posted on January 24, 2002 09:30:15 PM
you can-
take a cold shower and move on
or
ask how much more do you have to offer him to make him sell you the item
or
complain to ebay and then NEG him
or
tell him he cant file for final value fee refund and he is losing a sweetheart of a customer
or
marry him and own everything he has ,including the item you bid on.
or do nothing,just go to bed.
posted on January 24, 2002 10:02:43 PM
guys, you seem to be trying to pull my leg, rather than providing any valuable input.
it was a compaq computer, which was not paid for, because i have no idea who to pay it to.
nor do i want to pay without agreeing with the seller that he will get paid via paypal or any other means.
what other info do you need?
posted on January 24, 2002 10:16:46 PM
Find the seller's contact info and call him/her. Don't send any money yet -- figure out what the problem is. May be the seller has email problems...it happens.
posted on January 24, 2002 11:32:08 PM
my advice is, if he does eventually make contact and sell.........pay with a credit card......as difficult as the beginning of your transaction seems to be.....might not be a bad idea to put it on a credit card where if you don't end up getting what he originally advertised you then at least you have some way to disbute it without being out the money you spent in good faith.
posted on January 25, 2002 07:05:53 AM
There is nothing you can do, you can't make a seller go through with a auction if he doesn't want to & neither can eBay.
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i beg to differ,it is spelled out in ebay rules that seller must sell if there is high bid unless it is a reserve item and reserve is not met.
this seller should have placed a reserve on its item.
could this be a drop shipment?he may not have the merchandise ,and at 300 dollars,it is not enough to cover his cost if he has to order the item to drop ship to you?
how much does it sell for in a retail store?
i would just take a cold shower and move on.
or bid on some laptops offered by romanian dealers on yahoo and QXL ,i believe they are still active there.
posted on January 25, 2002 07:07:43 AM
I'm not sure I'd classify this as fraud. Breached an agreement, sure, perhaps even a contract of sorts. An eBay auction is an agreement that the seller will sell the item to the high bidder. But since he didn't accept any money from you...
posted on January 25, 2002 07:10:07 AM
by the way,paypal does not get involved in content or quality issue.
if he finally decides to take your 300 dollars and ship you a pencil sharpener,paypal wont do anything for you.
if it does and there is no money in his paypal account,there is nothing it can do for you.
MOVE ON,MY FRIEND.
posted on January 25, 2002 11:47:14 AM
Please note that it is against our User Agreement to post the item number of the auction, or other identifying information.
posted on January 25, 2002 12:36:13 PM
If I were you I'd pull up his user info. Give him a call on the phone,you may find you haven't heard from him because he is away. This may be just a temporary inconveniance! A lot of people go on vacation and ignore their auctions while they are away. I take a laptop with me while I'm away to keep on top of thing's. But I still can't mail the item till I get back. But at least I can put the bidder's mind at ease while I'm away with E-mail contact. But not everyone does this!
posted on January 25, 2002 12:45:59 PM
There is nothing you can do, you can't make a seller go through with a auction if he doesn't want to & neither can eBay.
------------------------------------
i beg to differ,it is spelled out in ebay rules that seller must sell if there is high bid unless it is a reserve item and reserve is not met.
this seller should have placed a reserve on its item.
.....Yes it is spelled out in the ebay rules
that a seller must sell, but doesn't it also say to bidders that "a bid is a binding contract." Yet, deadbeats still exist.
I believe the first poster was saying that e-bay can't physically make him sell you something he doesn't want to, which they can't. Here is one case where a seller failed to honor a bid.....there are many posts that complain when the reverse is true.
If you want to do something, treat him as you would a deadbeat bidder who fails to follow through, neg him and state that he would'nt honor the final bid price and move on.
From his point of view, if he feels that the computer is worth much more than $300 it might be worth it to him to just take a negative.
Remember that buyers are not the only ones who can have remorse.
posted on January 25, 2002 02:15:56 PM
SELLER REMORSE!!!!!!
with bids getting lower every day,seller should place a reserve on the item.
is this a brand new laptop,mint in box,not a return or remanufactured?
if so,check his auctions ,see if he is a licensed dealer of compaq products.
if so ,you can find the listed price of the laptop you bid on and divide it by 2,this would be the wholesale cost.
if it is more than 300 and it should be more than 500,ask youself would you order this item from drop shipper and ship you the item,-see how it works,you gave him 300 and he gave his drop shipper 500,losing 200 dollars in the deal.
MOVE ON MY FRIEND,or just grow up,business is not about losing money.
how about florida swmap land or a vacation on MARS????
posted on January 25, 2002 11:47:23 PMprofessorhiggins Thank you for adding that word. That is exactly what I meant, you cannot physically make a seller go through with an auction if he does not want to.
posted on January 26, 2002 05:48:44 AM
stopwhining has it right -- a seller who refuses to respond to messages and is reported to eBay's Safe Harbor by a legitimate buyer is very likely not to be an eBay seller for much longer. That may not get the buyer the item, but it does mean the buyer is taking the appropriate steps to protect him/herself and the rest of the community from untrustworthy sellers. That's a responsibility we all have.
On two occasions to date I've had to contact Safe Harbor, most recently because a non-paying bidder entered bogus contact info. eBay's responses have been fast, professional, and effective. In the most recent case, that particular buyer is now history and eBay politely refunded my FVF. What more could anyone ask?
If I sound like I'm defending eBay, I'm not -- I'm letting you know their system works, but only if you behave responsibly. For those of you who sympathize with a seller changing his mind AFTER an auction has concluded, you're in the wrong business and I sure hope I never bid on one of your auctions.
posted on January 26, 2002 08:57:09 AM
this seller may get away and continue to sell on ebay-
he can say his email service is down and he did not receive buyer email.he has sent out email invoice and never hear from buyer,so he sold it somewhere else to someone else.
or his home was burglarised and item was stolen.well are you going to ask for a police report??
or he has discovered a defect with the item,do you still want to buy it??
in this case,it is not worth pressing the issue,forcing the seller to sell ,he could ship you a defective one from the dumpster,get your signed signature etc to protect himself.
a mint in box compaq laptop does not sell for 300,not even at factory price,a used laptop which is in good condition should not go for so little.
at this point,i would not even approach him and ask how much more would it take for him to sell,i would just move on and find another laptop,otherwise we will soon be reading your new post on HOW YOU ARE DEFRAUDED BY SELLER,or PAYPAL DOES NOT LIVE UP TO BUYER PROTECTION or BILLPOINT IS A DISGRACE or EBAY IS NOT DOING ITS JOB.
posted on January 26, 2002 10:00:05 AM
"a seller who refuses to respond to messages and is reported to eBay's Safe Harbor by a legitimate buyer is very likely not to be an eBay seller for much longer."
Actually Safe Harbor is not interested in this type of complaint. While the offer to sell for whatever the auction was bid to was fraudulent, as no money was paid, they will not take a fraud complaint. About all you can do is leave a feedback complaint.
posted on January 26, 2002 10:31:15 AM
I know from personal experience that you cannot make someone sell to you or buy from you. Yep, eBay says it's binding and that if you don't play by the rules they have the right to suspend your activity on their site. That's about all they can do.
If you had money to burn and hired a lawyer, figured out where to file small claims (your state or theirs) went to court, got a judgement, you still couldn't make them pay you or sell to you. Unless of course you held them at gunpoint and then you'd be going to jail....
Years ago I received a judgement in small claims court. I never saw a dime. I was told I could go back to court and the judge would more than likely hold the person in contempt of court, but that would only mean the court would get money from a fine or the guy would go to jail for not paying his fine. It still wouldn't mean I would get paid. When he dies, I can file a claim against his estate.
So, it really doesn't accompish anything by getting too upset when a seller doesn't sell or a buyer doesn't pay. Just do what eBay allows you to do and move on.
If your a seller, you can file for your FVF, block the bidder, leave negative FB and re-list.
If your a buyer, you can leave negative FB stating the seller doesn't honor the bid price and make a note to not ever bid on their auctions again. You can complain to eBay, but that's all.
It's not fraud because you paid no money nor did you received grossly misrepresented goods.
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