When You Sell on EBay, ALWAYS Use PayPal for Payments!! –A Horror Story!

I am not going to try and say I am any kind of expert at selling things on E-bay.  I am an expert however,  at getting screwed over!

I would like to say to anyone who sells anything on E-bay to definitely accept payment only through Pay Pal.  This way you won’t have problems like the one I am going through right now.

I sold an item to someone.  He asked me if I would take a money order even though my listing stated that I took Pay Pal only for auction payments.  I said I would accept a money order because I try and help people out and never figured what I major pain in the rear this would become.

First off, I am a very understanding seller, as I am sure most people are.  I understand things come up, problems arise and sometimes the payment can’t get out within three days.  But what I cannot excuse is a buyer, or a seller for that matter who will not communicate with me. 

After this person won the auction, I sent the invoice and waited a couple of days.  Nothing- no e-mail, no payment in the mail, nothing at all.  So I sent a reminder.  Finally I get an e-mail-he had family problems and would get the payment in the mail the next day.  Three days later I e-mail him again because I still have not received payment.  This time I get no response.  Three more days go by and I send out another e-mail.  I say I am willing to forget the whole thing and end the selling agreement so I can re-list and sell the item. No harm no foul-no bad feedback.   I get a one line e-mail back promising the payment will be mailed the next day.  Another four days go by, and I still have received no money order in the mail.

Finally I open an unpaid item dispute through e-bay.  I get another promise of sending the money order out in the mail and finally receive the money order after nearly a month has passed. 

I have to say I didn’t kill myself to get to the post office, but I did send the item within two days of receiving payment, but because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the package did not arrive last week.  So this dear person opened up an “Item not received” dispute on ME!

Fortunately I had the tracking number and know for a fact that this item is where it is supposed to be.  I also paid for confirmation so he will have to sign for it and I will have proof when he picks it up.  But this dispute will sit open for God-only-knows how long!  And this guy will not likely close it because he isn’t big on communication and I am sure he only opened it because I had a dispute against him!

I am itching to give this guy bad feedback!  But, I have never given anyone bad feedback and do not want to take the chance to see my rating change because of one jerk!

Anyway, after all of this I have learned one very important lesson and I want to pass it on to anyone who ever plans to sell anything on E-bay;

If you are selling, select Pay pal as your only means of payment!  And put on your listing if payment is not received within three business days you will terminate the sale and re-list.  This way you never have to chase people down, and you actually sell your item to someone who is able to pay for it!

I will never go through this kind of mess for a lousy $50.00 again!!!!