Item sold for less than list price -- eBay confirmed there was no offer sent
Sellers sometimes complain here that an item sold for less than list price, and it is always explained that the Seller must have sent an offer that was accepted.
Well, it just happened to me, and eBay confirmed that NO offer had been sent.
I raised the list price on May 16 after discovering it was mistakenly priced too low.
Revisions history shows that.
Yesterday, almost 48 full hours later, the listing sold at the old price.
I just got off the phone with eBay. Long conversation, over 30 minutes --- very helpful agent.
He confirmed what I am seeing on my end: The listing shows the new price, but Order Details show a sale at the old price with no offers sent.
He said it's something he's never seen before. He created a ticket for tech support and gave me a reference number.
He also advised that I could cancel and stated that if I select "buyer requested" or "problem with address" then it will neither affect my account nor allow Buyer to leave negative FB.
My question: Is it true that Buyer cannot leave a neg if a sale is canceled for one of those two reasons?
Thanks.
fern*wood
·1 year agoMy understanding is that a buyer can still leave a neg, but if the reason qualifies for removal it may be. Since those reasons aren't really accurate, I personally wouldn't trust a neg would be removed just because a phone rep said to use one of those reasons.
wastingtime101
·1 year agoYeah @fern*wood - a phone rep that gave the seller all wrong info on the offer and led them into a potential OOS trap when AI reviews the cancel. Thankfully the seller is smart enough to not follow the cancel advice.
wastingtime101
·1 year agoDisclaimer: I haven't read any of the 18 replies yet.
So ... @adamcartwright - sounds like you dealt with an uninformed CS rep. Not only did this sell with an offer, but you can't cancel as buyer requested.
I looked at your most recent sold listing and it shows on the purchase history page that an offer was accepted. No strikethrough in search but I can see the lower price in Product Research which confirms it was a seller initiated offer (perhaps automated?).
It sold for $3.36 less than your list price. That's the item in question, right?
I redacted the item number from these URLs. Just replace ITEMNUMBER with the actual item number and review your offers on the left of the first link, and on the second link you'll see the offer status.
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@wastingtime101
Thanks -- Yes, that's the item, and I was hoping you would chime in.
Since it sold for the old list price, do you think I somehow made an offer to discount the new price to the actual old price?
I wouldn't have extended an offer to leave myself in the hole (or would I? 😳), and after recent convos here I made sure I have no automated offers.
wastingtime101
·1 year agoMy guess @adamcartwright is it was user error. We all "go through the motions" sometimes and can mess up.
Sorry that happened - fortunately it was not a high dollar problem.
I don't know what the orig price was, but my guess is you sent a % off which resulted in what you're seeing as "odd pricing" ending in a 4. Maybe it was part of a batch of items and not intended to be included, maybe you clicked an eBay suggestion button without realizing it (especially easy to do on app but can also be done on web) - who knows at this point? But you can see it in the links I provided that there was a seller initiated offer.
Next time send a message to me before spending half an hour with a clueless phone rep. 😂
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@wastingtime101
Thank you so much. I had actually thought of doing that, but didn't want to bother you.
You spend so much time helping us all out here. It's very much appreciated. ðŸ˜
fern*wood
·1 year agoThat's one of the big reasons I dislike automated offers. I do send out percent off offers and sure can't remember which items I've done that on if later on I just decide to lower the price. The automated offer for a percent off discount would then go out to any new watchers on my new lower price and that's not going to be good for me.
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@fern*wood
I hear you.
I never use automated offers intentionally, but I just caught eBay defaulting to automated offers for me again.
Once I caught it, it was easy enough to go into the new Manage Offers page and turn it off.
But I wish they wouldn't do that.
bashort
·1 year agoI would be absolutely amazed if anything that the CS agent told you is anything more than telling you what you wanted to hear.
nyr134
·1 year agoI am not intending to be picky here but I am trying to see what could have happened:
Your first message said you raised the price and it sold "at the old price." But in message 10 you said
"this mistaken price ended in a 4, which I never use."
So then it couldn't have been the old price, exactly.
Also,
...did it sell to an international buyer where currency conversion is a factor [but, of course, shouldn't be]?
...buyer used a coupon, perhaps?
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@nyr134
The original price, which I changed, ended in a 4. That's not a number I ever use.
So, I don't know how that price ever got there in the first place.
But that's kind of beside the point -- as the real issue is how did an item sell for the old price when the new price was in effect for almost 48 full hours, with no coupons, offers, or international buyer.
I'm shipping it today. The buyer got a great deal. Just hoping it doesn't happen in the future.
tinsoldierunderground
·1 year agoSeveral weeks back, I had something opposite happen. Seller sent me an offer, I accepted and paid, only the invoice that landed in my email was for the full price. ???? Seller told me he had the same thing happen to him. Ebay, where today's glitch is tomorrow's 'improvement'.
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@tinsoldierunderground
Did you report that?
I was just glad to find out that eBay was seeing the same on their end as I did.
tinsoldierunderground
·1 year ago@adamcartwright
For all the good it did, the seller and myself made it known.
toomuchstuffagain35
·1 year agoI've been getting a few things selling for weird prices that I would never use, like $6.22 or $8.41, when I ALWAYS use either a price ending in a 5, like $6.95 or $8.75, or very occasionally ending in .99.
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@toomuchstuffagain35
Yes -- this mistaken price ended in a 4, which I never use.
I feel like I've seen other comments on this issue, as well.
toomuchstuffagain35
·1 year agoJust a thought. Have you ever run a sale this item was part of?
Perhaps ebay is not reverting to the original price when the sale ends?
It's the only thing I've been able to think of given the weird pricing as I never send auto offers out.
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@toomuchstuffagain35
No, I haven't ever run a sale on it or ever made any SIOs on this item.
It really is a mystery.
cambriachick
·1 year agoI wondered about that too, Monica!
soh.maryl
·1 year agoSo you got hold of a CS rep, who suggested you cancel, using one of those reasons, neither one of which would be the truth?
pikabo-icu
·1 year ago@adamcartwright How much difference are we talking here?
Is it way too much to just ship it? I know it's unfair but is the amount enough to risk it?
Hopefully this doesn't happen again.
I wonder if the new price hadn't updated in the system yet? Strange..
Do you know how much time elapsed between the price change and the purchase?
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@pikabo-icu
Thanks so much for your thoughtful response.
It was almost 48 hours between the price change and the purchase.
It's a low value item with free shipping, so I'm going to be in the hole on it. I had marked it down as a last resort before selling it at an upcoming garage sale. But I hadn't meant to mark it so low as to be in the red.
I had already resigned myself to shipping it out. It's not the buyer's fault, so I'll take a small loss.
I'm just glad this didn't happen on a high value item with expensive shipping. But I'm concerned it could happen again.
Still wondering about that FB issue, though -- for future reference.
pikabo-icu
·1 year ago@adamcartwright Sorry you're gonna take a hit on that, 48 hours was plenty of time for the new price to take effect, I was thinking minutes or an hour at best might be an issue. For the future, if they leave FB eBay will remove it for sales legitimately cancelled due to buyer request or issue with buyer address.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-policy?id=4208
Buyer-related transaction issues
We remove neutral/negative feedback when we can see that:
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoand eBay confirmed
Were you on the phone with a subcontractor in Utah or the Philippines?
Or were you Chatting with one of the eBay employees assigned to social media.
Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service. Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is. Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message. It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.

https://www.facebook.com/ebay -Message button in upper right on landing page.
#204760888466
https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

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.
adamcartwright
OP1 year ago@reallynicestamps
Yes, I do know how to contact eBay through social media. X has always been my go-to for issues that arise. and was for this, as well.
But this time, I must have gotten someone new, whose responses lagged 20-30 minutes in the conversation, didn't want to hear the background on my issue, then gave me a canned answer stating false facts and immediately ended the conversation. It was a full 180 degrees different from my previous experiences with AskeBay on X.
That is why I resorted to a call.
monica-sells
·1 year ago"...He also advised that I could cancel and stated that if I select "buyer requested" or "problem with address" then it will neither affect my account nor allow Buyer to leave negative FB..."
an ebay 'agent' advised you to "cancel under false pretenses?
Scary.......