Quick ebay question. 0

[shadroch]

I won an auction on ebay two weeks ago. It turned out I was the only bidder and won it at the opening price, which was bout half my max bid. 

Paid right away and seller sent a tracking number. Three days ago, he notifies me that he is canceling the sale as it didn't bring as much as he thought. I tell him he can't, that he is bound to honor the sale. Today he refunded my money and again states he canceled the sale because the final price was too low. 

I've never had anyone do this before. I've had BS excuses why a sale was canceled but never had someone come out and simply say it didn't sell for enough so too bad. 

My question is how do I report this? I have not left feedback because I am hoping I can get ebay to make him honor the sale.

[comicquant]

Unbelievable.  It never ceases to amaze me the things some sellers will do.  I lost 50% on some raw auctions not long ago and did so knowing I've walked away with some really good deals myself so it is what it is.  As for what to do, I don't think there's anything you can do.  Honor is a hard thing to come by these days. 

Edited December 7, 2018 by comicquant

[kav]

Tell him to relist at double the price.  Then buy.  Then ask for return, send back german newspaper.  that'll teach him.

[dfx1]

Sign in to report seller.

Its the holiday you should show tenderness. Be mercifully towards him out of a sense of pity.  Soak in your sadness for your great deal loss. It existed for only but a minute. 

Edited December 7, 2018 by dfx1

[1webslinger]

Can you share the link to the item?

[Bird]

Call and report the seller as dfx1 said. Include that correspondence. Then let ebay handle it; they may suspend his selling privileges unless he comes up with the goods..

[1webslinger]

If you don't want to post the item at least tell us who the seller is

[James J Johnson]

15 hours ago, shadroch said:

I won an auction on ebay two weeks ago. It turned out I was the only bidder and won it at the opening price, which was bout half my max bid. 

Paid right away and seller sent a tracking number. Three days ago, he notifies me that he is canceling the sale as it didn't bring as much as he thought. I tell him he can't, that he is bound to honor the sale. Today he refunded my money and again states he canceled the sale because the final price was too low. 

I've never had anyone do this before. I've had BS excuses why a sale was canceled but never had someone come out and simply say it didn't sell for enough so too bad. 

My question is how do I report this? I have not left feedback because I am hoping I can get ebay to make him honor the sale.

1) Although the site stipulates that results are binding, there's no mechanism that insures the seller must ship the item instead of cancelling the sale and issuing a refund, as is what occurred here.

2) The seller can invoke one of two options:

a) get in touch with you to see if you would agree to his cancelling the sale, or:

b) Just act on his own and employ the cancellation himself, choosing from a list of reasons. (Seller cancellation results in 1 seller strike, in essence, the opposite of a non-paying bidder, which results in a strike for the buyer)

But.... just as buyers can accumulate numerous non-paying strikes and never once be suspended, let alone NARUed; sadly, the same standard goes for sellers; i.e. not much action ebay is willing to take.

So in the final analysis, do issue the report. Report his cancellation and the reason he gave you, copying and pasting portions of your messages with him where he clearly stated why he was cancelling. But unless he's done this upteen times, and this is the final straw that breaks the ebay camel's back, realistically speaking, nothing will come of it; all water under the ebay bridge.

[masterlogan2000]

23 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

b) Just act on his own and employ the cancellation himself, choosing from a list of reasons. (Seller cancellation results in 1 seller strike, in essence, the opposite of a non-paying bidder, which results in a strike for the buyer)

Except that one of the options you can choose is "Buyer asked to cancel the order."  I'm pretty sure there's no strike for that option, plus there's no check on eBay's side to ensure that the buyer actually did ask to cancel it.

Below is the exact wording I got after getting a great price on an auction, but not paying for a few days (I was out of town and was going to pay when I got back).  I most certainly did NOT ask to cancel the order.
"We're sorry to let you know that squigee287_3 canceled your order and mentioned the reason as Buyer asked to cancel the order."

[revat]

19 minutes ago, masterlogan2000 said:

Except that one of the options you can choose is "Buyer asked to cancel the order."  I'm pretty sure there's no strike for that option, plus there's no check on eBay's side to ensure that the buyer actually did ask to cancel it.

Below is the exact wording I got after getting a great price on an auction, but not paying for a few days (I was out of town and was going to pay when I got back).  I most certainly did NOT ask to cancel the order.
"We're sorry to let you know that squigee287_3 canceled your order and mentioned the reason as Buyer asked to cancel the order."

its small cancellation, but report it all and hope they track these cancellations on both sides, and hopefully penalize bad guys if it happens too many times.

[James J Johnson]

1 hour ago, masterlogan2000 said:

Except that one of the options you can choose is "Buyer asked to cancel the order."  I'm pretty sure there's no strike for that option, plus there's no check on eBay's side to ensure that the buyer actually did ask to cancel it.

Yes. That's the first option I mentioned. But before invoking that, the seller should reach out to Shad, explain his dilemma, see if Shad is sympathetic to his plight therefore will agree to his initiating a cancellation at the buyer's request. That's the missing element for a seller to ensure a successful deployment of that cancellation process, "The buyer requested cancellation of the order" option.

Now, with the seller using that option, ebay will contact Shad and verify his request to cancel, and if Shad answers, "What the heck is he talking about? I don't want to cancel it", then that's that and the buyer can only cancel it on his own, in which case, Shad will receive a refund but then Shad can leave justifiably neutral or negative feedback, "seller reneged on the deal. Said he didn't get enough for the item and cancelled!", which he should, signalling to other potential buyers the seller's non-performance in this matter.

[James J Johnson]

1 hour ago, revat said:

its small cancellation, but report it all and hope they track these cancellations on both sides, and hopefully penalize bad guys if it happens too many times.

It appears that more often than not, buyers can get away with winning dozens of auctions, never paying, receiving dozens of unpaid strikes, and still no suspension, or a quick change to another Ebay ID. One night I was reading old threads and ran into one on this infamous buyer (I think it was an Armenian sounding name), who stiffed God only knows how many forum members on payment and after racking up 50 or so non-paying strikes would just change user names and sally forth anew to strike again and again.

I've got to believe that ebay actually taking strikes seriously for either buyer or seller, doesn't occur often.

[masterlogan2000]

29 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

Yes. That's the first option I mentioned. But before invoking that, the seller should reach out to Shad, explain his dilemma, see if Shad is sympathetic to his plight therefore will agree to his initiating a cancellation at the buyer's request. That's the missing element for a seller to ensure a successful deployment of that cancellation process, "The buyer requested cancellation of the order" option.

Now, with the seller using that option, ebay will contact Shad and verify his request to cancel, and if Shad answers, "What the heck is he talking about? I don't want to cancel it", then that's that and the buyer can only cancel it on his own, in which case, Shad will receive a refund but then Shad can leave justifiably neutral or negative feedback, "seller reneged on the deal. Said he didn't get enough for the item and cancelled!", which he should, signalling to other potential buyers the seller's non-performance in this matter.

The key term here is "should".  My point was that the seller has that option regardless of reaching out to the buyer and/or the buyer responding, and that this is the loophole to the seller initiating a cancellation without getting a strike.

I also want to note that there is no way to respond to a case like this through eBay itself.  I received an email from eBay stating that the Seller said that I asked to cancel the sale.  Clearly, this was untrue, as I didn't even have computer access to make such a request in those three days.  On top of this, outside of calling up eBay customer support, there is no way to dispute or appeal the cancellation through the site.  Apparently, eBay just takes the Seller's word that the Buyer doesn't want the item.