Can a buyer pay less than the listed price???
I have a new store, a few items listed and have been selling ok. Today, I get a sale and the buyer paid only $1.00 for a $34.24 item? How is that possible? It was not an auction. The price for this item has never been and still isn't $1.00. The buyer now is demanding that I make it right since I cancelled the order on them. I want to know how this happened and how can I get some help with this. I don't want to get negative feedback on something that was not my fault.
Please help
Thank you
70 comments
havenofgold
OP2 years agoFor the record here, no one scared me away. I genuinely had no idea what was going on and eBay instructed us to take this listing down, but only after a second call to them. We never set it up for offers to be sent to begin with (there's a button to click on for that). Yes, we're newbies, but we're not going to offer something for less than even the shipping. The second CSR stated that something could have glitched during the time it was being listed, (what are the odds), and this CSR stated that this was an eBay issue. It was only an issue with this listing, so there's that as well. I don't mind being called out for something that I did, that's how we learn after all, right? The first CSR made it sound like it was something nefarious (still could have been), which is why I provided the update. I sincerely thank everyone for all the help with this and am grateful for the community support. It was a lot more than we were initially getting from eBay. Now if I can get my shipping costs down, I'd be golden! 😀 Have a great evening!
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoDidn't other people post here that they got offers from you on this item for $1 after watching it?
That would mean auto offers is enabled on the listing. I don't actually remember how to check that or turn it off, but it turned itself on with about 60 my listings before, I think it's a choice in the active listings tab (to see items with offers set up).
There is also a button to "review offers" and you can see what offers were sent out on your item.
C.
havenofgold
OP2 years agoThe listing has been taken down now, so that should be the end of whatever did happen. I do know that it's not happening on any other listing other than this one.
gurlcat
·2 years agoIs this really the level of "help" a new seller should expect in the Ask A Mentor forums? How insulting.
mam98031
·2 years agoWhat? You are basing your opinion of the entire Ask A Mentor board on a PORTION of one post. Talk about misrepresenting.
Here is a link to the entire thread. Everyone can decide for themselves how "insulting" the conversation was.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/How-can-a-buyer-only-pay-1-00-when-the-item-was-listed-for-much/m-p/34412566#M661155
kabilab
·2 years agoI agree with NAM. SHIP'S response was concise, candid and business oriented.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoIt is kinder than saying.................................. PBCAK
ETA..... as I am not even close to being able to understand computer hacks............. I suppose that it could be that it was not on the seller end. Perhaps "a hack" made it available to "anyone", but again, that's beyond my ken, so possibly ................. suggesting PBCAK was unkind of me.
lacemaker3
·2 years agoAnyone who knows shipscript, or is familiar with their posts, would have realized that comment was tongue-in-cheek. A rather gentle suggestion that the problem is closer to home. PEBCAK, as someone suggested.
Taken out of context, it might take someone aback for a bit. But I don't think that is enough for anyone to take offense unless they are looking to do so.
gurlcat
·2 years agoOf course it was tongue in cheek, but what context does a brand new (1) seller have to not take it out of? And I have no idea what "PEBCAP" is despite years of context, so there's that.
I realize shipscript probably wasn't aware of this other thread by the same OP, but now with that hindsight it should be apparent they don't understand offers at all .....
..... in fact that ^ makes it seem like they might have never even tried the feature. I asked if they had, but they seemed to think I meant only for this particular coin, so I asked if they ever used it at all, but by the time they came back they had been told by a CSR that this definitely was a particular kind of scam that the buyer did.
So if that CSR didn't find the actual problem, then the OP probably still has that listing automated to send $1 offers whether they accidentally set it or it was a glitch. What they need to do to stop it has nothing to do with talking to their computer.
Only mentors can participate in Ask A Mentor threads, so I will not apologize for finding it unfortunate to see when one makes a tongue-in-cheek suggestion instead of the MENTORSHIP a scared new seller actually needs.
"concise" -yeah right. That suggestion wasn't for the OP; it was for thumbs up. And everyone reading this knows it.
yuzuha
·2 years agoThe automatic offers option only triggers after you have already sent out an offer-- all it does is send out the same offer you have already sent to any new watchers/repeated viewers. I have mistakenly enabled this option myself and that's how it works.
gurlcat
·2 years agoYes that's why we were trying to figure out if the OP had used offers before. If they really didn't ever send one for the coin in question, then there definitely had to be a glitch. But I was hoping to pin them down on whether they had even used the feature for any listings at all, becuse if they had, then it would be more likely they also sent one for this coin but just didn't remember. If they NEVER used the feature, well then there's no way this could have been their own error, even a forgotten one.
lacemaker3
·2 years ago@gurlcat, you may be too young to recognize PEBCAK, but google isn't. Nor Shipscript nor myself. Given the likelihood of age discrimination here, I will gently point out that PEBCAK = problem exists between chair and keyboard. It has always been a {{gentle}} way to point out that the issue exists close{r} to home. But not always taken as gentle, sometimes igniting flames, without being intended {and should not be taken} as such. Also pointing out that Shipscript did not use this term; I did, quoting from an earlier responder.
"Only mentors can participate in Ask A Mentor threads, so I will not apologize for finding it unfortunate to see when one makes a tongue-in-cheek suggestion instead of the MENTORSHIP a scared new seller actually needs. "
As a former mentor active from the beginning of the mentor program, but no longer because I felt that mentors should be held to minimal standards of courtesy that the eBay community leader (blue) at the time chose not to agree with, this is hard to argue with.
Never-the-less, I can not agree that Shipscript does not meet the standards of courtesy that should be met. Shipscript has never failed in those standards.
I can agree that some mentors do not meet the standards of courtesy that should be met. But Shipscript is not one of them.
gurlcat
·2 years agoThank you. As I am not a mentor I don't know what the standards are, that's why I asked. If there are any, I have no reason to think shipscript has ever failed to meet them before, but that one sarcastic remark with no follow-through ..... I mean the OP could have gotten that out here in the grimy Plebelands, ha. In fact if I would assume that's why Plebes cannot post replies in the AAM forum.
ise710
·2 years agoWhat? You are basing your opinion of the entire Ask A Mentor board on a PORTION of one post.
Look for "Ask-a-Mentor" here, the ENTIRETY of another post:
Talk about misrepresenting.
Talk about minimal standards.
gurlcat
·2 years agoCould you please share the portion where the OP was instructed on stopping the automated offers?
zobal99
·2 years agoThe buyer knows a mistake was made and may not bother you again. Block the buyer now and put it on the back burner. See what develops. It may just go away. If it gets worse for you then call or write to eBay and explain what you are saying here. They probably would understand. t may have been a glitch. Choosing the reason for cancelling the order may work against you and get you a defect. Like if you checked "out of stock" you will get a defect on your account. Any reason checked other than "problems with the address" may get you a defect. What reason did you check?
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI think now if the buyer is blocked, the OP will never hear from them again anyway, because messages are blocked now too. (It used to be if there was a transaction it was good for 30 days of contact, but recent posts suggests the block on messages happens right away now).
C.
trip98
·2 years agoIt maybe the Poster is looking at his payment summary and $1.00 is all that is left after ebay's various deductions and free free shipping to who know where.
gurlcat
·2 years agoNo that theory has already been explored in the previous replies.
ten_o_nine
·2 years agoActually, it happened to me about 3 weeks ago, an item sold for $11, and I thought I had it priced at $39, I would never list it for $11, no offers accepted or sent, I thought I was going crazy, so I let it go and took the loss.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoI'm just wondering if you used the sell similar option to create the listing? Sometimes ebay populates fields or you accidentally do it and never notice it. I've done that a few times. I know I've mailed out at least one item that had the wrong price on it. Better to just eat the cost sometimes than to cancel a sale and start your journey toward defects. I have no other explanation for you. So sorry it happened.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoEach of the three coins you've sold has sold for $34.24.
havenofgold
OP2 years agoYes, except the one that I cancelled. It showed that the buyer only paid $1.00
sin-n-dex
·2 years ago@havenofgold
Here's what I think happened... you sent the buyer an offer which you thought would give them $1 off, but eBay took the $1 to be the sale price. If you sent the buyer an offer for $1 and they purchased, in solds (by looking at your sale history) they will only see your listed price of the coin, not the offer the buyer received and paid for.
When I look at my solds, I sometimes see $14.99 on a token I sold for $10. The offers I send out never show up in solds (perhaps there's another way to see that info, I think you can, just not sure how). eBay's app will send you a notification that you sold the item for $1 (and probably in email too), which is where I presume you learnt it sold for only $1.
I believe what you said, I just can't point to evidence to prove that happened.
C.
havenofgold
OP2 years agoHow could I have sent this buyer an offer without knowing them or having contact with them prior? I'm sorry for my dumb question, I'm just really confused as to the why and how
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoIf it's an anonymous offer it will show up in "available for offer" and you send it from there. Some random person received it. You have lots of people watching your listings, so it's likely one person received the offer and purchased. You wouldn't necessarily know them in advance.
C.
sin-n-dex
·2 years ago@havenofgold
You can see it in your seller hub like this.
C.
gurlcat
·2 years agoOkay first of all do you use the "Send offer" feature? The feature popup looks like this:
I'm guessing maybe 'no' because if you used it you would probably know that you can't see who it's going to (no buyer names, only how many buyers will receive it).
But if YES you do use it, then Sin's theory is very good (and I can show you how to find out if what she's describing is what happened with your sale). If NO, then we're back to the drawing board.
havenofgold
OP2 years agoCan you see this? I'm having issues today 😞
gurlcat
·2 years agoSorry, no. This is what I see
But hang on, we might not need to see any screenshots. Can you answer my question ^ (message 27)?
havenofgold
OP2 years agoNo this was not done or offered
havenofgold
OP2 years agoI think what we're going to do for now, 0 the inventory so no one else can do that. At least until we can figure how to avoid this in the future
gurlcat
·2 years agoOkay not just talking about the coin in question .... have you EVER used the 'send offer' feature?
gurlcat
·2 years agoNever seen a post like this before.
mam98031
·2 years agoI think they are just confused. I hope none of us make them feel so bad they won't come back for more help in this situation as they need to learn what actually happened.
mam98031
·2 years ago@havenofgold
I think you may have just viewed the sale incorrectly, not that your buyer actually purchased the item for $1.00. You can go to your sold items and see there is nothing in there for a $1 sale.
https://www.ebay.com/sh/ord?filter=status:ALL_ORDERS
What reason did you use when you cancelled the order? This is very important and it is a process you really need to understand so you can avoid hurting the health of your selling account.
It is quite possible that your buyer will neg you. From what you posted they are pretty upset with you.
Tell us more details. Look for the order in the link I gave you above. How much does the Order say it sold for?
You may have just made a mistake here because you aren't use to looking at this information. So to accurately help you so this never happens again, we need your honesty and the details. You really need this cleared up so it never happens again or you run the risk of really hurting the health of your selling account.
havenofgold
OP2 years agoThe order says that it sold for $1.00. What other details can I give you so that I can understand how this happened? My first thought was that this had to be some sort of glitch. I've run other stores for my day job, lol, so besides some of the updates, it reads the same. $1.00 was paid and $1.00 was refunded. We tried to call eBay to speak with someone today, but no one answers. I just want to know so that if it was something that we did, that we correct it. What's also weird is all of the other coins that we've been selling have had no issues. Does eBay randomly make offers without our approval? There's no Best Offer on this listing either. Thank you for all of your help 😄
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoCan you share screen shots?
I believe you, I think you made a mistake when sending out an offer. It's also possible offers were enabled automatically on that item (by having set it up at some point before, but I think you intended $1 off, not to pay $1 for the item).
It's also possible you intended to do something like an offer for $31 and the 3 never showed up on the offer screen. We've seen screen shots of the offer going out not being what the seller put in. This happened to me where a buyer bought a coin for $3 and it was supposed to be a $30 offer. (Then I got a tirade about how I'm the best seller in the world for selling an ounce of silver to him for $3, he even went on to tell me he bought from me many times, but my history search revealed this was the first sale).
C.
shipscript
·2 years ago@havenofgold
I think @sin-n-dex nailed it with:
Here is the $1 offer I received from the OP after merely looking several times at the listing in question. The seller most likely tried to set up a $1 discount on the automated offers. Nothing nefarious, no hacking, simply pilot error, and lesson learned.
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoOops. Sorry @sin-n-dex I missed that you had suggested first that an automatic offer might have been sent.
Too bad customer service didn’t catch that.
Unavailable member
·2 years agoI hope that this is a lesson learned for those that go on and on about ghost listings. They hang their hats on the fact that someone in customer service told them that there is a glitch. We all know that the customer service representatives don want to gab with a customer forever. Yep, they tell you what you want to hear. There are no mystery offers coming from eBay that sellers don’t set up. There are no ghost listings.
The sooner that sellers understand that they can make mistakes, the sooner they will correct them.
inhawaii
·2 years agoNo, a buyer can't pay less than the listed price unless the seller allows it.
Unavailable member
·2 years agoJust a thought ....Did you have promoted listings standard or advanced on the listing ? If so what percentage did you have on it? Because the cost of those will be taken from the sale price as soon as the buyer pays.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoWith promoted listings (the kind I have), you get the whole amount when the buyer pays less the FVF, and then the promoted ad fee comes off at some point after (might be immediate, might be a day or two later).
The seller would never just receive only $1 even if they made a mistake and put a 99% promotion fee on it.
C.
Unavailable member
·2 years ago@sin-n-dex
Who knows..I was just throwing that out there . I use PLS myself.
The OP doesn't seem willing to post a screen shot. So I really have a hard time buying the story.
Perhaps it made the OP feel better about cancelling the transaction by saying the buyer paid way less than listed price. If the sale was actually cancelled...we will never know for sure.
Terapeak shows the item sold for $34.25. The OPs sold items shows it sold for $34.25.
havenofgold
OP2 years agoHow do I attach a photo to this thread? The message says that I do not have permission to upload images
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoYou can copy and paste it into the body of the message. Use Snipping Tool on your PC to screen shot the part you want us to see (omitting the buyer's info, snippit will allow you to block out anything we shouldn't see), and copy and paste it into the message.
C.
Unavailable member
·2 years agoWhen you post there's a camera icon at the top of the message box.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI checked Terapeak, I don't really know how it works or what it shows. The solds will show the list price but not the price if the seller sends a buyer an offer (hence my theory on what might have happened). I believe the buyer's story based on my theory on how this could happen (and be unable to prove to us that it did, short of posting a screen shot).
I also believe if the OP got the price they asked for, for the coin, as it shows in solds, they wouldn't have cancelled. They have several available, so I wouldn't buy the Out of Stock with several of them still listed.
C.
Unavailable member
·2 years ago@sin-n-dex
This is what I see
havenofgold
OP2 years agoWe have 1 listing that is being promoted and have no issues with it. It's not this listing though
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoCan you post a screen shot of the sale? I see nothing in your sold items for $1. This is the only sold item I see in the last couple of days. You don't have Best Offer enabled so something else is amiss.
oldwestcoins
·2 years agoI don't see anything in your sold listings for $1. ?