Buying and selling on Ebay can be exciting, rewarding and convenient, but what about when something isn't quite right? 

Buyers...What do you do if you receive your item but it isn't the same as was described in the listing or it never turns up at all?  

Your first action should always be to contact your seller. This can be done by either using the 'contact member' or 'ask seller a question' function on the listing itself or you can pull their details from ebay and give them a call. To get their phone number from ebay, click on the feedback number next to their user name, then click on the 'contact member' button or go here

http://search.ebay.com.au/_W0QQtZvbQQsofindtypeZ9

Ebay will send an email to you with their details. They will also get a copy of yours. They may offer you a partial or full refund. If they say they have posted your item and it hasn't shown up after a reasonable wait (ie 10 working days) then get the seller to contact Australia Post and put in a search for your article. This has to be done by the person who posted the item. It is amazing how often something turns up after this is requested!

Or they may not be interested in helping at all !...

Then you contact ebay and open an 'item significantly not as described' or 'item not received' dispute. You can do this by clicking here...

http://feedback.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?InrCreateDispute

After 10 days you will have the option of escalating your dispute to a claim if you paid via paypal. If you paid by another payment method, it is still worthwhile following through with the dispute because that is the only way to get bad sellers kicked off ebay.

Remember not to leave your feedback until you have exhausted all possible avenues of receiving your item or a refund. Once you leave feedback, the transaction is considered finalised and you have spent your final bargaining chip.

What about sellers who are having trouble with buyers not paying for items that they have bid on?...

This is what I do... After 7 days with no payment received, I send a payment reminder via ebay from the 'my ebay' sellers page. If I still hear nothing after another day or two, then I start an 'non-paying bidder' dispute.

http://rebulk.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CreateDispute

This very often prompts a slow payer into action. If not, you need to wait until they either respond to the dispute or until the 8th day before you can close the dispute and get your final value fees reimbursed from ebay and relist the item if you wish.

If they do not respond at all, they will have any feedback rating that they leave for you removed, however the comment will remain along with a message from ebay saying that they didn't participate in the resolution process.

Feedback should always be left until all other avenues have been exhausted.

Communication should always be your first port of call if things are not going smoothly.

Some helpful links ....

GET HELP FROM OTHER MORE EXPERIENCED MEMBERS

http://pages.ebay.com.au/community/chat/index.html

good luck &

happy ebaying!