What the heck is wrong with people?

[inhawaii]

I always come on here and see people complaing about requests to cancel a purchase/transaction.  

I always think to myself, what's the big deal? I get a request to cancel a  transaction maybe once a year.  

Well in the last 3 days i've had 3 requests!  

As a buyer also, i don't think i've ever requested to cancel a transaction in 15+ years!

What the heck is wrong with people?

[castlemagicmemories]

If you find out the answer to that, I hope you will share it!

[emerald40]

For the seller - it takes time for the cancellation to go through, and if the buyer paid, to get your fees back.  And especially with time sensitive items, yours is off the market during that very important window of opportunity.

[ymeagainlord]

Probably because eBay is generously showing them the same item for less AFTER they "buy"

[castlemagicmemories]

Seems like it rained and it poured for you, OP, so sorry!

Fortunately this is not the usual routine for you.  I'm thankful for that.

But many don't take any time to think about what they are doing.  They just buy, and then realize they didn't want to/shouldn't have bought.  

Commitment issues.  They take no responsibility.  They just want to cancel.  They don't know or care that a cancellation is not guaranteed; seller can decline.

They don't think about tying up a seller's mearchandise and causing problems.

They just buy~ and then run.

[hioctane62]

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
Probably because eBay is generously showing them the same item for less AFTER they "buy"

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Yes... the same item that ebay DIDN'T show them when they were searching for the item.

[buyselljack2016]

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@inhawaii wrote:

I always come on here and see people complaing about requests to cancel a purchase/transaction.  

I always think to myself, what's the big deal? I get a request to cancel a  transaction maybe once a year.  

Well in the last 3 days i've had 3 requests!  

As a buyer also, i don't think i've ever requested to cancel a transaction in 15+ years!

What the heck is wrong with people?

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In my case when I get requests to cancel it is not a case of "What the heck is wrong with people", it is a case of "what the heck is wrong with eBay".

If the request that you get are fast ait may be a case of eBay being "helpful" by showing the buyer other items that they can purchase.

Sometimes thes items are cheaper.  Request to cancel quickly follows.  eBay thinks it is a great thing to do. No harm, no foul as they look at it.

Less fees for eBay. Loss of PayPal funds management fee for the seller. Time for seller to cancel/relist. Possible relisting fee for seller. Yup, no problem for eBay.

eBay answer to your problem is "maybe you need to lower your prices" to prevent this from happening.

[michael_atw]

I get about one a week, at least.  

People make up an endless array of excuses. 

Today, had to cancel for one who couldn't use his payment card.  I told him to make a Paypal acct and use it thru there.  He said Paypal wouldn't allow him.   He was ready to cancel long before the follow-up messages though (not interested in a solution, that is).  

Last week had one who wanted to cancel because they claimed their kid bought it and paid for it while "messing with the phone".   I suggest to those with kids who do this:  Enroll them in flight school or something.  Even intelligent adults like myself can barely figure out how to use eBay on the phone.  

[jonathankirkland]

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@hioctane62 wrote:

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
Probably because eBay is generously showing them the same item for less AFTER they "buy"

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Yes... the same item that ebay DIDN'T show them when they were searching for the item.

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Yep I had this very same thing happen.

I purchased a widget for $19, was satisfied because it seemed like a fair price, found like ones elsewhere for similar.

But then after I bought it, at the bottom it showed me the exact same item being sold by others with totally different key words (none of which I was able to decipher beforehand, obviously) for $12-13!!!

It's not just disappointing to find you've overpaid by 30-40%, but it feels downright embarrassing.

[ymeagainlord]

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@hioctane62 wrote:

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
Probably because eBay is generously showing them the same item for less AFTER they "buy"

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Yes... the same item that ebay DIDN'T show them when they were searching for the item.

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Exactly.

[ted_200]

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@inhawaii wrote:

I always come on here and see people complaing about requests to cancel a purchase/transaction.  

I always think to myself, what's the big deal? I get a request to cancel a  transaction maybe once a year.  

Well in the last 3 days i've had 3 requests!  

As a buyer also, i don't think i've ever requested to cancel a transaction in 15+ years!

What the heck is wrong with people?

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Well, to start with, eBay is encouraging this sort of activity, so that's one component. 

If they haven't paid it's not any deal.  If they have paid, it's only a small deal.  Both are better than seeing a... ahem... "Return Request" later.

If it's an Auction, it's a much bigger deal. 

[bioman912]

I haven't had that happen yet but you have been dealing for 15 years whats the deal with the fees that eBay has put on just to sell small items, How do you deal with this?

[dugoldstuff]

You have to waste a listing of your 50 free per month to relist the item. Multiply that by 10 or so, and you see how it eats into your profit.

[ted_200]

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@bioman912 wrote:

I haven't had that happen yet but you have been dealing for 15 years whats the deal with the fees that eBay has put on just to sell small items, How do you deal with this?

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You get the Final Value Fee back, so it's just the listing insertion fee, and most listings on eBay are now Free (although it's true, you'll waste free listing on it).  If they pay, you'll eat another 30¢ over at PayPal when you refund. 

But if they give any indication they want out, let them out.  They'll just find a way to get out of it later, and you'll eat a bunch of shipping charges (probably both ways) if you send them anything.  I sell small inexpensive items, but I only get a couple a year since people buying coin auctions generally know what they're doing and don't jerk people around much. 

[ted_200]

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@hioctane62 wrote:

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
Probably because eBay is generously showing them the same item for less AFTER they "buy"

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Yes... the same item that ebay DIDN'T show them when they were searching for the item.

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Yep.  I suspect at least half of these post-purchase cancellations are caused by this.  Most of the site is Fixed Price these days, so the bidder remorse thing (gee, I was really hoping I wouldn't have to pay that much...) is less frequent now. 

And it's not like this situation makes buyers happy either... they may be glad to get the cancellation, but it's still a headache and a delay and they'd have been happier seeing (and buying) the other listing before they purchased.