Bought A Buy It Now Item, Paid For It, Then Seller Removed Item And Refunded Money.

I recently bought an item from a seller on ebay in the United States stamp section. The item was a Buy it Now item, I paid for it by Paypal, then the next day the seller removed the item and refunded me the money. I think they realized it was worth more than the price it sold for and are trying to get more money for it. Is there any recourse with this seller to honor the sale? The seller refuses to give a reason for why they removed the item and issued a refund.

Same thing happened to me earlier this year. I gave the seller a negative feedback. They protested that - they said I got my money back. If I wanted my money back I would not have bid on the item.
You could post the name of the seller!

Peter

It could be that the seller posted the item in error (wrong price; wrong item; wrong picture; wrong description...). If they have a lot of listings this wouldn't be difficult to do. I feel like it would be polite to give you a reason, but if they refunded your money, you don't really have a substantial complaint aside from "I don't like this". ebay can't exactly MAKE them sell you the item. They may not even have it, and when your purchase came through might have been the time they realized they had listed in error. If they refuse to give you a reason, I'd just give an honest negative review and move on. You have your money. Take it elsewhere.

Unfortunately there is no way to compel the seller to honor the sale, but this is definitely unethical IMO. Negative feedback is warranted--keep an eye out and see if the item resurfaces. In both your case and Peter's merely getting your money refunded is clearly not a positive outcome.

I would agree negative feedback would be warranted in this case. It would be different if they were polite and messaged you and offered some sort of explanation, but that does not sound like the case. One of the criteria you rank ebay sellers on is communication.

We all make mistakes. The key here is the communication. I once bought a book on ebay as a by-it-now. It was a very rare book, and was very under-priced. The seller wrote me and said they lost the book and refunded my money. I felt that they had cold feet and we playing games with me. Six months later they wrote me and said they found the book and wanted to know if I still wanted the book, at the same price. I happily bought it.

So I recommend writing and asking what happened. I'd only give a negative in this case if they don't communicate, or are rude. Who knows, maybe they will sell you the stamp later at the same price?

j

The stamp I bid on was really a strip of three plate number coils. A PS3 of the 20 cent Fire Pumper, plate 3 with a beaut of a plate crack on the right stamp on the strip.
It was marked as shipped, but after 10 days I got anxious and E-mailed them that I had not received the item. There was no communication from them whatsoever, but I received a note from PayPal that the money had been refunded. This was not but ten minutes after my E-mail - I thought it sort of strange!

Peter

I recommend writing them and asking what happened. It is conceivable that they sent it without tracking and just refunded you when you sent in a complaint, rather than arguing. Maybe they felt too rushed to write you a reply. It never hurts to ask.

I get the impression that coilcollector has already asked and been stonewalled in reply.

Sure there is. Solve it the old-fashioned way - civil litigation.

In the United States, you can sue the seller for breach of contract and demand, as remedy, an injunction ordering specific performance, namely delivery of the sold item. The typical context for such suits is real estate transactions where the house is unique, costs $1 million or more, the buyer fulfills all conditions of the contract and the seller inexplicably backs out or refuses to deliver the property. For collectibles, there is certainly a price point, and a level of uniqueness of the item, that could justify this. Suppose the offered item was the Franklin Z Grill, and you tendered $1 million and the seller pulled this trick because she really wanted $3 million.

The seller is anonymous, you say? In California you can sue the defendant as John Doe, then serve a third party subpoena on ebay demanding that it disclose the true account details of the seller, then amend the complaint to identify the true name. The court must have personal jurisdiction over the defendant, so if the seller turns out to be in Ohio, you'd have to dismiss the California action and sue in Ohio, but at least you would have learned their name.

Chris

While I suppose that civil litigation could be worth it in certain cases, frankly, that sounds exhausting. I like to ENJOY my stamps, and suing some stranger I know nothing about sounds like an excellent way to suck the enjoyment right out of my hobby. Particularly if my money was returned and the only time I had invested in the whole thing was maybe the five minutes it took me to decide if I wanted the stamp or not.

But that's me. I suppose if the stamp is worth all the hassle of a civil suit, go for it.

Chris is absolutely right. Through civil litigation you can force the seller to complete his obligations under the contract. But ... it is going to cost you beaucoup money. And I'm sure, far more money than the item is worth.

I've had a few purchases refunded unexpectedly, but was always messaged by the seller as to the reason. I should point out that I pay immediately upon receipt of the sale notice from ebay.

One time the stamp sold shortly before I bought and paid for it, and the seller had not had time to remove the listing. Refund and apology issued immediately.

Twice sellers could not find the item I bought when they went to prepare it for shipment. They could only speculate that it had been sold some time ago and they had failed to take down the listing. Again, refunds and apologies issued promptly.

Once a seller sent me someone else's stamp (and shipping document so we knew where it should have gone) which I subsequently returned to him. Alas, he had no idea who got my stamp and could only hope they would also return it. They did not, and he refunded my money with sincere apologies.

Old saying: FECES OCCURS.

Litigation? I thought this was supposed to be for fun. I can think of 10 reasons why an item cannot be shipped [the dog ate it?] Stay calm and enjoy your refund.

Totally agree, but it's also important for the nefarious seller to be aware that buyers are not without remedies in appropriate cases. When the reason for withdrawing the item is unethical, such as desiring a higher price or concurrently selling the item to someone else, there may come a point where the price and uniqueness are high enough to make the seller vulnerable to suit.

In addition, the legal costs may be less than you think. For example, I pity the seller who unethically withdraws the sale of an item when the buyer is a civil litigator in full-time practice. The type of complaint I've suggested can be drafted and filed online in California in about 90 minutes at a direct cost of about $200 in court fees. There are lawyers who might use this remedy for an item in the $5K range, just because they can.

Although the facts are the opposite (a defaulting buyer), litigation does occur in the hobby. I believe it was the David Feldman auction house that sued a Saudi sheik last year for failing to pay for millions of pounds in auction lots that he had won.

Chris

I agree with Chasa, and I shake my head in disbelief at the course of this discussion.

"Don't worry, be happy."