ebay auction question (in Off-topic)

I've been selling Magic cards on ebay. It appears that someone didn't get the card I sent them. I sent 6 cards the same day and the other 5 all got there a couple of weeks ago. He didn't pay for insurance.

This guy is asking me to 'rectify the situation'. Has anyone on here had any experience with anything similar? How did you handle it? Does anyone know what ebay does in this situation?

I know I sent the card. All 6 envelopes went into the same bin, inside the post office. I don't know whether he really didn't receive the card or is trying to scam me. It appears to be just a 'He said, she said' situation.

I figure if you don't pay for the insurance, you're just out of luck. Any insights would be appreciated.

I've been on eBay since it started .. sold many a magic card as well .. I too had a couple people that said that .. I've handled it differently depending on the card .. If it was very expensive, then I told them that, to put it bluntly, they had to eat the loss .. not your fault, but if it was a decently cheap card and they had a high rating I just sent another one, or their money back ... I think there was an instance that I sent back 1/2 the money so we both had equal loss, but that was maybe a $10 or under card ...

Hope this helps :)

Anything I sell on eBay I make sure I get Delivery Tracking. That way they can't say that they didn't get it. The Post Office does make mistakes. Even if someone doesn't pay for insurance, they should be guaranteed delivery.

I think as long as you offered the opportunity to purchase insurance, and he declined, he's out of luck. Though I know many sellers explicitly state as much, so as to avoid even the implication of responsibility.

I know the serious sellers also pay for each of their "ships" separately so as to have a receipt to show for the fact that they did actually send the item (though really I could send a Happy Halloween card to my grandma and use that receipt as proof of a "send").

Perhaps it depends on how concerned you are about the negative feedback. If you have very little positive seller feedback, one disgruntled negative is really going to hurt. If it was a $4 transaction, it's probably worth it to refund the money. If you sold a $300 item and it is now "gone", perhaps taking the hit on negative feedback is worth it.

We're talking $130 here. Not a lot, but not chump-change either.

130 for one card? Which card?

99.9% chance he's trying to scam you.

Does he have a good rating??

That's the only thing that he's got going for him. 99% positive feedback and no negative feedback in the last 12 months.

I've got 100% positive so far, so this would be my first negative.

I guess I'll insist on insurance from now on for everything over like $20.

It was a Beta Birds of Paradise.

I imagine you sent it USPS? Not a whole lot you can do. You offered insurance, they declined, it didnt get there, so they have to eat it. He may file a complaint with eBay or Paypal (depending on how you got paid) and they may investigate. It's hard to prove a negative though (prove you didn't send it, prove they didn't receive it), so I think you'll end up being ok if your feedback is good.

wow ... nice card :) that's a tough call, but you shouldn't have to take the loss for him trusting the postal service :) I feel for ya tho

Tell him that is why they have insurance, and that is why he should have gotten it. Then get ready for paypal to take the money away from you because paypal is ran but stupid heads.

From now on, just add insurance to the cost of shipping, or ask yourself if the trouble is worth it.

from what I remember, paypal won't hold you liable if you have a receipt showing you shipped it.

of course, paypal also seems to pay its customer-service dept at about the retarded monkey level, and it shows. you could well have some idiot tell you that you owe the guy a refund anyway.

It wasn't so bad before ebay purchased paypal, but now they have to play PR monkey for both companies.

Skype will be ran by the same people now, so it will soon be worthless.

One of my mates had a problem with Shipping; he was content to wait it out; anyway he moved out his rented house 6 months later; and 6 months after that got a called from his ex-landlord telling him the package had arrived for him...
If you've got a high positive feedback then chances are that 1 -ve won't only not matter; but also ebay are unlikely to think you are scamming people; especially if you've dealt in high price items before...

Almuric, sorry to hear that. Some suggestions:
1. Look at his feedback to see what has his previous trades been like.
2. If he has good quality and high references, chances are that it was lost.
3. If your auction did indicate that the buyer has the option to pay more, then onus falls on him. If you didn't say that in your auction, then its a lot harder.
4. If he has low quality feedback, you are screwed in terms of getting a negative feedback. Little you can do about it I think.
5. If it seems that he might have actually not gotten it, then probably a partial refund would be appropriate (I'm thinking like $20-30?). Since it is his responsibility to pay for tracking option which he didn't take advantage of, his problem. But a small refund does sometimes appease customers, just make sure to explain the situation. If he has a large number of feedbacks, he should already be aware of this.

There is a dispute console in eBay to properly process a problem auction, make sure you both use it.

Thanks for all the replies. I sent him an email and hopefully we'll work something out. He's got over 400 feedbacks and it's 99% positive, so I'll take him at his word that he didn't get it. Maybe I'll send him a different card. Until I actually sell one, they're really just bits of paper to me. Pretty pieces of paper.

Want to send me one of those pretty bits of paper?

you send them pretty pieces of paper, and in return they send you pretty pieces of paper.
your pretty pieces of paper have numbers on them, and so do theirs.

sounds like a deal to me...