Should I give an eBay purchaser a break over the holiday?

[Flaxbee]

Someone bought a VERY expensive item from me, bid closed on the 27th. I've heard nothing since, in spite of sending an invoice and an email... the buyer is based in Taiwan, with a US shipping address, and he's gotten 100% positive feedback on eBay for 8 years... (member since '98). I'm just hoping that the holidays have intervened, but the guy was able to bid for it on Tuesday - so why is he not responding to my email? Why bid during a holiday week if you're not going to pay?

Anyway - what say you? Wait until the holiday is over, then send another message? How would you handle this? The $$ would really, really help me out a lot in January and I'm getting nervous.

[Bryan]

1. Are you sure their e-mail address is working?

I assume you haven't gotten any notices that your e-mail bounced, but if it were me, I'd try to double-check the buyer's e-mail address through the "Find Contact Information" link on the Search page in case it has different information than I've already got, and resend the e-mail through my account and through the "Contact member" link on their eBay MyWorld page, so they'll also get a separate notification in their eBay Messages; I'd also include a due date on which I expect the payment.

[AirmensMom]

2. Wait another day or so.

Then send another message.

My cable went out a few weeks ago and I was VERY glad I hadn't bid on anything. It took about three days before it was back up reliably. Could be something like that happened. :shrug:

[lizziegrace]

3. News reports said that Taiwan is in the pre-internet days

since the quake there. Severed major communication lines.

I'll see if I can find a link for you.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16367332/

Don't know if this is the reason you can't reach your buyer...

[Flaxbee]

4. yeah, I'm wondering if that's why, too....

he placed his bid on Tuesday my time, perhaps right before the earthquake - ?? and now can't get online to see if he won, get his messages, etc. I wonder how long it'll be before they have access to the internets again?

[lizziegrace]

5. Do you think ebay might be able to advise you?

:shrug:

[Flaxbee]

6. I'll probably ask them once the holiday is over...

sometimes they have phone numbers of bidders you can use to try to resolve an issue... maybe they have the number of the shipping location. :shrug: