Final value fee of what the item did not sell for

[pere-loui]

Dirty rotten eBay is up to theft, money stealing tactics again. It was necessary to cancel an auction and eBay decided to take a final value fee of what the item did not sell for ! Without authorization!

This is not the first time EBay tries to screw the sellers. There's has to be a way to get a refund as like I said this is an unauthorized debt from my account!

[slippinjimmy]

Perhaps you did not comply (or understand) the rules for ending Auction listings early.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/ending-listing?id=4146

What was the reason for ending listings and then relisting them immediately?

[inhawaii]

I have some bad news for you ... you did authorize it.

Perhaps you should read up on cancelling auctions early.

No rip off here.

[wastingtime101]

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@pere-loui wrote:

It was necessary to cancel an auction and eBay decided to take a final value fee of what the item did not sell for ! Without authorization!

---

You gave authorization through the user agreement when you listed the item.

Here's the policy page on ending listings:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/ending-listing?id=4146

Listing format	Time left in listing	Listing state	Can the listing be ended early?
Auction	12 or more hours	No Bids	Yes
Auction	12 or more hours	1 or more bids with reserve price not met	Yes. You may be charged a final value fee based on the amount of the highest bid.
Auction	12 or more hours	1 or more bids with reserve price met or no reserve price set	Yes, you may end the listing by cancelling all bids. You may be charged a final value fee based on the amount of the highest bid, or you may sell the item to the highest bidder.
Auction	Fewer than 12 hours	No bids	Yes
Auction	Fewer than 12 hours	1 or more bids with reserve price not met	Yes. You may be charged a final value fee based on the amount of the highest bid
Auction	Fewer than 12 hours	1 or more bids with reserve price met or no reserve price set	No, you can only sell the item to the highest bidder

If your listing isn't eligible to be ended early, you can contact any bidders to explain the situation and ask them to retract their bids. If the auction has finished, you can contact the winner and, if they agree, you can cancel the transaction.

You can only end auction listings with bids one at a time by selecting a valid reason.  

Ending listings early disappoints bidders, so we may place limits and restrictions on your account if you are doing so regularly.

[monica-sells]

Which item was cancelled. It looks like you did not have bids on some....did you cancel with a bid open?

[kensgiftshop]

Did you receive any messages about the item before you ended it.

It wasn't without authorization, you agreed to it when you listed the item

[isaiah53-57]

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@inhawaii wrote:

I have some bad news for you ... you did authorize it.

Perhaps you should read up on cancelling auctions early.

No rip off here.

---

Nope no rip off, no way, no how - If its written somewhere in the tos, its no harm no foul -  its just the site taking deserved funds to stay in business right? - Brings to mind a current thread where a poor soul had 2 bidders in a bidding war of an item he had a $40(approximately) "Buy It Now" on - These crazy bidders take the price up over 13,000 and the worried seller kills the auction - He gets a bill from ebay to the tune of $1500 or something like that - Yeah its just the site doing what they do - no harm no foul right Hawaii?

Considering, in my opinion, the EXTREME lack of protection this site offers its sellers and the very few tools you have to protect yourself from bad buyers, don't you just love it when the site cashes in on one of those few tools left? To the tune where anyone who hasn't slogged through the TOS trying to protect themselves gets caught in the trap... Yeah they got your back alright - though, from our experience, seems they don't have a problem sticking the knife in it - Happy ebaying everyone...

[albertabrightalberta]

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@pere-loui wrote:

Dirty rotten eBay is up to theft, money stealing tactics again. It was necessary to cancel an auction and eBay decided to take a final value fee of what the item did not sell for ! Without authorization!

This is not the first time EBay tries to screw the sellers. There's has to be a way to get a refund as like I said this is an unauthorized debt from my account!

---

It sounds like you had an auction that had at least one bid. When you ended it early, ebay charged FVF on the high bid amount. 

[mam98031]

This is most likely due to a misunderstanding on your part regarding some rule or policy.  And I know when we aren't aware of something it often feels like someone is out to get us.  

Ebay has had a rule about cancelling auctions when their are bids on the auction for at least several years now.  You are correct Ebay would take the FVF for the price the high bidder bid on the listing, and that is PER THE POLICY.  It isn't hidden from any of us, but sometimes since there are so darn many rules we have a tough time on keeping up with all of them.

You can only end auction listings with bids one at a time by selecting a valid reason. Ending listings early disappoints bidders, so we may place limits and restrictions on your account if you are doing so regularly.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/ending-listing?id=4146#:~:text....

Now if this is the first time you have done this or the first time in a very long time, if you contact Ebay, you may be able to get them to refund the FVFs they charged you.  Remember you want them to do you a FAVOR, so don't get upset with them.  Be nice and polite.  Make them WANT to help you.  Otherwise if you treat them disrespectfully, chances are they may not help you at all.

On each Ebay page there is a link to contact Customer Service at the top of the page and again at the bottom of the page.

I would suggest that you contact Ebay for Business on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for the better trained CSRs.

Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service. Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is. Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message. It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.

https://twitter.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/eBay/

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

Your options will be on the left. If you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant or Chat box type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options. Not all options are available 24/7. It will depend on staffing available. So sometimes you can request a call back and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you have the Chat option available and other times it won't me. If it is important to you to use one of those options, just try back later.

If you use a cell phone or other mobile device, you may need to turn off your Spam filter so that Ebay can call you.

If you are a seller outside of the US or Canada, you will need to use the Chat Option.

https://www.ebay.com/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

[lilyswan2]

used to be you can end early with bids once a year and not be charged final value fees. has this changed?

[wastingtime101]

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@lilyswan2 wrote:

used to be you can end early with bids once a year and not be charged final value fees. has this changed?

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Unfortunately it changed a couple years ago per reports on this forum. eBay no longer automatically applies that once per year freebie.

If the seller contacts CS they might give them a courtesy credit. Those are often one-offs so if we're talking only a few bucks I'd let it go and save the credit for when it's really needed. But if it's a hundred bucks or something then yeah, contact CS to see if they can help.

[lakefor94]

"Without Authorization", What is eBay going to do, call the seller and request permission to bill the seller account accordingly?  

[farmalljr]

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@pere-loui wrote:

Dirty rotten eBay is up to theft, money stealing tactics again. It was necessary to cancel an auction and eBay decided to take a final value fee of what the item did not sell for ! Without authorization!

This is not the first time EBay tries to screw the sellers. There's has to be a way to get a refund as like I said this is an unauthorized debt from my account!

---

This is what happens when sellers do NOT KNOW what they are doing. It was "authorized". You DID agree too it. 

Your actions (ending the auction) DID cause yourself to get charged. You can blame eBay all you want, you are the one that ended the auction when you had bids. Suck it up buttercup.

[broto_64]

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@isaiah53-57 wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

I have some bad news for you ... you did authorize it.

Perhaps you should read up on cancelling auctions early.

No rip off here.

---

Nope no rip off, no way, no how - If its written somewhere in the tos, its no harm no foul -  its just the site taking deserved funds to stay in business right? - Brings to mind a current thread where a poor soul had 2 bidders in a bidding war of an item he had a $40(approximately) "Buy It Now" on - These crazy bidders take the price up over 13,000 and the worried seller kills the auction - He gets a bill from ebay to the tune of $1500 or something like that - Yeah its just the site doing what they do - no harm no foul right Hawaii?

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While I do agree that $13,000 is enough to concern a seller it still doesn't warrant ending the auction. What that seller should have done is allow the auction to complete, then await payment and either ship the item once payment is received or... When payment isn't received (because this is the most likely scenario) 4 calendar days after the listing ended, the seller can cancel the order by selecting the Cancel order button  and choosing Buyer hasn't paid in the drop down menu. At this stage unless the buyer pays shortly ebay cancels it in the seller's favor without fees of any kind... Granted it involves waiting and being patient so if a seller can't wait there is always the option of cancelling instantly and paying the fees.

As was already stated you really do need to read up on policies, things on ebay work in a particular and sometimes a very peculiar fashion but they do work and if you work them correctly you will not come out the loser.

[steve_stuff]

"If the auction has finished, you can contact the winner and, if they agree, you can cancel the transaction."

Not really - two/three years ago we were getting ghost listings every week or two - was able to cancel active listing with or without bids, but with the fixed price and last second bid/win ones we contacted the buyer, explained what happen and even sent them a photo of the original 'your item sold' message [we keep them all] showing that it sold weeks/months/years earlier and was long gone. Everyone agreed to us cancelling -

Six months ago got a message from ebay basically saying that the bots had noticed we were asking people to agree to cancel - even send the rule[s] and a list of which items with the amount [$20/25] of fees 'avoided' - and say 'no action will be taken at this time' but don't do that again.

Luckily we haven't had another ghost till a few days ago but it was a scheduled listing so was able to get rid of it before it went live.