Sellers: Has anyone ever had this happen to them?

[bob535]

I just recently sold an item, and it was taking them a few days to pay, so I sent them an invoice just to remind them that they had won and it was now time to pay. Finally in "my ebay" where is was stating "money not received" it now said $0.00 and the listing was moved to the "paid" section.

So I was about to print a shipping label and I noticed it was to Australia, and I state in my shipping that I only ship within the united states. So I went to paypal to see how much I would have to refund just in case the buyer didn't want to pay anymore for shipping. Paypal stated that there had been no recent activity, so I opened "all activity" and i had not received a payment from anyone in over a week.   

I do not know how it could be marked as paid when in fact paypal has no transaction...and paypal is all I accept. This is very odd and doesn't seem right. I am just wondering if anyone else has had an issue like this. 

[waywardangler]

I have never heard of that, bob. Do you block buyers from specific countries in your listings? I do not see how a buyer from Australia could even bid. I do know some Japanese buyers get around this because there is a clearinghouse in California that bids for Japanese buyers and then reships the items to Japan in a shipping container I think. I do not see how eBay could mark something paid without any money being sent. I wonder if a buyer can manually check "paid" on their end. I do know sellers can manually mark an item "paid".

[mart]

If they manually mark it as paid thats how you will see it !! They usually do this when paying by other methods than paypal !! Or if the want you to think they have paid but really have not !! You need to send an email through ebay to the buyer and explain all this, that you use paypal only and do not ship outside the USA !!  That will give you a copy in your Messages" in case there is a problem..  Then see if you get a response from the buyer !!  You really need to go into your ebay account and exclude any place that you do not want to ship to !!

[bob535]

Well I can say that in the online ebay listing form it asks me to list locations i will ship...I only put USA...Is it blocked....I can't say for sure. I did not realize they could manually mark Paid. That is very misleading, and if they can ebay should do something about money received. I have not received money that should only be changed by the seller or ebay when you transact through paypal.

I almost got dooped here, and now i have to worry about a negative feedback since ebay thinks they have paid.

Thanks mart for the suggestion....i will do that now 

[ironlord1963]

     Very odd for sure,  I too thought only the Seller or Ebay could mark it as payment received.   If you have a international shipment, the seller has to invoice, ebay will not this will allow you to change the shipping price.  I ship international all the time and I look at each order details when it is sold and when I get a international I add the shipping cost, it is left blank on the invoice and don't think the buyer can pay until you have adjusted the cost.  Not sure what you have going on, but sounds a bit strange to me.  I don't buy too much on ebay I wander if the buyer can mark payment received, I will have to look next time I buy.  Thanks for the heads up on the situation something to watch for sure.   

[bob535]

This is what i said in the email (think it's acceptable?):


I have been notified that you have paid for this item, and upon getting this notice I noticed that you do not live in the United States. As my auction states I only ship within the United states.

I checked out paypal to see the amount I would have to refund, and there is no transaction history from you at all. Paypal is the only form of payment I accept.

What method of payment did you use?
I have no problem shipping this item to you, seeing that shipping locations are easy to overlook. But I will only accept paypal payment, and I will have to charge you more for shipping. Let me know if you want me to send another invoice with an updated shipping price.

Thank you

Sorry for this inconvenience.

[bob535]

Yes something to watch out for for sure, I had no doubt about the payment being recieved, and was ready to ship it out. If it were not for the Australia address it would be in the mail right now. 

[mariok54]

Polite and to the point.

I got fleeced a while back .. also clearly stating on my listing that the P&P was for the UK only and all International bidders should first contact me. Turns out the winning bid was from India, and Ebay invoiced him for the cost of the item + P&P quoted only for the UK, and he paid straight away. I decided to do the gracious thing and post it out and take a small loss on the P&P (c $8). I complained to Ebay and their response was that I should have re-invoiced the buyer with the correct postage! To make matters worse he claimed that he never ever received theitem so I had to give a full refund! Did Ebay care? Not a jot!

[mart]

I would notify paypal rather than mess with ebay !! But if buyer opens a dispute you need everything covered !! If he pays lesser amount through paypal you can just refund it !  But always put down why you are doing it in "message to buyer" or wherever you can find a spot !!

[waywardangler]

When I worked for the USPS, I did claims and inquiries as part of my job. From that experience, I would never ship anything to Italy (stuff just disappeared) or Africa (I do not care what country). There were some other countries that popped up from time to time but those were the biggies. Canada was OK but everything just took s-o-o-o-o long. Nothing moves on holidays (theirs) or weekends. Nothing. My best recommendation at that time was to use some type of Express mail or Registered mail (depending on the country). When I list on ebay, I exclude all countries except for the US and Canada because I just do not want the hassle. However, if mario or gingertom (and some other members), wanted to buy something from me I would most definitely make an exception for those UK members. 

Domestic shipping is getting to be expensive and International is worse. People do not bid on small items and then pay $5-10 to ship also unless it is scarce.

[ironlord1963]

   Italy is bad huh,  Bummer just shiped something the other day to italy     I for most part don't see the issues with international, thus far I have never had a issue, I'm sure sooner or later I will, But the profit margin on the items that have will cover the one the will come I'm sure.

[bob535]

ummm hey guys.....I am truly sorry for making this an issue. through research I have realized that this was all a misunderstanding of mine.   I don't know how, but I somehow was not reading my sites correctly. I feel really dumb, about all this now. As long as I have been doing this i don't see how i could misread my "my ebay" page.

Again I am sorry, and I needed to point this out so you know it's not an issue that you have to worry about.

Edit: I mean misunderstanding about the payment issue, not the shipping issue. The buyer is in Australia, and we reached an agreement, and I will be shipping it there.

[mart]

Thats great !!  Glad it worked out !!  Ebay is always a learning curve !!

[Oceans64]

Excellent Bob!  Glad it worked out. 

[bob535]

thanks guys