Someone sent me an offer on an identical item that I am selling

[rgeorgie6]

So, I have a question cause this is a first for me. I have something listed on ebay and someone sent me an offer for $35 for the exact same item. I accepted the offer thinking they were making ME an offer (because I have Or Best Offer) and now Ebay wants me to pay this person. I thought the offer was for MY item, not some random seller who must have picked me out of a list of people selling the same thing (this seller's and their item was never on my watchlist so I don't know how they got my name or knew I was selling the same thing). Is this a scam to make me buy their item by tricking me into thinking they were making an offer on MY exact same item? It feels VERY scammy to me. 

[coastaltechsolution · Accepted solution]

Did you maybe view the item when you were listing and use the "sell one like this" ?

Maybe that is how you got on the radar

[mtgraves7984]

Yeah... that was a big error, huh? You might contact the seller and ask if the order can be cancelled (be quick), but if the seller won't... you're on the hook for it. Good luck and good golly.

[rgeorgie6]

I did do that... does the seller have a list of every person that looked at their post even if they don't add it to the Watchlist?

[rgeorgie6]

I already did ask to cancel it. It just seems so much like an intentional scam to me. Someone else sent me and offer for another item and asked me to add a $300 gift  card to it and send it to some random location. I am kind of new to Ebay selling and didn't realize their were so many scammers out there.

[luckythewinner]

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@rgeorgie6 wrote:

I did do that... does the seller have a list of every person that looked at their post even if they don't add it to the Watchlist?

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No.

Sellers have no way to see watchers or viewers, and cannot send offers to a specific buyer unless that buyer has asked a question about the item. 

When a seller asks eBay to send offers to "interested buyers", the list of recipients is chosen by eBay, not the seller - but that list of recipients is not just watchers. 

[coastaltechsolution]

@rgeorgie6 

Not really unless maybe you added it to your watchlist to come back to the item at a later time when you were ready to view it? 

[clarkmiracle]

This happened to me recently except in reverse.  I had 6 watchers on my item and sent an offer via the eBay offer option, not knowing who the 6 watchers were or who else eBay would send it to. 

Someone bought it from the offer sent and then immediately asked to cancel because they said they had one exactly like it listed and thought they were receiving an offer on their item.  Now my item is taken down and not available to the other watchers to buy or whoever the offer went to. 

I get this can happen and honest mistakes do happen, but we all need to be a bit more careful if we are accepting offers on items to make sure it is an offer on our item and not to buy an item that we browsed or watched when listing our own items.  Put the shoe on the other foot, not everyone is a scammer.

[rgeorgie6]

And I get that, but this buyer knew there was a misunderstanding because when they sent the original offer that I believed to be for MY item, I messaged them letting them know I calculated the dimensions of the package very slightly wrong and fixed it so the shipping price might be different by a few dollars now. I asked them to check and make sure they were ok with it and they responded that it was fine and not to worry about it and they'd just pay the few dollars extra

[releasethekraken_1]

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@rgeorgie6 wrote:

And I get that, but this buyer knew there was a misunderstanding because when they sent the original offer that I believed to be for MY item, I messaged them letting them know I calculated the dimensions of the package very slightly wrong and fixed it so the shipping price might be different by a few dollars now. I asked them to check and make sure they were ok with it and they responded that it was fine and not to worry about it and they'd just pay the few dollars extra

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YOU were the buyer; the other person was the SELLER. This was not a scam, or an offer that the seller specifically targeted to you, because they had no way of knowing you existed unless you contacted them BEFORE you accepted that offer.

You made a mistake; take responsibility for it.

[sin-n-dex]

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@clarkmiracle wrote:

This happened to me recently except in reverse.  I had 6 watchers on my item and sent an offer via the eBay offer option, not knowing who the 6 watchers were or who else eBay would send it to. 

Someone bought it from the offer sent and then immediately asked to cancel because they said they had one exactly like it listed and thought they were receiving an offer on their item.  Now my item is taken down and not available to the other watchers to buy or whoever the offer went to. 

I get this can happen and honest mistakes do happen, but we all need to be a bit more careful if we are accepting offers on items to make sure it is an offer on our item and not to buy an item that we browsed or watched when listing our own items.  Put the shoe on the other foot, not everyone is a scammer.

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I don't disagree that mistakes happen, but I'm confused as to how this mistake can be made.

When I send out offers and someone accepts them, I get a "your item has sold" message. I don't get back another offer. When someone sends me an offer to buy, I get a "you have received an offer from" message. When they're sending me an offer of an item they wish to sell, the message I get tells me what kind of discount I'm getting on the item.

I suppose if you aren't used to messages you can make a mistake easily enough, I guess I just don't get it.

C.

[rgeorgie6]

I DID contact them BEFORE the offer was accepted to let them know I had calculated the shipping wrong and was fixing it. So they were alerted right then that there was a misunderstanding but they played along and said they'd pay extra. So yes, it was MY mistake but what they did was also very dishonest because they knew full well that I thought they were the buyer of my item. I put in a request for cancellation which they are ignoring completely so I'll still buy it cause I have to. I just wish they'd showed some integrity instead of playing along when they knew what was going  on.

[rgeorgie6]

What I received was a notification from Ebay and when I dropped it down it said "You have received an offer for $35..."

[releasethekraken_1]

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@rgeorgie6 wrote:

I DID contact them BEFORE the offer was accepted to let them know I had calculated the shipping wrong and was fixing it. So they were alerted right then that there was a misunderstanding but they played along and said they'd pay extra. So yes, it was MY mistake but what they did was also very dishonest because they knew full well that I thought they were the buyer of my item. I put in a request for cancellation which they are ignoring completely so I'll still buy it cause I have to. I just wish they'd showed some integrity instead of playing along when they knew what was going  on.

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Here's an alternate explanation: the seller thought you were letting them know that they were undercharging for shipping and they replied that , as you said earlier, "it was fine and not to worry about it and they'd just pay the few dollars extra".

That doesn't involve any dishonesty by the seller, who would have absolutely no way to check to see that you were selling the same item. They didn't pick you for the offer, eBay did. Before you accepted the offer, they knew nothing about you, not even your ID. You got an offer; you accepted it. Stop blaming the seller for your error.

[nocturnaljen]

I had the same thing.  However, it WAS my item that I was selling and Ebay sent me an offer of 5% off. I thought it was from a buyer or watcher NOT Ebay sending the offer of my own item to me!!? And good luck trying to find help as to how why it happened. I had to cancel my own item.