Where's the benefit for sellers?
Summary: In a discussion started by smartphone_surplus titled "Where's the benefit for sellers?", several participants, including fern*wood, kibble-net, stuff4divas, meme6253, luckythewinner, my_boston_baked_beans, bonanza125, and rudy2828, engaged but no specific content or viewpoints were shared in the conversation as all posts contained "None" as their content. Therefore, the topic's exploration and participants' perspectives remained unvoiced in this summary.
The newly enforced rule that winning bidders can't cancel an auction they've won just cost me $16. The winning bidder messaged me that he didn't need the item (after bidding 5 times). I messaged back that his bid was a binding contract under eBay policies. He paid, I shipped (free shipping for the buyer), he opened a return, and now I'm paying for the return. I can't deduct anything on the return because none of the deduction choices are relevant. There's no benefit to having the policy when the buyer has a workaround. Any ideas?
rudy2828
·4 months agoYou should not have shipped. Relist and move on.
And block buyer.
bonanza125
·4 months agoWell I think Ebay is trying to get bidders to stop openly bidding thinking they can just cancel. This is a learning experience for the bidder who then turned into a buyer. They wasted time and had to return the item to you. That teaches them that they should think twice before bidding. Now I do believe Ebay should clear this up a tad. This is an example/thought not a request but say all auction style listings the buyer is responsible for return shipping. So there will be a cost if say the buyer needs to return regardless of the request. Will Ebay do that probably not anytime soon. My suggestion would be is if a bidder messages you and says to cancel the bid or transaction just do it. It will cost you in the long run.
my_boston_baked_beans
·4 months agoUnfortunately, to ebay it is a buyer's world. Ebay will bend over backwards for buyers, but sellers have less recourse. That is why I would have cancelled the order knowing the buyer already made their mind to get out of the sale anyway possible. Ebay is no longer a place for the casual, small seller like myself you have to be a big fish to survive and make any money. It is ebay's venue even though we sellers are their customers, but bottom line ebay is out for the buyers...
luckythewinner
·4 months agoYou could have canceled the transaction and cited "buyer request".
You are the one who forced the buyer to pay, not eBay.
meme6253
·4 months agoA customer always has the right to request a cancellation or a return, It really should come as no surprise!, It's not right what the buyer did,but it is what it is.
stuff4divas
·4 months ago@smartphone_surplus
yea, my idea is to always honor a buyer's request to cancel, then offer to the next highest bidder
kibble-net
·4 months agoThis is exactly what I said when this was announced.
There is no net benefit into strong-arming a buyer into completing a sale they don't wish to complete.
fern*wood
·4 months agoI would have cancelled when he contacted you rather than shipping. That rule only omits the clickable link for the buyer to request to cancel, it doesn't mean they can't email you to request the cancellation.