Dishonest seller
Hello, I found myself in an unpleasant situation with a seller. He put up for auction a lot of philatelic folders with a starting bid of €1; I won them for just over 20 (the new value was around 200). I paid right away. About 3 days later he cancels my order and refunds me, justifying it by saying that these folders got wet when he was about to ship them and were ruined (my 5-year-old son would come up with a better excuse). I point out to him that in my opinion this isn't true because he was expecting to make more money, and he no longer replies to me. After 2 days the folders magically go back on sale with a starting auction price of €75. What can be done with dishonest sellers like him? Thanks
10 comments
actar80
·3 years agoStarting from the premise that the seller is not obligated to complete the sale and, in fact, if he refunds you he loses the fixed fee that is not refunded to him, it is natural that if you win an auction you expect the seller to ship the item. At least that would be the straightforward behavior one should have.
I’m not here to defend the seller, but it could be an inexperienced seller or someone who underestimated how auctions work, starting the auction at 1 euro when the item is worth around 200 euros as you yourself say. The seller was probably too optimistic and expected many more bids and bidders that would drive the final auction amount up to a fair sum.
I can understand the disappointment of seeing a good deal slip away, but considering that you would have paid only 1/10 of the item's real value, if I were you I would let it go and be more understanding toward the seller, who made a mistake from the outset and also used an excuse that then turned out to be not very credible, but usually they do it to try to avoid a negative f.back. This happened to me too years ago when a won auction was canceled on me with a similar excuse, but I let it go and understood the seller's lack of experience.
My advice is to let it go; if he does it again then report him and leave feedback describing what happened, but without expressing judgments about the seller.
antonio.verd
OP3 years agoThanks for the reply, in my opinion if a seller gets involved with auctions they can’t then refuse to sell; that doesn’t seem right to me, they could explain why and maybe agree with the buyer whether to cancel the deal or not. Like what happens when a buyer decides they no longer want an item they committed to buy. The reason given was that the item got wet and torn during shipping (which is obviously false, both because of the excuse like a 6-year-old’s and because it was put back up for sale). Also, the seller is not inexperienced, since they have more than 5,000 sales on eBay.
actar80
·3 years agoI get it, I didn’t realize he had 5,000 sales, he definitely isn’t a newbie.
In fact, maybe he was too confident to start the auction at 1 euro.
For feedback on the canceled purchase, if you can’t do it from the purchase history and the related transaction details, try checking the email linked to your eBay account and eBay’s own messaging.
After a few days, you should get a message reminding you to leave feedback for your purchases. Click from there and you should be able to leave the feedback. I managed to do it for 1 canceled purchase with a refund, but my case was different because I left positive 5-star feedback, the seller is trustworthy (I had already bought from him) and he refunded me because the item malfunctioned.
antonio.verd
OP3 years agoThanks, I followed your advice and managed to leave feedback. I hope mine is an isolated case, as you said earlier, maybe due to being overconfident.
actar80
·3 years ago👍It's likely that it went that way. Let's hope it doesn't happen again. Bye.
heavenwelkin
·3 years agoGood evening antonio.verd
Given that a seller can refuse to carry through a sale for any reason.
It is obviously a pretty unserious and unfair behavior on the seller’s part, especially when a buyer has invested time and energy to take part in an auction.
First of all, you need to check what reason they used to cancel the sale, look into it because sometimes they claim that the cancellation was requested by the buyer.
If they used a false reason, you can report the seller at this link:
https://www.ebay.it/help/action?topicid=4022
Then, if you want, you can leave neutral or negative feedback where you point out what happened, but without writing potentially defamatory content.
You could write for example: Bought at auction for 20 euros with a starting bid of 1 euro, the seller cancels the sale with excuses. Item relisted with a starting bid of 75 euros. Unserious seller.
Kind regards.
marioelegio
·3 years agoIf you add: “unreliable seller”, it will definitely be removed (at the seller’s request).
Any generalized judgment is subjective and potentially defamatory.
You can’t generalize from an objective fact (the failure to fulfill a contractual obligation) to a subjective judgment (that the seller will always be unreliable).
ciao
mario
heavenwelkin
·3 years agoI agree.
It’s better to LIMIT yourself to describing the facts exactly as they happened.
“Not very serious,” being a personal opinion, should be avoided for safety.
None of us knows exactly the criteria and limits not to cross when leaving a neutral or negative.
It could certainly be deleted at the seller’s request because it’s defamatory.
antonio.verd
OP3 years agoThanks for the reply, in my opinion if a seller gets involved with auctions they can’t then refuse to sell; that doesn’t seem right to me. They could explain and maybe agree with the buyer on whether to cancel the transaction or not, as happens when a buyer decides they no longer want an item they committed to buying. The reason given was that the item got wet and tore during shipping (which is obviously false, both because it’s a justification a 6-year-old would give, and because it has been put back up for sale). Also, unfortunately I can’t leave feedback since I received a refund and so the leave feedback icon doesn’t appear for me like it does for other sellers.
heavenwelkin
·3 years agoTry from the purchase history at this link:
https://www.ebay.it/mye/myebay/v2/purchase
Ebay is constantly being updated, let us know if it is actually no longer possible to leave feedback for a transaction that the seller canceled.
Maybe among the reasons used, the seller specified as the reason for the cancellation that "the buyer asked to cancel the sale" ??
If so, let us know.
Kind regards.