Auction listing fee
How do you speak to someone in Customer Service? I listed an item for sale here and on other sites as well. The item sold on another site. I was getting bids for the item here on eBay so I ended the listing as it made no sense to keep it going since the item was already sold. eBay is charging me for an early cancel of the bid. It is impossible to speak to anyone and none of the help options apply to this situation. I’m now trying to close this eBay account and they keep emailing to say I need to take care of the situation with that fee. How do I resolve this? It’s frustrating that there is no one to speak to and no where is there an answer in this site for my issue. I no longer want to be a part of this since no one from Customer Service respects you enough to answer.
an-57470
OP3 years agoAnd you can miss me with your comments.
an-57470
OP3 years agoNot as much as I won’t miss them. ✌ï¸
gone.c-33
·3 years agoWhen you list an item, people bid on it and you pull the item, the bidders can be disappointed and frustrated and associating ebay with a bad experience. Ebay doesn’t want to cause bidders to have a bad experience on the site which is why they penalize sellers who cause bad experiences for bidders/buyers.
Many sellers are, for a fact, cross posting on multiple platforms, but responsible sellers do it in a manner that won’t result in a bad outcome such as listing only as a BIN and watching their items like a hawk/using inventory management systems to pull sold items on other platforms before someone can purchase them on eBay.
theteamsetguy
·3 years ago@vr6scirocco88 ,
What is the problem you need help from CS with? There are many very experienced sellers here that have went thru all kinds of issues. Maybe if you post the issue someone will be able to help you.
I along with many others on here have used Ebay's Face Book for business page with great success. The representatives only deal with sellers. I don't know why knocked it in a earlier post?
an-57470
OP3 years agoI’m so sorry that happened to you. Yes I feel the same way which is why I’m trying to close my account. They can charge fees and so whatever they want but when you need them to handle an issue there’s literally zero customer service or support. Not the kind of company I want to do business with!
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoAnd I'm a professional* writer and editor.
Words matter.
And in this case timing matters.
If the bidder asked for you to cancel her bid BEFORE the auction ended, that's one situation.
You can do that with no blowback for either of you.
In fact, a seller can cancel any bid at any time with no blowback.
If the bidder won the auction and than asked you to cancel her bid, you have two choices.
You can cancel immediately, make a Second Chance Offer to the underbidder, and hope that the original winner leaves positive feedback.
Or you can wait until Day Four passes, cancel as Unpaid Item and then the deadbeat buyer gets a Strike and cannot leave feedback.
But you can't cancel because you sold the item elsewhere.
*Fifteen years with the Canadian federal government, and three published stories.
an-57470
OP3 years ago 
Thank you for the response but I don’t think everyone fully understands what ensued. I canceled it not realizing how the whole fee situation works. It didn’t make sense to me to have people steady bidding on something that was already sold elsewhere. There was only one bidder when I canceled and she did not want to buy the item.
ms.rodriguez*
·3 years agoThe fee is well justified. It was done because sometimes a seller will sell the item elsewhere and then cancel bids and close the auction and ebay does not get their fee. Sometimes, that same seller sells if "off Ebay " to avoid paying ebay commissions. Anyway, if I recall correctly when this policy started, ebay waived the fee the first time. If you got charged, this is your SECOND infraction or perhaps ebay did away with the first offense, no fee policy.
Anyway, this is YOUR fault. If you want to close your account, you can do it 180 days AFTER your last item has safely arrived. Ebay wants to make sure that that buyer does NOT do a chargeback.
mn467462
·3 years agoIf you have an auction on ebay, don't list it on other sites, because you might bids on that item, but it might sell on one of the other sites you listed it on.
Unavailable member
·3 years ago@mn467462
Your a tad late to this dance and didn’t thoroughly read the post.
The OP sold the widget on another site while also having on auction on eBay. That auction on eBay was ended by the OP after a buyer retracted their bids. The OP now wants to close his account but first has to pay the fvf for ending and auction early.
mn467462
·3 years agoYeah don't do that. You might run into problems.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoIs it fair
Yes.
Grownups act responsibly.
They are allowing you to pay the fee like a grownup, instead of making them take it from you.
an-57470
OP3 years agoThey don’t have to allow me to pay it. I’m a professional RN and I’m used to doing what you say if you want to be taken seriously. They said they would debit my account so that’s what I’m looking for them to do. They did not say for me to pay it or choose if I want them to debit my account. I’m not going to pay it on my own which I don’t have a problem doing, but then when they decide to debit my account I’ve paid twice?!?!
susanb1872
·3 years agoSounds like you should have used Buy-It Now rather than auction. You could have cancelled anytime without a fee with BIN.
an-57470
OP3 years agoYes you are correct. It was a mistake in my part as I don’t use eBay that often so I don’t fully understand how it works. I also don’t get why when I listed it that’s the first option that came up. I did wonder why it didn’t say buy-it now. I was under the assumption it was going to be both options. I see both buy it now and auction on listings when I’m looking at items for sale so I thought that was how my listing was.
monroe67
·3 years ago"I listed an item for sale here and on other sites as well. The item sold on another site. I was getting bids for the item here on eBay so I ended the listing as it made no sense to keep it going since the item was already sold. eBay is charging me for an early cancel of the bid."
Where is the sense in listing one item on more than one website unless you watch all those sites like a hawk and immediately cancel the other listings when you get bids/sales on one site?
What would those other sites have charged you if the sale had been on eBay?
I think you just learned an expensive lesson.
"How do I resolve this?" Pay eBay.
an-57470
OP3 years agoLol other sites would not have charged me anything, unlike eBay. What I learned is that eBay is a crock of you know what. Actually the fee is not a life changing amount but it’s the principle of the matter. I don’t like giving away my money for bogus crap. I won’t become homeless due to the fee. I just want my account closed at this point.
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoWhy would you put it up for auction here, then sell it on another site?
Sorry, but you have to pay the fee's.
an-57470
OP3 years agoFYI many people sell items that way. I’m not the first or last to sell this way. Why wait years for something to sell on eBay when it may sell faster on another site?
huntfishdie45
·3 years agoYou need to list a payment method in your sellers account to pay the FVF so you can close your account. eBay will not close your seller account right away; it takes months to make sure all sales clear without chargebacks. Good Luck
an-57470
OP3 years agoThere is a payment method listed. You cannot sell anything without a payment listed so they know where to deposit your money.
huntfishdie45
·3 years agoYes, unless you closed it to avoid the fee. Otherwise, they would have debited your payment method for fees.
an-57470
OP3 years agoWell it’s not closed although I want it closed. Not to avoid the fee, the same fee they said they would take from my account. No issue with paying $33. I make triple digits so that’s not a concern as many on here make me feel like that’s what they’re thinking. The problem for
me is I want the account closed because I don’t want anything else to do with eBay. You can’t even speak to a human for an issue and the faq don’t always have anything to do with your issue. It’s impossible dealing with them to resolve anything. They have my payment info and said they would debit it. Why when I want to close the account they’re emailing me to say handle the fee in order to close the account? Yes I may not be destitute but I’m not giving eBay double of what I owe. I’m not trying to pay the fee for them to then debit me as they said they would. If someone would speak to me over the phone we could resolve it easily by clarifying how they want to be paid.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoeBay is charging me for an early cancel of the bid.
Yes.That's one of the ways eBay protects itself from scammers moving sales off-eBay.
You could have waited seven days for the eBay auction to play out but decided against that simple action.
Fool Around /Find Out.
The phone reps have a terrible reputation for getting you off the phone as soon as possible even if that means giving you the advice you want to hear instead of the advice you need to have.

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.


The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.
Which will be that you owe them their fees for the work they did in finding several bidders for you.
That they won't close your account until you pay them.
And they will turn the account over to a collection agency.
FAFO
an-57470
OP3 years agoFirst thing in response to FAFO-I rarely I mean very rarely use eBay for anything because it’s always some issue with them. I was not aware that I needed to wait 7 days for the listing to end. Meanwhile with all of life’s issues, work, kids, and pet I have to answer messages from people bidding on something that is not even available any more? Is it fair to basically lead people along in believing there’s an item to be won when it’s already sold? That makes no sense at all. Anyway if the fee means that much more to eBay then me, they should just take it and close my account as requested. At this point closing the account means more to me. The only way I even knew what was to happen was from eBay emailing me that they were debiting my account for the fee. This is what has me **bleep**. All they have to do is take the *d—n* fee and close my account. Why keep emailing me that they need me to take care of the fee before they close the account?
Unavailable member
·3 years agoWhen you end an auction early and the auction has bids and you cancel those bids the seller is charge a final value fee based on the amount of the highest bidder.
It is never a good practice to list the same item on several platforms as you have found out.
You need to pay the fees you owe eBay, they can and will send the unpaid notice to collections and can ding your credit.
Ending a listing
an-57470
OP3 years agoThank you for the response. The person who bid actually retracted the bid and sent me a message apologizing for doing so. Just seems like a way to get money from sellers for nothing. I’ve had several items listed on other platforms that sold and never had this issue, only with eBay. The other issue is eBay said they would charge me and take from my account. Now I’m trying to close this eBay account but they’re giving me a hassle to do so. I just want to be done with eBay forever.
maxine*j
·3 years agoYou used eBay's services. You used its platform. Why should you not pay for that?
You inconvenienced and disappointed eBay buyers. Why should you get a pass on that?
Money is due. Pay it. Learn. Move on. Happy trails, wherever they lead you.
-
an-57470
OP3 years agoObviously I didn’t use their services as the item did not sell on eBay. Not sure why everyone wants to say pay eBay. Perhaps you did not read my other messages. I don’t have a problem paying I have a problem with not being able to speak to anyone to resolve this. eBay emailed ME first which is how I even knew what they wanted. They emailed me saying they were going to debit my account for the fee. Now that I’m trying to close my account they keep emailing me saying to pay the fee. With all of the issues they have and cause I’m not paying the fee to then have them debit my account as well. They said they would take it from the payment method I have listed so that’s what they should do and close my account as requested. eBay should do what they are supposed to do as well and they should have someone available to SPEAK with people to resolve issues that the faq do not pertain to.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoObviously I didn’t use their services as the item did not sell on eBay.
You advertised on eBay.
EBay found you a bidder.
You cancelled the sale but you still owe for the advertising and for finding the bidder.
The item did sell -- you had a willing buyer.
It was you who refused to sell.
You can talk to a phone rep.
They have little responsiblity and use a script.
But you have also been given the eBay employees who use social media Chats.
You can continue with your current plan and eventually eBay will take the money you agreed to pay them from your bank account.
Or you can pay now voluntarily.
an-57470
OP3 years agoThere was no buyer. As I stated before the person who nodded sent me a message that she wanted to retract her bid. This was prior to me canceling the auction. I’m more than happy to explain if you need that instead of you assuming and stating incorrect info.
an-57470
OP3 years agoSee screenshot
 
albertabrightalberta
·3 years agoBut the item DID sell on ebay. Once an auction listing has a bid, it's considered "sold" although you don't know the final selling price until the listing ends.
What you should have done if you wanted an auction listing was to understand that once there's a bid, it's a contractual obligation between you and the buyer (and ebay) and you should have ended any listings of the same item on other sites.
Another way you could have listed on more than one site would have been to have a fixed price/BIN listing on each site and once it sold on one site, you would end the listings on all the other sites. There wouldn't have been a penalty or charge for that.
I looked at the listing you ended @Anonymous and it shows that the bid was canceled. That tells me that YOU canceled the bid by ending the listing early. The buyer didn't retract the bid.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoThe person who bid actually retracted the bid and sent me a message apologizing for doing so.
Well, that might be an out.
Contact eBay through social media and show them the Message.
It might help that there was only one bid and that it was retracted by the bidder.
The other error was that you did not know what the maximum bid of your high bidder was.
Only the high bid.
With only one bidder, he might have had a $1000 bid on an opening bid of $100 and his high bid would show as $100 until someone else joined in bidding.
Nor did you know if there were any snipe bids set up to be laid manually or electronically at the last second.
By accepting the purchase on the other site, you may have been leaving money on the table.
Or not.
FAFO
an-57470
OP3 years agoYes hindsight definitely 20/20. Live and learn I guess.
an-57470
OP3 years ago 
See screenshot
Unavailable member
·3 years agoActually it wouldn’t have been for nothing if you hadn’t listed your item on other platforms along with eBay . What did you thing was going to happen? My guess is you didn’t read up on seller fees and just assumed nothing would happen. Now the consequences for your actions are fees for ending a listing early.
Before eBay will allow you to close your account you have to pay your fees.
You didn’t have an issue on other platforms because you let the sale continue to the end. On eBay you didn’t allow the auction to close on its own, so you accrued a penalty for ending it early because you sold it off site.
an-57470
OP3 years agoActually my issue was not what you say. Perhaps you use eBay a lot and are well informed about it. I don’t and have limited knowledge about it. I didn’t realize until after listing this was actually an auction. I was under the impression it was but it now AND an auction. There was literally one bidder who actually messaged me apologizing saying she wanted to retract her bid. I canceled it because I didn’t want people bidding for it and expecting to buy it after it sold elsewhere.
dryophelia
·3 years agoSellers cancel, bidders retract.
Looking at the bid history their bid was canceled, not retracted.
This happened within the same minute.
It can take up to 60 days for an account to close. That’s not bad. It used to take 6 months.
an-57470
OP3 years agoNot sure about the bid being retracted or canceled. All I know is this bidder sent me a message saying she wanted to retract her bid. I hope they close the account sooner rather than later. eBay is just way too difficult for no reason. I’m not an expert on it either and rarely use it so I’m not that informed about their practices and policies. Thanks for the reply!
redmodelt
·3 years agoSorry but there is no one to talk too that you would give any different information that what is posted in the link below. Canceling an auction with a bid, you will/can be charged the final value fee.
This should cover it;
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/ending-listing?id=4146&st=3&pos=2&query=Ending%20a%20listing&intent=canceling%20auction%20with%20bid&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1027
You need to pay the fees, they will not go away...ever.
an-57470
OP3 years agoWell that sucks if that’s the case. I mean the item sold on another site. Why would I need to lay a few to eBay to cancel the auction. Whole eBay situation is horrible. If I did not cancel people interested would be bidding on something that’s already sold.
nobody*s_perfect
·3 years agoYes, exactly. eBay's rationale for the policy is that they do not want to have disappointed bidders, who bid on an auction and then get their bids canceled by the seller, or the auction ends with a winner and then the seller cancels. Either way ,eBay wants to penalize sellers so they do not make a habit of selling items on other sites when the items have also been listed on eBay. In your case, I expect that the policy will have the desired effect.
an-57470
OP3 years agoNot exactly, as I will never list on eBay ever again. Hopefully my account will be closed soon.
lepke1979
·3 years agoAnd I'm sure eBay will miss you.
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoYou must be still living in the 2020's or have NO idea how commerce works (be in 'e-commerce' or not).
If you were to 'advertise in XYZ newspaper' and then 'advertise in ABC newspaper'; as would have been required 20,30,40 years ago; you would have PAID UPFRONT for those advertisements.
So, nothing different here.
You were 'advertising' here and now you get to 'pay' for advertising here.
Not much more to discuss and/or contemplate.
Is COMPLETELY fair as far as I can see.
an-57470
OP3 years agoI guess you’re entitled to your own opinion