I made a recent purchase via Ebay from this outfit in NM called cheapimports. I bought a distributor cap December 3rd for my 300SE. To make a long story short, I paid immediately through my PayPal account--but as of yet have not received the cap. The owner of the outfit assures me that this is a rare problem--and indeed, they do have a 100% Ebay feedback score.

Yet there are troubling aspects--like the fact that the owner said that PayPal and Ebay were at fault, because Ebay (he says) failed to notify him of the sale, and PayPal failed to send him notice of payment. He also said that he would not have known that I had made payment unless I had emailed him--which I had done. Yet I have an email, from HIM, in my inbox two days after the auction ended, acknowledging the sale. He assured me today that I would receive the item today or tomorrow, but I am skeptical. The charge has already appeared on my VISA bill. Anyone else with experience with them?

My previous dealings with Ebay have been fine, and considerably more efficient. About the same time I won the auction for the cap, I had won three other auctions from three different sellers--all those goods have long since arrived.

Joe B.

sometimes eBay just sucks like that. I had a similar experience with a seller who completely forgot that I had bought and paid for an item. It took over a month from the time he recieved payment to the time he shipped the item.

My advice is to tell the seller that its unacceptable to you and that he should discount or upgrade the shipping. As a seller, if I forget to mail an item, or a customer isn't happy about the timeliness - I'll usually comp them overnight. That makes anyone happy, you complain and the next day you get the item.

Good luck!

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Daily Driver: 02 E430 4MATIC
In the family: '03 E500 // '04 ML500 // 64 220SE

Thanks. I'll keep your advice in mind the next time I deal with Ebay. This outfit, though, was blaming Ebay and PayPal for not notifying them--I found it hard to believe that both dropped the ball, though I suppose it's possible. I received the cap today, and it looks ok, though there is a place on the outside edge that looks suspicious. I'll compare it with the one on my car tomorrow.

Joe B.

Joe, sorry about the ordeal you're going through. Hopefully it will all end well with minimum damage done.

Was this acknowledgment a personal one from him? The reason why I ask is because I've been doing a significant amount of selling on eBay for about two years now and both eBay and PayPal can be setup such that they automatically send out an acknowledgement e-mail to the buyer on the seller's behalf. In such cases, you may receive such an e-mail when the seller is not aware of the payment you made.

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1999 Mercedes-Benz S600, 103K miles - garage queen
1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL, 89K miles - daily driver
2007 Hyundai Sonata Limited, 31K - daily driver

Hi Joe,

I'll second what Braverichard told you. You may or may not know this but
Paypal is now owned by eBay. They do have an automatic notification
service so it's possible that what you got was a pre-written automatic
response that went out at auction closing and when you're payment was
received.

Also, there's an issue with spam filters. Thanks to all these scammers
sending messages supposedly from eBay asking you to login to your
account (so the spammer can steal your password), many of the spam
filters at your internet service provider and in your email program, filter
out ebay messages. So it's possible he missed the sale notification.

If he has a 100% rating and multiple transactions, I'd give him the benefit
of the doubt since you've received the part. If this happens again, though,
you can resolve this through Paypal. The seller must be able to prove you
got the part to win the dispute.

A seller with 100% feedback rating will value that and want to avoid
getting negatives so they'll usually work with you.

Hope this helps...

Bill

__________________
_______________________________________
1988 MB 560 SEL 138k - Desert Taupe w/ Cream Beige Interior.

Mods:
Euro Headlights w/Smoked Corners
New seats from a `91
ASA 15-Hole Replicas
Sony HU, JL Audio 400/4 Amp, JL Audio 2-way Components on rear deck, JL Audio 3-way Components in door & dash.


2000 BMW Z3 2.3 Roadster 33k
2002 Toyota Rav4L 50k

All well said Bill. This guy may not be guilty of any wrong doing afterall. Too many factors could have messed up the transaction.

__________________
1999 Mercedes-Benz S600, 103K miles - garage queen
1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL, 89K miles - daily driver
2007 Hyundai Sonata Limited, 31K - daily driver

I appreciate all responses. Sounds like I know a lot less about Ebay and PayPal than I thought. Maybe cheapimports is innocent, though the original email, two days after the auction and acknowledging that I had won it, came from cheapimports' email address. Then about three weeks later, in a phone call with me, the owner of cheapimports insisted that he had had no idea who had won the auction until he received my recent email. I confronted him on the phone with the fact that I had received an email from him just two days after the auction, and he admitted that said email did, in fact, come from him.

About the same time that I won this auction, I also won three others from three completely different sellers. I paid for all items immediatelythrough PayPal. The other three items arrived within a week of payment. For all items, I received the usual Ebay notice, and after I had paid, I received the usual PayPal receipt. This seller is claiming he received nothing from either, which I find hard to believe, though of course it is possible.

Joe B.

joe

i ebay big time, selling mostly.

every now and then something of mine will sell and i will NOT receive notification of payment from pay pal.

i ship when i get that notification. because pay pal goes through "spells", i check my pay pal acct for sales now.

as a seller i feel like a moron and the buyer thinks you've bent them over.

benefit of the doubt if they have stellar feedback.

for the hell of it here's my ebay link http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZpdburg

__________________
*92 400e 124.034, SOLD

*92 300e 124.030, SOLD

Thanks, eebenz--I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Joe B.

Hi Joe,

Just as an FYI, when Paypal does an automated payment due notification,
it will show as coming from the seller's email address, the same way that
when you make a payment via paypal, the payment shows as coming through
your email address even though that isn't actually the case.

They do that so if you reply to one of those emails, it goes to the right party
rather than Paypal.

I don't sell as much on ebay as I used to because I have multiple websites
now. But I get, on average, 400-500 spam messages a day along with a ton
of legit email. Every once in a while, one either gets overlooked or I find it
when I check my junk folder. Scanning that folder costs me a couple of hours
each week.

In any case, all's well that ends well. I'm glad you got all your parts. I'm in
a dispute now with an eBay seller out of Hong Kong that sells clear corners
and similar lighting fixtures for cars. Cheap junk. From now on, it's OEM for
lighting stuff.

Bill

__________________
_______________________________________
1988 MB 560 SEL 138k - Desert Taupe w/ Cream Beige Interior.

Mods:
Euro Headlights w/Smoked Corners
New seats from a `91
ASA 15-Hole Replicas
Sony HU, JL Audio 400/4 Amp, JL Audio 2-way Components on rear deck, JL Audio 3-way Components in door & dash.


2000 BMW Z3 2.3 Roadster 33k
2002 Toyota Rav4L 50k