Stringing along buyers

I've just heard a report from a very experienced member (more than 3000 feedback) that they are encountering an increasing number of sellers stringing them along when they encounter a transaction problem. For example, the sellers may say things like, "Oh, I sent the item, I can't imagine what's wrong..." or "I'll check what happened with my shipper, just wait a few days" or "it just bounced back through the mail, let me send a replacement." All of these things are fine to say if they're true, and they're just what you want to hear if you're a buyer with a problem. But the experienced member asserted that these sellers are stringing their buyers along for a more insidious reason: they want the buyer to lose their eligibility to file a dispute or claim.

Buyers can only file a dispute on PayPal up to 45 days after the payment is made, and up to 60 days on eBay after an auction closes or the buyer makes a buy-it-now purchase. As sellers are usually much more savvy about eBay and PayPal's rules and resolution processes, buyers often don't know what their eligibility window is prior to experiencing a transaction problem. That leads to a situation where an unscrupulous seller can mislead and distract their buyer for long enough that the buyer loses eligibility, and then the seller can act with impunity knowing the buyer is no longer able to file a protection claim.

Let me be clear: there is no excuse for a seller to engage in this kind of behavior. Even if the seller sugar coats their delays with apologies and empathetic responses it's still seller abuse if it's just an attempt to deny a buyer redress by waiting out the filing window. It's deception, pure and simple.

I've had some sellers come up to me and tell me horror stories about how abusive buyers had been to them in the past. They often present these as "once bitten, twice shy" scenarios, saying that they'll never be so foolish as to trust a buyer again. Each seller has to make their own choices, and if a seller wants to be very strict and firm in insisting upon terms for their transactions that protect them against unreasonable buyers, that's their call. But if a seller takes that mistrust one step further to justify this kind of manipulative behavior, then that's not acceptable. No seller has the right to deceive their buyers, and it is unreasonable to punish future buyers because of the unreasonable actions of a previous buyer.

All buyers should get this message loud and clear: if your seller has not addressed your concern, and the end of the filing window is approaching, you should file a dispute to preserve your eligibility for protections. Even if the seller seems responsive by email and friendly, buyers must be aware that they should still file. The dispute can be easily canceled later if need be, and no action will be taken against the seller's account. Also, buyers should know that if a seller pulls this on them, they should make sure to leave the seller a neg and to clearly explain what happened. That may protect a future buyer from being "seduced" by the same tactic the next time around.

The experienced member who informed me about this issue ended their message by asking, "Without trust can eBay even exist?" My answer to that is an emphatic no. eBay is based on the premise that people are good. Trust is the lifeblood of our marketplace. There is no avoiding the truth that this kind of cynical, strategic behavior on the part of some sellers cuts to the heart of eBay. I think all of us should have zero tolerance for this kind of thing, for while it may benefit the seller who does it in the short term, it harms all of us (buyers, sellers, and the marketplace) for the long term.