Reporting a buyer for misuse of the messaging system to cancel an order
I had a buyer purchase an item tonight. About an hour later, she messaged me asking to cancel the order. I replied and told her that I was packing the item up for shipping and to please place the cancellation request through ebay.
She messaged back asking me to do it since she placed the order less than an hour ago and didn't see why she had to go through ebay. I again asked her to please make the cancellation request through ebay.
She came back with this reply: "You know I really would understand if I purchased it even yesterday but I think it’s pretty bad customer service since I just purchased it an hour ago and you have not even shipped it yet you’re just packaging. I don’t think I should have to go through eBay when you haven’t even packaged your ship yet. I would expect a lot more with someone with 100% satisfaction rating. I never give negative reviews but sadly I will do that today based on this customer service"
I went ahead and cancelled the order and refunded her money. I want to report her for making threats via the messaging system, but the system is not allowing me to do so because the order was cancelled and it tells me the item number is invalid.
Would you contact customer service about this? She has been blocked and I have not replied to her yet.
mam98031
·2 years ago@royalprincessdesigns
Why you were so insistent that they open the formal cancellation request that is available to buyer within the first hour after purchase? Why was that so important to you? It would not change anything. But I am curious as to why you would insist on this to the point that you did with this buyer.
I think you may just have a misunderstanding of the process and how it impacts a seller. You would have been absolutely fine to cancel the order as requested by the buyer from a regular Ebay email from the buyer.
You just really frustrated your buyer insisting they do something they really didn't need to do. I think it was likely your actions that pushed them to threaten you they way they did.
broto_64
·2 years agoSome buyers will not entertain a confrontation with a seller over a cancellation request they have sent.
Should a seller wish to give the buyer a hard time over a cancellation request these buyers will remain quiet at this stage. And should the seller not cancel, these buyers will most likely return the item once received, at the seller's expense.
Moral of this story:
We want to stop battling our customers, we want to be fair and friendly and courteous and helpful towards them. We can not afford to do without buyers, a lot of sellers here struggle with a sales shortage, the only tool we have to combat this is providing great customer service.
That said, if a buyer asks to cancel it is best to comply, if possible with a smile.
momtoabeautifuldaughter
·2 years agoYou should have just cancelled when they asked you to. They sent you a message asking you to cancel so that is them making the request through eBay.
Just let it go and next time just cancel if they ask before it is sent.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoIf they ask to cancel, why not just cancel and be done with it? (Assuming you hadn't shipped it yet).
the back and forth is really unnecessary. If you ship them their item they'll just make an excuse to return it on your dime. Better to avoid the whole situation and just block the buyer.
C.
fern*wood
·2 years ago. If you ship them their item they'll just make an excuse to return it on your dime. Better to avoid the whole situation and just block the buyer.
C.
They probably feel their disclaimer on their free returns will save them from refunding
wastingtime101
·2 years agoUnfortunately your advice about that on their last discussion was ignored.
selsa84
·2 years agonext time just cancel when the buyers asks. yes it sucks but its better than shipping it out and then having a return and possibly a bad feedback.
ryanrobyn
·2 years agowhy report the buyer - all you have to do is go to cancel order and select buyer asked to cancel - quick and easy and won't make the buyer upset
redlinear
·2 years agoSome send Requests.
Some send messages asking for cancellation.
I can't afford the shipping there AND back.
So, I cancel
soh.maryl
·2 years agoYou "never give negative reviews"? If your plan is to give this buyer negative feedback, please be aware that buyers cannot be given negative FB. To do so would actually cause you to receive a "defect" from eBay if the buyer asked eBay to remove it.
Most sellers see the wisdom of cancelling at buyer's request. It wins hands down over insisting on shipping and then getting a bogus return request citing "item not as described".
Pick your battles carefully.
royalprincessdesigns
OP2 years ago@soh.maryl
You are mistaken. The never give negative reviews was the buyers comment not mine. (which was a lie by the way, she has left 4 or 5 negative comments for other sellers.) The point of all this is that sellers should not be bullied with the threat of receiving a negative feedback. She could have just as well hit the request for cancellation and I would have been happy to do so. She was just too lazy to do so and wanted me to do it. This is not a new buyer or I would not have had a problem doing it outright for her. I never intended on shipping it as that would have turned into a nightmare for sure.
Does anyone know if there are any repercussions for buyers that make too many cancellation requests after paying using the request cancellation route and not the messaging system? If not, there should be. JMO.
sdneped
·2 years ago@royalprincessdesigns
You are mistaken.
There is typically no request cancellation route to hit after an hour, viz:
Instead, the buyer is directed to send a message.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoSorry for my error. Yes, that remark was from the buyer.
Sometimes it is not clear to me when a poster is quoting from someone else unless quotation marks are used or, better yet, a different font.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agowastingtime101
·2 years agoI'm really curious to know @royalprincessdesigns , what's the difference to you if the buyer sends a formal cancellation request through eBay's system, or if they send a message request instead?
Either way the order gets cancelled by the seller as buyer requested. Same end result.
I disagree about the buyer being the lazy one. They did their part and sent a cancellation request.
If this was more than an hour after the sale the buyer's only option is to send a message as demonstrated in the screenshot posted above by @sdneped .
toysaver
·2 years agoThis is why there is a reason for cancellation to select that it was at the customer's request.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoReporting a buyer for misuse of the messaging system to cancel an order
How did she misuse the messaging system to cancel an order? Are you suggesting there is some policy that prevents a buyer from requesting to cancel an order via the messaging system?
Would you contact customer service about this?
Why in the world would I contact customer service? Your buyer clearly does not want to purchase the item. So why are you courting disaster by not simply doing what your buyer politely asked you to do?
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoYou made this a lot harder than it needed to be, but glad you got there in the end.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoWhy did you argue?
Don't ship.
She doesn't want it. She won't accept it. She will demand a refund. She might destroy it to make a Not As Described claim stick.
Some customers are not bright.
Walk her through the steps.
Be calm and professional.
This may help.
I never give negative reviews but sadly I will do that today based on this customer service"
And that will allow eBay to remove any FB she might leave. I think she also gets a black mark of some sort.
albertabrightalberta
·2 years ago@royalprincessdesigns
You've already been told that you should have just canceled the order as requested and after much (unnecessary) back-and-forth, you did so.
You're jumping the gun in wanting to report her feedback extortion threat.
If she does neg you, you can report at that time, referring to the threat. But reporting about what might happen in the future isn't going to get her the ding the report will do if she follows through on the threat.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoI would have just cancelled it. No need to go through ebay if it is in writing from the customer. You just choose customer requested on the cancellation.
simba6
·2 years agoWell, you can either cancel it or, ship it and have it returned under a false not as described case. or worse yet, they might " help " it get that way.
If the buyer wants to cancel, BY ALL MEANS DO SO and FAST.
You have it in the eBay message system so your covered.
doug_5857
·2 years agoI would not contact CS. The customer sent Seller request/message to cancel an order. It has been recorded in the message for cancel. Thats enough for me.
xadexane
·2 years agoDuring the first hour @royalprincessdesigns the buyer can request a cancel via a button.
After an hour, eBay requires the buyer to send a message instead, to request a cancel.
slati_2013
·2 years agoeBay does not cancel orders. Buyers make request to sellers to cancel orders and sellers cancel the orders. The worst thing a seller can do is to refuse to cancel an order and ship anyway. It will be returned. It may come back as is, or damaged, or in a dispute you many end up losing your money and the item. When a buyer request a cancellation, you cancel. Never ship to a buyer who ask that you cancel. It will end badly.
And no, the buyer did not threaten you. Her experience with the purchase was negative and if she chose to leave negative feedback, it would not be removed. I don't think she can leave negative feedback anyway since the order was canceled, though I am not sure about that because orders I have canceled still show up for me to give feedback.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoI don't know why ebay continues with this pretense of calling them 'requests'. They may as well just make a cancel 'request' an actual cancellation as long as there's no 'shipped'.
But then I guess that would only work if the seller was using ebay labels.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoThey may as well just make a cancel 'request' an actual cancellation as long as there's no 'shipped'.
Because the seller is in the best position to determine whether an item has been shipped, not eBay. Not all sellers use eBay shipping and I doubt many of them upload shipping the second it is purchased at the counter or elsewhere.
robbie31415
·2 years agoYes.
I use third party fulfillment software that sometime is delayed up to an hour to update with the tracking.
If they could cancel because it doesn't show 'shipped', I could be out a lot of money because sometimes the carrier has the package before the tracking is sync'd on eBay.
robbie31415
·2 years agoI agree with the customer.
No matter how annoying customers can be with last minute cancels.
If you hadn't shipped you should have just cancelled it without being confrontational.
lakefor94
·2 years agoNever ever try to send a buyer something they dont want.
That is just begging for a INAD return case and negative feedback. As long as you have the item still in your possession, cancel the transaction and get your final value fees back. Even if you have printed the shipping label, cancel the transaction and void the shipping label.
Always cancel upon the first request from the buyer. Save yourself a headache and another trip here to the boards with a false INAD return case.
The buyer cannot cancel an order and eBay will not cancel in the buyer's behalf. Only the seller can cancel.
rosachs
·2 years agoThat first line I agree with - why waste the time and effort?
The second line is incorrect - buyers -can- cancel a purchase, but they have a limited time to do so. After that, they are directed to contact the seller. And it's not a big window of time - you don't want buyers to be able to unilaterally cancel an order the next day or later in the week. So the timeframe is kept short and after that, the buyer needs to contact the seller.
An experienced seller would just cancel and move on. If eBay offers to relist, go for it -- you've still got the item in your possession, and Best Match loves inventory with recent sales. Good thing it doesn't look to see if the sale was cancelled -- the best I've been able to determine is that it just looks at the last sale date, and on a relist, that includes the last sale from the previous listing.
You could report the buyer for threatening negative feedback, since they hadn't posted it a the time they sent the message, but it takes a LOT of reports to get a buyer disciplined....far more than it takes to punish a seller.
-Bob.
PS: do be sure to add the buyer to your BBL. If they come back for a second round, do you really want to deal with them again?
robbie31415
·2 years agoBuyers can NOT cancel, only sellers can.
Buyers can only REQUEST cancellation.
Within the first hour they can do an actual request, that gets sent to the seller if they accept it or not. Seller can deny, especially if they shipped fast. I have shipped an item from when it turned to 'Paid' within 15 minutes.
Outside of that window they can send a message and request.
Buyers can NEVER actually cancel a sale. That would be massively abused.
rosachs
·2 years agoYou are correct - I did mis-state that. In my defense, I don't believe I have ever not cancelled a buyer order if they haven't even made payment yet. Even if payment was made, if I haven't pulled, packed, or labeled the package, it's an easy cancel and absolutely minimum time investment. Frustrating to lose the sale, frustrating to have to lose a payment received, but ultimately I just don't have the time to engage these folks over their requests.
Address the issue, drop the emotions. The time you save can be better invested elsewhere.
-Bob.
evelyb30
·2 years agoShe's probably gotten away with it before. I'd use FB for Business on Facebook and report her that way if you bother. If the buyer was what you consider abusive I'd definitely report it.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoI wouldn't contact CS, I would have canceled the order the first time they asked.
oaktoncardinal
·2 years agoI had a situation last week where a New Buyer, just joined eBay that day, purchased a small $20 item. She almost instantly realized she hadn't asked questions about the item that were important to her and started messaging me with her questions. The very first thing I said in my response was ' we can cancel this sale if you've changed your mind or have regrets, no worries ' . It was obvious she was transacting on a mobile device and after 3 - 5 more messages she decided to cancel. I asked her to go thru eBay to do that and you know what, that was just stupid on my part. She wasn't familiar with eBay she couldn't find what it was she needed to do. Again, I told her no worries, I'm cancelling right now and you'll have your refund very quickly, probably within minutes. I felt I was 'safe' to cancel due to our messages and that's what I did.
I think it's important to be flexible and understanding. I want her to have a good first impression on eBay so she'll come back and make additional purchases within the eBay community. I want a happy customer. I want to broaden eBay's buyer base. I want her to tell her friends how well she was treated.
And it is so much easier to cancel a sale as a Seller than it is to cancel as a Buyer.