eBay/Paypal Advice Requested

[HankMurphy]

I recently won an auction (250626647752) for a 14mm wrench. Price and shipping were reasonable.

Seller sent me a message asking me to cancel the payment and send a payment through Paypal, but outside the eBay auction payment method, to a different email address.

I cancelled the original payment, made another payment through eBay, and it went to the original seller's email address. (Neither of the original payments were claimed.)

Seller says they are having problems and indicates that they cannot get their paypal address changed in eBay. Should this be a real problem in eBay, or is there a reasonably easy way to do that?

Only thing which makes me leery is that the seller doesn't have anything listed at present, although they didn't appear to be a highly active eBay seller in the first place.

The total amount is not worth losing too much sleep over...but I'm just curious if any of you sellers have been in this position.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[gwis2]

Seems like it would be his problem not yours. Could be a scammer? Contact Ebay and Paypal and tell the seller to do the same to resolve/complete the transaction. No harm no foul...

 

[HankMurphy]

Paypal sez seller cannot accept payments at new email address. Awaiting the seller's response.

Changing email addresses can be a real pain, and I'm willing to accept that as an explanation. Has anyone ever done that through eBay/Paypal?

Cheers,

 

[rodm1]

I would only send the money to the user named in auction no exception. Then do what gwis2 suggest.

 

[Boiler]

It is very easy to change it in paypal, I'm not so sure about ebay, but I'm guessing it is there too...

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

With a non matching paypal address, I would worry this could be a hacked account, or a scammer.
With a scammer, a not matching paypal address, and you have lost your coverage. So he could file a non paying bidder complaint and keep your money from the other email account.

You do it, your screwed.

 

[wreckercologist]

I've been through this.

I won an item, paid per instructions of the seller on the item page only to hear later "I changed emails and need you to resend to another email". It wasn't a lot of money and I paid using a CC so I wasn't too worried about getting screwed. In the end I got the item, but pulling a payment and then resending it AND then waiting for it to ship after that was a pain. It worked out OK for me, but I would be suspicious.

IMHO, if you are selling on Ebay, you should have all of your ducks in a row and have your email addresses or whatever else figured out......period.

Use your good judgement and gut instinct.

 

[tonydanzah]

I was a seller in that situation before. I opened the ebay the account when I was in high school under my parents name. Then several years later I switched it to my own account. Then one day I sold something and somehow the payment got sent to an old inactive account that I no longer had access to. I just said fug it and sent the item knowing the seller paid for it. It took an hour or so on the phone with paypal to get a check mailed to me a few eeks later.

 

[mik641]

off topic..

 

[scheu]

I too have been trough this. Same reasoning by the seller (can't change email). It all worked out, received item, etc... PayPal is going to be the safest way to pay o'l FeeBay.

 

[quneur]

Ebay can really screw things up sometimes. The seller could have a legitimate problem accessing his account. It could be that he is setting up a new email address (old one too much spam or hacked) and couldn't remember his password. Happens to me all the time especially when I have half dozen email accounts.

I had problems with them when they bought Paypal. The email and passwords didn't match so I had to call to get it resolved.

I wouldn't worry too much if you pay via Paypal or CC. They have resolution centers. Just keep a copy of all correspondence. Ebay will also look into any negative feedback if you request it.

 

[Rory Bellows]

I recently sold an indicator on ebay. I was listing about 14-15 items. By the sixth item I realized my paypal info was wrong because my ebay account got hacked about a year prior. I hadn't sold or bought anything since then and was unaware or the change. The change was minor just several extra characters and it looked very similar. By this time my indicator with a Buy it Now was sold and payment had already been sent. I contacted ebay and paypal and paypal specifically told me that if it goes through them with reference to the ebay listings all protection is still available.

In your case I would contact the seller as well as ebay and paypal and see if the account is in fact associated with the ebay sale. I eventually got paid and the buyer got the indicator as well as an added bonus from me because of the hassle it was. I never got feedback though but that is another thread.