Seller refusing to honour sale.

Avoriaz

I bid £6 on an item with a starting price of 99p, postage £5 and a Buy it Now of £20. The BIN price is very high. £5 to £8 plus £5 postage would be a fair price.

I was the only bidder so of course I won at 99p. I paid immediately. The seller immediately refunded my payment with a message:

“Sorry forgot to take off the bid option, was in a bit of a rush”.

I replied with:

“Hi, I bid and won in good faith. It is not my fault that you had a low starting price or that there were no other bidders.

I will pay again and I expect you to despatch the item in accordance with Ebay terms and conditions.

Thank you”

I paid again but he again immediately refunded with a message:

"I refunded you and gave you a reason therefore I have kept within the conditions"

He relisted the item, this time at £12 and BIN £20.

I know I can’t force him to despatch them and it is a fairly trivial matter but I do want to report him to Ebay for potential fee avoidance with the low starting price and leave the appropriate feedback. I am irritated that my time has been wasted when I could have bought the item from another seller.

What is my best course of action with Ebay?

Can I get his new listing removed as the item belongs to me?

If I leave accurate and non abusive feedback, can he have that removed as technically I now haven’t paid? What is the best wording?

Thanks

eBayRipOff

The item does not belong to you!

Seller can do what he wants, if he does not want to sell, it does not have to sell.

Not really fee avoidance!

However is this really a matter to be bothered with, get aggravation with? or ?

I am just wondering, if you want the item, why don't you offer him what you suggested, and see what he says?

Mistakes do happen from time to time, we are only human!

Once I put an item that was worth £8000, was selling on consignment, but i did an error in the conversion of exchange rate, and it ended up around £3000, somebody bought it within 30 minutes!

The buyer was from abroad, and was upset, but it was an error, and there was no way i would be able to sell the item, as the guy I was selling it for wanted much more then this!

I do understand your frustration, but you never really had the item, you havent lost anything!
I would always be more conservative with feedbacks, example consider a factual neutral feedback.

Then again you can be hateful and let your full fury vent trough a negative feedback! I just prefer a more positive approach!

Tina20

No, a seller can't just take back a sale because it didn't make as much as they wanted! It's clear in the T's and C's. Same if they make a mistake with p&p too low and try to get more out of buyer.


If this was allowed, hundreds and hundreds of sales would be cancelled because they didn't get as much as seller wanted.

halibut2209

It's not "hateful" to rightly leave a negative when a seller refuses to sell. No question of a negative here.

aliballi

As someone who buys more but does at times sell, I think OP is justified in feeling put out. This auction ran to the end & seller could have cancelled within that time & also lacked basic good communication skills in the way they refunded without offering any kind of compromise. OP can report seller to Ebay for non performance & give them a negative, which personally I would do, as the seller in this case has been a time waster.

sharnad

Raise a non performing seller case agaisnt him

sharnad

eBayRipOff wrote: »

The item does not belong to you!

Seller can do what he wants, if he does not want to sell, it does not have to sell.

Not really fee avoidance!

However is this really a matter to be bothered with, get aggravation with? or ?

I am just wondering, if you want the item, why don't you offer him what you suggested, and see what he says?

QUOTE]

You do realise this isnt how auctions work

ineed

I'd have thought the seller would have had a reserve on the item if he didn't want it to go for the starting bid of 99p.

As others said raise a non performing seller case, and leave appropriate feedback.

soolin

Ignoring the strange post and agreeing with the others, this is not acceptable and seller is not going to last long on ebay.

As you rightly say you cannot force him to sell, but a well worded neg and appropriate low stars (communication) will at least warn other buyers not to bother with such a poor seller.

Remembering that feedback is there to give others users an idea of how good a seller is, something like 'refunded my money and Refused to honour sale at winning price' will definitely warn future bidders what they are up against.

eBayRipOff

I totally agree that it is wrong by the seller, however the seller is not obliged by any law to sell to you, even though eBay says it is a binding agreement!

When it happen to me by mistake, it freaked me out, I sent emails and called the buyer, the buyer was not very happy, but the buyer he was fully aware of my error, as he was a similar dealer of similar items, so he understood it was priced wrong, and he wanted me to honour the transaction, which I was not able to do, as it would have meant a massive loss for me.

Only 3 calls later did he accept, I did offer him the item at cost price for me, but which was a very good price, but he declined!

In this case the seller just does not seem to care to communicate to you, because I believe for seller this is the key, if you have made a genuine mistake!

However my main point was, that even though you won the item, seller has no obligation to sell to you.

Reporting him, will not matter much for eBay, this is fairly low level, and eBay will not be to bothered to be honest!

antrobus

eBayRipOff wrote: »

....Seller can do what he wants, if he does not want to sell, it does not have to sell....

eBay says otherwise; "each bid you make is a binding contract to buy the item if you win"

Avoriaz wrote: »

...What is my best course of action with Ebay?

1. As you stated "leave accurate and non abusive feedback"
2. Report to eBay as non-performing seller