Buyer pays for item, submits requests to cancel, then messages not to cancel. Scam?
Hi, I've only sold a handful of items on eBay and the last one was several years ago. I've run into a situation I was hoping to get some advice on from some more experienced sellers.
I just sold an item valued at about $175. After the buyer won the auction and paid, they sent a cancellation request with the comment "paid more than i thought found a better price". About 5-10 minutes later they sent a message saying "i thought i found a better price nevermind i still want it" followed by "i don't want to cancel it". In the moment, I thought nothing of it and replied saying not to worry about it and I would decline the cancellation request, so I did.
But I thought I should probably make sure this isn't some well-known scam through some abuse of eBay's policies I've never heard of before and after reading around here and on Reddit, I'm not sure I should have declined the cancellation. I checked the buyers account and it has no feedback whatsoever, created on 1/15/2026. What would you do? Can I still cancel the order? I'm not all that worried about receiving negative feedback over it since I don't sell for a living or anything, but I'm not sure what the best way to proceed is.
kibble-net
·8 months agoFrom reading that exchange, it sounds like nothing more than a fickle buyer, not a scammer. I would ship the item. Just my 5 cents
12bthorn
OP8 months agoYeah, you're probably right. Thank you!
inhawaii
·8 months agoI agree with @kibble-net
12345jamesstamps
·8 months agoHad a buyer like that a week ago.
Bought an item and then submitted a cancellation.
Then decided he wanted the item and not cancel the sale in an email.
I cancel the sale and blocked the buyer.
I don't need anymore 'drama' in my life from a drama buyer.
sin-n-dex
·8 months agoI had one on my other store that submitted an offer and bought another item from another seller while waiting for me to accept the offer, once I accepted it (payment was not made yet) they asked to cancel because they already got a coin (not necessarily the same coin, but something else to spend their money on).
Two weeks later they came back and bought the coin again, this time for full price and paid. I shipped it out. All was good. This was an inexperienced eBayer with decision making troubles, but did not cause me any trouble.
C.
fern*wood
·8 months agoI feel your pain. I just had a freight forwarder buy 5 items and request an invoice. I sent the invoice and went to bed. During the night she requested another invoice asking for free shipping. She waited a couple hours (I'm still asleep) and submitted a cancellation on all five items. Fine, I wake up and accept the cancellations & then she writes still wanting to buy four of the items at 30% off. 😑
sin-n-dex
·8 months agoI'd say "it's too late I cancelled them for you as requested. I did not agree to a discount."
Blocking is at my discretion, I don't necessarily block someone for being a PITA, it depends whether or not I'm willing to put up with the PITA behaviour.
C.
12bthorn
OP8 months agough, that's so much worse haha. Hopefully this buyer just new to eBay and had a hard time deciding.
sextons-sweet-deals
·8 months agoIs it the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 8-Core 16-Thread 3.4GHz Socket AM4 CPU Processor?
I don't care for buyers who play this game. Maybe they were bidding on similar listings for the best price.?
I would check this buyer's profile, all feedback history and Google the address. Ship with signature required.
Electronics are always a target for scams.
12bthorn
OP8 months agoYes, it was for that item. They probably were just bidding on something else. I'll keep this in mind for the future. Thanks!
kensgiftshop
·8 months agoWhat I would do is box it up and ship it.
fm2000
·8 months agoYou have to ship since you declined the cancellation request.
Unfortunately, there is a fair chance this buyer will end up causing you all kinds of problems in the future (a return because they changed their mind again is likely, negative feedback for an invalid reason, or other drama you don't need.
I would have agreed to the first cancellation and then blocked them. Canceling for that reason makes them a time waster at best, and a potential customer service nightmare at worst.
12bthorn
OP8 months agoYeah, that's kind of what I thought. But I wasn't sure if I should reach out to eBay support about it or something if I felt the need to cancel. Thanks for the input!
bonanza125
·8 months agoI would ship the item off to the buyer cause they paid for it and no longer wanted to cancel. You already decline a cancellation request so you need to ship this item. There is no evidence this is a scam but a newbie buyer who probably made a bid on the same item and lost out or thought they had a deal with someone else but lost out.
12bthorn
OP8 months agoThanks for the input! Looks like I'm going to ship.