Mercadolibre Basics

[bobg]

My Spanish is not good enough to make sense of the help info on MeradoLibre. And in my experience Google Translate is not much better than my Spanish.

I'm interested in a piano. I asked the seller if I can see it but he says that the rules won't allow him to give me an address or phone number. Does MercadoLibre seriously think that someone is going to agree to pay several hundred dollars for something sight unseen?

Do the MercadoLibre rules somehow accommodate an inspection of an item before you agree to buy it?

Thanks, Bob

 

[EricLovesBA]

Similar to the ebay model, you are expected to make your decision based on the description/photos in the ad and the feedback reputation of the seller. If they allowed contact between customers people would regularly circumvent the site and make the transaction in person and mark the item as unsold online, thus avoiding part of the payment commission fee.

The only possible ways around this that I know of are:

• The seller replies to your question and gives you their contact info, violating their agreement with ml not to do so. Likely such an attempt would be automatically deleted, but maybe if they gave you their email in a disguised way like myname a-t whatever dt kom - something ridiculous like that, they may temporarily get away with it until someone at ml catches it in their review. Seems to me that is more common on a weekend - presumably because less people are monitoring the site. For what I see, few sellers are willing to break the rules in this fashion and I don't bother trying to convince them to do so.
• The seller is running a business and they discreetly include the business name in one of their photos or the description. Could be for example a light watermark in a photo. Look up the name of the business and use site:.ar in your google search to refine it down to site names ending in the ".ar" suffix. Find their phone number and contact them directly.
• The seller's user name (click through to look at their feedback to see their username) could be their business name or a name they reference in other online advertising. Google it in the same manner.

 

[steveinbsas]

Bob, You can offer to "buy" the piano "sin compromiso" and if the seller agrees, you can see it before you pay for it, cancel the purchase if you don't want it, and then you and the seller can leave each other "neutral" feedback. The seller will not have to pay a commission. This is a relatively common practice on Mercado Libre.

You will receive the seller's contact email and phone number as soon as you confirm the purchase, but you do not have to pay for the item on line first.

You will find many sellers that have good reputations but their reputation includes a notation that they have not finalized some (if not many) of their sales. This may seem cynical, but I know from experience that some sellers actually ask the buyers to "calificar" neutral and indicate they did not buy the item so they don't have to pay the commission (up to 10%). They usually offer the buyer a small discount to do this.

Nonetheless, there are also many sellers who do not do this and have a finalized sales rating of 100%.

If the item is offered in a seven day listing, the seller may not have to pay any fees. I haven't tried to sell anything using this option so I'm not 100% certain. A seven day listing "sin costo" does not allow payment with MercadoPago or delivery by MercadoEnvios and neither of those features would be essential for the sale of an item like a piano.

 

[EricLovesBA]

Bob, You can offer to "buy" it "sin compromiso" and if the seller agrees you can see it before you pay for it, cancel the purchase if you don't want it, and then you and the seller can leave each other "neutral" feedback. The seller will not have to pay a commission. This is a relatively common practice on Mercado Libre.

Yes that too. And if the item is not as described you should definitely have no qualms about backing out of the transaction. This has happened a few times with me and they knew they screwed up in their description or photos or had not gotten away with their intended scam, and did not give me negative feedback, though as Steve says, "good" feedback is only permitted if the transaction is completed, so neutral is the best you can get in that scenario.

 

[Ceviche]

hi,

I am having a dispute on a item on mercado libre.

Its delayed by 10 days from agreed date and I have filed a reclaim. Apparently the sellers went for a vacation!

I have also given them a very negative review.

Now they are asking me to remove my review!

I have said , submit my item and give me a 15% discount.

--

Anyone has had experience with such a scenario? How helpful is mercado libre in such cases? How desperate will this seller be to get this review removed.

What are possibilities of getting my original payment back?

 

[steveinbsas]

hi,

I am having a dispute on a item on mercado libre.

Its delayed by 10 days from agreed date and I have filed a reclaim. Apparently the sellers went for a vacation!

I have also given them a very negative review.

Now they are asking me to remove my review!

I have said , submit my item and give me a 15% discount.

--

Anyone has had experience with such a scenario? How helpful is mercado libre in such cases? How desperate will this seller be to get this review removed.

What are possibilities of getting my original payment back?

If you paid for the item by mercadopago and not received it you can initaite a reclamo.

The seller will not receive the funds until the issue is resolved.

If you don't get the item you will get a refund.

PS: I initiated five relcamos in the past six months. I prevailed in all of them and received the partial refunds I asked for in two of them for damage (that was repairable) due to poor packaging.

You can change a negative rating to a neutral and the seller will still have to pay the commission after you indicate that you received the item. You can leave the negative comment unchanged, but don't change the rating before the seller gives you a positive rating as a buyer!

 

[steveinbsas]

Yes that too. And if the item is not as described you should definitely have no qualms about backing out of the transaction. This has happened a few times with me and they knew they screwed up in their description or photos or had not gotten away with their intended scam, and did not give me negative feedback, though as Steve says, "good" feedback is only permitted if the transaction is completed, so neutral is the best you can get in that scenario.

I left good feedback (aka a "positive rating") for a seller after receiving a refund for an item that was broken during the shipment. The seller knew I was going to do this and knew he would have to pay the commission. The item only cost $100 pesos and the seller was happy to keep his 100% positive rating for $10 pesos. He gave me credit for the shipping cost (which I paid when the item arrived) and applied it to my next purchase.

 

[Ceviche]

If you paid for the item by mercadopago and not received it you can initaite a reclamo.

I paid by rapipago. Where will this money go to? or at the moment?

how does the refund happen?

 

[steveinbsas]

I paid by rapipago. Where will this money go to? or at the moment?

how does the refund happen?

If you bought the item less than 20 days ago mercado pago still has the funds and will not release them to the seller if you initate a relcamo.

If the 20 days have expired you may still be able to initiate a relcamo, but the seller probably already has the money.

The fact that you left a negative rating might motivate the seller to resolve the issue, hoping you will change the rating.

Go to your "compras" list and see if you still have the option to start a reclamo.

 

[Ceviche]

Go to your "compras" list and see if you still have the option to start a reclamo.

i started a reclamo.

i ordered a month ago.

the seller is very hostile.