To think that if you win something on eBay the seller should send it however low the winning bid

[0pheliaBalls]

Two weeks ago I won a bag, BNWT from Fat Face. The bidding started at a penny and it had a BIN for £60. I bid £10, but nobody else bid on it so I won the auction. Now I know the buyer will be pissed off, but as I won it fair and square, I think she should just post it and chalk it up to experience. But no. She's not posted it and isn't answering my emails and I'm having to go through eBay to get a refund (only a fiver for postage, but still). I've noticed she's posted/got feedback for the other stuff she sold at the same time, so it's clear that the only reason she hasn't sent it is that she's not happy with the final price.

This has happened three or four times in the last few months - people not happy with the final price so they don't send the item. EBay can't make sellers post stuff and it really pisses me off that I have to chase refunds when I shouldn't need to. After all, it's not rocket science - just start your auction at the minimum price you're willing to accept.

AIBU?

You can report her as a non-performing seller and leave poor feedback - in theory ebay should suspend her account if she does it too often

Trouble is, ebay have become so bad now that they'll let those who earn them a lot in commission get away with blue murder. Even if they close her account she can simply start up another under a different name

Oh I always pick UK only. It annoys me as Amazon are doing this a lot now. I want to buy from Amazon, not sellers and certainly not from China. I also do time ending soonest. Was a seasoned eBayer at one point but now it's gone downhill. Just trying to find a normal seller amongst all the buy it now overpriced stuff is off putting.

Set your minimum bid to the minimum you'll accept. No idea why you wouldn't do that these days as it's still free to list.

Because buyers are stupid act irrationally and doing that will get you lower sale prices on average.

You could have 2 identical items from 2 sellers with similar feedback and terms etc. One starts at 99p and the other at £49.99. The 99p item could be bid up to £60 or £70 and the £49.99 item either will not sell or only receives one bid so will sell at £49.99.

People will see the £49.99 item with no bids on it and assume there is something wrong with the item or the seller. At the same time, people will bid the item that started at 99p even when the price gets higher than the £49.99 item. I've seen it happen time and time again.

If I am selling something that always has people bidding on it, I will always start it at 99p and very rarely get a price that is too low.

However, it is difficult when selling things like clothes and bags that often don't sell because start at 99p and you risk getting one bid, start higher and you are unlikely to sell. I either do a BIN or more usually don't bother at all.

I bought two things one never arrived the delivery schedule just kept moving when i complained eBay closed my account!! Never got the second item or a refund never again.

Agree that eBay isn't what it was anymore. They aren't interested in people selling their second hand bits and pieces. All they are interested in are big sellers selling a million widgets a year.

But unfortunately, your seller cannot be forced to send you the bag, but if I was the seller, I would have sent it and took it on the chin - which is why I don't start things like bags at 99p any more - see previous post.

Plenty of buyers are arses too (not you OP, you have done nothing wrong in this instance). Buyers can fail to appreciate that ebay and paypal charge sellers quite hefty fees (13.4% of the total amount including postage) and also that postage is in fact not free, like ebay pretend that it is or they mess sellers about.

I sold a bulky item before Christmas and they kept failing to turn up at the agreed time to collect and after over a week made an excuse and said that they wouldn't be buying the item after all so I had to relist and claim back my fees.

^My friend got a phone cover for £2 really lovely, sparkly gold. I thought it was top brand actually. But it obscured her camera so couldn't take pics, then she couldn't get it off. Had to use a knife to chip away the plastic and scratched the phone in the end.

Oh endless stories of the Chinese sellers^

I don't think your friends bad experience is indicative of all Chinese sellers. I buy a hell of a lot from Aliexpress, including phone cases and have never had a bad experience yet.
Most of the UK sellers are resellers of stuff imported from China, only at twice the price.

OP, that is really poor. And now you have the hassle of getting a refund etc.

I think the way eBay deals with non-paying buyers is also really poor. Sellers can only leave positive or neutral feedback for buyers - why not negative? An they should be struck off after one non-payment, not the 3-4 it takes now.

I'm usually quite impressed with things like phone cases on ebay etc.

Manufacturing technology today means that things can fit quite precisely. Could the friend's phone case have been the wrong one?

And how they can still make money while selling things for pence and posting them from the other side of the world. I think their postage must be a lot cheaper than ours because sometimes the economics wouldn't stack up for a UK seller.

I seem to recall there is a government subsidy on postage rates below a certain amount in China to encourage commerce and that is why they can sell so cheaply.

I rarely bother with eBay now and usually go straight to Ali express. It's usually cheaper with sellers desperate to keep the customer happy and ali has a great meditation system with money back guarantee if you have issues.

0pheliaBalls yes i hate that sellers get away with this. Love to know what the 'appropriate action' is, naff all as i can see!

I'm actually pretty impressed with the stuff from Chinese sellers. But then I only use them for stuff which is supposed to be cheap, such as 99p makeup brush covers / storage bags etc. Ive never bought a fake brand item.

I had this happen to me last week. I've been after something for ages and it came up local to me for once and I immediately emailed the woman selling asking if she would accept an offer of £130 for it - she had it on for £20 start and I didn't want to lose out if someone else won. She emailed back and said no she wanted to let the auction run (thing was worth about £300 new). So she let it run and I won it for £40! Bargain! But now she is refusing to send it and saying she's sold it elsewhere etc etc! I think she's just pissed she didn't accept my higher offer in the beginning!

I had someone 'change his mind' when I won a dinner service really cheaply. I left him negative feedback and he got really cross about it. If that doesn't deserve negative feedback, I don't know what does.