eBay Seller Question

[electrolux137]

I'm just wondering what y'all would think of an eBay seller who put an item on eBay; a buyer won the auction for that item and paid for it via PayPal; then the seller wrote to say he "changed his mind" about selling the item, issued a refund to the buyer via PayPal, and is refusing to honor the buyer's winning bid.

Has this ever happened to any of y'all? If so, how did you handle it? If you filed a complaint with eBay &/or PayPal, did they rule favorably on you behalf? Did you leave feedback to the seller? If so, did you leave negative feedback?

Or did you simply say to yourself, "Oh well, I really wanted the item but 'que sera, sera'" and just move on?

Without getting more specific for the time being, I'd like to hear your input on this.

 

[s31463221]

Charles

Not knowing the details of your situation, I would say you dealt with the same eBay seller I run into some time ago! I had the winning bid on an item ( vacuum of course) and the seller cancelled everything after the auction ended because of the shipping charges not being right or something like that and relisted it at a higher price with a higher shipping cost. I just let it go and made a note of the seller and will NOT purchase from them in the future.

 

[hoover119dude]

Hi Charles,

Sounds to me like the seller either didn't get the price they wanted or was curious to see what the vac would go for. I think one should be able to leave negative feedback in spite of any refunds as the sale was legal and was not honoured.

In the future i suggest staying clear and as the other member who posted mentioned, take note of seller ID and don't buy from them again as the only result seems to be bid = win = refund.

 

[dysonman1]

I don't know the situation you experienced, but I would be upset that I won an auction, paid for it, and THEN the seller changed their mind. If I won and paid, I expect to receive the item.

 

[electrolux137]

Tom, that was precisely what happened. I won the item and paid for it. Then the next day I got a message from the seller saying he had "changed his mind" about selling the item and had, before even asking me about it, refunded my PayPal payment -- which, as anyone knows who's gotten a PayPal refund, caused PayPal to freeze my account until the reversed payment had cleared. Some BS about fraud protection or something.

I did file a complaint about the seller to eBay. There was a time when eBay's policies specifically stated that a buyer and seller enter into a legal contract when a successful bid is placed, and the seller is under legal obligation to send the item just as the buyer is under legal obligation to pay for it.

But along with a lot of other crappy "new features designed to enhance your eBay experience," that is no longer the case. Apparently now, a seller has the right to refund a payment on an item if he's not happy with the final bid amount.

My question is, then, What's the point in bidding on eBay if sellers are going to start refusing to honor bids for the flimsy excuse that they "changed their minds" about selling items?

The only recourse a buyer has is to leave negative feedback which, of course, I am going to do. But if the seller is a flake or moron, or does not conduct herself as a professional, she's not going to be concerned about a negative mark on her selling record.

btw I discussed this issue on a certain other forum, and a certain person there who is a friend of the seller posted a very snarky and mean-spirited response, which amounted to him bullying me, telling me to "get over it" and "put on my big girl panties" and to "stop whining and complaining all the time."

Nice that the seller sticks up for his immature f@#ktard friends who sell on eBay. I don't have the time or interest for such insults so I left the group.

No, it's not the grievance of the century. But it does really piss me off that I won an item fair and square and the seller childishly refused to honor my winning bid --- probably because someone saw the auction after it closed and offered him more money.

[this post was last edited: 12/1/2013-00:38]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=190975568252&view=all&tid=0

 

[jfalberti]

Wow

I clicked your link Charles, and eBay says that the auction details are no longer available.  Why would they do that?

 

[electrolux137]

I don't know, Joe. Try this link, taken directly from my "My eBay" page:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Electrolux-...NquHtVahyWsAInZSn%2FY%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

[jfalberti]

That link worked Charles

Too bad the seller flaked out.  That looked really nice too.

 

[guido]

Has happened to me as well

When it happened to me, I simply advised the seller that I was informing him that his name was being forwarded to my lawyer who would solve the question. Curiously, I received the item after 4 days of silence ...and the seller did not ask for the payment back ! A funny ending !

ANYWAY you should always consider this : in case of doubt, you have to identificate the moment when the PROPERTYof the item goes from the seller to the buyer; that moment is - of course - the auction end. From that moment YOU ARE THE OWNER and are obliged to pay within a certain time, while the seller is obliged to ship the item. Should this not happen, both can theorically require police help and could be obliged to.
It's EBAY but anyway it's a valid COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT and the rules are the same.

 

[jmurray01]

This has never happened to me fortunately, but I cannot understand sellers who partake in such childish antics.


 


If you list an item for sale you agree to sell it - full stop.