What should I do about this eBay seller?

Hey all,

On Sept 25, I bought a pin on eBay for about $15, including shipping. I paid, but the payment never "went through". eBay said the seller hasn't accepted the payment, and the seller said that they checked with eBay and that it was probably an error on my part. So, I cancelled the payment and resent it. Same thing happened. I called eBay and they said that everything looks fine on my side, and while they said they couldn't talk about whether the seller contacted them or not, they "implied" that he had.

I kept contacting the seller through eBay to find out what was up. Finally, he (she?) asked me if I paid to his e-mail address and listed it. It was not the one registered with eBay and the one to which I had sent my payment. Then, he asked me to send him my e-mail so he could send me a personal invoice, and he were sure that would work.

I did send my e-mail through eBay (I know, against the rules; and kind of tricky to do because eBay apparent has some pretty aggressive search engines to find e-mails in PMs). A few days ago, I got an invoice. But it is asking me to pay through PayPal and not through eBay (I had assumed the invoice would have come through eBay since that's where I bought).

This is causing red flags for me, because obviously the seller is just trying to avoid eBay fees. *IF* I were to pay through PayPal (which I'm kind of leaning against), I would definitely use the 'goods and services' and NOT "friends and family", so I assume I would still be protected. But that's not the point. Right now, I don't feel like I can trust the seller because of this end-around past eBay.

Any thoughts or advice?

First off, your instincts are correct, never EVER pay a seller off of ebay for something that you bought through ebay. I don't know if the seller is just green, trying to avoid fees, or what, but this is how buyers get scammed out of their money.

Is this a brand new seller? It's possible that when they set up their Paypal with ebay, they put a typo in the email address. That would cause your payment not to come through. I used to sell on ebay and frequent the forums, and this happened fairly regularly as new sellers would often post trying to figure out why they hadn't received their payments.

If you're trying to pay through ebay and it isn't working it's very likely to be a problem on the seller's end. I would refuse to pay off-site and ask them to double-check the Paypal associated with their account.

Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope on the hell out of that because that ship is sailing on red flags.

Definately insist on receiving an Ebay invoice for this, I know the kind thing to do, is help the seller out, but this could backfire on you later, if things don't go to plan.

The seller probably typed their email address incorrectly when listing it, that's why the payment remains uncollected/unclaimed.

Talk to eBay and ask them what can be done.

EBay seller can't send an invoice through eBay anymore because the sold item has the incorrect payment address. There's nothing the seller can do to fix it.

At this point, tell eBay you're uncomfortable with paying outside of eBay and cancel the transaction.

Just an FYI, the e-mails are at different sites (@verizon.net vs. @gmail.com), so it's not a typo. The seller has 5860 feedback (100% positive) and has been a eBay member since Apr 01, 2000 (based on their eBay user info).

Hi! Your first instincts are the best. Is this pin REALLY worth all the trouble & time you've spent??

eBay is only as good as the people who use it & someone trying to "skirt around" the rules should not be encouraged.