goody). I decided to cash the check and wait until they said something. This was about 18 months ago. Still waiting...
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WeRuleWithTechnology
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posted on August 24, 2001 11:45:55 AM
granee,
Of course you would verify their info! I wasn't suggesting that you didn't!
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mballai
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posted on August 24, 2001 11:51:31 AM
Can't tell you what to do on this one, but I love the idea that you put the seller address as
John Auctioneer
Dept xxxx
123 Anystreet
MyTown MyState My Zip
xxxx is the last four digits of the auction.
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