buyer's not responding after she paid, need her response before i ship!! what to do?

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  1. so i sold a handbag on sunday evening. the buyer had asked me earlier if i would ship to canada and i said yes, with the understanding that i wouldn't be responsible for whatever customs fee may be attached. she asked me to invoice her with the additional charge for canada shipping and paid right away. later on she sent another email asking for me to state the price sold on the bag rather than the actual retail value of the bag and i responded sure, that's what i'm supposed to do anyway.

    as i packed the bag that night, i noticed a really tiny scuff on the piping. i usually inspect my bags before and after i sell and i don't know why i didn't notice it the first time. i think it was the lighting? anyway, since i listed the bag as nwt (and it was, this is exactly how i got it from saks) and didn't have close ups of the scuff, i emailed her with hq close ups telling her i'm open to whatever she wants to do (cancel, discount, she doesn't care, whatever) since there was this flaw i hadn't disclosed and i wanted to sort it out before we'd have to deal with returns (which would mean wasted customs money, wasted shipping back and forth, etc, which could easily come out to about $75 on something that only sold for 280 to begin with).

    it's now tuesday evening and she hasn't responded and i don't know what to do! i don't want to ship it out until i get her ok but i don't want to just sit here with the bag AND the money and i really don't want her to think i'm trying to scam her because it was an honest mistake/oversight. i emailed her that evening (sunday) with the apology and pics, and sent short "hey just wanted to make sure you got the email so we can move forward with this" messages to her email and ebay again.

    anybody with any advice on what to do from here? it'd be super appreciated!! i'm guessing i should just wait but i'm seriously antsy because i like shipping next day!
  2. I would give it until tomorrow evening and if she doesn't respond then refund and explain that you don't want to send her a bag that has minor undisclosed damage until you hear back from her. If you refund and she suddenly answers the emails then she can still repay for the bag and you can refund the partial amount you agree on after she see's it. I would not send the bag if I didn't hear back from a buyer.

    These things happen. Very good of you to think it through and weigh the options. So many sellers would have just shipped with fingers crossed. It is a tough position to be in. If she asks for too much of a refund it could turn out to be an even stickier situation, so proceed with caution.
  3. You could pull her contact info and phone her if you do not hear from her soon.
  4. Yes, I was gona say to request the buyers contact details (phone number). You can do this from the advanced search option by the search toolbar at the top of an ebay page. Then go to contact ebay member. Enter member info and item ID and voila.... you should get her contact details.

    By the way.... I think you're doing the right thing in waiting before you send the item out. Always best to be honest and feel as is you've done the right thing. You'd want someone to do the same for you wouldn't you?!
    Anyway....Good luck!
  5. When you send your e-mails, maybe check to see if the item number is in the subject line. I've found that having it there can make it more likely for your e-mail to get sent to the person's spam folder, so try taking that out and see if you get a response (if it's applicable).
  6. I had a similar situation happen to me with a cashmere sweater. When I went to ship it, I realized there was a small tear in the seam. I did the same thing as you - emailed the buyer, sent pictures, even phoned and left a message. No response, so I went ahead and refunded and sent a mutual withdrawal. Well, my buyer repaid almost immediately and responded to the mutual withrdrawal by saying she still wanted to complete the transaction. I shipped and she left positive feedback and yet she never once responded to any of my messages. Point being - some buyers are just non-communicative.

    In this situation, I agree with Amour. If she doesn't get back in touch, refund and file for your fees back. See what she does at that point. Good luck!
  7. thank you all for your help!

    she emailed me back today and basically said thanks for being honest, i really did want a perfect bag with how much i paid, would you be willing to give me a discount? to that point, i'm planning on replying with a yes, but only about 15$, since my exact bag used sells for about that much and i'd rather not lose money on this transaction.

    the only other she mentioned is something i wanted to ask you awesome pfers about. she asked, "Would you be able to give me a discount? and since you can't ship with insurance, can you declare 100 USD instead of 200+? I got a bag that was declared at 100 USD last week and i didn't have to pay tax on it..."

    my understanding from my limited 15 min research on it is that anything over 20USD is subject to potential customs/taxes, but it's really luck of the draw whether or not you get taxed, so the only difference is that if she does get picked for taxes, she'd pay less? and i'm hesitant to say yes because i don't want to get in trouble later on (yeah yeah i know it's a smaaaall chance), and i'm wondering if this would cause a problem with ebay later if for some reason this became a claim?

    any info would again be appreciated!!
  8. #8 Jan 29, 2009
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2009
    I'm confused. Why can't you insure the bag? I've sent insured packages to Canada via USPS International Priority Mail. Were you planning to ship first class (dangerous, imo)? If it were me, I'd ship the bag via an insured shipping method with the full, purchase-price paid to protect myself from loss or theft. Without insurance, if the bag goes missing, you're on the hook for refunding the buyer's money. Again - JMHO.

    ETA: I just checked the USPS website. If you ship via USPS International Priority Mail, you can insure the package to a maximum value of $675. Insurance of $200 (which I think you mentioned was the purchase price of the bag) costs $2.60.
  9. ^^^ I agree. You can insure with USPS, just depends on the method.

    Also, I personally do not under-declare. The risk is all yours as the seller.
  10. this exact thing is happening to me also- i sold a tank top and had it listed as xs. the buyer bought it, paid and when i went to ship i realized it was a small. totally my stupid mistake for not checking. i emailed her and asked if she still wanted it and offered her a little money off for my mistake (it sold for 12 dollars, offered her 2 back) and have not heard from her. i'm just going to refund today and see what happens. i seriously do not want a neg from this but you never know. i am a mess with ebay lately. last week i sold a pair of jeans i had donated to charity. lol. they had just been sitting in my store forever and i thought i still had them but i didn't. the buyer was super understanding.

    in terms of customs- i don't mark anything less than the value things sell for. i'm sorry people have to pay customs but they know going in that they might have to and should bid accordingly. if you mark it for less than the value and it gets lost or damaged YOU'RE out the money, not the buyer. plus, it's illegal.
  11. thank you all for your help! i thought i couldn't insure via usps because for some reason, when i checked out with paypal, the darn thing would not let me add insurance. after thinking about it for a bit i thought that made no sense and checked and of course they do let you add insurance. by then it was too late to cancel the postage i already paid for through paypal so i'm going to drop it off in store today and just pay for the insurance. and since there's insurance, i told the buyer i wouldn't underdeclare and she was ok with that. so thank you all!!!! hopefully all is good now and there are no problems later on!