Can a buyer pay less than the listed price???

[havenofgold]

I have a new store, a few items listed and have been selling ok. Today, I get a sale and the buyer paid only $1.00 for a $34.24 item? How is that possible? It was not an auction. The price for this item has never been and still isn't $1.00. The buyer now is demanding that I make it right since I cancelled the order on them. I want to know how this happened and how can I get some help with this. I don't want to get negative feedback on something that was not my fault. 

Please help

Thank you

[sin-n-dex]

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@zobal99 wrote:

The buyer knows a mistake was made and may not bother you again. Block the buyer now and put it on the back burner. See what develops. It may just go away. If it gets worse for you then call or write to eBay and explain what you are saying here. They probably would understand. t may have been a glitch. Choosing the reason for cancelling the order may work against you and get you a defect. Like if you checked "out of stock" you will get a defect on your account. Any reason checked other than "problems with the address" may get you a defect. What reason did you check?

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I think now if the buyer is blocked, the OP will never hear from them again anyway, because messages are blocked now too. (It used to be if there was a transaction it was good for 30 days of contact, but recent posts suggests the block on messages happens right away now).

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@havenofgold wrote:

Hey guys, thank you for all of your help. We were finally able to get someone on the phone at eBay and they said that this was a code that the seller used to complete this sale. They've opened an investigation on this buyer and activated the seller protection protocol. This is a type of hacking. The person that we spoke with said that this type "hack" happened about 3 years ago and they are very aware of it.

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There are posts about this hack recently. Did the buyer (or another buyer) send you a message telling you they were new and couldn't purchase because of your settings, give you a help page to go and log in and make a change to your account? If so, that's how they did it. They logged in and gave themselves a coupon.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

Usually if it sells with an offer it has the line through the price?

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Only if "best offer" (make an offer) is on the listing and the buyer offers the seller an amount, then the line is through the price. if the offer is seller initiated, it will show full price.

All my offers are for something like 10.00, 15.00, 20.00 etc... you will not see these types of prices in my solds. All my prices end in .99 or .95, but probably 20% were the result of a seller initiated offer.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@gurlcat wrote:

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@havenofgold wrote:

Hey guys, thank you for all of your help. We were finally able to get someone on the phone at eBay and they said that this was a code that the seller used to complete this sale. They've opened an investigation on this buyer and activated the seller protection protocol. This is a type of hacking. The person that we spoke with said that this type "hack" happened about 3 years ago and they are very aware of it.

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Oh that is such great news, thanks for the update.  I bet you are relieved!  Not only did you get the problem off your back but you know it wasn't your own fault somehow.  

Though I gotta say ..... this "code" thing is a whole new can of worms mystery.  I searched to threads to see if anyone here had ever posted about a 'fake coupon code' 'fake discount code' 'coupon code scam' 'discount code scam', because it seems like if this is a scam going back that far, there should be at least some posts about it here.  But, no results!  

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There's a recent thread, I just don't remember which one... someone sold a camera or something with a $600 discount (which was the result of a coupon hack).

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@havenofgold wrote:

I don't know, but we were definitely relieved to know that it wasn't something that we might have done. Scary though. The person we spoke with, was searching through everything and there was nothing that we did. I even asked if we should take the listing down and he said that it wasn't necessary. We reduced the available quantity for that item, jic.  I still don't understand where this code would have been entered though. We'll definitely be paying more attention to stuff in any case. A wake up call for sure. 

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Read my reply. Did anyone (not necessarily this buyer) ever send you a link to eBay's help page or login page to do something on your account? If so, that's how they got your login and password and sent themselves a discount.

There's another recent thread about this, only the discount was several hundred dollars.

If this cancellation results in negative feedback, please come back for help here. There's a recent thread about that too (seller cancelled a sale that was purchased in malice, buyer left bad feedback and eBay wouldn't remove it).

C.

[conservitvs]

OP was not “hacked.” He sent an offer. User error. 

See this thread: Message on mentor’s board 

[a_c_green]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:
There's a recent thread, I just don't remember which one... someone sold a camera or something with a $600 discount (which was the result of a coupon hack).

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I think you are referring to this one here: 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Hacked-and-Scammed-by-a-buyer/m-p/34412473#M2385989 

The link above actually takes you to Message #40 in that thread, where the OP returns to explain what he's found out about how the scam worked.

[pjcdn2005]

It doesn’t sound like that’s the situation here though. @shipscript also received an offer of a $1 from that op according to the link on the mentor board so the problem is likely an automated offer that has been set up accidentally just like @gurlcat had asked about.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/How-can-a-buyer-only-pay-1-00-when-the-item-was-listed-fo...

@havenofgold   You need to check that listing and others to see if you have checked off automatic offers.   If you go to sellers hub / active listings you can do a search of your listings to see which have  ‘sending automatic offers’ enabled.  It sounds like that is the problem, not something that the buyer did.

[shipscript]

@havenofgold 

I think @sin-n-dex  nailed it with:

I believe you, I think you made a mistake when sending out an offer. It's also possible offers were enabled automatically on that item (by having set it up at some point before, but I think you intended $1 off, not to pay $1 for the item).

Here is the $1 offer I received from the OP after merely looking several times at the listing in question. The seller most likely tried to set up a $1 discount on the automated offers.  Nothing nefarious, no hacking, simply pilot error, and lesson learned.

Offer - automated for looking

[pjcdn2005]

Oops. Sorry @sin-n-dex    I missed that you had suggested first that an automatic offer might have been sent.  

Too bad customer service didn’t catch that.

[gurlcat]

Is this really the level of "help" a new seller should expect in the Ask A Mentor forums?   How insulting. 

[powell-memorabilia]

I hope that this is a lesson learned for those that go on and on about ghost listings. They hang their hats on the fact that someone in customer service told them that there is a glitch. We all know that the customer service representatives don want to gab with a customer forever. Yep, they tell you what you want to hear.  There are no mystery offers coming from eBay that sellers don’t set up. There are no ghost listings.

The sooner that sellers understand that they can make mistakes, the sooner they will correct them.

[mam98031]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Is this really the level of "help" a new seller should expect in the Ask A Mentor forums?   How insulting. 

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What?  You are basing your opinion of the entire Ask A Mentor board on a PORTION of one post.  Talk about misrepresenting.

Here is a link to the entire thread.  Everyone can decide for themselves how "insulting" the conversation was.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/How-can-a-buyer-only-pay-1-00-when-the-item-was-listed-fo...

[buyselljack2016]

It is kinder than saying..................................  PBCAK

ETA.....   as I am not even close to being able to understand computer hacks.............  I suppose that it could be that it was not on the seller end.  Perhaps "a hack" made it available to "anyone", but again, that's beyond my ken, so possibly ................. suggesting PBCAK was unkind of me.

[kabilab]

I agree with NAM. SHIP'S response was concise, candid and business oriented.