Get a human
December 19, 2024 9:49 AM Subscribe
I paid for something on eBay. I appealed, got LLM nonsense, and have no mechanism to do anything further. I now have no money and no package. What next?
I paid for something on eBay, it was expensive, and there are no returns. It never came.
I contacted the shipping company and they looked at their GPS records and determined that it was driver error. They were unable to catch the package before it was returned to sender.
The sender wants me to pay for shipping again. I already paid. We both involved eBay. eBay basically shrugged. I appealed and got blatant LLM nonsense. There seems to be no way to make a further appeal.
What next? From conversations with the seller, I think that if eBay said "no, you have to ship this", the seller might. That's my ideal outcome, I think it means I need to figure out how to get a human. Next best outcome is getting my money back.
I paid for something on eBay, it was expensive, and there are no returns. It never came.
I contacted the shipping company and they looked at their GPS records and determined that it was driver error. They were unable to catch the package before it was returned to sender.
The sender wants me to pay for shipping again. I already paid. We both involved eBay. eBay basically shrugged. I appealed and got blatant LLM nonsense. There seems to be no way to make a further appeal.
What next? From conversations with the seller, I think that if eBay said "no, you have to ship this", the seller might. That's my ideal outcome, I think it means I need to figure out how to get a human. Next best outcome is getting my money back.
It sounds like, in a perfect world, the shipper would credit the seller for the cost of shipping or try to make things right in some other way. But it would be on the seller to initiate that—you as would-be recipient wouldn't be able to.
It would not surpsise me if, even if you could get a human in a position of authority at eBay to talk to you, they'd say "not our problem."
In your position, I would encourage the seller to contact the shipper to get the shipper to make things right, and would use the threat of a chargeback as added encouragement.
posted by adamrice at 10:07 AM on December 19, 2024 [2 favorites]
It would not surpsise me if, even if you could get a human in a position of authority at eBay to talk to you, they'd say "not our problem."
In your position, I would encourage the seller to contact the shipper to get the shipper to make things right, and would use the threat of a chargeback as added encouragement.
posted by adamrice at 10:07 AM on December 19, 2024 [2 favorites]
1. Ask the sender to get a refund from the shipping company and reship.
2. If they refuse, open an Item not received case with eBay.
posted by hermanubis at 10:54 AM on December 19, 2024 [7 favorites]
2. If they refuse, open an Item not received case with eBay.
posted by hermanubis at 10:54 AM on December 19, 2024 [7 favorites]
I worked customer support at eBay for 20 years.
Go to your purchase history and for that item select “I didn’t receive it”. [You must do this within 30 days of the estimated delivery date.] Unless you’re on the Naughty list for abuse, the seller will be challenged to provide proof of delivery. Presumably, they will be unable to do so.
The seller will then have to issue you a full refund , including shipping. (Any sales tax was collected by eBay and remitted to the seller’s state tax authority - so eBay will be in charge of refunding you that part.) If they don’t, eBay will refund you themselves and collect it from the seller - up to and including sending it to a collections agency.
posted by Lemkin at 11:25 AM on December 19, 2024 [21 favorites]
Go to your purchase history and for that item select “I didn’t receive it”. [You must do this within 30 days of the estimated delivery date.] Unless you’re on the Naughty list for abuse, the seller will be challenged to provide proof of delivery. Presumably, they will be unable to do so.
The seller will then have to issue you a full refund , including shipping. (Any sales tax was collected by eBay and remitted to the seller’s state tax authority - so eBay will be in charge of refunding you that part.) If they don’t, eBay will refund you themselves and collect it from the seller - up to and including sending it to a collections agency.
posted by Lemkin at 11:25 AM on December 19, 2024 [21 favorites]
I should have added that eBay has no way to force the seller to ship it. But the seller will already have gotten a defect on their account for making eBay get involved in the first place. Too many defects and a number on unpleasant things will start happening to them.
posted by Lemkin at 11:35 AM on December 19, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Lemkin at 11:35 AM on December 19, 2024 [2 favorites]
I have never heard of Paypal siding with a seller unless they have proof of delivery.
Well, get ready to hear it.
I don’t sell through eBay, but my shipping terms state that once the package the handed off to a shipper, that’s the end of our responsibility. We do offer shipment insurance the customer can opt out of if they really want to ensure they are 100% for dealing with every issue.
Because of how our shipping terms are written, and the fact we have opt out insurance, some customers want it both ways and think that they can decline insurance, then have a issue, then refuse to deal with USPS or UPS, then just do a charge back.
They are mistaken. I have yet to lose a chargeback. Our terms are very clear, and the customer has to go out of their way to not have a hassle free experience that only costs a fraction of their order.
The irony is that most of the time we refund returned packages anyway. But if there a chargeback, we don’t refund on returned packages and we keep the money anyway.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 12:54 PM on December 19, 2024 [2 favorites]
Well, get ready to hear it.
I don’t sell through eBay, but my shipping terms state that once the package the handed off to a shipper, that’s the end of our responsibility. We do offer shipment insurance the customer can opt out of if they really want to ensure they are 100% for dealing with every issue.
Because of how our shipping terms are written, and the fact we have opt out insurance, some customers want it both ways and think that they can decline insurance, then have a issue, then refuse to deal with USPS or UPS, then just do a charge back.
They are mistaken. I have yet to lose a chargeback. Our terms are very clear, and the customer has to go out of their way to not have a hassle free experience that only costs a fraction of their order.
The irony is that most of the time we refund returned packages anyway. But if there a chargeback, we don’t refund on returned packages and we keep the money anyway.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 12:54 PM on December 19, 2024 [2 favorites]
Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme, I'm not sure I follow. You use the term chargeback, which is a credit card term and is done through a credit card company. I was referring to Paypal not siding with a seller unless they can prove delivery.
Are you saying you've had a customer claim non-delivery and you offer no proof of delivery and Paypal let you keep the money?
posted by dobbs at 2:19 PM on December 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
Are you saying you've had a customer claim non-delivery and you offer no proof of delivery and Paypal let you keep the money?
posted by dobbs at 2:19 PM on December 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Things I have tried already:
1. Ask the sender to get a refund from the shipping company and reship.
2. If they refuse, open an Item not received case with eBay.
Go to your purchase history and for that item select “I didn’t receive it”
The seller provided eBay with proof of delivery... to their own return address. This did not happen:
The seller will then have to issue you a full refund , including shipping. (Any sales tax was collected by eBay and remitted to the seller’s state tax authority - so eBay will be in charge of refunding you that part.) If they don’t, eBay will refund you themselves and collect it from the seller - up to and including sending it to a collections agency.
My appeal was rejected with an incoherent and contradictory long-winded response that did not address my concern.
posted by Mirth at 7:49 PM on December 19, 2024
1. Ask the sender to get a refund from the shipping company and reship.
2. If they refuse, open an Item not received case with eBay.
Go to your purchase history and for that item select “I didn’t receive it”
The seller provided eBay with proof of delivery... to their own return address. This did not happen:
The seller will then have to issue you a full refund , including shipping. (Any sales tax was collected by eBay and remitted to the seller’s state tax authority - so eBay will be in charge of refunding you that part.) If they don’t, eBay will refund you themselves and collect it from the seller - up to and including sending it to a collections agency.
My appeal was rejected with an incoherent and contradictory long-winded response that did not address my concern.
posted by Mirth at 7:49 PM on December 19, 2024
I agree with an earlier post. Call your credit card company and do a chargeback. Let PayPal bite it, they’re as close to worthless as makes no difference. Good luck.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 11:59 PM on December 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 11:59 PM on December 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
I have a friend who is a decades-long eBay seller. I had an issue (although not exactly the same as your issue) that needed to be resolved but I couldn't figure out how. She advised me to contact eBay via Facebook messenger. To me, that seemed like an unexpected path for assistance, but it worked great!!
https://www.facebook.com/ebay
This is the first dialogue response I got:
Thanks for messaging eBay. We will never ask for any personally identifiable or payment-related information.
If you would like to file a complaint regarding eBay policies, products or services, please go to https://www.ebay.com/help/home?from=message&domain=social
For any other matter, we are happy to help and will be with you shortly.
We continued the dialogue, and a successful outcome was reached.
posted by SageTrail at 8:32 AM on December 20, 2024 [2 favorites]
https://www.facebook.com/ebay
This is the first dialogue response I got:
Thanks for messaging eBay. We will never ask for any personally identifiable or payment-related information.
If you would like to file a complaint regarding eBay policies, products or services, please go to https://www.ebay.com/help/home?from=message&domain=social
For any other matter, we are happy to help and will be with you shortly.
We continued the dialogue, and a successful outcome was reached.
posted by SageTrail at 8:32 AM on December 20, 2024 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: I tried that and the main option sent me to something I had already tried and couldn't retry. However, I was able to report the seller, so I did that.
We've received your report on [redacted].
We'll look into this and take appropriate action if the seller isn't following our policies. For privacy reasons, we won't disclose the outcome.
Please note that there's no need to contact us again. It would create a new report and prolong the process.
I'm going to try talking to the carrier one more time, and if that doesn't work I'll try to get my money back.
Any tips on getting my money back through eBay, or success stories going through the card services?
posted by Mirth at 11:16 PM on December 22, 2024
We've received your report on [redacted].
We'll look into this and take appropriate action if the seller isn't following our policies. For privacy reasons, we won't disclose the outcome.
Please note that there's no need to contact us again. It would create a new report and prolong the process.
I'm going to try talking to the carrier one more time, and if that doesn't work I'll try to get my money back.
Any tips on getting my money back through eBay, or success stories going through the card services?
posted by Mirth at 11:16 PM on December 22, 2024
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I have never heard of Paypal siding with a seller unless they have proof of delivery.
posted by dobbs at 9:54 AM on December 19, 2024 [11 favorites]