eBay Question

I bought an item on eBay on February 1st that was supposed to be shipped within 3 days. I paid immediately after buying with PayPal. I haven't heard anything from the seller so I sent her an email last night saying hello and asking if the item had been sent yet.

I've only ordered half a dozen times on eBay since 2005, and always I received some confirmation of the sale or when the item was shipped. There was one exception when I never received the item, never recieved an email, and never received an answer to my inquiries. (I got my money back through PayPal.)

This seller's reputation is very good, and she has given feedback every day to her other buyers, so she is around a computer.

My questions are: is there a standard etiquette for sellers to confirm purchases and notify when the item is sent? Why won't she answer me? Am I being too pushy asking for some confirmation? Or do you think this is another dud seller?

Some notify you when then ship, some don't . The seller should reply. If you don't receive the item in a resonable time. E-mail them and ask for confirmation they have sent the item. If you don't hear back. notify paypal. I had to do that last summer. with in an hour my money was refunded.

As a rule of thumb they should confirm with you when they payment has been received, and when the item is getting shipped out. if this person is not contacting you, i suggest you get in contact with the ebay people and find out what is happening. Afterall, this person DOES have your money

i do quite a bit of ebay-ing, but i must admit i dont usually click any of the "mark as despatched" type things, i have had this before where i win something and hear nothing from them, but i have never paid first.

i think, altough i may be wrong that, if you send money through paypal they do actually have to click to recieve it at thier end, it doesnt just go into that persons account. and i think it comes up on your account as pending or something untill they have accepted it? my guess is if they have accepted it, and they havnt replied to your emails, that they are dodgy?

i hope this isnt the case for your sake, but i wouldnt worry about being too pushy. i would give it another 24 hours then get in touch with ebay and get it refunded?

Every now and then I'll have a weird one like that, with no real communication from the seller even though they've sent the item out. I usually expect a reply to my e-mail, but if all of their recent feedback is good, I don't worry about it until the item has had time to show up. I think the important thing is to remember that most folks on ebay are just regular people, and online auctions aren't their main thing. Of course, dealing with a business that does most of their trade on ebay can be dodgy too, since you might not get the same level of personal attention from a seller that moves dozens of items each day and also has a regular shop to deal with.

I've only had a couple of bad purchasing experiences on ebay, and in each case the situation wound up being resolved to my satisfaction. Read that feedback before you bid...

I've also had a few sketchy ones as a seller. Once I realized that I was dealing with a minor using their parents' account... everything worked out after a call to the parents to confirm that everything was cool. Another, back before paypal, sent me a personal check for an item when I'd specified a postal money order (had to wait for the check to clear); a guy in Germany once sent me an envelope of Deutschmarks (which worked out fine, since I was going to Germany soon after... heh) and one that turned out to be a scammer attempting the old advance-fee-fraud trick... that one ticked me off, but their account got closed pretty quickly.

If the feedback is good, I suggest giving it a week or two before freaking out about it. There are still parts of the country that are without power and eBay actually posted a "please be patient with our sellers" note recently because of it.

I have had a seller have to leave home abruptly due to a death in the family or illness that required sudden hospitalization, in one case it was almost 30 days before I heard from them, then they were very apologetic. That's a worst-case scenario.

Again, if the feedback they have is good, then I'd be patient. You will be entitled to a full refund if you paid through PayPal and the item never gets shipped, so you shouldn't worry about it, IMO.

By the way, my feedback is close to 600 stars at this point, and I've been selling for quite a while as well as buying. I just love eBay!

Edit: as far as the feedback every day, did you already receive feedback from this seller? Some have their accounts set up to automatically send feedback when payment is made...

Originally Posted by jezmondo69

i hope this isnt the case for your sake, but i wouldnt worry about being too pushy. i would give it another 24 hours then get in touch with ebay and get it refunded?

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Oh there you are Jez!!! Completely off topic from this thread, can you please empty out your inbox and such? I tried replying to your pm but i got a message saying you couldn't get anything due to letting your inbox fill. TYVM!!


I've only bought one thing through ebay, and Tristan had boughta whole bunch of things. We've always been successful in getting payment and delivery organised. Maybe this person is actually bogged up, but i say keep being persistant too.

I'm trying to think back as to whether the sellers I bought from sent conformation that they were sending the items. I think some did and some didn't, but I mostly bought stuff from Japan which meant the sellers didn't know that much English or weren't very comfortable using it. In those situations I never worried because Japanese sellers are typically very honest and trustworthy. Can't say I felt the same about sellers from elsewhere - for them I usually looked at every single one of their feedback comments to determine if and what type of problems I could expect.


A little O/T, but there was a seller/buying on eBay at one point who would leave the funniest and most creative feedback comments. Sometimes it's surprising what you come across while checking a potential seller out.

Thank you, everyone for the replies!

I just got an email from the seller, she did not see my first email, but replied immediately to my second one. She said that when she sends to Canada, there isn't an automatic email notification of shipment. She was apologetic for missing the first email and was very nice. She said she sent the item on Feb. 3.

I hope it's all okay, I really want the item and not my money back!