OT: Seller Cancelled Auction After I Won & Paid

[rubiano98]

Last night I won the bid on a pin (I was the only bidder). She emailed me this morning to say she'd cancelled and that she was going to relist the pin as a BIN and that I cojud bid on it then.

I paid immediately upon the end of the auction and the $$ was debited from my checking account overnight.

Do I smell a rat or am I being paranoid? The seller has 100% positive feedback.

[grumpus_otter]

That happened to me once where I listed a necklace for $75 because I thought it was similar to others I had.  Upon doing more research I found out it was a very special one that went for over $350.  So I went to my listing to revise it--and it was sold. 

So I took a deep breath, dried a few tears, and shipped it.   A few weeks later I got a hand-written note from Betty.  She thanked me profusely for the necklace and said she'd been trying to get one her whole life but could never afford it, and that now that she was 80 she was going to be the envy of her town.

So I had to dry a few more tears. 

Long story short--It is HIGHLY unethical to do what your seller did.

[rubiano98]

Uh, no, I'm not giving the seller the benefit of the doubt. This was blatant and egregious, wanting to relist at a higher price. I bid and paid in good faith.

If I walked into a store, picked up an item and took it to the cashier, paid the ticketed price, started to walk out the door with my purchase, and a store employee came after to me to get the item back because they believed they could sell it at a higher price, would that be eithical? Should I give them the benefit of the doubt? 

[mforjan]

This is so wrong!

I fell for the “list you items starting at $.99”  years ago, I tried a few listings. They all sold for $.99. I shipped them and never, ever again listed anything with a starting amount below my happy price.

I have had a very good couple of months on eBay. I still can’t believe it since it has been a long time since it has worked well for me. Anyway, I got an email from eBay asking me to take a survey as a seller. I am tempted because this carp of allowing offers on auctions really upsets me. But that is another thread, sorry, I digress.

Anyway, the seller needs to ship your pin for the price you paid. JMHO 

[bat197]

Agree, it is HIGHLY unethical to do what the seller did. If she wanted the item to go for more than .99, she should have listed it for more.   Is it worth so much to her that she tarnishes her reputation? I've lost money on transactions, but made money also.

It evens out.

[rubiano98]

I have to think her conscience (sp.?) is bothering her.  

Oh well, it's not something I'm going to fret over. I'm just shocked that a seller with 100s of positive feedbacks would pull this.

[dream*peddler]

It's my understanding that a seller can choose only 3 options for cancelling a transaction AFTER the buyer has paid.  They are:  the item is out of stock, buyer requested cancellation and wrong shipping address.  I don't think he can say there was something wrong with the listing.   Be sure he didn't use the "buyer requested cancellation" option or you won't be able to leave feedback.   Have you been refunded yet?  

[frockstarvintage]

OP - you should report this seller to ebay. I believe there is a "non-performing seller" option. I would not correspond with the seller at all at this point - just give ebay a call.

[rubiano98]

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@dream*peddler wrote:

It's my understanding that a seller can choose only 3 options for cancelling a transaction AFTER the buyer has paid.  They are:  the item is out of stock, buyer requested cancellation and wrong shipping address.  I don't think he can say there was something wrong with the listing.   Be sure he didn't use the "buyer requested cancellation" option or you won't be able to leave feedback.   Have you been refunded yet?  

The buyer only said that there was "something wrong with listing". That was as specific as she (or maybe it's a he) got.

PayPal is showing that the seller has "not accepted" the payment yet, although the money has been taken out of my checking account via PP. 

Right now now it's limbo and the ball is in her court. I don't ever recall being stiffed by a seller before, since I started on Ebay, which was pretty much when it first started up.

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[frockstarvintage]

Also : @huffstutler

In this case, I would give the seller the benefit of the doubt.  But at the same time, I would "mention" their rating and just inject it in the conversation that this situation must be an oversight or mistake based on their good rating.   I have a 100% rating as a buyer and have stood my ground with sellers in the past but as a last resort.  I don't sell... only buy.

1) This seller does not warrant the benefit of the doubt; her motive is clear as ice.

2) Someone else mentioned earlier, but this is horrible advice you insist on repeating. We are not allowed to "mention their rating" which ebay sees as feedback extortion which is a punishible offence. This has been policy for years.

3) ALL BUYERS have 100% ratings simply by being a buyer, this requires no effort since buyers can ONLY receive positive feedback, no negs or neuts. Sellers can receive negative or neutral ratings but cannot leave same for buyers. Hence, your 100% is really not anything to brag about.

[dream*peddler]

Not accepting a payment is a new one on me, but if that's the case the buyer will be able to cancel the transaction using the "something wrong with the listing" excuse and probably won't incur a defect.  Neither will you be able to leave feedback since ebay will treat it as an auction that didn't complete.  It's no fun to call, but I would call ebay on this one.  I've just never heard of a seller not accepting a payment once it's made.  Something doesn't seem right.

[rubiano98]

Right now I'm able to leave FB but it's too soon. I want to see how this plays out.

I would have no problem with calling Ebay and describing the matter.

This is really an insignificant thing. I certainly don't need another pin, it's just that I hate letting someone get away with something.

[dream*peddler]

Yes, of course it's the principal of the thing but something is wrong with the mechanics of the transaction.

[dream*peddler]

Sorry for mixing up "buyer" and "seller" in my post above.

[evelyb30]

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@rubiano98 wrote:

Her initial - and so far only - email said she was cancelling the auction because there was "a problem with the listing".  Hmmm. The problem was that it went so cheaply, is my guess. She was the one who listed it at an opening bid of 99 cents. 

If she refunds my money is she off the hook as far as Ebay is concerned, even with neg. feedback? I don't care about the money, it was such a small amount. It's the ethics that bother me.

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I just had the same thing happen to me.  I wasn't expecting to win so hadn't checked the auction and hadn't paid yet.  The next thing I knew I found email saying the seller had cancelled the auction because the item was "damaged during packing" ... and then got two messages from the seller saying the same thing.   It might even be true. She had three expensive items starting at .99 and I bid on all three.  A gold ring went for $14.50 and a big Mexican sterling necklace went for about $32.  I strongly suspect she got an unpleasant surprise on all of them.

[clearsphere]

Most (if not all) sellers have sold for less then they wanted/expected at some point. If a seller has a fb history of canceling/relisting for more, chances are they'll continue. eBay used to allow one canceling after completion w/o penalty a year. After that, the seller would be charged the final value fee. Enough non-performing seller sales would eventually get your account closed-hopefully!

Sorry that happened, and stinks to have your money in limbo through bank account. 

PS: doing this is considered "reserve price fee avoidance" as they weren't planning to sell under a certain price point.