posted on July 22, 2002 12:08:31 PM
A couple of weeks ago I had a payment and I had 2 buyers with almost identical names. I mailed the wrong one before I realized my mistake, and then mailed the correct one. The first one I mailed you might know was for a buyer who until a few weeks ago had 35 positive feedback, but in the last 2 weeks has one neutral for non-payment, and believe it or not, someone actually gave a positive saying "Payment not received after 5 weeks" She is not answering my emails. Apart from filing FVF return, and giving neg feedback, is there anything I can do, any advise? I realize it was my mistake to mail it, but she bid on it, and now I am the loser.
posted on July 22, 2002 12:14:24 PM
Since it was your mistake, there is nothing you can do. If they never pay, you can file for FVF...that is about it. I would not even file the FVF in this case, it may not be worth the retaliatory neg you may get.
posted on July 22, 2002 01:09:18 PM
The error was yours, you can only hope (pray) they might be honest enough to either pay for the item or return it. They don't have to do either. She's seen your emails & the no answer is her answer. Why would you want to punish this person with a Neg for a mistake you made? Move on to the next deal.
posted on July 22, 2002 02:21:12 PM
I'm not sure that I (as well as some of the other posters here) quite undertand what happened. I'm getting something different out of your story.
Tell me if this is correct:
Jane Smyth and John Smith each won an auction, separately and independently of each other. John Smith sent his payment, but you mistakenly shipped Jane Smyth's merchandise (to her), which was not yet paid for.
If this is what happened, that you prematurely and accidentally shipped Jane's merchandise which she had entered into a contract with you to buy, then - even though you made a mistake by shipping when you did - she is still obligated to pay for the item. I would suspect that her failure to do so might be postal fraud.
She bid; she indicated she would pay; you shipped; she hasn't paid.
(The other scenario that is suggested is that you shipped her John's merchandise, which she didn't bid on, and didn't agree to pay for - please clarify).
posted on July 22, 2002 02:49:31 PM
You are right gc2, I shipped her correct purchase by mistake before her payment arrived, in the last half hour she has been naru'd before I even got my fvf form filed. I just hope she will be honest enough to either pay or return the item, I have asked her to do that. I often wonder when someone has all good feedback, and then several bad if there is not a good reason for it, sickness, computer problems etc, I am hoping that it is not that she suddenly became a bad payer.
posted on July 22, 2002 05:02:48 PM
I didn't phone before because I was waiting to see if the payment would arrive, when I tried today I found they had been suspended, so now I can't get it.
posted on July 22, 2002 07:08:56 PM
If you shipped, you have a name and address for her; you can do a look-up on the computer to get her phone number, even if it's in her husband's name.
Speaking of husbands, domestic problems have a way of playing havoc with everything too - probably more so than sickness or computer problems.
posted on July 22, 2002 07:15:44 PM
And one more thought: I have, for a variety of reasons, deliberately shipped a number of times before payment was received...as recently as the end of June, this year. Sometimes for my own convenience, and sometimes for the customer's. It does not mean that in doing so I have forfeited my right to be paid, although I realized that collecting could have been a problem.
Fortunately, it has always worked out for me, and I don't do it for any- and everyone.
