Seller claims price was a typo, shouldn't they have to honor it?
I ordered an item yesterday, for $5, and, in all honestly, I worried it was a typo, as most listings for this item are more in the $40-50 range. However, I decided to take a chance - I was also worried it was a foreign knockoff, or inauthentic in some other way - and purchased the item. Now, today, the seller sends me a message that the price was a typo - it should've been $45, & they're asking to cancel the order. IMHO, they should have to honor the listed (which I have screen shots of, & the charge is already out of my bank account) price of $5. I should add that they had a revision on the listing, of the inventory, so, presumably, they've sold others, or, at least, had cause to look at this listing again, after posting it, & yet, they didn't notice such an important mistake. What's ebay's policy on this?
selsa84
·1 year agoI listed an item from a seller similar that was priced at 24$ and the new item I was listing was to be priced at 400$. It sold in a few minutes after listing and I did cancel the transaction. Buyer was not thrilled but he understood and knew that it was a mistake. Accidents happen, but I'm not selling a 400$ map for 24$.
powell-collectibles
·1 year agoHey, you thought that you were getting a great deal - no issue there. I've had similar situations - pounce on a deal that might be a typo. If I get the item, great. If not, that's life.
Personally, if a seller would lose money on a deal, I'm not really going to be upset if he backs out. I'd hope that I'd be understanding of the situation. Spready a little love and compassion - that would make you feel just as good as getting a $40 card for $5.
lovefindingtreasures2
·1 year agoDon't go after this seller looking to 'get' them for making a mistake and not allowing you to take advantage of said mistake.
Revenge is not sweet, it's just plain old mean.
Adding you to my blocked buyers list on all my stores!
nuge8397
OP1 year agoI'm not 'going after' anyone, notice I've not named the seller. I simply expected them to honor their listing, typo or no, that's not 'mean,' it's being an adult, & expecting the seller to be one, as well.
Thank you for blocking me! Best news I've seen all day!
doc-holmes
·1 year agoI was watching a hockey card a couple of years back. I think the seller had it up for $12 or best offer. I received a seller initiated offer for $1. I figured it was a typo and they meant to send a $10 offer, so I messaged them asking. Nope, $1 was the correct offer. I don't know what they were smoking, but I bought it.
mudshark61369
·1 year ago@nuge8397 ,
"I ordered an item yesterday, for $5, and, in all honestly, I worried it was a typo, as most listings for this item are more in the $40-50 range".
Did it ever cross your mind to message the seller and ask them if it was a typo? Had you done that the seller would be grateful and might even have offered you a discount if you bought it.
"However, I decided to take a chance - I was also worried it was a foreign knockoff, or inauthentic in some other way - and purchased the item".
I do not understand that sort or reasoning. First there's a low price then a concern about authenticity, but you ignore those red flags. If you were counting on the money back guarantee to protect you, and this had been a scam. Chances are the scammer would have your money and you wouldn't be able to get a refund because scammers often know how to game ebay's system.
"Just to update, I don't know what, if anything, ebay said, or did, to the seller, but they refunded my money, & I won't be getting the item. New questions - Is there a way to still leave feedback about this seller, since the order was canceled"?
Chances are in your ebay messages there is a notice that the seller cancelled the transaction. There is only 1 way they can do that without it causing them to get a defect on their account, and that is to claim you requested cancellation. The other reasons would give them a defect, and probably have cost them the final value fee ebay charges sellers.
If you find that the seller did cancel by claiming you requested that, tell us and we can tell you how to report the seller.
Because a refund has been issued, you cannot leave feedback for the transaction. Don't ask why ebay does that because we do not know why they think a buyer receiving a refund instead of an item, makes them happy.
"Actually, as best I could understand the person from ebay (phone call), they were going to contact the seller, & tell them to ship the item within 48 hours, or they'd get some kind of mark against their account".
FYI.
If you looked up an ebay customer service phone number online, you never spoke to anyone connected with ebay at all. You have to request a call back from C.S. to speak to an ebay rep. Even then if the rep doesn't understand your problem or you push them too hard, they WILL tell you what you want to hear, just to get you off the phone. That's what happens when a large corporation hires 3rd party customer service phone/chat services. That is two mentors who have now told you that.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoThe CS person I spoke to, was from a requested call, via the AI chat on the ebay site, so he should've been legit. The rep seemed to understand me fine (though I could barely understand him, through the thick accent, & poor phone connection), I didn't push at all (the whole call was less than 11 minutes, which included him putting me on hold to check something for a few minutes...and, fwiw, my phone log lists the call as coming from Utah).
As for my worry that the item was inauthentic, they offered returns, and I expected that would be honored, or made right by ebay, with the seller being punished, if not accepted & refunded.
I did think about messaging them, but, if it was a mistake, I didn't want to bring it to their attention, as I expected - as is proper business practice - them to honor the listed price, even if a typo. I have no reason to think they'd offer me any kind of discount for catching their mistake, why would I? And how would that even work? A one-time, personalized coupon code, or something?
I did not requested the cancellation, they messaged me about an hour after I purchased, asking, "Can we cancel this order ?" I did not reply at all, I wanted to speak to ebay first, & when I did reply (following the apparently lying CS person's advice), I declined the cancellation, & wrote what he told me to write, about expecting the item.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoJust to update, I don't know what, if anything, ebay said, or did, to the seller, but they refunded my money, & I won't be getting the item.
New questions - Is there a way to still leave feedback about this seller, since the order was canceled? The ebay person I spoke to (as best as I could understand them) said I could leave feedback, seemingly even if the order was canceled, but I don't see an option to do that (though it was offered before the order was cancelled, right after I purchased, before I could've had the item, & had anything meaningful to say about the transaction). Secondly, to ebay - please develop some sort of 'anti-saved sellers' function, so people don't see items from sellers they do not wish to purchase from.
campanaelia
·1 year agoYou should be able to leave feedback for items cancelled. Go to your cancelled items and try there or use the direct link below...
https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/leave_feedback?filter=giver_role%3ABUYER
Ebays feedback policy states that feedback can be removed for items cancelled because "Buyer asked to cancel" or "Problem with buyers address", so keep that in mind when checking the reason used for the cancellation.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-policy?id=4208
And forget about any tool to block sellers, only sellers can block buyers. Buyers have been complaining for years and not a peep about that ever happening.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoThank you, again, for your help, campanaelia. I was able, with your guidance, to find my way to leaving feedback, & made sure to say that I did not want to cancel, so, hopefully, it'll stay posted. ...glad I'm not the only one, at least, who's wanted to have a BSL...guess I'll just have to keep my own, personal list
just-me
·1 year agoIt's easy to have a typo and miss it. I have had one and honored the instead of what it should have been, but some people are not able to afford the difference. So, should the seller honor the price, if they can afford it I think so but I would not be surprised if they were not able to. Should you show grace for an obvious mistake, also yes.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoI agree, it is easy to have a typo, but, on the price, really? That's pretty much the most important piece of information on the listing. How does one mistake "$5.00" for "$45.90"? I'm sure ebay must offer a 'preview this listing' for the seller to check that everything is correct, before the listing goes live, so, again, how could one miss that? Then, there was a revision, the day before I saw the listing, & purchased - for the quantity, which is listed directly below the price, another chance for them to have seen their mistake, & corrected it, before anyone purchased (recall there were none sold, when I purchased).
This person sells other items for, frankly, too much, I'm sure they could have afforded to take this one-time loss, as a $40.90 lesson on remembering to proofread. I'm glad you honored your typo, but I don't see why I should 'give grace,' when I've obviously been shown none by the seller (whose feedback I did check, it was stellar, the only negative was about defects in the items, which are not the seller's fault, I did do my due diligence to check on the seller), by ebay, or by most repliers to my original post here. Remember, ebay needs buyers, more than it needs sellers. The vast majority of items on this site, are "wants," not "needs," so the sellers need the buyers, more than the buyers need the sellers. Without buyers, sellers are just keepers of a lot of worthless stuff - without sellers, buyers have more money in their pockets, & fewer things to dust.
selsa84
·1 year agoPeople make mistakes. It happens. I've been on both sides and I would never leave a negative because of that. I have purchased the same map twice from the same seller who set her price to low. She messaged me and asked if I would be okay with her cancelling the transaction because she put the wrong amount. I'm not going to try and ruin her rep with a negative to "teach her a lesson".
just-me
·1 year ago@nuge8397
The price is pretty important information for sure, when I had my "typo" it was not a "typo" it was missing that I was updating the wrong box from my active listings. The price and quantity boxes were right next to each other and I was not paying enough attention and updated the price box with the quantity or I entered the price wrong in the price box, I don't recall what exactly happened because it was many years ago, but there was no "preview" for a quick update like that, I was just grateful the buyer only purchased one and I learned that lesson quick!
I'm not saying the seller is not at fault for the error, I'm just saying that you are not harmed but definitely disappointed, the seller could be harmed if they honored the error in price. It may have been nice if they gave you an offer for a steep discount.
Why give grace? It was an obvious error, they accidentally priced it incorrectly. I would not call their feedback stellar, it wasn't terrible, but not stellar. The negative was not just about defects, it was also having to pay postage at the post office to get it, and the neutrals, 3 of them were seller issues not item issues.
Was it crappy that you were excited to purchase and it was canceled, yes. It is understandable that it was canceled, also yes.
nyr134
·1 year agoIf you’re walking down the street and two twenty dollar bills fall out of the pocket of the person in front of you, you’d grab that money and bring it right to him, wouldn’t you?
In this situation, same guy, same $40 but you’re saying too bad on him, now it’s my win. Not the right thing.
Let it go.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoIf an item in a brick-and-mortar store is on sale for a week, but someone forgets to take the 'on sale' tag for it, off the shelf after the sale ends, a store interested in customer goodwill, will honor that sale price, even though the sale is over, because it's their fault the tag wasn't taken down. That is the equivalent of what happened to me, your example isn't even close, of course I would return money I saw fall out of someone's pocket.
nyr134
·1 year agoYou are right about the brick and mortar stores and their pricing. That happened to me at Whole Foods a couple of years ago and I didn't think twice about saving $5 on a mis-priced item. But that's owned by Jeff Bezos. And many other stores are mega-corporations for whom I have little sympathy. But eBay sellers are often retired folks or people trying to earn some extra cash because a full-time job may not provide enough. I don't know who your seller was, but I put myself in their place and figure that it's just a "regular Joe" like many of the contributors here.
pickapaper
·1 year ago@nuge8397 wrote: "I ordered an item yesterday, for $5, and, in all honestly, I worried it was a typo, as most listings for this item are more in the $40-50 range. However, I decided to take a chance -"
So, it turned out it was indeed a typo and now you are upset. I think you should cut this seller some slack and accept that it really was a typo error, just as you had a hunch it might be.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoIf I was a seller, I'd eat the loss, & take it it as a lesson to always double, even triple check, & proofread every listing, before posting it. For the record, after I purchased, they listed having sold 2 (there were none sold, when I purchased), so, I wonder if they did the same to the other buyer? They now list 3 as having been sold (out of 9 they had).
titipeo
·1 year agoAs a buyer you can’t cancel the sale. This is on seller to do. His mistake, and eBay won’t force the sale. The ball is on his court. You should learn about eBay money back guarantee and learn your rights and protection. It’s a $5 charge so it’s not breaking you. Just the hassle on how to get it back, or the item itself.
If it sounds too good to be true it probably isn't. You knew going in the cost of item and went with it, now you need to wait and see how this comes out. Took a gamble and looks like you lost.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoActually, as best I could understand the person from ebay (phone call), they were going to contact the seller, & tell them to ship the item within 48 hours, or they'd get some kind of mark against their account.
klhmdg
·1 year ago@nuge8397 This will never happen.
"eBay" will never call a seller and demand they sell something.
You called CS and they told you what you wanted to hear.
This is a good one though!
If I was the seller I would cancel for out of stock. Take the seller defect because 1 wont hurt me AND add you to me friends list.
You could be kind and realize people make mistakes and agree to cancel but thats on you.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoA "Volunteer Community Mentor" is telling me customer service lied to me? Even if true, I don't think ebay would want you broadcasting that, but, thanks, I guess. Tells me what kind of company this is, and I'm not sure they need my business, anymore. Ebay may choose to preference sellers, but, without buyers, sellers are just people with excess, valueless stuff.
albertabrightalberta
·1 year agoAs another "Volunteer Community Mentor," I will confirm that ebay's outsourced CS DOES dispense misinformation and/or lies. They don't always know policies and whether they are told to tell callers what they want to hear or if they choose to do it on their own, they are known to lie to callers.
As for your experience with the seller, I think you should have a bit of grace and forgiveness. The type of mistake your seller made is an easy one to make though as someone who has never sold anything, it's unlikely that you @nuge8397 would understand. (I made a similar error the other day but in my case, I did follow through on the sale of the offer I mistakenly accepted. Not all sellers can or do do that.)
You seem to forget that the seller is human. Have you not ever made a mistake?
Getting back to ebay policy, the seller is responsible for following through on their sales but ebay cannot force them to sell the item to you.
I think your attitude and lack of compassion is a bit sad. It can also result in the addition of your ID to many sellers' BBLs.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoThat is very enlightening, about CS lying, I'm sure other people would be interested to know that.
Of course I've made mistakes, and I've suffered the consequences of them, which this seller, apparently will not.
My attitude & lack of compassion?! Are you joking?! I am the wronged party, here. I'm the one cheated, here. The seller keeps their item, I asked for help, & was lied to by ebay (then told by several people at least tangentially related to the company, that's that's totally normal), & then told basically to suck it, by the 'community' here. I've had good experiences on this platform, & some bad experiences, all of which, until this one, were concluded in a fair (to both parties), honest matter, and made right, why not this one? As for sellers adding my id to their BBL, I have no problem with that. If you're worried about being asked to uphold best business practices, I don't want to deal with you, anyway. My request remains, though, is there an equivalent for buyers - a BSL - to make sure we don't purchase from dishonest sellers (and it would have to include all their screen names, because I know many have several).
campanaelia
·1 year agoI disagree with telling the OP to agree to cancel. If the buyer agrees, the seller will use the reason "Buyer asked to cancel" which saves the seller from their defect.
But why should the buyer take the blame for this?
In the past, I've had my account restricted by ebay because of sellers doing that. The seller needs to take their own lumps and not blame the buyer for this. The seller can cancel the transaction on their own without the buyer accepting.
I think it's rude for the seller to try to pass the blame, but here in the thread we have sellers adding the OP to their block list for simply purchasing an item and expecting what they paid for.
I see this too often here, where sellers always turn things around and make the buyer the bad guy.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoThank you very much, campanaelia.
Thank you also, for, at least letting me know it's not just me, that buyers being attacked is a regular thing, here. How do sellers think that helps them?
If you think the seller shouldn't have to honor the price, fine, that's your opinion (and ebay's policy, apparently), & you're 100% entitled to it, but to not understand - seemingly at all, to the point of insulting & blocking me - where I'm coming from, is beyond my understanding.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoI didn't want to cancel the sale, I did not agree to that. I tried to look up ebay's policy on something like this, but I couldn't find anything. Do you have a link, or would you copy & paste their policy on mistaken sale prices, once the item has been purchased? Might I remind folks, that this listing had one revision (quantity), before I purchased it, so the seller had at least one chance - after it was posted - to catch, & fix their mistake (or take it down, & redo it), & they didn't/hadn't.
soh.maryl
·1 year agoThere are times when it's a good idea to put yourself in the seller's shoes.
Personally, I think I'd tell the seller to cancel, but that's just my humble opinion.
It's what I'd want to do if the positions were reversed.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoHow about putting yourself in the shoes of a not-well-off buyer, thrilled to get an apparent deal on an item which is, from every other seller (I have this in my saved searches, so I get emails for every posting of it), well out of my price range? Why is my 'little guy buyer', less important than a possibly 'little guy' seller? Without buyers, sellers aren't sellers, they're holders of a lot of valueless junk.
house*of*paws
·1 year agoHi @nuge8397
eBay has no legal way to force a seller to ship an item or to force a buyer to pay for an item. It can only punish members who don’t follow the rules. If the seller cancels the order using ‘item out of stock’ as the reason … they are accepting their punishment.
I’m very sorry this happened.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoI don't know what reason they used, to cancel the order, & refund my money, do you know how I can find out?
campanaelia
·1 year agoThe cancellation message you received and/or the cancellation details will tell you the reason the seller chose. If they said "Buyer asked to cancel" I would report it.
https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicid=4022
nuge8397
OP1 year agoThere was no reason given, only the initial message telling me about the typo, and asking, "Can we cancel this order ?" and the reply (after I replied, telling them I didn't want to cancel), "I already refunded the payment to you".
None of those options from your link, really apply, except possibly the last, "The seller has violated one of eBay’s policies", and I don't know if they have, or not. That's why I initially contacted ebay for help, & posted here, to learn with the policy was (because I looked first, but couldn't find it, myself), when this happens....and I still don't know, other than that ebay can't/won't force a sale, & I've learned that I'm mean, and in the wrong, according to nearly everyone (many of them sellers, it seems) who bothered to respond.
snoopwiz
·1 year agoeBay can not "make" a seller honour a sale.
There can be consequences though for a seller who refuses to honour a sale.
On a personal level...I would do the seller a solid and let them out of the sale but, that's me.
Hopefully your mileage will not vary.
nuge8397
OP1 year agoOn a personal level, if I, as a seller, messed up, I'd honor the sale, since it was my mistake, but that's me.
house*of*paws
·1 year ago@nuge8397
I’m a buyer only, and I would appreciate an answer to a hypothetical question:
Lets say you saw an item you liked that included Best Offers. You intended to make a Best Offer of $5 on the item … but inadvertently typed in $40 or $50. The seller accepts your offer. Would you honor the sale at the accepted offer because you made a mistake? 🤔
nuge8397
OP1 year ago100% I would pay. My typo, my mistake. Why should the seller lose a sale for my error? Even if they messaged me back, asking if I really meant that amount, I'd admit that I didn't, but I'd still follow through with the full amount, I'd feel bad backing out, even if given the opportunity (I'd thank them for their graciousness, & leave them high praise feedback for their honestly & generosity). Let that seller feel as happy with their bonanza sale, as I did, yesterday, thinking I'd found a great deal, on an item I otherwise can't afford.