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Seller cannot fulfill my order AND has not refunded my money
Hello! I have never had this happen before so don't know what to do. I purchased a Pottery Barn duvet cover, new with tags. This comes in 4 colors and the seller had several of each color and size. There were 3 of the color I need (gold) and Full/Queen size when I bought one of them. About 24-36 hours later the seller said he didn't have this item and sent a bunch of others for me to choose from. I don't want and can't use any of the others. I said no. Something about this felt shady to me---as if he sold it for more money or something and decided not to sell to me. Anyway, I asked for a refund and here was the response he gave: Could you please help me by opening a return request and selecting 'concern about shipping time' as the reason to expedite the refund? Thank you." I asked a friend who buys more and they said that sounds shady and like the seller does not want a bad mark against him with ebay so trying to get ME to take responsibility for the reason the order is cancelled and so my response was" No I am not going to open a return or select “concern about shipping time,†as that is not the reason that I am not getting my order. The issue is that you are failing to fulfill my order for a Harvest Gold Full/Queen Duvet Cover. Please cancel the order on your end due to item being out of stock and issue a full refund to my original payment method" That was 48 hours ago at 7pm on 1/7 . Then at over 24 hours ago on 1/8 at 1030 am I sent this "Hi, I’m following up as I have not yet seen the order canceled or a refund initiated in my eBay account.As confirmed, the item is out of stock and cannot be fulfilled. I do not want to open a return and select an inaccurate reason for cancel. Please cancel the order on your end due to item unavailability and issue the full refund to my original payment method by the end of the day today, unless you have found the item and can fulfill. Thank you." Then this morning 1/9 at 10am (almost 6 hours ago) I wrote : Hello - can you please respond to me and issue my refund. You are holding my money and you have said you cannot fulfill the order. Is there a reason you have not refunded my money - it has been 48 hours." Still nothing. I cannot seem to find any way to get ebay involved either! How do I get my money back? Thank you!
opdos
OP9 months agoThank you! I'm going to get back to buying and selling on ebay. I have a call in for them to call me to change the reason for refund so it's not on me! You are an amazing volunteer! Ebay should pay you 🙂 Have a great weekend!
inceptions
Mentor9 months ago@opdos
Thank you and you're very welcome.
Let us know if eBay can actually change the reason for the cancellation. You have a great weekend yourself!
opdos
OP9 months agoOk...that scares me I had no idea. Not even sure what that means? Are these legal good? Counterfeit? But guess what I JUST now received my refund---guessing that my reporting him triggered him to refund me but LOOK - he had the nerve to say that BUYER CANCELLED! Can't ebay read in my messages where HE said he did not have my item and tried to get me to purchase something else? And that he asked me to cancel due to shipping issues and I refused? Can they see that? Can I report this now as a 2nd offense? Would this bring a bad mark on me as a buyer because it looks like I cancelled? How can this guy have 99.5% satisfaction? Anyway, I just want him to have to change that reason for cancellation and I want ebay to stop this guy. Not sure where to go from here but appreciate any guidance!
I
inceptions
Mentor9 months ago@opdos
Yes, as I advised earlier, you can report him for misrepresenting the reason for the cancellation in order to avoid a defect on his account (stating that you requested the cancellation instead of being out of stock as he confessed in his messages).
Dropshipping means that the seller takes an order and then places that order with a retailer to have it sent to his buyer. So if that's what may have happened here. He may have advertised the item, you purchased it, he then placed an order with Pottery Barn, they cancelled the order for being out of stock, so he couldn't fulfill your order. Dropshipping is a policy violation. Since you can't prove that however, you shouldn't report it. Just report the misrepresented cancellation.
There are millions of sellers on eBay. eBay can't possibly read every report. They compile data on sellers and there is some number of reports that when triggered, eBay will take an action. They won't share with you what that action is. The defect he should have earned is the fastest way to rid the site of sellers who don't ship their orders. He avoided the defect by misrepresenting the reason for the cancellation. That's a provable policy violation. That's why you should report it.
It's highly unlikely that eBay would take action on one offense, but yours may not be the only report. I'm glad you got your refund sooner rather than later. Just file that report and then put this all behind you - don't get stuck in the past. There are millions of great sellers on eBay. Look forward to doing business with them.
opdos
OP9 months agoWell I do pay attention to sellers so I guess I'm a bit shocked because this guy had 99.5% positive feedback with 233 reviews but only 355 items sold. Member since Aug 2024 - in Morocco. Had one bad review from someone who never got their merch. But I am hearing more and more about scam sellers that just close one account and reappear as a different one.
I took your advice and clicked the link you sent and reported this seller. Now I'll just wait until Jan 15th when I can use the Money Back Guarantee.
Thanks again so much! Your advice put me at ease with the process and helped so much!
inceptions
Mentor9 months ago@opdos
You're very welcome.
Buying items from a seller of Pottery Barn items in Morocco (or any foreign country) tells me that the seller is probably dropshipping from Pottery Barn and doesn't have ANY of the items he's selling. That's not allowed on eBay - it's a policy violation. Since you don't have proof however, I wouldn't report that. You're already reporting enough...
opdos
OP9 months agoYour info is super helpful so thank you! I thought it felt shady when they asked ME to submit a cancel of the order due to "concern about shipping time" and so glad I did not and you validated that was correct.
Wow this makes me want to quit using ebay as I don't feel like it's as safe and I don't feel as protected as I thought I was (not that I'm a super frequent user) So right now I have paid over $100 for an item that the seller has told me he will not fulfill, and he has gone incommunicado and not issued my refund but I can't do anything until after January 15th!
In my opinion this seller is fraudulent, and there is no way to talk with ebay about it either online or in person until after January 15th because it says "your item might still be in transit" until then.
Well, at least now I know exactly what to do thanks to you. I "think" I feel confident that I will get my money back eventually since the entire message thread is there with the seller saying he does not have and with me asking 3 times for the seller to refund my money. He kept pushing me to change to the green color and WEIRDLY suddenly one of those duvet covers in the green color, suddenly showed up for sale under a different seller with 0 items sold. I feel like he will just disappear and probably this new seller is him. And how would anyone ever know!
Thank you again. You are a wealth of knowledge!
inceptions
Mentor9 months ago@opdos
You're welcome!
Please don't give up on eBay because of a bad experience with one seller. There are millions of sellers on eBay and most of them are good sellers. Be sure you are reviewing a seller's feedback in full to see what others have experienced BEFORE you decide to buy. This action will often warn you away from bad sellers.
You WILL get your money back if you follow the instructions for the Money Back Guarantee.
inceptions
Mentor9 months agoHi @opdos
You would not open a return EVER if you don't have something to return.
Also, it's best not to ask for a cancellation or the seller might choose the reason that you requested it. Your seller is desperately trying to avoid a defect for being out of stock.
Here's what to do...
Check the estimated delivery date shown in your Purchase History. When that date has passed, you have up to 30 days to use the option next to the transaction to open a case for an item not received. The seller will have 3 business days to prove delivery or refund. If he doesn't, go back to the case on day 4 and use the option to ask eBay to step in. eBay will force the refund.
You can also report the seller for not completing the sale and trying to trick you into opening a return for an item that is out of stock. You can do that here:
https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicid=4022
In the meantime, if the seller cancels for any reason other than out of stock, you can report the seller again for misrepresenting the reason for the cancellation to avoid earning a defect on his account.
You can leave appropriate feedback (calm and factual and brief) to say seller is out of stock and won't refund (something along those lines). If you have to open a case as mentioned above, eBay may remove the feedback, but if they do, at leas **bleep** will stick around to warn other buyers until the case is closed.
I understand you want your refund sooner rather than later, but this is the process eBay gives you to follow.
I'm sorry you had this experience.