eBay: Make me an Offer. Make sure it's your Best Offer!

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Dear eBay Queen;

I've been trying to find a snowman cake pan made by Nordic Ware. I found quite a few on eBay. Some were on auction, some were a set price, and some had a set price with Best Offer. What is Best Offer? I've never seen this before.
Leigh

Dear Leigh;

I should be upfront and tell you, as a seller or a buyer, I love Best Offer. This is a new option added to eBay within the last year or so. Best Offer is used on Buy it Now and Store items. It allows you the buyer, to make an offer to buy the item at a price that you select. The seller can accept, decline or counteroffer your Best Offer. If you see the "Make Offer" button in the listing below the Buy it Now price, the seller has decided to consider Best Offers from buyers.

Best Offer gives you the chance to negotiate the price with the seller. Let's say you find your Nordic Snowman pan for a Buy it Now of $34.99 or Best Offer. You could offer the seller $24.99. If the seller accepts the offer, you now own that snowman pan! Keep in mind that Best Offer is only to be used when you are serious about buying that item. Just like the bids made on auction-style listings, your Best Offer is binding. Best Offers are good for 48 hours. If the seller accepts your offer, the listing is immediately closed. For more information on Best Offer check out: http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/best-offer.html

Dear eBay Queen;

My husband wears a size 16 shoes, and as you can imagine, they are very hard to find in stores. We found a pair on eBay that he wanted, so we bid, and won. The auction ended March 16th, and I paid by PayPal the same day. I did pay more for Priority Mail shipping.
When they still hadn't arrived by last Saturday, I e-mailed the seller to ask when he shipped them. He emailed me stating the payment was pending. When I check my PayPal account I see that the payment had gone through and is not pending. We emailed him back again, telling him the payment has gone through, and we would like our shoes. I even told him we would file a dispute with PayPal if we did not receive them by Friday! He sent a response back telling us to go ahead and report him, but in the meantime if we wanted the shoes to go to PayPal and cancel the payment and send him another payment! What do we do now?

My husband called PayPal tonight and they e-mailed us a dispute resolution form, but even if we get our money back, I'm still really ticked for all the hassle and the total disregard! Is he just rude, stupid, or is he trying to scam us?

Bigfoot

Dear Bigfoot;

I checked out his feedback and other auctions. It appears, that selling large size women and men's shoes is his business. I don't think he was scamming you. His feedback is excellent. I'm only speculating, but I would bet he did not have your shoes in stock, and instead of being upfront and telling you he made a mistake, he's stalling.

If this had happened to me, I would file the dispute with PayPal immediately. You only have 30 days to file after you have paid for an item. Go to https://www.paypal.com , click on "Resolution Center" , then click on "Report a Problem". Follow the steps, and you will have filed your dispute. Keep in mind the dispute process is not a fast one, but it should be just enough to prod your seller into sending your shoes, or giving your money back.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 320096405850 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page). Ever wondered what a 50-year-old tractor was worth? Check out the first John Deere 330 off the assembly line in 1958. SOLD $125,000.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320096405850


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