Seller just told me they sold half of the items of my winning bid. What do I do?

[kennerb]

I bought a bundle of different products as a pickup item. Seller just messaged me and told me they sold one of the major parts of the package. They told me that I could have the rest of the items at the price I won for the auction. It's a pickup item. What options do I have to make this right. I don't want a refund. I want the items that I bought.

[ed8108]

Contact ebay to report the seller, ask customer support to read the ebay messages between you & your seller, do not agree to a cancellation of your purchase.

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@kennerb,

eBay cannot force the seller to complete the transaction, so you will have to settle for a refund. However, because this was a local pickup listing you may have trouble getting help through ebay's regular channels.  Their phone/chat system reps will not know how to deal with this situation, because it is a local pick up situation. The report seller option will not work either, though after you get your refund, reporting them would be a good idea. 

I think the best way to proceed will be through ebay's social media sites either Facebook or Twitter (links below).  If you do not have or want an account with Facebook or Twitter you can create one, then delete it when you are done.  When you report the situation, you will need the seller's username and the 12 digit without hyphens ebay item number.  

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

https://twitter.com/askebay

You will want to explain in the message that you won an auction for a bundle of items that were a local pickup listing.  You did pay for the auction, but then the seller messaged you to say one/some of the items had already been sold, but they offered to give you the rest of the items for at the price you won the auction. Ask the rep to check your ebay messages to confirm what the seller told you.  Tell them you have not responded to the seller, and you have not agreed to cancel the transaction or accepted their offer. Tell them you want a refund, and the seller reported for the transaction.

I have to ask,  Did you win the auction with just one bid, and  did you check the seller's feedback profile before bidding on the auction?

  To me the situation sounds like your seller is new or very inexperienced.  If they are, they may have taken ebay's poor advice to start the auction at a low price "To encourage bidding", and were unhappy with the outcome of the auction. 

  Click on the sellers feedback number, you may get to a page with a few feedback comments, but click on the oval with See all feedback in it below them.  When you get to their profile page, click on the As a seller button to see if they have received any selling feedback before. They may have feedback but all for buying before this. New/inexperienced sellers often run into issues with their transactions, because they do not know ebay's policies.

In the future you do not have to pay in advance for a local pickup purchase. You can pay the seller when you pickup the items using the app or in cash, after you have inspected the item(s)  How to do that is covered in the link below.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/shipping-delivery/changing-delivery-address-method/local-pickup?id=...

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[powell-memorabilia]

Seller has made it clear that the items are not available.  You can and should report the buyer using the below link:

https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicid=4022

[soh.maryl]

You can and should report the SELLER etc.

[kennerb]

Thank you! You are a superstar! That was very thorough and informative. The problem I have is I really want the other items in the auction. I was considering driving there to look at the full lot and seeing if I could get a partial refund on my auction though I'm not sure if he'd do that. The other items are very valuable to me right now for what I'm doing so I don't want to just cancel them. I know this kind of puts me in a bind but I don't want to lose the opportunity to get the other items.

It was a super low bid and I was the only bidder so I'm sure there is a large factor of disappointment with the seller but that is a contract that they agreed to. Is there an option to go through with a partial purchase and then have a report up on the transaction? I looked through the various faqs  and posts but I couldn't find anything too relevant. 

Thanks so much for your time and knowledge! 

[airsheep]

You could tell the seller you are still interested in the rest of the items -- at a substantial discount since they sold something that was already promised to you.  If they are willing, have them set up a private listing for you to buy, and tell them you'll pay when you pick up your purchase.