Ebay question - seller cancelled transaction

[Showkey]

Agree.......15% all in for fees is the norm. Plus the seller can get large discounts on shipping up 30% even when using USPS. Then add zero risk in payment, shipping tracking, auto pay on fees and shipping it can work to benefit all involved.

eBay is great for many reasons one is it gives a country or world market to the the seller and buyer. That market size was not available prior to eBay. But there are scams and problems every where. eBay or Craigslist ........Craigslist is free but there still a huge price to pay in dealing with the noobs in person.

As far the original post, did the seller cancel or did eBay cancel. The too good to be true pricing is often credit card fraud. The are several other posts around the GJ with Harbor Freight resellers. They list on eBay engine or jacks , They buy the engine and jacks with stolen cards, drop ship the from HF. eBay and HF have been trying to control this. I am sure HF is not othe only store getting ripped off in this fraud.

 

[Maui]

Apparently things have changed a little on Ebay since I sold anything there. Here's one of the 2017 calculators for the theoretical transaction that we have been discussing:

http://finalfeecalc.com/

If you buy the item for $150 and sell it for $175, and you charge the buyer for actual shipping fees this calculator says that you will pay 3.3% to Paypal and that your net profit will be $0.19. So the overall cost is about 14.25% of the selling price. I don't remember the overall cost EVER being this low. I don't think that this calculator takes into consideration listing fees. But then maybe they don't charge separate listing fees anymore. That could be the difference. I don't know.

Maui

 

[crguy]

If I were the OP I'd report him to eBay. Sellers are bound to deliver the item once it sells. It sounds like he got a better offer--too bad, eBay rules say he still has to deliver the item to you. If you report him it might keep others from being taken by this guy.

That's not going to make one bit of difference. The seller has the right to end or cancel his listings as he wishes.

Quite a few of the comments above about Ebay are basically BS.

I buy and sell on Ebay regularly with few problems. Way less problems than dealing with the general public and Ebay offers some protection to buyers.

You can sell to a world wide audience for less than a 15% cut.
Tell me where else you can get that kind of deal?

 

[davethorik]

Wow, never had that happen on ebay...I did buy a chain wrench for cheap a couple years ago, the seller messaged me after the auction was over and basically said, i thought I was going to get more $, so I'm not selling to you. To which I replied, "Then you should have set a reserve or made starting price higher. If you don't sell to me, you're getting a negative feedback." That worked, and I got a nice 15" Diamond Tool & Horseshoe chain wrench for less than $10.

 

[skipnay]

From what I understand, all the seller has to do is say it was damaged during packing or whatever, then they're of the hook. But I'm far from an expert on this...

This is what the seller said to ebay. I asked them if I could see the pictures and I still wanted it. They never asked for pictures and took the sellers word which is a bunch of B.S.

 

[jhelrey]

I've seen people doing this with amazon... they just resel amazon stuff. Assume its generic ****.... marked up 20%...enough to clear ebay + ppal fees of 10-12% (or whatever)...and leave 8% profit with no capital ******* or credit risk involved. Or you could maybe make the deal a bit more sly by lowering the price to 10% over, and get 10% of sale as a comission for referrals to amzn, plus your 10% market...to again clear (maybe) 8% on zero capital or credit risk....or whatever your back of the envelope makes work.

The return of 8% is normally $8/per $100...

... so with zero capital the ROI is pretty good

Been there. Bought from Ebay, got package from Amazon. So I searched the prices on Amazon and I spent maybe $2 more. I don't have an Amazon account and Ebay is just click click click done.

 

[bushmechanic]

Not trying to get into what you said vs what I said debate, but your posting pique my interest. According to this page, $175 item will cost $14 to list. http://www.fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feecalculator. There are other variables, sure, but I dont see how it will get to $35. From my understanding, the more you sell, the less you pay the listing fee (or something like this).

And before you ask why am I curious about this? Because I used to own eBay stocks, and been thinking to get back in. No, I do not sell on Ebay, so again maybe you are correct, the fee is $35. Regardless, sounds like they have a good business going.

Oh, it adds up quick. There can be hidden fees, and certain categories are higher than others. Then there's packing and shipping on top of that, and transaction fees; time invested, the risk of selling certain things in categories where buyers tend to be unreasonable, surprise changes at the last minute from the buyer, canceled bids taking something from $500 down to $50 within an hour of close, etc... All of those things end up affecting the bottom line.

Then add taxes on top of it all.

You spend a lot of time and money selling on Ebay, and at least once a week you come mightily close to swearing it off for good. They don't even come close to itemizing your fees, either, and they can be confusing sometimes if you sell in multiple categories.

If you can't pull a healthy margin over what you paid for an item, it's just not worth the trouble unless you want something in your store to attract different buyers to the rest of your stuff.

 

[Amann34]

I got one of these band saws at a pawn shop for a good deal. Better than flea-bay!

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

 

[reader2580]

How come your bid as a buyer is considered a contract, but the seller doesn't have a contract to sell the item?

 

[Showkey]

Let's say the seller dropped the item while packing it. ( or some other reason) it does not matter.

Seller cancels the sale refunds the payment......no harm no fool

Unless it's a pattern with a seller ...........things happen.......don't really see a huge issue.

But at $175 for that saw ( if it's new in the box) the price is still too good to be true..........so suspect there is another underlying problem or issue.

 

[CafeTools]

There is some sellers who legitimately ran out of stock and some who are just plain bad. There isn't a incentive for then to do this except auction listings they think they didn't get enough money. You can leave negative feedback.

 

[bushmechanic]

How come your bid as a buyer is considered a contract, but the seller doesn't have a contract to sell the item?

That's the way trade works. By removing an item from the market, you've agreed to pay for that item, as it cannot otherwise be sold until it has been restored. On Ebay, that period of time is at least eight days, but commonly two weeks.

The seller, however, is only responsible for presenting that item to be sold. While there are systems in place to ensure sales are encouraged to be completed, and legitimate prices have been met, it is important for the seller to have the facility to cancel a transaction.

Remember: A seller agrees to do no more than offer an item for sale, unless a separate contract is agreed upon between two or more parties. A buyer, however, must complete a purchase.

Agreeing to buy an item on Ebay and then refusing to pay for that item is honestly worse than grabbing an item from a shelf at a brick and mortar store and hiding it in a corner for two weeks.

Sellers (myself included) run into issues frequently, especially in certain categories. People place false bids, and then cancel them; reducing an item's price to pointless levels just before an auction's end. That is a fraudulent auction, and the seller then cancels the sale.

Likewise, items can be lost, damaged (I once stepped on a rare video game before shipping it out, so I canceled the transaction and refunded the buyer), or simply sold locally on a whim while someone is checking out on Ebay.

Sometimes sellers notice troublesome bidders or buyers, by looking up feedback they've left for others; obsessively picky people. The seller determines it's not worth the risk of dealing with them, so they'll cancel a bid early, or give an immediate refund after canceling a sale to give them solid ground. If it's noticed that a bidder is suspect or likely to leave unreasonable feedback very late in the auction, the seller may remove the listing and start again, because canceling a bid late will destroy the price of an item.

Whatever problems buyers think they have, sellers have many, many more.

 

[T45]

People place false bids, and then cancel them; reducing an item's price to pointless levels

why does the price not simply revert to the second highest bid? usually wihing a coupl dollars? are you saying they are engaging in conspiracy with other accounts, for example? or is there some protection for the second bider if the only other bidder cancels.? I can see people (eg, sellers) manipulating second bidder by way of a stalking horse, also.

 

[Roberts210]

That's not going to make one bit of difference. The seller has the right to end or cancel his listings as he wishes......

NOT after the sale. Not legitimately anyway, and if eBay gets too many reports of this they will discipline the seller. I've sold on ebay since 2002.

 

[bushmechanic]

why does the price not simply revert to the second highest bid? usually wihing a coupl dollars? are you saying they are engaging in conspiracy with other accounts, for example? or is there some protection for the second bider if the only other bidder cancels.? I can see people (eg, sellers) manipulating second bidder by way of a stalking horse, also.

It's the way the proxy bid system works. When you cancel, every single bid you placed, and every bid Ebay places on your behalf goes away. When you place a bid, Ebay bids for you up to that point.

So, lets say you placed a bid of $500:

Other bidders place their bids. One at $100, which raises your current bid by the increment to, say, $101. You're still the high bidder, because you're going to max at $500.

Someone else comes in after that, and places a bid at $150, only to find that you've popped in again at $151. So, they fire off a few more, trying to beat you, ending their bidding at $225. Your bid is now $226.

This continues on in our scenario until someone bids $499, at which point your bid ups to your own maximum of $500.

Now, you cancel your bid. Given the system at play, that $500 bid, and every single ante Ebay placed on your behalf disappears, dropping the item price back down to the original attempt to surpass you at $100. Immediately. Usually lower than that, actually; because it'll crash back to whoever you tried to surpass if someone bid before you placed that $500 bid.

So, that item might go all the way down to $13, depending upon where the bids were before you stepped in.

This usually occurs with a day or less left in the auction; usually only a few hours, actually. In this period of time, it is impossible for the item to recover to fair market value, because most of the bidders have gone; not noticing what's happened.

Buyers do this to crash an item's value, and then pick it up with another account. Shills do this to jack your price up so high that buyers will shop with another seller, and then back out, only to destroy your auction.

When this does happen, it usually happens more than once in one listing, but it only needs to happen once to break the auction. This is why sellers are picky about zero feedback bidders.

Odds are, they'll cancel at the last minute because they bought something else if they are legitimate, or they are using a shill account to either snag something for next to nothing, or simply direct sales to another seller.

Regardless, the result is the same. You're either stuck waiting for payment that will never come if the guy accidentally wins, which sticks you with the item for two weeks usually; or you're forced to cancel a transaction. Selling at the fraudulent price isn't going to happen.

This is another reason why sellers are allowed to cancel transactions and bids. We look into items that are slimbing in price too fast all of a sudden, and if we see low feedback bidders in there, we either cancel them immediately, contact them and give them a short amount of time to respond before canceling, or back out and relist.

Then, we ban all suspect usernames.

 

[7avalon7]

Thanks bushmechanic. That is very informative

 

[Provincial]

I won an auction for an older large tubing bender. The flat rate shipping price was listed in the auction. I was the only bidder, so it went for cheap. I immedietly paid the price+shipping via Paypal.

The seller responded that he wanted $30.00 more for shipping, or he would cancel the sale. I refused, since the shipping was listed in the auction. He refunded the Paypal payment, and relisted the item at a much higher price and "buyer pays actual shipping."

Ebay would not allow me to give feedback. This *****!

 

[CoogarXR]

Ebay would not allow me to give feedback.

Never heard of that happening to a buyer...

 

[skipnay]

That's the way trade works. By removing an item from the market, you've agreed to pay for that item, as it cannot otherwise be sold until it has been restored. On Ebay, that period of time is at least eight days, but commonly two weeks.

The seller, however, is only responsible for presenting that item to be sold. While there are systems in place to ensure sales are encouraged to be completed, and legitimate prices have been met, it is important for the seller to have the facility to cancel a transaction.

Remember: A seller agrees to do no more than offer an item for sale, unless a separate contract is agreed upon between two or more parties. A buyer, however, must complete a purchase.

Agreeing to buy an item on Ebay and then refusing to pay for that item is honestly worse than grabbing an item from a shelf at a brick and mortar store and hiding it in a corner for two weeks.

Sellers (myself included) run into issues frequently, especially in certain categories. People place false bids, and then cancel them; reducing an item's price to pointless levels just before an auction's end. That is a fraudulent auction, and the seller then cancels the sale.

Likewise, items can be lost, damaged (I once stepped on a rare video game before shipping it out, so I canceled the transaction and refunded the buyer), or simply sold locally on a whim while someone is checking out on Ebay.

Sometimes sellers notice troublesome bidders or buyers, by looking up feedback they've left for others; obsessively picky people. The seller determines it's not worth the risk of dealing with them, so they'll cancel a bid early, or give an immediate refund after canceling a sale to give them solid ground. If it's noticed that a bidder is suspect or likely to leave unreasonable feedback very late in the auction, the seller may remove the listing and start again, because canceling a bid late will destroy the price of an item.

Whatever problems buyers think they have, sellers have many, many more.

I agree with some of what your saying. The truth be told though. Once you pay it is legally yours. So Them cancelling the bid, auction, or your payment to me is illegal. I have talked to paypal about this. I'm actually trying to get them to cancel all refunds unless I agree to it. This has happened to me a couple of times and I just won't take it anymore.... Like I said above. They the seller should be able to prove that they broke it or damaged it. Then it should still be up to buyer because he has already paid for it.

 

[skipnay]

Never heard of that happening to a buyer...

This is true because of transaction was denied by seller. So they can keep on doing it.

 

[bushmechanic]

I agree with some of what your saying. The truth be told though. Once you pay it is legally yours. So Them cancelling the bid, auction, or your payment to me is illegal. I have talked to paypal about this. I'm actually trying to get them to cancel all refunds unless I agree to it. This has happened to me a couple of times and I just won't take it anymore.... Like I said above. They the seller should be able to prove that they broke it or damaged it. Then it should still be up to buyer because he has already paid for it.

Not going to happen. It would drag commerce to a halt if something as simple as giving someone their money back required proving some event had or had not occurred.

One of the things angry buyers don't like to tell you when they run into issues is that they try to change things just before or even immediately after payment, or begin to ask for further information at that time.

That's a huge red flag.

Thing is, though, this happens all the time. Ebay is a very careful balancing act; in some categories more than others, but the point stands. If a seller smells trouble, and he's got even one ounce of sense, he'll be ready to refund and cancel...

***** when it happens to someone with good intentions, but it's the rest of the jerks that encourage such caution on the part of sellers.

 

[crguy]

NOT after the sale. Not legitimately anyway, and if eBay gets too many reports of this they will discipline the seller. I've sold on ebay since 2002.

Strange stuff happens all the time on Ebay - right, or wrong. You just have to deal with it.

I got a negative feedback removed the other day - by the person that left it - after I told him I reported him to Ebay. Never knew that could be done.

And, I've sold on Ebay since Jan. 1999

 

[egdede]

I had the same thing happen to me. Though it ticked me off because they guy waited a whole week later. I also reported to ebay and wouldn't give negative feedback because he would've done the same to me. Even though I paid for auction minutes after I won. I told ebay that is kinda like stealing. You don't go to a store and buy something. Then as your walking out they take it from you and give you your money back.

sellers cannot leave neg feedback anymore

 

[BFBOB]

The demand for extra shipping after the sale happened to me once. I refused, seller cancelled, and I was not able to leave feedback. So I reported the transaction to eBay. the next day, he was "No longer an eBay member".

 

[BFBOB]

sellers cannot leave neg feedback anymore

Right. Been that way for a couple of years at least, and totally unfair.

 

[skipnay]

Right. Been that way for a couple of years at least, and totally unfair.

Well other then someone not paying why would you? I agree if they didn't pay. But if they paid by x amount of time what would the negative feedback be for?

 

[bushmechanic]

Well other then someone not paying why would you? I agree if they didn't pay. But if they paid by x amount of time what would the negative feedback be for?

You run into a lot of troublesome, unresponsive buyers; some pay, but after that demand alterations, or falsification of customs forms. They'll begin to give all manner of issues after receiving an item sometimes, as well. Then, leave you bad feedback even when you solve the problem.

Just poke through feedback ratings of very good sellers. If it's not someone like me, who will cancel a bid, a transaction, or ban a user, odds are you'll see the negatives in there over total nonsense.

Sellers need the power to warn other sellers. As well, a bad buyer generally makes a bad seller, so the feedback works either way. For some time now buyers have had the sellers by the balls; vice at the ready.

Sometimes you feel like you're under siege.

 

[four.cycle]

Quite a few of the comments above about Ebay are basically BS.

I have to wonder if any of the people here complaining have ever actually communicated with any Ebay sellers.
I am strictly a buyer on Ebay. I have no intention of selling stuff on Ebay.
I've read through "negative feedback" comments (as suggested just above by bushmechanic) on many sellers, and for the most part they are complete ********.
Considering what I have been told, communicating at length with many Ebay sellers, there is no way in hell I would want to deal with the jackasses who are buyers. They stall on payments, they complain about diddley-*** stuff on used items, then they whine about having to pay return shipping charges, ad nauseum.
I've made a lot of purchases on Ebay in a relatively short time period. I've left one negative comment (to a ***** who wrapped the item with packing tape that removed a good deal of the paint when I peeled all the tape off of it), and have had exactly one seller who didn't deliver the goods as per the sales agreement. That is a total of less than .003% of my total transactions.

So get over it already. For whatever reason, the seller cancelled the deal. Maybe he had good reason to do so. Another one will come along sooner or later.

As always, just my lousy two cents.

 

[stikman56]

Make sure to leave negative feedback to warn others and maybe hurt their bottom line.

Yeah,I have had many cancel,lame excuses like it was stolen out of my truck. Always happens when the bidding was low and I got a great deal. I just make sure to leave negative feedback, they ain't gettin' away unscathed.

 

[kythri]

Sometimes you feel like you're under siege.

I always look at the negative comments of someone I've not purchased from before, and quite frequently, I dismiss the vast majority of them as unreasonable buyers.

That said, there's relatively few unreasonable buyers out there - the vast majority of sellers have a high-90's feedback percentage, and when you're selling hundreds or thousands of items a month, several negatives are to be expected.

Quite frankly, I welcome the removal of the ability of sellers to leave negative feedback. For too long, a large majority of sellers embargo'd their feedback until the buyer left positive feedback, instead opting to hold their feedback for a retaliatory negative once the buyer left their true opinion about the sale.

I honestly wish that eBay/PayPal would take the feedback one step further, and not release funds until the seller posts positive feedback or cancels the transaction. It's my belief that, once the buyer pays, the buyer has fulfilled his/her part of the transaction, and if that payment was within the time specified by eBay, positive feedback should be left.

I no longer leave positive feedback for a seller until they've left it for me. Over the years I've been an eBay member, my feedback score should easily be a couple hundred points higher than it is, due to lazy/shifty sellers holding their feedback hostage.

 

[CoogarXR]

I wish they'd do away with buyer feedback altogether. I mean, really, what's the point? With no ability to leave negs, how can any buyer be anything but "A+!". It's just another worthless obligation of the seller to blow wind up the *** of feedback-hoarding egomaniacs. I have seen buyers leave negs for sellers that didn't leave feedback fast enough!

If buyers must have something, just give them a purchase tally. Every time they buy something, their number goes up by one. Do I really need to write a halmark sentiment for every buyer when I am not allowed to be honest?

 

[dnschmidt]

As a seller who sells on EBay, unfortunately but where else is there, I can tell you that selling on EBay (particularly if you're dumb enough to run auctions) *****. I buy TOPTUL for a price, I know what I need to make on the sale to make any kind of a profit and that's why I only run Buy It Now with immediate pay. Between people bitching about shipping charges (I don't get postage for free like Amazon seems to - sorry) flat out crooks trying to return perfectly good merchandise because they have buyer's remorse or some other unexplainable reason and the occasional idiot it's not much fun. Add in the fees and it's not really a winning proposition.

 

[bushmechanic]

Yeah,I have had many cancel,lame excuses like it was stolen out of my truck. Always happens when the bidding was low and I got a great deal. I just make sure to leave negative feedback, they ain't gettin' away unscathed.

Watch those auctions carefully. It might be someone pulled their bid and crashed the sale. A seller has every right to cancel after fraudulent actions, and the bidders can't easily see what's happened.

This is most common with collectible items and pretty much anything around the holidays. When I do vintage computers, die cast vehicles, rare video games, tools, or anything of the like, someone will try to crash the listing; and I'll get other bidders or potential bidders that have not read the listing, and ask questions that have already been answered, or make those requests I've mentioned.

At that point, it's a refund and a cancel; otherwise I'm sitting there biting my fingernails hoping the person has a soul. Many times, if I don't cancel, I'll refund the shipping just to add to the value and put them in a good mood.

You also have new buyers and new sellers out there. If you determine that a buyer is indeed new, you give them a little rope. It's only fair to give sellers the same consideration if they are new as well.

Politely educate them in a message, and help them out a bit if they need it. I do that a lot, especially when I'm shopping. When I come across a new seller who hasn't quite figured things out, I'll send them a message to help.

The same goes for guys who are just picking up and get swamped for the first time.

If you get your money back, you haven't lost anything. If the seller runs into problems on your end, however, he's commonly lost two weeks, which may as well be a lifetime in certain competitive categories.

 

[ADSR]

OP, post the sellers auction please.

 

[bushmechanic]

I always look at the negative comments of someone I've not purchased from before, and quite frequently, I dismiss the vast majority of them as unreasonable buyers.

That said, there's relatively few unreasonable buyers out there - the vast majority of sellers have a high-90's feedback percentage, and when you're selling hundreds or thousands of items a month, several negatives are to be expected.

Quite frankly, I welcome the removal of the ability of sellers to leave negative feedback. For too long, a large majority of sellers embargo'd their feedback until the buyer left positive feedback, instead opting to hold their feedback for a retaliatory negative once the buyer left their true opinion about the sale.

I honestly wish that eBay/PayPal would take the feedback one step further, and not release funds until the seller posts positive feedback or cancels the transaction. It's my belief that, once the buyer pays, the buyer has fulfilled his/her part of the transaction, and if that payment was within the time specified by eBay, positive feedback should be left.

I no longer leave positive feedback for a seller until they've left it for me. Over the years I've been an eBay member, my feedback score should easily be a couple hundred points higher than it is, due to lazy/shifty sellers holding their feedback hostage.

If people worked things out via message like they used to, feedback wouldn't have been held hostage.

When the masses migrated to the world wide web in the early to mid 2000s, they had no idea how things worked, and Ebay quickly devolved into tons of pointless complaints.

You'll notice many sellers have accounts that started just beyond that point. It's because they had sense enough to delete their first account after that assault and start again. If you see a guy with an account from the '90s, he's got balls for pushing through the early 2000s.

Sellers wised up during that period and didn't leave feedback until they received it. The thing is, even when sellers could still leave bad feedback, buyers still wouldn't communicate.

People will swear they have problems with sellers, but they so very rarely contact them. Oh, they'll claim they did when complaining on forums, but it's nonsense. They usually didn't. The few times they actually do, it's a big rant immediately and threats.

Back then, sellers had the ability to warn people with feedback, and it was buyer abuse that caused them to become paranoid. Now, there's so very little recourse... There's no timely way to get things straightened out, and people, even now, refuse to contact you when they feel they have an issue.

Then, they run around on the 'net complaining about sellers.

Hey; there are some jerk sellers out there, but not nearly as many as people would like to believe. I've bought countless items on Ebay. I don't just sell there; I shop as well. I wouldn't say it's 50:50, but I've done a lot of buying.

In all that time, I've left but a single negative feedback rating for a seller that wouldn't cooperate. Buyers, however, have routinely been a problem, and I treat my customers and all interested parties like royalty.

I have a nearly unfathomable belief in the nobility of trade and being a merchant. To me, it is a great calling, and I will go to outlandish lengths to make transactions happen; it would blow your mind what I've done in that effort.

You'll never have a better experience than you will with me...

...and still, people give me trouble. They crash my auctions, ask me to falsify documents, don't pay, come up with troublesome issues after the transaction before shipment; it never ends.

 

[BFBOB]

Sorry if I'm being dense, but honest, I've been an eBay buyer and seller for over a decade.

What is "crashing" an auction??

 

[Eric29]

A seller canceling and auction happened to me about a year ago when the seller posted a Honda generator for $100 less than everyone else. That seller also had zero feedback. When I emailed eBay, they said they were removing the person as seller and said that it happens. I certainly learned my lesson.