May I know your opinions on this eBay transaction...?

Hello--

I stumbled across one of the more uncommon Bo Diddley LPs--and perhaps my favorite of his long players--from the early 60s that was offered by a low-feedback seller. It appears from the photos to be cleaner than my copy, and amazingly, nobody else bid at $5. I paid immediately a week ago, and I just got an odd message from the gentleman yesterday:

"So sorry, but I sent you the wrong record. Open a case, and when it arrives, I will try to get you the right one. Sorry again and thanks."

I was confused:"try" to get the right one to me...? I responded to request clarification, and he told me he mixed up two record purchases inadvertently; that when he gets both returned, he will re-route them correctly to the other buyer and me.

Two things. I noted right away that the tracking number provided shows that he paid for postage but USPS was still awaiting possession of it. Secondly, if I open a case for him to pay return postage, the deal will be closed. I don't want my $5 back: I want the record. When I again wrote to tell him the tracking number shows it not to have been shipped yet, he replied to say they must not have scanned it in yet.

That was yesterday, and the tracking number right now still shows USPS awaiting possession of the package.

Is this likely an end-around from a seller who decided after that he doesn't want to go through with the deal for a mere $5? I'm not sure of the best way to proceed, though I guess if he ultimately doesn't want to sell the record for the $5, all I can do is get my few dollars back, drop a negative feedback, and move on.

Any other advice?

 

I would patently wait for as long as 1 week and see if the tracking number does show up as scanned and accepted by USPS.

The "try" may simply have been because there must be cooperation from another buyer as well is my thought.

Rather than open a claim with eBay suggest to him/her that when the record arrives you will contact them. Then they can deposit the cost of the return tracked shipping to your Paypal account and you will gladly send it back. Maybe even suggest prior confirmation that your record has returned and is ready to be sent to you.

This is not unheard of and I accidentally did this once myself. What I did was get both buyers to send the CD's to each other on my dime.

 

You're jumping the gun and letting your imagination run wild. USPS can be slow to update.

I wouldn't sweat it. Wait 3 business days before even considering any sort of nefarious behavior on behalf of the seller.

 

Wait it out. No way can you FORCE him to send you the record. In the end, either you'll get it or you won't. If you don't, you're covered as he didn't send the right item.

As for no tracking: If he sent it media mail, it can take several days to get scanned into the system. Again, just be patient.

 

He can't make the other person with your record send it back. All he can do is try.

At some point, you will experience this again.

And then even further down the road, you'll end up on the other end, and will ship two albums that went to the wrong people. I did it once where one of the wrong people was in freaking Canada!

 

This happened to me once. The seller sent me someone else's auction win. We (buyers) were nice enough to send the correct record to each other. The seller reimbursed us for the postage of course. Hey @Combination maybe that was me...was the Canadian buyer in Toronto

At this point there really isn't much you can do other than wait for the tracking to update, or to ask for a refund if it never updates and the record never arrives.

 

I think it was actually someone else, but all I definitely remember is that the American guy I knew previously, and he was a gigantic twat about it.