Oh shoot, what did I do now?!?! I did, I thought I was giving her a total “out” by saying if you changed your mind and want to cancel we can do that and I have no issues with it, i.e. I would not then turn around and leave her a negative comment about canceling.
eBay, etc. General Question/Answer Thread
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Couple of things.
A seller mentioning feedback implies feedback extortion, ie., "I'll cancel if you don't neg me." Feedback extortion can be reported. (Here's the policy: HELP1225Feedback extortion policy)
As for your not leaving a neg for her, you can't. Since 2008, sellers can ONLY leave positive feedback and positive comments for buyers, no matter how much of a PITA the buyer is.
Got it! Thank you so much for your help!
I’m going to wait to hear back from her and proceed accordingly and say nothing else in the meantime!
I sold a Bernina sewing machine today for $2200. The buyer has paid, and the amount is in my apayPal account. Two things are strange.
1. Buyer sends me an email and signs it from her and her husband, followed by Meza, AR. According to eBay, the buyer lives in Sioux Falls, SD. He has been an email member since 2010. She mentioned they have 2 granddaughters to sew for, so maybe they moved?
Second strange thing: should I be worried?
Her email: We wanted to let you know that PayPal sent us a text that the transaction to you was suspicious. So, my husband, Mike wrote back saying yes, he authorized the purchase of your Bernina 560 sewing / embroidery machine. It is already marked pending on our bank account and my husband's Visa card is still good. It has not expired yet. Mike will call Pay Pal Monday morning to straighten this out. We want to assure you this is a legitimate purchase by us with Mike's credit card and it is a good card. We checked our Pay Pal account and everything looks good there so, we do not understand why we got the text from them saying that the transaction looked suspicious. We wanted you not to worry for Mike will get this all straightened out,
Am I ok to and the machine? The money is showing in my PayPal account. If you’ve read this far...thank you.
I’m so happy to have the people in this group to ask. Thanks!
1. Buyer sends me an email and signs it from her and her husband, followed by Meza, AR. According to eBay, the buyer lives in Sioux Falls, SD. He has been an email member since 2010. She mentioned they have 2 granddaughters to sew for, so maybe they moved?
Second strange thing: should I be worried?
Her email: We wanted to let you know that PayPal sent us a text that the transaction to you was suspicious. So, my husband, Mike wrote back saying yes, he authorized the purchase of your Bernina 560 sewing / embroidery machine. It is already marked pending on our bank account and my husband's Visa card is still good. It has not expired yet. Mike will call Pay Pal Monday morning to straighten this out. We want to assure you this is a legitimate purchase by us with Mike's credit card and it is a good card. We checked our Pay Pal account and everything looks good there so, we do not understand why we got the text from them saying that the transaction looked suspicious. We wanted you not to worry for Mike will get this all straightened out,
Am I ok to and the machine? The money is showing in my PayPal account. If you’ve read this far...thank you.
I’m so happy to have the people in this group to ask. Thanks!
Ugh! I'm concerned!!
1. Meza, AR? Is that supposed to be Mesa, AZ (Mesa, Arizona)? (There's no Meza, Arkansas!)
2. What does it say in Paypal? Does it show as "eligible" for seller protection?
3. For the buyer's ebay account, is there recent feedback? Or is all the feedback (both received and left for others) over a year old?
4. Did you check your actual Paypal account, i.e., did you log in to Paypal.com or did you receive an email (appearing to be) from Paypal?
5. DO NOT SHIP YET! You have at least until Monday since it's the weekend.
ETA:
6. Are you a new (low feedback) seller?
I found the listing and have some suggestions.
These suggestions are based on the assumption that it's determined that the buyer isn't a scammer and that the purchase is legitimate.
- Although you said you'd include the original receipt, do not send the original. Photocopy it but remove your personal information. There's no reason why the buyer needs the original.
- The listing states that you'll ship in 2 packages. Be sure to include BOTH tracking numbers in the transaction (and on ebay) because you don't want the buyer to claim non-receipt of 1/2 the order.
- You say you'll have signature confirmation. I recommend requiring signature on both packages
1. Sorry, it is Mesa, AZ. My fault.
2. Yes, PayPal does say “Eligible” and “Eligible when I ship to the address on this page and update tracking.”
3. He has 3 feedback ratings from June and 3 more in the last 6 months. All are positive. 100%. (Sorry, I keep switching from he to her. His wife emailed me but the eBay buyer shows him. He emailed me last night as well.)
4. I logged into my actual PayPal account. The amount is there. (I did not receive the “You’ve been paid” email that I normally get. I did require immediate payment on this so maybe that’s why.)
5. I’ve been selling on eBay since January. I’ve sold about 100 items since then. (100% rating.). I’ve been buying on eBay for years.
Thank you for your help. I’m worried about these people. She sent me an email asking me first if the rain would hold up the delivery (What rain? Maybe there’s flooding I’m not aware of) and last night sent an email that her husband is worried that the heat may affect the electronics of the machine so could I please “package it carefully”. (You know, because UPS drivers drive with the doors open to save time when delivering) It’s in the original factory box with the original packing materials. I just don’t want these people to contact me constantly that there’s a problem. I know I can’t control that but ugh!
Anyway, thank you again for your time. I appreciate your help and advice.
Thank you. This is great information and advice and I will surely take it!
I never thought about photocopying a receipt. I’ve bought a few Louis Vuitton bags from eBay that were expensive, but this is the first time I have sold an item worth this much. I will get tracking and signatures for both and post them. Thanks again!
I'm thinking they may be legit.
The $2200 charge for an online purchase is probably out of the ordinary for them and the c.c. company is likely just verifying that the purchase is their own and not the result of a hack. (IMO, that's a good thing when the c.c. company does that.)
And their concern could also be because they don't usually buy expensive electronics items from unknown (to them) sellers. And the concern about moisture is legitimate.
I don’t know about New Jersey, but New York recently imposed a tax on collectibles about 10%. Recently I was unpleasantly surprised when buying a Hermes collection scarf when tax was added to the final price. The tax was added automatically, I think the seller does not even know how much I finally paid.
Look for ebay in the help section of the "ebay sales tax collection". In New Jersey, the law is valid from May 1 this year.
If a seller marks an item as shipped and printed the label, but still hasn't given the package to usps after three days what should be done? Do sellers get dinged for generating labels but not dropping the item off for several days?
I don't think you can do anything. Sometimes the package has actually been dropped off but hasn't been scanned. If you don't get the package by the expected delivery date, the seller gets dinged.
That doesn't sound right. In California, they define it as a use tax so you have to pay it if you use it in the state.Hello ladies
In light of recent taxes applied by eBay, my question is why would they also apply state and local taxes on international purchases? I read and understand the Supreme Court ruling etc, but that relates specifically to within the 50 states of the US. Not aware that Supreme Court would have international jurisdiction, Congress already got that covered with duties and tariffs. Nevertheless, I discovered eBay uses the buyer’s shipping address, not the seller’s hence they automatically tax purchases based on that. I have serious qualms that this is not correct, would anyone care to chime in otherwise? Calling eBay is useless, non English speakers parrot back simply what’s in front of them.
From my extensive overseas travels as well as international online purchases, I would pay duties to US Customs & Border but nothing to NY state and local as they have no jurisdiction. During check out on eBay for an item from Japan, I saw state and local taxes applied to my item, if I was coming through the airport with said item, I wouldn’t have to pay NYS, and duty only if item was over $800, these are the facts as they stand. Federal vs State regulations, something I fear eBay failed to grasp.
From their tax policy, this is all they said -
Items sold within the US
eBay provides a basic tax calculator to help sellers add sales tax to their eBay sales, however sellers will need to enter the appropriate tax rate for each state where the seller is authorized to collect tax. We can't guarantee that our basic tax calculator will meet all of your tax requirements.
Allowed
- You may charge tax in states where you are authorized to collect tax
Not allowed
Items sold overseas (imported or exported)
- You may not collect sales tax in states where you are not authorized
- You may not collect sales tax beyond what is legally authorized
- You may not include sales tax information in your item title, image, or description
Local consumer tax and/or customs duty may apply to goods imported from overseas, and the parcel's recipient may need to pay these as part of clearing the parcel through customs. These may not apply if the order's under a certain value, but the threshold varies between countries.
Contact your local tax office for information about paying sales tax on items exported overseas.
Remember that you may also have tax obligations in other countries if you are doing business overseas.
All things being equal, an item listed by a Japanese retailer on eBay and Rakuten (multiple platforms highly likely not to mention frequently), eBay would automatically assess me as buyer based on my shipping address state and local taxes but none from Rakuten except for duty IF and ONLY IF assessed by US Customs under certain conditions. Absolutely insane and illogical what eBay is doing!!
Guess where I’m likely to buy my stuff now...
It's not just ebay though.
And is it because ebay, Tradesy, Bonanza, etc. are US-based so the US Supreme Court can stipulate what the states can do but Rakuten being Japan-based, they aren't bound by what the Supreme Court says?