posted on April 18, 2001 10:55:43 AM new
Cin131...is this an accurate summary of what happened?
You listed an auction on 2/4/01 for "blue NFL jersey size XL" (auction title is just made up for illustration purposes). This auction successfully ended 2/11/01.
You sent an end of auction email to the high bidder. The high bidder in their initial response or later told you they had a sick grandmother and would not be able to pay immediately. You accepted that excuse initially but later saw they were still winning other auctions and obviously were paying for those as they were recieving feedback on auctions they won AFTER they won yours.
You obviously tried to work with this buyer (based on her recent email staing you KNEW about her sick grandmother) so we can conclude you did inform her of her delinquent payment.
On 3/13/01 you emailed her a final time voiding the sale. You leave her negative feedback and then immediately relisted the item (3/13/01).
On 3/20/01 this item sold again and you sent out an end of auction email to the new buyer.
Both buyers had an ebay id that gave no clue as to their real name or address. Neither buyer sent you their addresses in response to your end of auction notice.
6 days after the second auction ended you recieve a payment and you send the item to the person who sent you payment.
You logically concluded the payment had come from the new buyer. You had no reason to believe the payment was from anyone else other than the new buyer as the old buyer had been notified 13 days earlier that the auction was voided.
First buyer and second buyer had different IDs
Did you screw up? I don't think so.
You were in contact with the original buyer before you voided the sale. You gave that buyer adequate time to pay (a month). You gave her acceptable feedback based on the status of the auction at the point you voided it.
She more than likely sent her payment AFTER you voided the sale and AFTER you negged her.
It has been suggested that you should have done a contact information request on BOTH the old buyer and the new to see if they were the same. I think few sellers, once they voided a sale, relisted the item and had a new buyer (different id) would even think there was a possibility the deadbeat would send payment anyway...much less would pull contact info to see if the payment they got was from the first bidder.
She deserved her feedback. She has her item that she paid for.
If you do get payment from the second buyer send it back with an explanation that the item is no longer available...you do not need to go into the story of what happened.
I think that even with GOOD record keeping (and this does not mean I think yours aren't good), this situation would have happened. It was an unfortunate accident. Your neg was timely and correct.
