Ebay buyer sincere...or jerking me around?

Question

I had an auction end last Friday, final bid was a pretty good price to get for the item(Transformer figure). I sent an invoice immediately after the end of the auction, as is my standard practice. Waited a few days, and when I got no response from the buyer, sent invoice number 2. Waited a week from the end of auction, with absolutely no communication from buyer.

Today, I receive an email from buyer about how they are having trouble using Paypal, and can they send a money order. Which is fine, I take both. But today is also the day I can file an Unpaid Item...coincidence? I have my suspicions. I sell items on Ebay because I need the money, and not in a month, either. If this person has no intention of paying, I need to relist or make second chance offer.

This is the reply I was going to send...civil, but letting them know I did not appreciate the silent treatment from them until the day it could get serious, and nicely telling them when I expected payment.

"While I would have appreciated communication before a week had elapsed...to answer your question, yes, I will accept a postal money order only, mailed to: *********. I will expect to receive it by the middle of next week at the latest. Thank you."

Does this sound okay?

What do you think...is the buyer sincere or just jerking me around?

Answer 1

You have waited long enough. Give him the last day you will expect the money order. After that you are filing a complaint.

Relist right the way. Have you checked his/her feedback?

Answer 2

for what it's worth, I have perfect ebay scores and so on but lately have been having problems with paypal. When I go to pay it will only let me use the paypal plus(credit card) and not the linked bank account. Whenever I go to click on it, it says transaction cancelled??? idk, maybe something is up with paypal. BUT I was in complete communication with the seller within hours and it was all taken care of by the next day(I finally had to do it as "send money") I say, do what you gotta do, relist or offer second chance by waiting you could be losing out on those options.

Answer 3

They are jerking you around. I've heard of Ebay buyers doing this to get free stuff and even to get personal information on the lister. Pretty scary stuff. You should relist and inform them that they waited too long to respond to you.

Answer 4

This has happened to me several times.  Each and every time, I had to close the unpaid item dispute because the money order never arrived.  So I no longer accept money orders at all.  It's PayPal or nothing.

If they're having trouble using PayPal, tell them to contact PayPal.  This is the year 2008, not 1994.  Everyone and his dog is on the Internet, and it's not your responsibility to show someone how the Internet works.