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First: eBay isn’t at fault here. This situation occurred with a buyer on eBay. I’ve been a registered eBay user since 1999 and this is the first time this happened to me. I share this so you don’t make the same mistake I did.

I posted a Neuros for sale. I try to be careful with my gadget purchases, but not in this case. I bought it and never used it, so I thought it best to sell it before it became an ancient and unused gadget. Plus, I need all the help with a big family event we’re planning.

Bad buyer (names omitted to protect the guilty) won the item and paid by PayPal about three days after the auction ended, but I did not know until three days later as my PayPal notification did not come through. What happened was my PayPal email was set to go to content-maven.com instead of meryl.net, so I never saw it.

My catch-all goes into a return to sender pile because spammers used meryl.net to send spam and it was overwhelming the server. It was a risk, but a necessary one. Besides, most made up meryl.net email addresses are spam. Occasionally, there’s a typo in the email address… therein lies the risk.

Once I saw bad buyer had paid, I immediately responded and apologized for my oversight. I told bad buyer that I would upgrade his shipping at no cost to bad buyer. After I sent that note, I proceeded to Click and Ship by way of PayPal and dropped off the package. I left positive feedback right then as bad buyer had paid and had no more actions that would affect our transaction. I’ve always posted feedback after the buyer paid and I shipped and never ran into a problem before.

On the same day, after I shipped and left positive feedback, bad buyer reversed payment on PayPal leaving me with a negative balance (shipping). Now I cannot post negative feedback and warn others. However, I left follow up feedback, but bad buyer has 100% positives (only and people may not notice my follow up.

I emailed bad buyer twice to give bad buyer the opportunity to pay or return the item. When that did not prompt a reply, I emailed eBay for advice. eBay told me to get bad buyer’s personal information and call. Paul called several times and left a message on the answering machine every time (bad buyer never answered).

I exchanged emails with eBay a few more times. Here are the actions the company recommended that I took:

• Request bad buyer’s contact information through eBay and contact bad buyer.
• Contact shipping company and explain situation.
• File with a Dispute Resolution Service like SquareTrade (I did, but I wasn’t going to shell out $30 for them to take action on my file).
• Open an unpaid item dispute claim on eBay.
• Review the Rules for Buyers specifically on Unpaid Items.
• Contact eBay through a formal process after several attempts to contact bad buyer.
• Leave feedback for bad buyer — however, this was already done and I told eBay this when I got this advice.
• Leave a follow-up comment.
• Contact credit card company that issued credit card (I have no idea what the buyer used).
• Try to stop shipment (I got this advice almost a month after the auction ended. A little late).
• Apply for a final value fees credit (time sensitive: between 10 and 45 days after close of auction — I got this advice 30 days after close. True, I could’ve found this myself, but I didn’t see it when I researched how to handle this problem.).
• Contact the police in the buyer’s area and let them know eBay will cooperate with the investigation.
• File a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
• File mail fraud charges, if you shipped by U.S. mail.

Moral of the story: Don’t leave feedback until you’ve cleared payment with PayPal (when a buyer pays with a check, I don’t ship until payment clears).