eBay is a mess

[tcjake52]

I placed an order before Christmas and eBay sent me a notice that my PayPal payment had been refunded, with no explanation as to why. I had to contact the seller, who was unaware of the situation, and repurchase the item. The confusions delayed the delivery of the item I had purchased for a Christmas gift. Recently I received a message from a seller on eBay offering me an item for $22.00, that had previously been listed for $65.00. I accepted their offer and used PayPal to finalize the purchase. The seller contacted me today claiming that they had not initiated the $22.00 offer. The seller stated that they have not been able to contact eBay to find out why the unauthorized offer had been sent to me. Over the years I have purchased many items on eBay without any problems. I will not be making any purchases in the future, what a mess!

[simba6]

Sounds like an offer from a hacked account and that is why it was blocked.

[mudshark61369]

@tcjake52,

The problem with the Christmas gift issue is not something we can help with, without more info. We might have been able to offer suggestions, if you left more feedback for your sellers.

"Recently I received a message from a seller on eBay offering me an item for $22.00, that had previously been listed for $65.00. I accepted their offer and used PayPal to finalize the purchase. The seller contacted me today claiming that they had not initiated the $22.00 offer".

How did you receive that message? If it was received through your regular email provider, and not through ebay messages, it was probably a phishing scam. When you made the payment, was it from an active ebay listing, or were you sent an email address to send the payment to?  Were you asked to provide your address or other info to the seller?  If so that should have been a warning, since your shipping info is saved on ebay.

eBay does have an automated special offer system (Promoted Listings) that some sellers use to automatically send offers to people who have opened and look at a promoted item's listing. Those messages appear in your ebay messages and have a buy it now/accept offer button included in the message.

  Those offers are nowhere near the close to 60% off an item's asking price you were offered though.  I think the highest discount I was ever offered was 15% off.  Chances are it was the seller's account that was hacked/hijacked, not yours.