Seller cancelled item after payment

Nickmar

Can anyone help?

I recently purchased an item on ebay and 24 hours hours late the purchaser cancelled the item and refunded the payment. The cancellation stated that the buyer requested cancellation which I haven't.

I contacted the seller and they said they had missed priced the item and that's why they cancelled the order.

I contacted ebay and they said they could do this and even though they cancelled the order claiming that I had requested it even though I hadn't; that it is not fraud.

Can someone tell me my statutory rights? How can someone sell an item on an auction site take payment and go back on the transaction. Surely there is consumer protection?

At what point is a contract binding?

On another note, ebay claimed they were a platform and it was between me and the other party however they then went on to say that they are entitled to do so under their terms and conditions. Surely an platform must take some form of liability after all they are allowing fraud to take place and are facilitating it.

Many thanks,

Nick

challengedavid

just leave feedback and move on, nothing else to do there

forgotmyname

Fraud? They mispriced or did not want to sell the item to you at that price.

If you accidently advertised a yard full of cars worth £10,000 each for 10,000p would you sell them?

You cannot force them to sell something to you. Their answer to choosing that reason for cancelling maybe ebay offered nothing remotely close to the actual reason for cancelling the sale?

Leaved feedback and move on.

zerog

This seems to happen all the time when sellers don't get the bids they were hoping for. And sometimes even when they set up a BIN - they have second thoughts about their price a few minutes after listing, but I've seen the listing as soon as it goes live and bought it. (It looks like there are about 10 of us doing this in this sub-category, if I don't snap up good BIN deals quickly one of the other guys will!)

Supposedly you might get some defects on your seller account if you keep doing this, but I haven't seen any of the sellers who routinely cancel sales get sanctioned for it.

RFW

Nickmar wrote: »

I contacted ebay and they said they could do this and even though they cancelled the order claiming that I had requested it even though I hadn't; that it is not fraud.

It is in no way fraud.
The definition of fraud is "wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain." There is no financial gain taken place here, chances are the seller has lost their Ebay fees.

You can try and pursue a "loss of a bargain" claim through the courts if you wish. It has been successful in the past, I doubt it would be here or if it was worth it.



As for consumer protection, you haven't paid any money or lost anything, your consumer rights have not diminished.

As said above Ebay protects buyers from sellers who repeatedly do this by banning them from the site. They do have protections for it. A one off mistake cannot be protected against. This happens with small sellers on Ebay and larger retailers too. Some choose to honour their mistakes some can't afford to.

Hermione_Granger

RFW wrote: »

It is in no way fraud.
The definition of fraud is "wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain." There is no financial gain taken place here, chances are the seller has lost their Ebay fees.

There doesn't only have to be a gain.
The actual legal definition of fraud by false representation (Fraud act 2006) is:

1)A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a)dishonestly makes a false representation, and
(b)intends, by making the representation—
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

and as for the loss:

(4)“Loss” includes a loss by not getting what one might get, as well as a loss by parting with what one has.

The seller made a false representation by stating that the OP requested the cancellation and by doing so prevented them by getting the goods that they had already paid for.

Is it worth pursuing?
No, but this doesn't mean that fraud hasn't taken place.

SuperPikachu

I've had a Chinese seller do this to me. Went to buy a Transformers gift set (will have been a fake Chinese one) for £40 and the guy cancels it and says he has no stock left. I check through his other listings and the same item is also in his shop for £60.



Just remember the name/add to your blocked sellers etc

POPPYOSCAR

I thought the buyer had to agree to cancel the sale or the seller still had to pay the fees?

RFW

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

There doesn't only have to be a gain.
The actual legal definition of fraud by false representation (Fraud act 2006) is:


and as for the loss:


The seller made a false representation by stating that the OP requested the cancellation and by doing so prevented them by getting the goods that they had already paid for.

Is it worth pursuing?
No, but this doesn't mean that fraud hasn't taken place.

Interesting points. If fraud had taken place the legislation you quote from would only be relevant to the police or Trading Standards. For the OP to pursue it would be a civil case where the OP would have to prove a loss.
I can only imagine what the police would say if someone took this to them as proof of fraud.

soolin

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

I thought the buyer had to agree to cancel the sale or the seller still had to pay the fees?

As long as seller refunds now it seems to cancel without buyer input.