Updated Facebook Marketplace Weirdness

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Just past a week ago, I saw a really good deal on a Kindle on Facebook Marketplace.  It set set up with Facebook's new "buy it now" + shipping listing, so I clicked to buy it now, (temporarily) connected my PayPal to Facebook, paid, and was alerted via Messenger that I had made a purchase, all details were sent to the seller, etc.  This was in the evening, and the next morning I noticed that the item had been marked as "PENDING" on Facebook by the seller, so I sat back to wait.

After 4-5 days of the status not changing, not receiving any updates from the seller, etc., I reached back out to him to touch base and see if it had been shipped out, if there was tracking, etc.  It takes a couple of hours, but the seller responds and tells me that he's still waiting for my payment.  I'm confused, as I went through the process of connecting my PayPal to Facebook, getting an email from PayPal that I'd made a payment, etc., more or less immediately after doing everything on Facebook and tell him so.  I tell him that he should have it in his PayPal and should have received notice from either PayPal or Facebook, if not both.  He reads my response immediately, says that he'll have to contact Facebook, and doesn't respond for close to another day before telling me that he found the notice from Facebook.  By this point I've gone back to look at the details I received from PayPal and they say that I paid him directly, making me scratch my head.  The seller assures me he'll ship it out the next day.

The seller messages me the next day that he's shipped it, but it takes another day for the listing to be marked as shipped on Facebook and for Facebook to message me that it had shipped.  Tracking only showed up on the Facebook listing this morning and was never forwarded directly to me.  Late Monday the seller messages me to ask if I'm going to send him anymore money for shipping, and I tell him that I don't think so, as Facebook charged me shipping when I checked out.  He then proceeds to inform me that shipping cost him another $5 beyond what had been posted on Facebook (item price and shipping were listed separately but both taken when payment went through), and he might have to contact Facebook.  This starts sounding even sketchier to me, so I let him know that he should do that and if they update me that I need to I definitely will but he should talk to them since I just clicked on an automatic buy listing that had been set up.  Again, my response is read immediately, but no response for a good, long while.

Toward the middle of the day yesterday, I happen to see a message on the lock screen of my phone asking if I'm going to be paying him the $5 or whatever, but get distracted taking care of the kids and forget about it, as I didn't get back onto Facebook or Messenger for the rest of the evening.  I get up this morning, no message on my phone, but as I get out of bed, I get a message like, "Well?"  I figure I'll respond to him after I've had a chance to properly wake up, eat, etc., but within 10-15 minutes each, I get followup messages about how he'll contact Facebook if I don't respond, followed quickly by how I just need to do the right thing because he went ahead and sent me the item even though it was too cheap, he lost on shipping, etc.

At this point I'm tempted to message him back that I'll gladly give him the extra $5, but only after the package actually arrives given all the seeming shenanigans at the beginning with him supposedly not seeing messages from Facebook and PayPal about the payment, dragging his feet on shipping, etc.  Facebook has never contacted me one way or the other, so I'm seriously wondering if he's ever actually contacted them to sort anything out.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?  The fact that I've never been contacted by Facebook makes me believe that if he did contact them, the seller set his own shipping and Facebook told him he had to live with it.  I'm also left feeling very uneasy about all of this, seeing as he claimed not to have been paid for several days despite PayPal telling me via email he'd been paid directly immediately.  I don't want to be a douche here, but at the same time, there's enough going on that's weird and I don't want to obligate or get myself into trouble responding before I'm more certain what's going on here.  It could all be a misunderstanding from an inexperienced seller, in which case I don't want to get him in trouble by contacting Facebook, but on the other hand I definitely don't want to take any risks getting scammed, as I imagine it'll be at least twice as hard if I've got to dispute two different PayPal transactions versus just the one.

Thanks for reading all the way through and thoughts on this weird issue.  Anybody who can offer insight as to how the Facebook BIN + shipping listings work would also be appreciated.

[Bonanza125 | 55]

Whenever purchasing an item through Facebook buy it now which requires shipping I would suggest reaching out to the seller before even making the purchase. You made a comment "It could all be a misunderstanding from an inexperienced seller." If the seller doesn't reply in a timely manner to your questions like what is your estimated time of shipment or any other questions you may have you might want to avoid them.  

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

7 minutes ago, Bonanza125 said:

Whenever purchasing an item through Facebook buy it now which requires shipping I would suggest reaching out to the seller before even making the purchase. You made a comment "It could all be a misunderstanding from an inexperienced seller." If the seller doesn't reply in a timely manner to your questions like what is your estimated time of shipment or any other questions you may have you might want to avoid them.  

Going forward, I'll likely do exactly that, but it appeared to be set up more or less identically to the eBay But It Now system, so I just clicked the buy button, confirmed my payment info, then confirmed the purchase and got confirmation from Facebook (and PayPal), figuring it was all done except the waiting, like with eBay.  I'm left wondering if this new system no Facebook is not just like eBay and additional points of contact are required (even when the seller appears to have set their shipping up front for instant purchase) or if it is and I'm just being strung along by someone hoping to game the system and/or what they perceive as an inexperienced buyer.  Seeing as I normally only ever make Facebook purchases within my local travel area, I doubt I'll ever run into this seller again, but the pricing on this was such a deal (with shipping equivalent to when I'd purchased a similar unit a few months back for a family member) that I went ahead and took advantage of the new Facebook system.

Any thoughts on whether I should respond to the guy, and if so, how?  As I said, I'm really hesitant to say anything to this guy at this point until the item shows up as promised.

[Khromak | 768]

I'd bet this guy's just trying to get an extra $5 out of you. If he insists that he wants his $5 and shipping cost him XYZ, I'd ask him for a receipt for what he actually paid for the shipping. Seems sketchy AF to me. Maybe he actually spent that because he paid for a box, tape, or some other nonsense at the shipping store, but I can't imagine his estimate or Facebook's was off by that much, and I don't think a Kindle should cost all that much to ship...but who knows?

[Bonanza125 | 55]

1 hour ago, darkchylde28 said:

Any thoughts on whether I should respond to the guy, and if so, how?  As I said, I'm really hesitant to say anything to this guy at this point until the item shows up as promised.

Wait until the item shows up and you can make your own decision what you want to do at that point. I understand that it sucks for it to cost more than what was paid but the seller should've had that all figured out before even listing the item available to purchase as a shipping option. In majority of the cases I have experienced if the item cost more to ship than what was collected the seller would refund and just cancel the transaction all together. I would say if it really did cost the seller the extra $5 I would say send it to him once item is in your hands and you're satisfied with what was sent to you. 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

6 minutes ago, Bonanza125 said:

Wait until the item shows up and you can make your own decision what you want to do at that point. I understand that it sucks for it to cost more than what was paid but the seller should've had that all figured out before even listing the item available to purchase as a shipping option. In majority of the cases I have experienced if the item cost more to ship than what was collected the seller would refund and just cancel the transaction all together. I would say if it really did cost the seller the extra $5 I would say send it to him once item is in your hands and you're satisfied with what was sent to you. 

That was my thought as well, but I'm hesitant to make the guy any promises at this point or seem like I'm somehow trying to rip him off by saying I'll do it if/when the package arrives and I can see the actual postage on the package (if he's legit and whatever the tracking is for turns out to be coming to me and be the correct item).  I'm still wondering if he set up the shipping and BIN status on his listing (and was just too ignorant of what he was doing to set it all up properly) or if it's like many eBay folks have been complaining lately where the service provider went ahead and made some adjustments to the listing that he didn't anticipate.  If it's the former, yeah, it's all on him, but if it's the latter, there's definitely room for sympathy for the guy.  And so hard to tell not knowing how that system works combined with his reactions so far.