eBay

wilsonharborsales · ‎05-06-2024

Hello,

I hope this message finds you all well. Today an interesting thing occurred on the app that has never happened to me before. I am going to write this in point-form.

1. I sell an item to a buyer

2. Buyer immediately requests to cancel sale after payment

3. I open the app to proceed with cancellation and a pop-up window from eBay shows up that must be completed.

4. The pop-up says that the buyer was shown a better deal and that the buyer wanted to cancel because they ‘found a better price’. I am given two options to proceed. Either cancel the sale, or refund the buyer the difference and continue with the sale.

5. I choose ‘agree to new terms of sale’ and eBay automatically refunded the buyer a portion of the sale so that my price matches the other sellers price.

I have sold 11,000 items on eBay and I’ve never seen this before. Has eBay rolled out some kind of price match guarantee or something? Today was the first time I have ever seen this.

frecklesfinery88 · ‎05-07-2024

Especially if it is a rare item or collectable. You might want to hold out for your worth of the item. Not the Median value price. A lot of time we have found this to be not similar at all.

I guess we shall all see.

dhbookds · ‎05-07-2024

With the caveat that I haven't had much coffee

Since the "price" was the paid price.......that means the price included shipping and tax........so it wasn't necessarily the only the item price that was matched.........the "cheaper" could have been cheaper shipping....(tax would be the same). Which could mean GA versus priority? UPS vs USPS? Free vs anything else.

If that's true, one would presume the buyer had to agree to purchase from the original seller as opposed to the cheaper seller before the offer was made to the seller, that he would agree if there was a difference in delivery options between the two ??

That possibility would make it difficult for the original seller to "find" the cheaper listing to see what differences there might be.........

Well, I see the fallacy in that thought......If the buyer purchased from the lst seller....the buyer must approve of what the original listing stated.

But then again, do we know if the buyer just quoted a price, as opposed to actually seeing a cheaper one on ebay? or elsewhere?

Is this a new form of "best offer"............????

@wilsonharborsales

@thelongball

Was the item "new"?

Do you mind saying how much the refund was?

Like others, I doubt ebay's ability to price match, especially on used items....considering condition differences......

I can see the U tubers advice now.........how to get an item CHEAPER on ebay..........!!!!

just muddled thoughts

wilsonharborsales · ‎05-07-2024

The buyer bought and paid for the item from me and then I had to refund the buyer approximately 20% in order to keep the sale and match another seller’s price.

I don’t know the mechanics of it or what it looks like from the buyer’s side and I am not going to reach out to them. Going forward I will deny the price match requests if they pop up.

sumsum70 · ‎05-07-2024

I would just say no to this nonsense, same as I have always just said no to PL.

For the people dumb enough to participate in this scheme, seems like a great opportunity for buyers and other sellers to scam you.

wilsonharborsales · ‎05-07-2024

Another issue with this is that the order will not import into my shipping software and needs to be manually entered. I believe the shipping software sees the item as being cancelled or refunded, so it will not import. I need to manually import this sale to the shipping software and then manually scan the tracking details into eBay.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎05-07-2024

Well, we're still waiting for more info, but, at this point, I plan on handling this like I would an offer.

I'll just conduct a very simple analysis: Most of my items have healthy margins, so if the price match discount is within acceptable parameters, I'll accept it. Unless the item is a very new listing, and especially if it is a really new listing with a lot of watchers/views. Or there are red flags about the buyer.

So, will I adapt to this if it is a new feature? Yes.

Will I be happy about it? No.

kyle@ebay · ‎05-07-2024

@wastingtime101 wrote:

@wilsonharborsales wrote:
1. I sell an item to a buyer

2. Buyer immediately requests to cancel sale after payment

3. I open the app to proceed with cancellation and a pop-up window from eBay shows up that must be completed.

4. The pop-up says that the buyer was shown a better deal and that the buyer wanted to cancel because they ‘found a better price’. I am given two options to proceed. Either cancel the sale, or refund the buyer the difference and continue with the sale.

5. I choose ‘agree to new terms of sale’ and eBay automatically refunded the buyer a portion of the sale so that my price matches the other sellers price.

Can you find out for us if this is a test devon@ebay kyle@ebay elizabeth@ebay and provide some insight and, if possible, screenshots of what the buyer sees?

Hey @wastingtime101 thanks for bringing this to our attention. We have reached out to a few teams to see what info we can get on this, and share this thread with them as well so they can see the feedback everyone has provided so far.

Kyle,

wilsonharborsales · ‎05-07-2024

Thank you Kyle! 🙏

trip98 · ‎05-07-2024

I do not understand this feature at all. Why push a seller to sell for less when they already have committed buyer? If the buyer wants for less can’t he just ask the seller himself?

And doesn’t eBay have confidence in its search engine to show the lowest price to buyer if that is what how the buyer chooses his purchases? We all know a buyer can search for results by lowest price. Me thinks this will be abused by buyers who sees a lower price on his item of choice, but wants your item for the same price because yours is in better condition or includes original box, info/romance card, free shipping, or cheaper calculated shipping (because closer to them), better feedback, faster ship date…etc.

Or does eBay thinks it needs to educate its sellers on what the lowest price is? I for one, pretty much know what everything sells for by using Terapeak, Worthpoint and others sites before I list something. And I look at seasonal changes too. Right now my Christmas stuff is sitting around priced for the holiday season.

If I get one of those notices, I will do a little due diligence, just like I do any best offer. I will most likely decline and cancel the sale. Let the other seller sell for less who doesn't even know what going on.

Plus the added shipping problem of having to input shipping info will be a major time waster and an added insult to injury!

OOPS reply is for OP

CDM Antiques

a_c_green · ‎05-07-2024

@wilsonharborsales wrote:
The buyer bought and paid for the item from me and then I had to refund the buyer approximately 20% in order to keep the sale and match another seller’s price.

I don't suppose you were actually shown that competing listing at any time?

If that stunt was pulled on me, I would simply cancel the sale as Buyer Requested and weld that buyer into my Blocked Buyer List.

steady2304 · ‎05-07-2024

Unless I am able to see the competing listing and compare it to mine, I will not only cancel the sale, but the buyer will end up on my Best Buddies List. I am not going to play this game at all. It is just a race to the bottom. It's bad enough eBay sticks Promoted listings between your item and description in your listing, now they want to take your buyer away from you unless you agree to lower your price to match a listing you can't even see before agreeing to. Nope not going to happen!!!

a_c_green · ‎05-07-2024

kyle@ebay wrote:
Hey @wastingtime101 thanks for bringing this to our attention. We have reached out to a few teams to see what info we can get on this, and share this thread with them as well so they can see the feedback everyone has provided so far.

Thank you, kyle@ebay. I know this is not your fault, but it's disappointing to see that there are still "teams" within eBay who are messing about with live listings and interfering with live sales, while having no apparent requirement to let others know within the company, especially those with public contact who are expected to answer questions or resolve problems for buyers and sellers.

campanaelia · ‎05-07-2024

@wilsonharborsales wrote:
4. The pop-up says that the buyer was shown a better deal and that the buyer wanted to cancel because they ‘found a better price’. I am given two options to proceed. Either cancel the sale, or refund the buyer the difference and continue with the sale

@a_c_green wrote:
If that stunt was pulled on me, I would simply cancel the sale as Buyer Requested and weld that buyer into my Blocked Buyer List.

I'm sure if you chose the cancel option given, as the OP stated, it would be processed as buyer requested by default. I agree the seller should be able to see the competitors listing to compare items, which any regular business would require when doing a PM.

What I don't get is why be so defensive and resort to blocking the buyer? Price matching is part of doing business everywhere everyday. I'm sure every seller has done it here many times in their lifetime. Can you imagine asking a store to do a PM and instead they cancel your order and tell you you are banned from ever buying from them again? I can't. IMO PMing is just human nature, nothing wrong with it. If this becomes a thing on ebay, I think you'll end up shrinking your buyer pool if you block everyone who attempts this.