I am new on this and on my first item I posted someone offered way more than it was worth

[rekla-4742]

I am new at this and placed an item for sale. Someone made an offer that was more than what I expected. I accepted the offer and then got a message to contact them directly. I did not. Instead I canceled it. But now it's showing that I still had a $30 sale that never went through? Why isn't that removed from my total? Thank you

[eburtonlab]

What reason did you use for the cancellation? Some reasons may penalize your account.

A message that says "I am interested in your item, kindly text me", an offer greater than or equal to your buy it now price, asking for your PayPal email address or a request for a gift card is generally the start of a scam where the scammer winds up sending a phony payment email that makes it look like the seller has received a payment when none has actually been received. Scammers like to target new sellers, particularly those selling expensive items.

Sending contact information (text or email) prior to a transaction payment is a violation of eBay policy; this policy is designed to protect honest buyers and sellers from this sort of thing, and to prevent off-eBay sales.

Never buy a gift card for anyone unless you are giving a gift.

As a seller you should always check your account directly (not following a link in an email) to see if you have actually been paid prior to shipping. If a user commits to a purchase but does not send an actual payment, after four full days you can cancel for nonpayment and give the "buyer" a strike. Be sure to set your buyer requirements to reject bids or purchases from users with two or more nonpayment strikes in the last year.

eBay will likely remove the scammer's account shortly, but the scammer will just create a new one or hijack an old one and continue sending scam offers and messages. Sellers must remain wary of any user that wants the seller to violate eBay policy.

You can avoid many common scams by listing your item for a fixed price with immediate payment required and by not accepting any offers. That way the buyer must complete checkout and actually pay in order to proceed.

[albertabrightalberta]

@rekla-4742 

You dodged a bullet. 

Scammers target newbies hoping to appeal to their greed and naivete. I'm glad you didn't fall for it. 

[kensgiftshop]

@rekla-4742 

Even though you canceled the order, the item still sold and does count towards your monthly limits.

[fab_finds4u]

You should not have canceled unless the buyer asked because if they didn't ask then you got a defect.

If you suspect they're trying to scam you they're not going to pay unless they can send you a fake payment. You caught onto their text me scam. How to proceed is ignore them and cancel after 4 days citing buyer didn't didn't pay. Fees are refunded and you can relist.

[reallynicestamps]

You were right that the message was from a scammer.

What reason did you use for cancellation?
If it was not for "buyer request" or for "problem with address", eBay deems the item to be sold.

At this point, I suggest you use social media to contact eBay:


https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851


https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.
https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

And have the eBay employee correct the cancellation (you want it to be an Unpaid Item Dispute) so that your item can be relisted and those fees removed.

If the employee can do this, ask for the item to be relisted as Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required which will avoid this problem in future.

[1tuna]

I am curious where you heard about the cancel button

the cancel button is for buyers who do not pay

you need to wait 96 hours for buyers who do not pay

please have a look at the money back guarantee or MBG so you will have an idea of how ebay works

pay close attention to the section on returns

good luck

@rekla-4742 

[pjcdn2005]

There is no indication that the seller got a defect in this case.  
Unless they used out of stock as a reason for cancelling, it’s unlikely that they would get a an oos defect.

[pjcdn2005]

Although I agree that in many situations it is a good idea not to cancel  an unpaid transaction until the 5th day so that a buyer can be given an 'unpaid item strike' I don't think that is necessary in this type of situation. 

The four days are a grace period so that a buyer has time to pay.  In this case, the person who 'bought' the item would not have asked the seller to text them if they had any intention of paying. 

The buyer will likely try a few 'text me' scams and then move using another ebay ID.  They are unlikely to be a 'real' buyer with that ID so I don't see any reason for the seller to wait until the 5th day simply to give the other user an unpaid item strike that will never affect them.

This is one of the few times that I would recommend cancelling using problem with address so that the seller can move on and forget the person who is just wasting their time.