OK, I sold these two items last month:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6985531854&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESO%3AIT&rd=1 (http://www.qksrv.net/click-1606754-5463217?loc=http%3A//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D6985531854)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6985531852&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESO%3AIT&rd=1 (http://www.qksrv.net/click-1606754-5463217?loc=http%3A//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D6985531852)

The buyer is in Belgium. I normally don't fool with international business, but I made exceptions here because I figured the market for these cars would be outside the US. The guy took a while to respond initially, and finally on Nov. 21, tells me he sent payment in $USD 10 days ago by registered mail and to please let him know when it gets there. Well, the envelope got here, not postmarked the 11th, but the 16th. That's not the problem. The problem is that there was a nice note inside saying to please find $70 USD enclosed--and that's it. No money. I opened it in the car, and I have been over every inch of that car... it's not there. The envelope was well-sealed, too... return address along the seam of the flap and tape over that so it couldn't have been tampered with. I doubt he just forgot to enclose it, since he didn't mention that in the 3 or 4 times we've been in contact over the last several weeks. He now has proof that he sent me SOMETHING, but since he claims it was cash, it's untraceable and it's gonna be my word against his. He has one negative feedback from someone who claims they never received payment, while he claims the seller took his money and never sent the item. I haven't contacted him yet, and when I do, I plan on starting out by being civil and asking if there was any way the payment was forgotten. But if and when this gets ugly, how should I handle it? I'm hoping someone here has some experience with this...

thanks for any and all advice...

--rick

PS there is a duplicate of this post on the Diecast board where I also hang out

EL No Selly Overseas, and this My Friends, is exactly Why.

Sorry to hear of your hassle. All you can do is State your side of it on the feedback.
Thanks,
Keith

1st, don't deal with crooks outside the US. The crooks inside the US are bad enough.

If they are going to send you a payment from outside the US make them make it a certified check and if there are any charges associated with cashing it make them cover it.

I bet this guys is devolping a pattern or someone really stole his cash along the postal way....

Either way it is on him, he sent the money, if he has been robbed twice now maybe he will learn that the stove is hot and not to touch it. :hat:

Tell him you don't want to have to negative him and hopefully he will do the same. Ask him to mutually dismiss the auction and you will do the same, he saves a non paying bidder strike and you get some of your auction money back....

My advice-

Trade neg feedback... and stay away from sleazpay.

I've givin' up on epay for just these reasons. :(

GP

send him an empty small package with a note inside, "please find the car you paid for".
but seriously, contact epay before he does, whoever starts the claim is better off.
I do deal with overseas sales (most of who come from this board, thanks guys) and I never had a problem, most of the time they pay by paypal, then insist nothing was ever shipped, because they know theres no international tracking. (I asked for some kind of tracking at the post office for a 130.00 car sale, and the postperson said there was no way.told me to just keep a copy of the receipt, at least it shows you mailed something to that country) and then they whine to paypal, who will ask you for tracking, if no tracking is provided, they refund him.

I do deal with overseas sales (most of who come from this board, thanks guys) and I never had a problem.

Tried it a couple times buying and shipping across the pond, stopped after a bad transaction. The seller had a twisted sense as to what almost mint means.
:eek: rr

I kinda like the empty box idea...........

I am leaning towards that one. :o

I only accept Paypal (or Bidpay..If I could EVER get a person to use it!)payments from Bidders overseas, otherwise no bidding.
They cannot give you an empty evelope then :)

On to the issue at hand though..
I would say to tell him the truth, that the payment is not in the envelope, and that the envelope looked sealed, and ask him to resend payment, but not Hard Currency this time....
I would say you are kinda in a corner as there is nothing that was in your post that said that you told the guy to NOT send hard cash, or if he did it is at his own risk...
Plus if he gets all upset about it, you can always take him to e-Bay, maybe this is something he ALWAYS does, but people just pay him off so they don't get negative feedbacks, or he only does it with big ticket items.

I would like to think (this is if e-bay even DOES anything about this) that since the guy already has one negative feedback about him sending the money and the seller reporting no money received (Which I believe is what you said) then Im guessing e-bay would look over this guy more than you. Especially if you have a spotless record.. Id say to maybe even file one of those non-paying bidder notices or whatever those are (I beleive those are an option correct?) Although since it was a registered mail ....'payment' I dunno how that would work.

My two cents
Good luck and I hope everything works out.

This is not an E-Bay problem. Sending cash in the mail is just plain stupid under any circumstances. In fact, it's probably illegal to mail cash across international borders. Maybe E-Bay will help you with this or at least give you a forum for sending a message to the moron. You learned a lesson as well. Never accept cash payment or ship prior to receipt of payment. I personally think you've been scammed. I'd slam the guy however ypu can. If it was an honest mistake (yeah right) he deserves to be slammed for being so utterly stupid. You tried to be a nice guy and ended up paying for it.

The good news (hopefully) is that I never told the guy he could send cash. My auction clearly states Paypal or MO only. He told me by email AFTER he had sent his registered mail, and the note says "please find $70 USD enclosed". Both on these forums and on the 'Bay's Trust/Safe Harbor forum, folks have told me that this is his problem... Cash sales are not protected under their standard policies AND they strongly discourage them...

--rick

but have you contacted fleabay about this..?
The prudent thing to do is make the first move...
Scott

Yeah, but I have to contact HIM first, unfortunately... they're all about buyer and seller attempting to settle the dispute. This is the email I just sent:

I have received your envelope and, sorry to say, there is a problem. The letter was inside, but the payment was not included. The way I see it, there are 3 possible explanations: 1. The payment was simply forgotten when the envelope was sealed. I hope this is what happened, but I guess you probably would have discovered the error and contacted me by now if this was the case. 2. Someone opened the envelope and removed the money, which seems unlikely, as I can see you went to great lengths to seal the envelope, and it did not appear to have been tampered with. If this is the case and you sent cash as you seem to have stated in the letter, I am sorry, but the auction stated PayPal or money order only, and I can't be responsible. 3. You intentionally did not send payment but sealed the envelope and registered it to make it appear that you sent SOMETHING, and plan to accuse me of taking your money, which I hope is not the case... I have had only good experiences with *Bay so far and I'd like to continue that trend. If this third scenario is in fact true, I guess we'll have to take this to *Bay and let them sort it out. I sincerely hope this is a misunderstanding and not an attempt to deceive or defraud.

Let me know where we stand. --rick

I figure one of two things will happen:
1: I never hear from the guy again (unlikely), or

2: We go to Fleabay and hopefully it weighs in my favor that a. I clearly stated Paypal or MO only and b. he has a negative feedback for this kind of stuff already...

I plan to get in touch with the Bay in the next day or two... I'll keep you posted, for those who are following the saga.

--rick

Hope for the best...

Scott

Rick-
Sorry to hear about this misfortune. Who would send cash, especially overseas? It just doesn't make sense. You wrote a good letter clearly stating your position.
Good Luck!
Jim

Hi Rick and all others discussing this topic.

First I´m sorry to hear (err: read) that you, Rick, have that kind of problem! I know that you (and quite a lot more people on this board!) are one of the most reliable people one can imagine to deal with!

In pre-PayPal days I was sending as well as receiving cash-in-a-letter payments uncounted times across the pond and it worked absolutely flawlessly for me! Never had to claim any losses over more than 4 or 5 years of regular "small business"!

Of course I was always aware that this kind of payment buries a certain kind of risk, but as long as the hard earned $$$ were wrapped in a piece of dark paper (or aluminium foil) to prevent the money from being detected by holding the letter against a bright light source I was always feeling quite safe.

This story now sounds really weird! I wonder why somebody´s still using the cash-in-a-letter method for payment now that there´s PayPal available (expecially considering that this service is free for the payer)!?!? Sorry, but I really assume that this guy wants to fool you...! :freak:

Hoping the best for you, Rick! Please keep us updated!

Best regards and greetings from Germany,

Claus

www.c-jet500.de.vu

Sounds like a little kind of trouble.
I live in Germany and send - for my first ebay US auctions - the money
with registered airmail to the states and lost appr. 120 bucks for 4 different auctions.
I learned, International registered outside Europe is not safe enough.
In case of lost money shipment the German Post Office is not responsible
if shipment leaved the European/National border. After this, I used only paypal or bidpay for my international auction payments.Sometimes
the seller can`t send the package insured to Germany, so in case of lost it`s my risk and I confirm it to the seller.
No Risk No Fun
Hope you can solve the problem :thumbsup:

P.S.
The empty box shipment is a way to solve the problem, if you send it with the slowest version and bring it at a later time to the post office (surface ) the buyer received it too late to place ebay feedback ;)

Hope the buyer don`t read "Hobby Talk "

Send Him Am Empty Box !! Do It Doit!!!

The empty box is really the best method to fool him, and especially if you sent him surface mail which is the slowest.
PayPal and eBay are quite always on the buyer side, rarely on the seller.

It reminds me of a story when I sold a rare AFX Faller F1 F5000 (black and yellow one) for more than 100 bucks. The seller bought it through PayPal, I send it (with some other auctions won by other guys) on the same day from Switzerland to USA.
But I made the mistake to give him the positive feedback as soon as I had the cash on my PayPal balance (I've learned since).

Needless to say that this son of... claimed at PayPal he never received the stuff, just right after I gave him the positive feeback. Moreover he never replies to my mail after he claims at PayPal...
And because it wasn't traceable (surface mail, cheapest method of sending and so on), I did'nt have any way to really proof I sent the item...

AND all the packages I sent the same day arrived some two weeks later to all the other happy bidders.

I lost my car and he kept back his 100 bucks.

CAMALT1 a.k.a DALE JENKINS from JACKSONVILLE, FL
I HATE YOU !!!!! ( i still kept a trace of his name)