Poor Experience with Auction Site Seller

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

I have just had a bad experience with a seller on a well-known online auction site. I was the winning bidder for an item that went for a very reasonable price and immediately paid in full. After a few days I was supplied with an Evri tracking number and anticipated delivery. However, the status did not change from ‘tracking available’ and after several more days I contacted the seller to enquire about the delayed dispatch of the item. The seller, in fairness, responded immediately to say that they had cancelled the sale because the listed postage costs were insufficient to cover the item.

I received a full refund but consider that the seller had both a legal and moral obligation to honour the sale. They certainly would have had a legal obligation in a ‘real’ auction when the hammer fell, the same as I would have had an obligation to buy as a contract would have been struck between us. The item would have become my property as soon as I had paid in full, but apparently this is not the case with the online auction site as the seller can cancel the sale on the grounds that it was incorrectly listed, even after the auction has run its course. In other words they can use any excuse not to honour a winning bid.

I strongly suspect that the seller used this excuse to cancel the sale because the auction did not realise the price they were expecting to achieve, but had not listed the item with a reserve or ‘buy it now’ price. I have no idea as to whether this seller is a private individual or a dealer but feel very dissatisfied to be treated in this very amoral way and that the only course of action open to me is to leave a negative feedback against the seller.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Well as you don’t identify the seller here it would be much more effective to do that on the site to warn off other prospective buyers.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

I regret to say this is a sign of the times we live in. I have had this happen several times. There is also the scam of selling an item and then waiting for about a month, only to receive a full refund. I am of the opinion that the item was not available to start off with.

There is one other thing thanks to the tracking systems. An item is logged as being sent as soon as the Tracking number is issued. This is not true once you have investigated the more information box. I have had days go by before the item is actually posted.

Regards

Gray,

 

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

If this was ebay, yes auction sites can be named, it appears that the seller has breached their Terms and Conditions.  Therefore complain to ebay, who will punish the seller if they agree.

When buying from auction sites I have a “no tears” policy because knowing purchases are a tad more likely to go wrong than other ways of buying is part of the game.  Therefore, understand the Terms and Conditions before playing and follow the complaints procedure if there’s a problem.  Don’t expect anything beyond money back unless the seller is keen to protect his reputation.   Morals are irrelevant; commerce and the law have their own rules!   Hope that doesn’t sound unsympathetic, but the world is what it is.

An interesting question:  if the same item reappears with higher postage costs, should Chris buy it?   Emotionally, I’d say no, but perhaps Chris needs the item, and this misadventure was just business, not personal…

Dave

[halfnutParticipant @halfnut]

Yes, eBay has a complaints and dispute resolution facility. Use it.

Did you offer to pay the extra postage? (If it wasn’t too ridiculous.)

Some sellers on eBay do seem to not want to sell their items. Maybe they are just convincing their wives they are doing something about “that mess in the garage” without really doing so?

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

“Well as you don’t identify the seller here it would be much more effective to do that on the site to warn off other prospective buyers.”

I am reluctant to name the seller, even though they are using a nom de guerre on the auction site, because I can’t be certain as to the exact reason this person withdrew the sale and would not want to be accused of any sort of defamation. I could only describe my personal experience to relieve some of my frustration.

“Did you offer to pay the extra postage? (If it wasn’t too ridiculous.)”

Yes, I actually did offer to pay any additional P&P costs, but the seller just instigated a refund and re-listed the item. I suspected they wanted a higher price and put the lowest bid on the new listing expecting to see that a reserve had now been added but this is not the case.

“If this was ebay, yes auction sites can be named, it appears that the seller has breached their Terms and Conditions.  Therefore complain to ebay, who will punish the seller if they agree.”

In the exchange of emails the seller, when I had demanded that the sale be honoured, referred me to the auction site’s T&C’s. Resolution of any issue which cannot be resolved ‘automatically’, e.g. the instigation of a refund, on this site is not easy and probably not meant to be. Sites such as these are being infested with ‘chat-bots’ which only refer you to standard answers, which you can read for yourself and are just another way of repelling complainants, IMO. I have better things to do in what’s left of my life like spouting on here, LOL!

I actually didn’t need the item and was prepared to let it go to the next bid, it was just that the next bid never came so I won the auction and expected the seller to honour their side of the bargain as I was prepared to honour mine and did so by immediately paying in full.

[halfnutParticipant @halfnut]

Best you can do then is leave a very negative feedback review outlining what happened.

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

This happed to me a couple of times. Other than leaving negative feedback, there really is little else that can be done.

 

I just move on and hope the next bargain works out!

 

Jimb

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I bought an item on a “Buy it Now” price on ebay several months ago, a few days later I had a message to say that neither he or his wife could find said item, and a refund was made without any issue. I didn’t see the item return back onto ebay, but I bought the same item at much the same price and in a better condition to boot from a different seller.

Regards Nick.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Also leave negative feedback and strong comment as to why !

H

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

I was on the other end of a deal. I just sucked it up and sent the item. Life is too short.

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

“I was on the other end of a deal. I just sucked it up and sent the item.”

Which is exactly what I would have done if the boot had been on the other foot, but unfortunately some people do not feel the same sort of moral obligation as decent and honourable people do.

[Paul Mills 4Participant @paulmills4]

Ebay has recently changed a lot for private seller, adding a buyer protection fee to the buy it now price or final value auction price, they have also introduced super simple postage, which has I am told severely impacted the way items are dispatched, taking away the option to have couriers like evri, royal mail and others pick items up. It also takes away the option of choosing parcel size from the seller, on occasion this has according to ebay forum resulted in the buyer/seller being told they have to pay an extra charge to the courier or the item will be destroyed. I have also seen posts claiming that items sold for £5 including postage have then been supplied with a postage label  through super simple postage costing well in excess of  the sale price. Perhaps something like this happened, and the seller decided not to lose money, but was unwilling to risk the hassle or bad performance review from ebay

Has anyone else noticed a decrease in private sellers on ebay, it certainly seems to be the case for vintage motorcycle parts, which is my main area browsing ebay, my wife is also complaining about a decrease in vinyl available.

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

I did very well using eBay for 20 years as sideline. Sold things I made in my shed worldwide. There wouldn’t have been any other way of having such a big marketplace.

 

Ebays changes have happened at the same time as my severe health problems and early retirement, as such I’m thankful it was so easy to both buy and sell, but now I’m washing my hands of it.

 

Temu will, no doubt go the same way. I’ve been buying very good quality end mills for a very good price. Tax changes will end that too.

 

I’ll just move on!

 

Jimb

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Paul Mills 4,

You don’t have to use the super simple postage option on eBay and I personally don’t like it, there is a custom postage option available which I much prefer.

I have sold stuff where I have lost out on my postage costs but have just sucked it up and moved on.

Tony

[Ian Owen NZParticipant @ianowennz]

I had something similar happen a while ago, I won and auction for a Starrett 150-175mm micrometer in its case and in what looked like new condition.

The seller said they sent it, but there was no tracking number, after a week I questioned the seller and got no reply but the following day I got notice of a full refund.

My thought was the seller didn’t get the return on the item they were selling that they wanted, and refunded the money when I questioned where it was.

I left negative feedback accordingly, he wasn’t happy.

Ian

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

As an eBay seller I find ‘top quality’ engineering tools really don’t make anywhere near the original purchase price even in mint condition.

I put this down to the Chinese effect where almost anything can be bought for not a lot of cash and 9 times out of 10 the item will look visually similar and perform the desired task as required.

Tony

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