Seller Gives False Reason for Cancelled Auction Sale—Re-lists Same Item in a Second Auction

[regal1956]

Earlier this week I was the winning bidder on an eBay auction. I paid within 15 minutes after winning the auction. The next day, the seller cancelled the sale and refunded my payment in full. The reason given for the cancellation was “Out of stock or damaged.”

The seller is now offering in a new auction the same item I successfully bid on. (This second auction began within a day after the first auction concluded.) The item is advertised as new. So as far as the seller is concerned, this item is neither out of stock nor damaged. It appears the seller was dissatisfied with the winning bid in the auction I won, cancelled the sale on a false pretense, and then relisted the same item for a second auction.

I reported this to eBay on Monday night. As of Thursday afternoon, the seller is still offering the same item I successfully bid on for auction on eBay.

As I understand eBay policy, both buyer and seller must abide by the terms of an auction. Neither is allowed to arbitrarily back out. Yet in this case, eBay has allowed the seller to ignore the result of the first auction and start a second one. Further, I can find no way to leave feedback for this transaction. So this seller showing 100% positive feedback.

Two questions for eBay:

• Are sellers allowed to cancel the results of an auction if they don’t like the winning bid?

• Are buyers not allowed to leave feedback if a seller does this?

If this is how eBay now conducts auctions, then it will change my attitude toward buying via eBay.

[donsdetour]

well they gave themselves a deficit: to many they will not be selling on ebay...

As for disrespecting you and your win: yes they did that.

Not much to be done about it.

It does hurt eBay when sellers do such. ( Note: unless there was other things going on like asking for changes after the sale...)

[fab_finds4u]

eBay can't force you to pay after you win and they can't force a seller to ship after they're paid.  What eBay does is give buyers a strike if they don't pay, and they give sellers a defect if they cancel a transaction the buyer didn't ask to cancel. Defects lead to restrictions, higher fees and suspension from selling permanently if they rack up too many defects.

[nkmipgolf]

I know of one golf seller does this when the bid is too low, $9.99 . When you sell 50 items a day litte is done, he even gets negatives for this. Not much you can do.

[woodland_gnome]

That the item sold to someone else earlier is not a valid reason for a new listing by the same seller to be removed by eBay.  

The seller already got a "defect" when s/he cancelled the transaction. That is the primary tool eBay uses to weed out bad sellers, downgrading the selling status of those who get too many relative to their sales volume (as opposed to having to pay employees to actually investigate to see how likely it was that the seller had a legitimate reason to cancel vs. deliberate policy violations).

Contrary to your assumption, you can leave appropriate (calm, factual--if the seller said that x was the reason say "seller said x. . ." so people don't think you are just jumping to conclusions, otherwise just set out the facts: won dd/mm seller cancelled out of stock dd/mm relisted dd/mm) feedback to warn future buyers/bidders. If the usual links have vanished, go to anyone's Feedback Profile (doesn't matter who, click on the feedback score in parentheses behind the username) then scroll down to below the last comment on that page to find a "Leave feedback" link that doesn't vanish (it brings you to a list of items you can leave feedback for).

Theoretically you could sue the seller for breach of the contract of sale (for the difference between the auction price and what you ended up having to pay for a replacement), but that is almost never practical.

[reallynicestamps]

If he cancels as "Out of Stock" he gets a Defect.

Negatives are meaningless- eBay doesn't use them to assess accounts.

And buyers seem to think that a 95% rating is excellent.

Only buyers savvy enough to actually check whether the negs are from chronically unhappy members or indicate a pattern (cancelling transactions, slow shipping, garbage products) find FB useful.

[lamber9347]

@regal1956 That's very unfortunate and not the correct thing to do by that seller. In the meantime, you are allowed to leave appropriate feedback for the seller canceling and re-listing the item at a higher price.

Go to your purchase history and at the top underneath Orders click on show hidden items. Just make sure your feedback follows the protocols so that the seller doesn't get it removed. No name calling and don't write beware of seller or use all caps. Just state the truth and be done with this. I suggest something along these lines-- " I won this item in auction and paid immediately, seller canceled for out of stock. Next day I see it up for auction once again at a higher price." 

Nothing else needs to be said, buyers will understand what you are implying. Go find this item with another honest seller. Best of luck to you....

[regal1956]

Thanks for your reply. Regarding your instruction:

“Go to your purchase history and at the top underneath Orders click on show hidden items.”

I did this. The usual feedback tab isn’t there. So as of today, there’s no way to leave feedback for this transaction. Meanwhile, the seller is still offering for auction the item I successfully bid on. One would think eBay could easily design their website to not allow this. 

Live and learn. If this is the way eBay wants to do business, then I’ll think twice about trusting them as I have have in the past.

[janet9988]

Go to the bottom of your main feedback page and scroll to the bottom. You can click leave feedback from there.

[buyselljack2016]

@regal1956 

Be cautious about leaving even truthful negative feedback if you buy and sell on the same account. You currently have nothing listed, but you have sold.

Some sellers will purchase from you just to get even if you leave bad feedback for them.

Weigh the sense of satisfaction for leaving a truthful, less than positive feedback, against the possible return.

[lamber9347]

That is strange. On my purchase history, when I scroll down towards the bottom I can see Returns and Canceled Orders. There you can select unhidden, and they will all populate so that you can leave feedback. Try it again and see what you find. 

[regal1956]

With your help, I was able to leave feedback for this transaction. And on the advice of lamber9347, I confined my feedback to a simple recitation of the facts.

Thanks to all.

[downunder-61]

Totally inexperienced seller who has hopefully learned to now set the auction starting with the price he would be happy to receive if he only gets one bid.

[regal1956]

What’s weird is that eBay has clear evidence that the seller cancelled the sale under a false pretense and is re-listing the same item. Yet they’re allowing this to happen. In fact, eBay is making the evidence available to potential buyers in the new auction. In the current listing, if buyers know where to click they can see that this item was successfully bid on in an auction ended on February 14th. It even shows the amount of the winning bid. So eBay is openly telling buyers that the item they’re bidding on was already sold in a previous auction. By doing this, eBay is advertising that winning a bid is no guarantee that the seller will follow through. Considering that trust is a crucial element of an online business, one would think eBay would try hard to avoid this.

Here’s my take. In the early days of establishing itself, eBay had to win over a skeptical public unaccustomed to buying stuff online. Potential buyers had to be convinced eBay was a safe and trustworthy place to do business. So early on, eBay aggressively monitored transactions to ensure good buyer experiences. (I recall reading seller complaints that dishonest buyers could get away with anything.) Fast forward to today. Everyone buys online without worry, and eBay is now a profitable behemoth. Increased customer trust and the economy of scale means eBay can let down its guard. Thus, eBay likely has relaxed its protective attitude toward buyers. It’s becoming easier for sellers to unethically game the system. As long as sales are made and eBay gets its cut, it’s all good.

When the money well is gushing, a business will evolve to make more. If the buyer experience erodes, so be it. Caveat emptor.

[myangelandmyprincess]

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@regal1956 wrote:

What’s weird is that eBay has clear evidence that the seller cancelled the sale under a false pretense and is re-listing the same item. Yet they’re allowing this to happen. In fact, eBay is making the evidence available to potential buyers in the new auction. In the current listing, if buyers know where to click they can see that this item was successfully bid on in an auction ended on February 14th. It even shows the amount of the winning bid. So eBay is openly telling buyers that the item they’re bidding on was already sold in a previous auction. By doing this, eBay is advertising that winning a bid is no guarantee that the seller will follow through. Considering that trust is a crucial element of an online business, one would think eBay would try hard to avoid this.

Here’s my take. In the early days of establishing itself, eBay had to win over a skeptical public unaccustomed to buying stuff online. Potential buyers had to be convinced eBay was a safe and trustworthy place to do business. So early on, eBay aggressively monitored transactions to ensure good buyer experiences. (I recall reading seller complaints that dishonest buyers could get away with anything.) Fast forward to today. Everyone buys online without worry, and eBay is now a profitable behemoth. Increased customer trust and the economy of scale means eBay can let down its guard. Thus, eBay likely has relaxed its protective attitude toward buyers. It’s becoming easier for sellers to unethically game the system. As long as sales are made and eBay gets its cut, it’s all good.

When the money well is gushing, a business will evolve to make more. If the buyer experience erodes, so be it. Caveat emptor.

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Personally I experienced this backwards.   Back in the early days there was no buyer protection.  You sent off your money with no guarantee you would get anything in return.  Then some buyer protection came out with online payments but sellers could select to not offer that protection in their settings.  Then for a short while there was a decent middle ground. Not perfect but decent.  eBay seemed to actually review cases and didn't just always find in favor of the buyer, buyers could only have three non payment strikes (well four since a buyer could always appeal to have the first one removed), bad sellers had to refund when they didn't send items or sent incorrect items.  Was there still abuse on both sides yep. 

However now buyers can cancel without any real penalty even if the seller cancels for non payment there is not set amount it just says "excessive" who knows what that number is, meanwhile sellers who cancel for out of stock get less leeway than the buyers who don't pay, as a seller you can basically give up winning a case with eBay they don't get review anymore really best to just accept the return and refund.