Cancelling an Order question

[scga912]

While looking for the policy for another answer, I stumbled upon this:

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/canceling-order/canceling-order?id=4004

"If it's been less than an hour since your purchase, and the seller hasn't sent the item yet, you can cancel your order yourself. Otherwise, you'll need to contact the seller and ask them to cancel it for you." and

"If you've changed your mind about an order, you can cancel it within an hour of your purchase, as long as the seller hasn't dispatched it yet"

But as far as I know (and what the seller pages say about it), it's only a request.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/cancelling-transaction?id=4136

Buyer-requested cancellations

If a buyer has contacted you and asked you to cancel the order, they’ll need to file a cancellation request with you.

Once you receive their request, you’ll have 3 days to approve or decline it

Which is it?  The wording to the buyer states they can cancel it themselves within the first hour, but as far as I know, and how I've always answered, it's only a request, and the seller's agreement to cancel isn't actually based on whether they ship it or not.  Granted, they can't if it's already been shipped, but they still have the choice to decline the request even if it hasn't been.

This creates a poor buying experience and a lot of confusion.  I've seen posts where buyers say "I cancelled within 2 or 5 minutes and the seller sent it days later anyway"

This needs to be cleared up for buyers so they don't blame sellers for a bad buyer experience.  Should the phrasing read if less than an hour.... you can request to cancel your order?  It needs fixing one way or the other.  Can you pass it along or tell me what's going on if something changed?  Merci

alan@ebaybrian@ebaytyler@ebay

[ilikestuff6969]

THAT IS A LIE!!!!!!!!!!

I recently had a big ole ordeal where I ordered a $1400 item with the wrong payment method.  I noticed this immediately and tried to change it withit seconds.  I even called ebay and was told the ONLY way to cancel is to ask the sellers permission which I did, the were good enough to oblige and then I placed an order again with the right payment method.  

Took 2 or 3 weeks to get that fixed thru paypal tho.  For a very long time I had paid double for that item before finally finding the one employee at paypal that had a brain.

[pburn]

I agree that it's worded in a very misleading fashion. It is my understanding that you can place a cancellation request yourself within the first hour, but it's still a request. After one hour, your cancellation request has to be placed via the seller. This conclusion is from people posting on these message boards, not from the eBay help pages. Reading those, I would conclude I could actually cancel a transaction in the first hour--not just request it.

It's very poorly written. Whether it is intentionally so, you might well think so, but I couldn't possibly comment.

[bigdeals.etc]

I've always known this since the beginning of the cancellations. Unless policy has changed, seller has no obligation to accept a cancellation... even if they just plain don't want to. Shipping the item isn't the only reason why someone would decline. Perhaps it's a made to order item (like a patch with the buyer's name and birthday) and it was being made already.

I know I'm sounding cynical here, but I feel ebay will not change the wording of this request to the buyer because they don't want to sound like the bad guy. Ebay basically is pointing the finger to the seller, tricking the buyer into thinking ebay is on their side. Ebay doesn't want to be responsible here so they make it harder for the seller to decline by implying to the buyer that once they file that cancellation, that the seller will definitely accept it. I've gotten alot of flack from buyers about this since I send my items out within the hour most of the time because receiving cancellation requests. Some understand, some don't. For the ones that don't I encourage them to contact and complain to ebay about their cancellation system... maybe they will change it or the misleading wording.

[southern*sweet*tea]

At one point Ebay did have a one hour window where buyers could cancel the transaction if the item hadn't been marked as shipped. I actually had one of those cancellations a couple of years ago. I don't know if it was some sort of beta test or what, but obviously it isn't available now.

[thenobletuckylife]

Afternoon Southern,

I fully agree, back when it first started we had a couple of "instant" buying initiated cancellations.

Saw an order come in and then a few minutes later "POOF".

We did nothing and if I hadn't been on the computer at the time I would not have noticed it.

I think that only lasted about 3 to 6 weeks and then went back to thew same old email conversations requesting yada yada and of course with that the fear of ebay thinking you are taking a sale off ebay makes it a catch 22 many times.

Mr C

[scga912]

The last eBay flow cancellation request I received was back in April... and it still gave me the option. 

That's why this phrasing on the eBay pages for the buyer is so disturbing.

[brian@ebay]

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@scga912 wrote:

While looking for the policy for another answer, I stumbled upon this:

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/canceling-order/canceling-order?id=4004

"If it's been less than an hour since your purchase, and the seller hasn't sent the item yet, you can cancel your order yourself. Otherwise, you'll need to contact the seller and ask them to cancel it for you." and

"If you've changed your mind about an order, you can cancel it within an hour of your purchase, as long as the seller hasn't dispatched it yet"

But as far as I know (and what the seller pages say about it), it's only a request.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/cancelling-transaction?id=4136

Buyer-requested cancellations

If a buyer has contacted you and asked you to cancel the order, they’ll need to file a cancellation request with you.

Once you receive their request, you’ll have 3 days to approve or decline it

Which is it?  The wording to the buyer states they can cancel it themselves within the first hour, but as far as I know, and how I've always answered, it's only a request, and the seller's agreement to cancel isn't actually based on whether they ship it or not.  Granted, they can't if it's already been shipped, but they still have the choice to decline the request even if it hasn't been.

This creates a poor buying experience and a lot of confusion.  I've seen posts where buyers say "I cancelled within 2 or 5 minutes and the seller sent it days later anyway"

This needs to be cleared up for buyers so they don't blame sellers for a bad buyer experience.  Should the phrasing read if less than an hour.... you can request to cancel your order?  It needs fixing one way or the other.  Can you pass it along or tell me what's going on if something changed?  Merci

alan@ebaybrian@ebaytyler@ebay

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Thanks for the suggestion, @scga912! I've sent your feedback to the Help Hub team for consideration