What If Ebay Seller Doesn't Honor Auction

What is one to do if they successfully bid/win a no-reserve ebay auction, and the ebay seller refuses PayPal payment and doesn't send the auction lot? For example, the ebay auction doesn't end at a very high price, so the ebay seller realizes the auction ended at a priced much lower than it should have.

I'm a seller too, and sometimes start lots at $0.01 (and sometimes with free shipping to boot!), so when the lot sells for 1c, I'm clearly losing on the sale. So, my sympathy is with the ebay seller, however they MUST still complete the auction sale since they chose to list with no reserve.

What I do as a seller is to send out the lot, congratulate the winner on their good win, and realize that some auctions end higher than expected, some lower, and it will even out over time. But that's my philosophy (and then I think about how and whether to change my selling strategy).

But for the seller that refuses to accept payment and/or send out the lot, what do you do as a buyer if you REALLY wanted the lot (and even had placed your bid way higher than the second highest bid)? The seller should be ethical and accept payment and send out the lot to you.

What if the seller is also a member of the SCF? As a person of good conscience, you don't want to air out your laundry in a forum. But on the other hand, you would like to curb the seller from doing it again or to others.

Thoughts?

All bids should be honored.
If the seller did not want to take a chance it ending low....
he/she should have made a modest opening.
I go thru this all the time....
I start the majority of mine @ 99c....tough when it does not bring close
to fair market value....but...the buyer gets a good deal
and comes back.
I think it matters not that the seller is a SCF member....
Were you the buyer?

I bought something on ebay I never received. No response from seller, had to get refund through ebay. After refund left negative feedback and noticed seller had several more from about the same time. The items all had low bids so it seems the seller just didnt ship and stopped selling. At least with that username...

I am trying to pose this as a hypothetical problem, however, yes it has happened to me. As you write, it is the same for me as a seller - I just send out the item to complete the transaction, and am glad if the buyer comes back for more, realizing what a good deal they got!

raymodj - I'm sure that happens too. The (unethical) seller has to consider the trade-off of stopping their current ID activity and starting another to continue selling (and keeping same practice). The ethical seller honors auctions/sales and has a longer-term outlook for sales performance. Yeah, I know, I'm an idealist - not going to change now!

It happens to all of us that bid on ebay on a regular basis. Just get your money back and don't be tempted to bid with them again no matter how great the deal is. Then move on and put it behind you.

The only protocol is to file with ebay, get your money back,
and leave the most detailed negative on the seller that you
can, within the confines of the allowable characters, to warn
others of the seller's unacceptable behavior...

The seller has refused the Paypal payment, so no refund is involved here.

orstampman, have you tried contacting the seller? Is the seller new on ebay? Perhaps the seller made a price error when listing the item and didn't know how to correct it. If the item is something you really want and you yourself said that you placed a much higher bid than the final price, perhaps you can work something out. As much as we would like to think otherwise, everything on ebay is not written in stone. Good luck!

I have had this happen to me on more than one occasion. In one instance, I purchased a stamp that never showed up. I contacted the seller two weeks after close and his response was "Sometimes things get lost in the mail. Here's your money back". I was refunded my ($60) and thought that was the end of it. But when I went to leave feedback, I noticed a couple of neutral feedback posts from people who had the same thing happen to them. One of the posts was from an auction for the exact same stamp I had purchased and never received.

Frankly, it pissed me off. This seller was pretending this stamp got lost in the mail in order to relist and try to get a better price. I reported him, but to no avail.

My opinion is that this kind of behavior is reprehensible and should not be tolerated. I am personally in favor of banning sellers who engage in this kind of activity.

Brian

Jenny2U - if the seller has refused the payment, then I agree that there isn't much I can do, except report them to ebay and decide to either provide negative feedback or negotiate (if my buyer ethics allow it).

If they haven't accepted the payment yet, then maybe it's just a matter of time, and I need to be patient . THEN, once payment has or hasn't been accepted, I can decide my course from there.

I personally don't like to entertain the idea of negotiating, since this was an auction and I was the winner - period. It starts the slippery slope of accepting a negotiation when the auction price doesn't meet seller's wish - hence NOT really a no-reserve auction! If the seller needs a minimum realization, then they should either have a reserve or start at a higher opening bid.

I had a seller sell me an item (for a good price) then he filed a claim to cancel the auction saying I had never paid. I caught him at it, and he did end up sending the merchandise.

orstampman is it a new seller? If so, it may just be a "newbie" price error and you might want to suggest to the seller to restart the auction at an acceptable price (only because you said you REALLY want the item). If it's an experienced seller, like you said, there's nothing to do but leave whatever feedback you decide and move on.

Sorry but we don't know if the seller is listing the item for someone else or simply cannot afford to absorb the loss. I'm sure for some a negative rating is well worth the price.

First of all, has it been longer than a couple days? Second, have you contacted the seller? I don't think you mention any of this and those are pretty important in determining if there is an issue.

I certainly wouldn't assume there is an issue until you contact the seller. Sometimes, sellers are careless and cross list an item (that sells elsewhere) or accidentally list a previously sold item. No way to tell until you hear from them. Now if they don't respond, then you have an issue.

Whether the seller is a member of SCF (or any other organization) is not a big factor except for one thing. If the seller has pulled this stunt more than once or twice, then the more places you can leave negative feedback, the better. I think that if this behaviour is a pattern, then the seller deserves to be shamed as publicly as possible.

It's been almost 2 days, so more than a day. OK, I'll be patient and see what happens, then will decide on my next action.

I just checked and the payment has been processed!

Yes, I've contacted the seller, but no response yet. However, if the transaction completes, then no other response will be expected.

PS - maybe I need to work on patience...

Cheers,

dave

orstampman, let us know the final outcome.

Patience is certainly a virtue, and also I like to assume the best and prepare for the worst.

The point about ethical selling is a good one, I am an idealist too!
Never list at a price you are not willing to accept.

One point that has not been mentioned; with the new "defect rate" policy, a seller now is penalized for every transaction that they do not complete. Not the "lost in the mail"/refund issue (can't prove anything there), but the cancel transaction/refuse to accept payment.

Earlier this year I won a Vancouver Island stamp on ebay and I immediately paid with Paypal. After a couple of weeks of no communication and nothing marked in the status area of the purchase, I sent a note to the seller and shortly after I got a reply stating that forgot to mark it as shipped. No feedback was given either. They went on to say that if I have not received it, they will offer a full refund.

My winning bid was only $36, cat value is over $200.

The seller did have decent feedback and were around long before the internet, but I never had done business with them before.

After about six weeks I decided to request the refund. I finally did receive it, but only after going through ebay Resolution - my request direct to the seller went unanswered.

I was quite suspicious about the whole thing, I had suspected that stamp was not lost, they just decided not to let it go at that price.

Sure enough, a few months later, the EXACT SAME STAMP appeared for auction again on ebay, under a different seller name. A bit of research by me determined the new seller was the same as the old seller. It was a three day sale and there were several bidders. I saw the stamp on the third day and immediately contacted the seller asking what was happening with this so-called lost stamp. I never received a reply. Ironically the stamp sold for only $10 more than what I paid for it.

I decided to contact ebay through "Report this item" and was a bit surprised when they sent me an email and gave me a telephone number to call them, which I did.

I have to admit I was quite pleased with the results from ebay on the matter. While I knew there was no way that I could get the stamp as it was in the album of another buyer, the ebay representative assured me that this type of double selling was totally against the policy of ebay. She confirmed to me the stamps being sold were obviously the same, and they will investigate the sellers. Only two possibilities; the stamp was lost/stolen and resold by the finder, or the two sellers were the same (which in fact I know they are as mentioned earlier). She said ebay will investigate both sellers and take "necessary action". She said ebay has full access to the messages back and forth between the first seller and myself, including one where the "original" seller says it was shipped, probably lost and would give it to me if it turns up.

I never heard from ebay on the matter again, but since then, until this day, neither seller has had any items for sale. The accounts appear active though - perhaps they received some sort of suspension.

Like I said, I was quite pleased with the results from ebay, and it goes to show that that do take some unethical matters very seriously.