I have bought a catalogue for $14.95. I have not seen the little letters where the seller refuses payment through Paypal for international buyers, I just have seen Paypal payments allowed (I always Paypal through Paypal or Billpoint, except for expensive items, there I pay through Bidpay or bank orders). I am in Paris, and don't want to pay for an expensive money order because of $14.95 nor an expensive shipping! As this bought is really a little bought, I asked the seller to accept Paypal and to ship surface mail, without insurance, only with a Certificate of Mailing (total cost: $4.70) and eventually a reasonable handling fee. Sometimes he accepts and asks me a statement, that I will not cancel my Paypal payment, that I assume all risks of an uninsured shipping and that I will not post a negative feedback - I have already made this statement twice, in a direct email to him and through Square Trade -, sometimes he plainly refuses, tries to close the Square Trade case and tells he will make a claim to EBay. His minimum fee for US shipping is $6.50, with insurance and $2.00 handling fee. But insurance is impossible with surface mail to Europe! And I don't need it. I have only very positive feedbacks (more than a hundred)for items mostly bought by US EBay, and don't think it is fair from him to ask me to pay twice or three times the price of the catalogue on money orders and shipping costs. Is there something I can do? Someone can give me an advice? How will EBay react if he makes a claim? Thanks for any help.

Well...

If the seller just wants to be a jerk about it, most likely he will file a non-paying bidder form & leave negative feedback. In that case, just take it up with ebay & prove to them your case. More likely than not they will remove the negative feedback, etc if the seller does not comply with payment terms accepted.

I really don't understand this, especially if you take full responsibility if the item is damaged uninsured Anyhow, good luck with this weirdo.

If this seller wanted specific payment types from international bidders, he/she should have stated it in the auction.

I would think a simpler remedy might be to stop doing business with that seller.

Yeah, I agree with Steve 100%!

If he tries to pull a crazy stunt like I stated above, just let ebay know what's going on & just do not ever, ever buy from that person again.

So far as eBay is concerned, this issue probably will be governed by what the seller said in the item listing. Maybe you should post the item number so we can look at the terms. If the seller's listing stated that he would accept PayPal payments without qualification, he must accept your payment. If, on the other hand, the listing stated that the seller would not accept PayPal payments from international customers, he has no obligation to do so. Similarly, the seller is required to ship the item as indicated in the listing but is not required to make special arrangements. Even if the seller is being unreasonable, eBay is not likely to side with you unless the seller has violated his own terms or an eBay rule.

In the future, you should resolve any questions about payment or shipping before you bid.

[This message was edited by TeeJay on August 14, 2002 at 02:54 AM.]

I agree with TeeJay: "In the future, you should resolve any questions about payment or shipping before you bid." However, it is often difficult to anticipate that shipping problems will arise. In the instance cited which began this series of comments, there obviously was no initial confusion on the part of the buyer, which leads me to believe that the terms of shipping set by the buyer were unambiguous. Let's see the eBay ID# if that's possible.