I'm crushed. Sunny outlook on eBay just turned blue :(

I'm so sad right now. About 30 minutes ago I logged onto eBay and discovered yet another bad eBay sales day. This trend has been going on for about three weeks now and I'm starting to get worried. I use the Selling Manager Pro screen so right in the middle, the first thing I see when I log into 'My eBay' is the sales for the last 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days.

It is depressing.

I keep telling myself that I shouldn't worry because it is summer and I've just come off vacation and most everyone else is doing the same, and things will get better in the fall.

oh boy I hope so.

Then came the crushing blow. I looked over to the right where the seller dashboard is.. and there it was.... my all-green screen has turned gray and yellow. My search standings turned gray and now say "Standard" where before it said "Raised" and my seller performance turned yellow and now reads "Needs Help" where it used to say "Good".

I know exactly what happened too. It is all because of one lady. Here is how it goes:

• She committed to purchase a dress from me on June 1st.


• On June 5th, she wrote an email to me asking could she pay with a money order and that she is always a quick payer and I can check her feedback to prove it, she doesn't have a credit card, blah, blah, blah.


• All of my listings say paypal only. Not only is it the only option offered at the bottom, but it is written in the description too.


• I said ok, made the exception and shouldn't have.


• A week passes and no money. I email her a reminder and asked to confirm that it had been sent so I would know to look for it in the mail. Nothing.


• June 26th (nearly a month after the auction end), I filed the reminder notice with eBay. Nothing from the buyer.


• July 5th I close the dispute, get my FVFs back and re-list.


• July 16th she files a "seller non-performance" report on me!

how does eBay let this happen? I responded right away stating that the buyer never paid, included the information about the reports I had previously filed on her.

July 17th, her payment arrives. It was postmarked on July 3rd. Had she responded to any of my messages I may have known that the M.O. was on the way and waited to close the dispute. Oh well.

So, I emailed her asking did she still want the dress or would she rather I just return her money. No response. Yesterday, on the 21st, I mailed her M.O. back.

Now, today, I get blind-sided by eBay. I'm so frustrated over this. I called and the powerseller rep told me that it will close automatically if she doesn't respond. I thought, great, everything will fall back into place. How long will that take? 45 days!!!!!

I was flabbergasted to hear that eBay would allow a non-paying bidder to hurt my status for a month and a half without even reviewing the claim. I'm a powerseller with excellent DSRs and she is a Non-Paying bidder! Doesn't that matter? (well, technically, she DID pay, just really really really late)

The rep told me to email trust & safety because he didn't think she should be allowed to file a seller non-performance report if she had a non-paying bidder strike and to have them look it over. I did that. We'll see what happens.

Anyone else had this happen? Let me know, I'm curious to hear if they had a good result in the end.