Seller accidentally relisted an item already sold weeks ago, and I won. How to resolve?

[electrola_man]

I'm a long-time seller and occasional buyer, and have never experienced this from either side.  17 minutes before an auction ended, I saw I was still the only bidder.  I checked back later and saw I won, but also saw that, minutes before the auction ended, the seller sent me a message saying, "I'm very sorry but the item you have currently bid on of my unfortunately sold last month. I'm not sure how this item was relisted but unfortunately it is not available. I've tried to pull listing but ebay would not allow me to. I apologize."  I didn't pay since I saw this.

At this point, can I do nothing, or will I get charged with an unpaid item?  Isn't the seller supposed to cancel and take a defect for being out-of-stock?  It would seem he'd need to, if I had paid, but it makes no sense for me to pay now.  If I send a note asking for it to be cancelled, the seller can use the reason that the buyer asked to cancel, to weasel out of the defect.  I'd have preferred to get the item, and the seller somehow goofed and created this problem.  Is it better for me, if I just request it be officially cancelled?

[hurryagain]

@electrola_man 

I will say that there have been some glitches as of late...a bunch of them.  Your seller may not be lying as I have read of similar complaints from sellers here saying that an item that was sold was re-list automatically.  I have seen more than one seller with this complain.

I just thought that I would let you know...

[dwill9431]

I think it'd be better to reqiest the cancellation. A lot of listings failed to renew because of the 28-day month, and then automatically relisted when the issue was resolved, and it sounds like this listing may have been relisted in error. 

[star.fighter]

yes, the sellers have referred to them as 'ghost listings', and they have been happening for years.  i have suggested several times that the problem may occur when an item sells JUST as it is being automatically relisted within ebay's system.  what could happen then is since ebay uses several servers, one server would already be marking the item for relisting...while another server would be processing the sale that just happened.  the database sync should take care of that, but there could be a glitch that doesn't ever get it properly synced back up again, and some criteria within the system would be triggering it to reappear at a random time in the future.

so, i would believe the seller... HOWEVER... the OP definitely does need to get the unpaid notification resolved.

[campanaelia · Accepted solution]

The seller could have cancelled your bid before the auction ended instead of messaging you. Maybe, like they said ebay system was not allowing them to cancel, so you won instead. The sellers been pretty upfront with you that there is a problem and has communicated well so far. I would just give them a break this time since there have been many glitches in the system for the past 2 weeks. The only other thing you can do is contact customer service and see if they have an answer why this happened, and can let you know if the seller is being honest.

[woodland_gnome]

The only "hit" you are taking right now is that it counts towards your Open Transaction Limit which I would guess you are in no danger of reaching.  A cancellation at your request would continue that counting for some length of time (I would guess about a month) but could also be cause to lower your limits.

As long as the seller doesn't file an Unpaid Item Dispute (either manually or has the Unpaid Item Assistant set up) you can just wait it out if it's no great problem to wait (e.g. if you need the item sooner rather than later and are wary that the seller will in the end hold you to it) and if it is filed then pay within 4 days.  The seller might deliberately choose to lose the FVFs  rather than take a defect (or simply  not know what s/he is doing).

[monster-deals]

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@electrola_man wrote:

the seller somehow goofed and created this problem. 

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Yeah maybe. 

Search "phantom re-list"

It's a thing that ebay doesn't like to discuss...among a handful of other common ongoing glitches.

[ittybitnot]

The seller could have cancelled your bid before the auction ended instead of messaging you. 

@campanaelia 

The problem with "ghost listings" is that a seller does not even know they are even listed until the previously sold/ended item sells again.  If this is the actual issue, it has been going on for years here with some items "appearing" (and selling again) months or years after the fact.  eBay denies it happens, but the result is a seller gets a serious defect for having to cancel (loses the PayPal money if they are not in MPayments), and the buyer thinks the seller is less than honorable.  

[hdcollections]

It is happening to me with my listings! I have had 2 this month that were sold but somehow got relisted by ebay. I did not relist the items and not sure how it is happening. I believe it is a glitch and not the sellers fault. 

[kh-laura]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.