I Won an Auction- Seller refuses to ship

Question

I won an Ebay auction several days ago, and checked for tracking. The item had not been shipped, so I contacted the seller to ask for the tracking number. The seller responded that he or she did not list a high enough shipping charge, and had also hoped the item would sell for a higher amount.

I responded that the item was listed more than once, and the seller had ample time to change both the shipping charge and the minimum bid. The seller apparently made a refund, and refuses to honor the terms of the auction. I tried to contact a Live Agent to deal with this, and cannot get past the automated system, which is no help at all. How do I contact a live agent to resolve this issue.

sidebyside16 · Answer

Thanks for the reply. It is sad to see that a fraudulent seller can list an item on Ebay, and then simply make a refund and refuse to ship the item if the auction result was not enough money for their satisfaction... even though my bid met the reserve, and I paid immediately after the auction. S/he did not even bother to contact me to notify me of the decision to not honor the terms of the auction. I had to contact her/him after it became apparent that my item was not shipped.

This item was listed twice. Nobody bid on the item the first time it was listed. The seller had more than ample time to edit the terms to include a higher reserve price and/or higher shipping. I informed the seller of these facts, but they still refused to honor the terms of the auction.

It was equally frustrating to spend my time in an unsuccessful attempt to contact Ebay to report this. Ebay also never contacted me to inform me of the seller's sales cancellation, or what their reason was. The seller simply wanted more money, and made the choice to violate the terms of the auction. Sellers like that should either be permanently be banned, or have to post a bond to secure against future fraud.

woodland_gnome · Answer

If you get your refund there is no need to contact a "live agent." The seller already got a "defect" when s/he cancelled the transaction (unless s/he lied to eBay to blame you, in which case we'd need details especially what eBay said the reason was in the cancellation notice). That is the primary tool eBay uses to weed out bad sellers, downgrading the selling status of those who get too many relative to their sales volume (as opposed to having to pay employees to actually investigate to see how likely it was that the seller had a legitimate reason to cancel vs. deliberate policy violations).

You may leave appropriate (calm, factual--if the seller said that x was the reason say "seller said x. . ." so people don't think you are just jumping to conclusions) feedback to warn future buyers/bidders. If the usual links have vanished, go to anyone's Feedback Profile (doesn't matter who, click on the feedback score in parentheses behind the username) then scroll down to below the last comment on that page to find a "Leave feedback" link that doesn't vanish (it brings you to a list of items you can leave feedback for).

Theoretically you could sue the seller for breach of the contract of sale (for the difference between the auction price and what you ended up having to pay for a replacement), but that is almost never practical.