Need Advice (1 Viewer)

[REVWARBUFF]

To all my fellow collectors:

I need your input on something. Over the weekend I won 4 sets of Britians rev war items on Ebay. I apparently was the only bidder and got the items for a good deal. The seller contacted me after I submitted payment thru paypal and said that I should contact paypal to get my money back. His reason was that he only sold his items on the UK Ebay because postage costs to the states "were prohibitive". He only sells and ships to Europe.

I was shocked to hear that and immediately replied to his message and begged him to work something out with me anyway and let me know what the costs will be. Anything within reason and I'll gladly pay for the shipping as I desparately wanted these figurines. I also mentioned that I made purchases from other vendors from the UK and had no problems in the past.

He replied by saying he would look into the costs and let me know what they were by today. I haven't heard from him yet, even though I emailed him again to follow up. (Could be a time zone factor). I checked out his ebay rating and he is 99.5% positive. I am beginning to worry here a little. What do you guys think?

Is he trying to back out because I made out so well by getting all those items for such a cheap price? Or do I give it time and see if I hear back from him? Sort of give him the benefit of the doubt. The final piece of info is that the figurines are not in their original boxes because he broke up some sets and sold them in varying lots. So I can't believe that the shipping would be so high on this. Or could it? I don't know.

If anyone has any advice, I'll gladly hear it. Thanks.

 

[gk5717]

Sounds to me he is trying to back out of the deal.
I bought a bunch of DelPrado figures on ebay, all from the UK and shipping is not that bad, although if you do not ship by airmail, it can take 8 weeks to get here. I had that happen.
Personally I would try to get the refund from PayPal.
Gary

 

[jazzeum]

It's actually up to him to process the paypal and he should do it as a refund. I don't believe that paypal can give you a refund by itself. I've bought a few Del Prado figures from UK sellers and had very good luck. I just got two figures from a seller named mickthechair and while shipping might have been slightly expensive I got the figures fast and as represented.

 

[fishead19690]

Go back and look over the acution details and see if the seller had anything on there about not shipping to the USA. Some sellers state right in the auction that they will not ship outside there country. If the seller did not list this in the auction then he may be tring to back out on you. I just had a similar problem on ebay where I won a set of frontline artillary figures for $60 that sell for $130 and was very happy with my win only to never see the set. The seller said they must have gotten lost in the mail and refunded my money but I looked at his ebay history and found others who had left positive feedback for iteams that were lost and they were happy to recieve a full refund but when I looked at what they had won and the winning price was very low so I think that the seller my say that the iteams are lost in the mail when he dosn,t get a good enough bid and just refunds the money??? I also deal with sellers from england all the time and don,t see the big deal about shipping to the USA. Sounds like he may not be happy with his deal but don,t let him rape you on the shipping either hagle with him if he shots you a high price. Many of us here deal with british ebayers so we have a rough idea of shipping to usa so if you think its to high give a private message and i,ll try and help.

 

[REVWARBUFF]

Hey thanks guys. Some very sound advice you all have. I must say I love the commradre we share here. The details of the bid/auction said nothing of limited shipping or restrictions to certain areas.

I do agree that he is most likely trying to back out due to the bad deal on his end. If I don't hear from him by tomorrow I will contact ebay and proceed from there. I'll let you know how I make out within a few days.

Thanks again for all your input. This is such a great forum that Pete & Shannon have here. It's nice to know that we can all share our experiences regarding every aspect of our hobby, even the war stories about our buying.

Mark

 

[Toy Soldier Brigade]

It's the sellers responsibility to do the refund for you. The shipping from the UK shouldn't be that much. Sounds like he's trying to back out of the deal since you were the only bidder. He probably didn't get what he wanted. I'd also report this to ebay.

 

[Njja]

Sounds like as you suggest he changed his mind. No real problem shipping

from England. If you paid him via Paypal all he has to do is issue you a refund.

He does it all, nothing for you to do. If you can not resolve the matter just

ask him to refund your payment, Paypal will even reverse the fee they

charged him to receive your payment.

Don't expect much help from Ebay......first off it will take you a year of hard

work to find their phone number. You can contact live help and type back and

forth messages with a live person that will tell you in the end he can't help

you. He will however pass your problem along to someone else who will

contact you via E-mail to tell you he can't help you either.

Thats why the full title of Bill Cobb E-bay president is *** Monkey.

Paypal is much better, you can find their phone number and speak to

someone, they will however tell you that if the person does not keep funds

in his Paypal Account even if your purchase is covered by their "Insurance"

there is nothing they can do.

Njja

 

[jazzeum]

Listen to John. He's the expert. His story made me laugh. There was a time not that long ago when you could call ebay and speak right to a customer rep. I got their phone number off their SEC filings but they got smart and you now have to go through that Live Help. I had a problem with my email address and I went through all the procedures. Emailing, live help, etc., repeating the same story about 10 times. I finally gave up. But then one day the problem was solved.

 

[maddadicus]

Listen to John. He's the expert. His story made me laugh. There was a time not that long ago when you could call ebay and speak right to a customer rep. I got their phone number off their SEC filings but they got smart and you now have to go through that Live Help. I had a problem with my email address and I went through all the procedures. Emailing, live help, etc., repeating the same story about 10 times. I finally gave up. But then one day the problem was solved.

My buddy went thru the Paypal ,screw the seller, instant chargeback because of phony buyer complaint deal. I was ripped, especially when feedback on the buyer indicated, that this was not the first time, he pulled this. In a fit I fired off a blistering attack mail, threathening them by all the power of the federal authorities ,if they ever pull that on me....Talk about instant notice. I got a 800 # in a matter of minutes, to voice any problem immediately to paypal, before I should get the government involved. And then Paypal changed their charge back procedure again. Not taking any credit. Just thought how coincidental everything turned out, in a reasonbly short time...Michael

 

[DMNamiot]

This sounds odd to me I deal with folks from the UK all the time on things like the soldiers, books and a print one time, they were a little pricy on shipping but thats part of the contract and you have to pay shipping so it seems like there maybe more too this guys issue than he is letting on.

I'd try and work it out but if he is still not willing to send you the sets I'd get ebay involved and nuke him on feedback if necessary.

Dave

 

[REVWARBUFF]

Thanks again for all of your advice. I think we can all relate to John's advice about trying to get some actual real help when it comes to customer service these days.

He's right though, when it comes to getting help from ebay. It just ain't gonna happen the way it should. I still haven't heard back from the seller so I will go directly to paypal and seek a refund. I am sure they will get a hold of the seller and handle things properly.

 

[OzDigger]

Firstly, did the listing say he didn't post to the US? His postive feedback is fairly high so I guess you will get your money back direct from him even if he says he doesn't post to the US. However he isn't obliged to send you the item if he did state he doesn't post out of Europe.

To reduce these delivery problems I recommend you tick the box on the eBay search for items 'available to your country', which excludes sellers that have issues with where they sell.

If you need to claim via Paypal, make sure you do it within 45 days of the sale, otherwise you will have zero chance of recovery.

 

[kilted vampire]

It's the sellers responsibility to do the refund for you. The shipping from the UK shouldn't be that much. Sounds like he's trying to back out of the deal since you were the only bidder. He probably didn't get what he wanted. I'd also report this to ebay.

These guys aren't monkeying around! Good luck

 

[ucla1967]

I only had one problem regarding a seller in the Ukraine. He wouldn't refund my money until I returned the items to him in the Ukraine (not the US address as his auction said) and he re-sold them. Since the tanks I bought were suppose to be metal and not plastic models from a kit, I called my credit card company which I use for Paypal and they reversed the charges. Paypal sent me an e-mail saying they had noticed I had done so, but they did not get involved.