ebay cancelled sales

soolin

I'm sure someone else posted a thread about this recently, but I can't find it - so apologies if it was here on MSE.

Cancellations are rare for me on ebay and virtually non existent on my private accounts- yet in the past 2 weeks I have had 3 sales cancelled, 2 of them after being paid by buyer. In all cases buyer bought something , then in the case of 2 of them just put in a cancellation request within a few hours  of buying, and the third made me an offer, I accepted offer and then about 12 hours later they asked to cancel (it wasn't paid automatically). 

I always block these buyers but I wonder how on earth you buy something by accident?

I also had a return request (not through a case- just a message) saying they were disappointed as their vintage widget was really small and they felt my photos were misleading and they wanted a full refund. I did my usual, apologised that they were unhappy but pointed out that the title of the listing included the bit '3 inches tall' , the item specifics stated it was 3 inches , the description stated 3 inches and several of the photos showed the item being held in my hand, thus demonstrating the size. I told buyer that I would be happy to take a return for change of mind, and that if she opened a case she could buy a label from ebay and return it for a full refund.

Buyer just replied that on reflection she could see I had put the size, but I should have mentioned also that is was small (the title started with the word small) but she wasn't prepared to pay for a return and thought it best if we just dropped the matter and both learnt from the situation.

I have a lot of issues around sizes which is why I am so persistent in stating size and measurement in as many places as I can. On the whole Facebook marketplace is rather worse than ebay for this.

MattMattMattUK

I generally find that a lot of buyers on eBay are idiots, but they make the people who inhabit Facebook marketplace seem like geniuses. 

I only sell personally on eBay, but a while back I sold a load of classic video games, all were limited editions etc. and were bought by collectors, those were a pleasure to sell to. I have recently had more and more people trying it on with normal items though, I sold some Google Home Max speakers (the big discontinued one) as I was rejiggling things and replaced them with with the Nest Audio ones (they were always too loud anyway, never put them over 50%) and had people trying it on, asking for huge discounts, one asked, I said no, bought the item anyway, then said unless I have him £80 off he was going to cancel. I had someone claim a monitor I sold was not working when it was, though from their purchase history (I messaged four others sellers that had the misfortune of them buying from them and listed a lot of tech items) it turns out they buy a monitor every 2-4 weeks, I suspect returning each and never actually paying, just having a free monitor for a few weeks at a time, complaining it does not work and returning it (or hoping to keep it).

I get the "how big is this?", when the item is listed with full descriptions and measurements like you say you list yours, I get the "does this work?" messages on items which say fully working, "Is this item marked/damaged", when the listing specifically says "Small scuff on bottom right, see picture four" etc. 

I do the same and block all of those kind of people, however the problem is that eBay has no interest in dealing with problematic buyers and the protections for sellers are minimal at best these days. 

I used to quite like selling things on eBay, I always do so now with a feeling of impending pain.

GadgetGuru

Some buyers are idiots. Some just know how to play the eBay system. 

soolin

There is something very odd going on...I've just had another cancellation request and this one shows this message when I try and agree to it:

You can't refund this order quite yet because payment is still being processed. Please try again later.

GadgetGuru

It's probably down to this new cancel order button that eBay introduced a little while ago for buyers - it's making cancellations way too easy. Either that or buyers are using it mistakenly! 

RFW

soolin said:

There is something very odd going on...I've just had another cancellation request and this one shows this message when I try and agree to it:

You can't refund this order quite yet because payment is still being processed. Please try again later.

I can't say I've seen anything on Ebay any different but I don't sell that much there. On Amazon cancellations are part of the selling process. I tend not to see them but will look occasionally and there's always a good few.
It's generally an accepted part of online selling to make it easy to accept cancellations, a pain for us sellers but not surprise Ebay would make it easier.

soolin

RFW said:

soolin said:

There is something very odd going on...I've just had another cancellation request and this one shows this message when I try and agree to it:

You can't refund this order quite yet because payment is still being processed. Please try again later.

I can't say I've seen anything on Ebay any different but I don't sell that much there. On Amazon cancellations are part of the selling process. I tend not to see them but will look occasionally and there's always a good few.
It's generally an accepted part of online selling to make it easy to accept cancellations, a pain for us sellers but not surprise Ebay would make it easier.

I've never declined a cancellation request- even before the new system when it cost me 30p to refund as they kept the partial fee- but then I would expect perhaps a single cancellation each year across all my accounts.  4 in two weeks without any contact from the buyer is just getting silly- percentage wise its huge, as they are all on my private accounts where sales are infrequent. 

I just accept, refund and block the buyer , I'm not risking these buyers trying to buy again and hope that if they make a habit of this 'accidental buying' they will soon start to run into difficulties. 

discat11

I bought something a year or so back and after paying (won on an auction) I got the messaged 'cancelled' and upon checking eBay stated the 'seller requested a cancellation' which was an outright lie.
I did challenge it but never heard anything and was completely gobsmacked eBay would allow a seller to simply cancel without any communication with the buyer. I assume they didn't like the final price, but in which case - set a reserve you numptie. 

soolin

I now truly believe there is something odd going on, I’ve just had another purchase and cancellation within 2 hours. Out of my last 3 sales on my private account, 2 have been cancelled. That’s 5 in about 2 weeks now on accounts with a very low amount of sales. 

The buyers don’t seem to have an anything in common , otherwise I’d assume ‘someone’ has traced my account and is out to cause mischief. 

ballisticbrian

Soolin, there was an announcement a couple of weeks ago, I recall, that said something along the lines of (and apologies if the details are slightly off) ... they were taking the cancellation request out of the contact seller options, and putting it on it's own (I haven't looked so I assume hey mean as it's own option in the purchase history page)
They even said they had thought about the impact to sellers and expected it to be only a few % extra cancellations and that buyer satisfaction would be massively up.

I too have had a slight increase in cancellations.

The cynic in me says it's their phone calls have gone down that all they are worried about.

If you can't find the announcement, ask me and I will look for it. 

soolin

ballisticbrian said:

Soolin, there was an announcement a couple of weeks ago, I recall, that said something along the lines of (and apologies if the details are slightly off) ... they were taking the cancellation request out of the contact seller options, and putting it on it's own (I haven't looked so I assume hey mean as it's own option in the purchase history page)
They even said they had thought about the impact to sellers and expected it to be only a few % extra cancellations and that buyer satisfaction would be massively up.

I too have had a slight increase in cancellations.

The cynic in me says it's their phone calls have gone down that all they are worried about.

If you can't find the announcement, ask me and I will look for it. 

I saw the announcement and at the time imagined it might have a bit of an impact, however I hadn’t realised that a huge percentage of my buyers ‘bought by accident’. These are all on my private account, nothing on my business, so represent a huge percentage of sales. 

I have sold a big ticket item today and as soon as the sale came in I started wondering how long it would be until it was cancelled - and that’s not a good thing to be thinking.