eBay payment problem: A week before Christmas I sold a camera and allied items on eBay, price less than $100.00. EBay sent me a message that the buyer had paid, that they had deducted...

trapper1 Loc: Southside Virginia

A week before Christmas I sold a camera and allied items on eBay, price less than $100.00. EBay sent me a message that the buyer had paid, that they had deducted their fee, and the balance had been sent to my bank. No deposit has been made in my bank account from eBay at all as of today. I have been in touch with the buyer and he has also been trying to find out what is going on. EBay has now stated that they have re-sent my share but it has not shown up according to my bank. I have received a notice from eBay threatening me with death and dismemberment if I did not ship the camera. Obviously I am not going to ship the camera until eBay deposits my share. My attempts to contact eBay resulted only in their usual brain-dead boiler plate replies. My concern now is not what happened to my share but that the buyer is out what he paid eBay. I am not out anything but it sure has cured me from buying or selling on eBay.

WayneL Loc: Baltimore Md

With Amazon you need to show a tracking number before they pay you. Maybe it's the same for ebay

procrastinater

Call ebay rather than sending emails Their number or call back info is on the site.

kmielen Loc: Eastern NC

Sounds like eBay is sending your proceeds using the wrong routing and/or account numbers. You can go onto your "My Ebay" account, locate the transaction, and get what they call a bank reference number to track it down with your bank.

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

I wonder if the storms or the holidays has got them all gummed up?
Either way, I think you're on the right track withholding shipment until the funds are realized- I would also keep up the contact with the buyer so he knows what is going on.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

trapper1 wrote:

A week before Christmas I sold a camera and allied... (show quote)

How did the buyer pay? I know if you have not sold many things on eBay and the buyer pays with PayPal they will hold payment until the buyer receives the product. I went through that when I sold an over a thousand dollar item. Made me nervous but it worked out fine. I have no idea how other payment systems work on eBay

therwol Loc: USA

Drbobcameraguy wrote:

How did the buyer pay? I know if you have not sold many things on eBay and the buyer pays with PayPal they will hold payment until the buyer receives the product. I went through that when I sold an over a thousand dollar item. Made me nervous but it worked out fine. I have no idea how other payment systems work on eBay

I recently sold a scanner here on UHH. The buyer paid me through PayPal, and I got the money immediately. I waited to transfer the money to my bank account until he received the scanner. There was no problem sending the money to my checking account.

SteveInConverse Loc: South Texas

trapper1 wrote:

Obviously I am not going to ship the camera until eBay deposits my share. My attempts to contact eBay resulted only in their usual brain-dead boiler plate replies. My concern now is not what happened to my share but that the buyer is out what he paid eBay. I am not out anything but it sure has cured me from buying or selling on eBay.

Funds are held until the buyer receives what they purchased from you. eBay is legit. I've done thousands of dollars in transactions over the years with no problems (other than their fees being too much IMO)

therwol Loc: USA

SteveInConverse wrote:

Funds are held until the buyer receives what they purchased from you. eBay is legit. I've done thousands of dollars in transactions over the years with no problems (other than their fees being too much IMO)

I've only done one eBay selling transaction, selling the scanner I mentioned above. There was no delay in my getting the money once I showed the buyer the shipping receipt. It took about 10 days for the scanner to go from California to Florida by UPS Ground. I didn't do anything with the money until the buyer received the scanner, but there was no hold on it. The money was sent to a "Friend or family" without any business fee that I'm aware of. I believe that if you pay out of your bank account and send money that way, there are no fees at all.

Bill_de Loc: US

I never used eBay, but if I did, and did have a problem with them I wouldn't bring it to a photography site. There are probaly many sites that can help with this type of issue whether it's a camera, a bicycle, or a yacht.

Just a thought, as more and more threads on UHH actually have nothing to do with photography.

---

SteveInConverse Loc: South Texas

therwol wrote:

I've only done one eBay selling transaction, selli... (show quote)

Yeah paying through PayPal directly is probably faster. From my experience,y funds have always had a hold until the buyer gets the item, then my funds are released and I request payout. I usually get the money within 24hrs. And all your information with eBay needs to be up to date or payout is delayed. I've not had any issues aside from their percentage for fees being a bit much.

trapper1 Loc: Southside Virginia

Shipping an item before you receive payment is a new one on me. When I saw this statement in one of the posts I spent an hour or so on eBay trying to find out what the procedure was for shipping before receiving payment. I did not have any luck as usual searching eBay for an explanation but it is very difficult for me to beleive that, for instance, someone would ship say a $2,000 lens before they had been paid. I'd like to see them try that with B&H or MPB. Early on eBay mumbled something about paying me directly to my bank by-passing PayPal which sounded fishy to me It looks as if eBay tried and has run aground on rocks and shoals.

Trapper1

gwilliams6

I have heard too many sad stories from fellow pros of issues while trying to do camera gear sales through eBay. I know some have been fine, but I will never use eBay to sell or buy any used gear.

Cheers and best of luck to you. Keep being the smart, honest guy, and hope eBay gets it together, whether it is a weather-related , holiday-related or ineptness-related issue from eBay.

flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

Drbobcameraguy wrote:

How did the buyer pay? I know if you have not sold many things on eBay and the buyer pays with PayPal they will hold payment until the buyer receives the product. I went through that when I sold an over a thousand dollar item. Made me nervous but it worked out fine. I have no idea how other payment systems work on eBay

I have sold many items over the years on eBay using PayPal and have always gotten the money immediately...they never withheld payment until the buyer received the item.

The OP here says the message was from eBay. Did the seller pay eBay directly? How does that work? EBay now owns PayPal after starting their own payment service that failed.

If he got the message from eBay via e-mail , the e-mail could be fake. I once sold an item on Craig's list and received a very authentic looking e-mail from PayPal saying payment had been sent and instructing me to send the item to Lagos, Nigeria. I went directly to my PayPal account and there was no payment. I then forwarded the e-mail to PayPal's investigative unit and they confirmed the e-mail was a fake.

OldSchool-WI Loc: Brandon, Wisconsin 53919

SteveInConverse wrote:

Funds are held until the buyer receives what they purchased from you. eBay is legit. I've done thousands of dollars in transactions over the years with no problems (other than their fees being too much IMO)

_______________________(reply)
I buy from eBay nearly every week. But like with Walmart or nearly all active sales sites---they are nearly impossibe to contact in case of trouble. It does help to use PayPal as another buffer and "case number."

I always use PayPal and even then have gotten stung with new software in shrink-wrap and with the serial activation numbers, etc. But little did I know that Adobe did not support the $80. new--but 32bit software I just bought and Adobe required a second verification with them, but they no longer supported such as then the NEW in shrinkwrap was totally worthless. Technically, the eBay seller woman sold me new. I opened it and then it was used and not subject to return. So---even with PayPal----I lost my $80. Thanks Adobe. I had never heard of a software which required a second registration subject to the manufacturers whims---like Adobe. Avoid them or expect that you will not be able to re-install your expensive software upon hard-drive failure or the purchase of a new computer. Beware.--------------