Reporting a buyer for misuse of the messaging system to cancel an order

[royalprincessdesigns]

I had a buyer purchase an item tonight. About an hour later, she messaged me asking to cancel the order. I replied and told her that I was packing the item up for shipping and to please place the cancellation request through ebay.

She messaged back asking me to do it since she placed the order less than an hour ago and didn't see why she had to go through ebay. I again asked her to please make the cancellation request through ebay.

She came back with this reply: "You know I really would understand if I purchased it even yesterday but I think it’s pretty bad customer service since I just purchased it an hour ago and you have not even shipped it yet you’re just packaging. I don’t think I should have to go through eBay when you haven’t even packaged your ship yet. I would expect a lot more with someone with 100% satisfaction rating. I never give negative reviews but sadly I will do that today based on this customer service"

I went ahead and cancelled the order and refunded her money. I want to report her for making threats via the messaging system, but the system is not allowing me to do so because the order was cancelled and it tells me the item number is invalid. 

Would you contact customer service about this? She has been blocked and I have not replied to her yet.

[chapeau-noir]

You made this a lot harder than it needed to be, but glad you got there in the end.

[robbie31415]

---

@rosachs wrote:

---

@lakefor94 wrote:

Never ever try to send a buyer something they dont want.

The buyer cannot cancel an order and eBay will not cancel in the buyer's behalf. Only the seller can cancel.

---

That first line I agree with - why waste the time and effort?

The second line is incorrect - buyers -can- cancel a purchase, but they have a limited time to do so.  After that, they are directed to contact the seller.  And it's not a big window of time - you don't want buyers to be able to unilaterally cancel an order the next day or later in the week.  So the timeframe is kept short and after that, the buyer needs to contact the seller.

An experienced seller would just cancel and move on.  If eBay offers to relist, go for it -- you've still got the item in your possession, and Best Match loves inventory with recent sales.  Good thing it doesn't look to see if the sale was cancelled -- the best I've been able to determine is that it just looks at the last sale date, and on a relist, that includes the last sale from the previous listing.

You could report the buyer for threatening negative feedback, since they hadn't posted it a the time they sent the message, but it takes a LOT of reports to get a buyer disciplined....far more than it takes to punish a seller.

-Bob.

PS: do be sure to add the buyer to your BBL.  If they come back for a second round, do you really want to deal with them again?

---

Buyers can NOT cancel, only sellers can.

Buyers can only REQUEST cancellation.

Within the first hour they can do an actual request, that gets sent to the seller if they accept it or not. Seller can deny, especially if they shipped fast. I have shipped an item from when it turned to 'Paid' within 15 minutes.

Outside of that window they can send a message and request.

Buyers can NEVER actually cancel a sale. That would be massively abused.

[luckythewinner]

---

Reporting a buyer for misuse of the messaging system to cancel an order

How did she misuse the messaging system to cancel an order? Are you suggesting there is some policy that prevents a buyer from requesting to cancel an order via the messaging system? 

Would you contact customer service about this?

Why in the world would I contact customer service? Your buyer clearly does not want to purchase the item. So why are you courting disaster by not simply doing what your buyer politely asked you to do? 

[luckythewinner]

They may as well just make a cancel 'request' an actual cancellation as long as there's no 'shipped'.

Because the seller is in the best position to determine whether an item has been shipped, not eBay. Not all sellers use eBay shipping and I doubt many of them upload shipping the second it is purchased at the counter or elsewhere. 

[robbie31415]

Yes.

I use third party fulfillment software that sometime is delayed up to an hour to update with the tracking.

If they could cancel because it doesn't show 'shipped', I could be out a lot of money because sometimes the carrier has the package before the tracking is sync'd on eBay.

[toysaver]

This is why there is a reason for cancellation to select that it was at the customer's request.

[soh.maryl]

You "never give negative reviews"? If your plan is to give this buyer negative feedback, please be aware that buyers cannot be given negative FB.  To do so would actually cause you to receive a "defect" from eBay if the buyer asked eBay to remove it.

Most sellers see the wisdom of cancelling at buyer's request.  It wins hands down over insisting on shipping and then getting a bogus return request citing "item not as described".

Pick your battles carefully.  

[royalprincessdesigns]

@soh.maryl 

You are mistaken. The never give negative reviews was the buyers comment not mine. (which was a lie by the way, she has left 4 or 5 negative comments for other sellers.) The point of all this is that sellers should not be bullied with the threat of receiving a negative feedback. She could have just as well hit the request for cancellation and I would have been happy to do so. She was just too lazy to do so and wanted me to do it. This is not a new buyer or I would not have had a problem doing it outright for her. I never intended on shipping it as that would have turned into a nightmare for sure. 

Does anyone know if there are any repercussions for buyers that make too many cancellation requests after paying using the request cancellation route and not the messaging system?  If not, there should be. JMO. 

[sdneped]

---

@royalprincessdesigns wrote:

@soh.maryl 

You are mistaken.

She could have just as well hit the request for cancellation and I would have been happy to do so. She was just too lazy to do so and wanted me to do it. 

---

@royalprincessdesigns 

You are mistaken.

There is typically no request cancellation route to hit after an hour, viz:

Instead, the buyer is directed to send a message.

[soh.maryl]

Sorry for my error.  Yes, that remark was from the buyer.

Sometimes it is not clear to me when a poster is quoting from someone else unless quotation marks are used or, better yet, a different font. 

[chapeau-noir]

* wrong post.

[redlinear]

Some send Requests.
Some send messages asking for cancellation.
  I can't afford the shipping there AND back.
So, I cancel

[wastingtime101]

---

@royalprincessdesigns wrote:

She could have just as well hit the request for cancellation and I would have been happy to do so. She was just too lazy to do so and wanted me to do it.

---

I'm really curious to know @royalprincessdesigns , what's the difference to you if the buyer sends a formal cancellation request through eBay's system, or if they send a message request instead?

Either way the order gets cancelled by the seller as buyer requested. Same end result.

I disagree about the buyer being the lazy one. They did their part and sent a cancellation request.

If this was more than an hour after the sale the buyer's only option is to send a message as demonstrated in the screenshot posted above by @sdneped .

[ryanrobyn]

why report the buyer - all you have to do is go to cancel order and select buyer asked to cancel - quick and easy and won't make the buyer upset

[selsa84]

next time just cancel when the buyers asks. yes it sucks but its better than shipping it out and then having a return and possibly a bad feedback.