Buyer backing out on eBay

[JohnnyDee]

Sold a set of irons on eBay to someone. All fine and dandy until one hour after sale closes buyer messages me to say - 'Sorry "mate" found another cheaper set so I'm out...

Anyone else had had this happen to them and what did you do?

I'm a novice on eBay.

 

[Deleted member 15717]

Contact eBay. They have entered into a contract with you, via eBay's terms and conditions, that they are to purchase the goods from you. Obviously, keep hold of the message where he has stated that he had found a cheaper set and backing out, as it makes it a very clear cut case.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/unpaid-items.html

 

[User62651]

As a long time ebayer nothing much will happen despite the ebay assurances, you'll just need to relist the clubs but you'll get your original listing fee back.
For every 50 good transcations you'll get one bad one, keep your expectations low when dealing on ebay, you'll come out ahead in the long run. You never know you might get a higher bid second time of listing!

 

[moogie]

As a long time ebayer nothing much will happen despite the ebay assurances, you'll just need to relist the clubs but you'll get your original listing fee back, and selling fee, final value fee

Yes
That sums it up
Nothing will happen
eBay now heavily weighed in favour of the buyer, so you can't even leave the (non) buyer negative feedback

 

[JohnnyDee]

As a long time ebayer nothing much will happen despite the ebay assurances, you'll just need to relist the clubs but you'll get your original listing fee back.
For every 50 good transcations you'll get one bad one, keep your expectations low when dealing on ebay, you'll come out ahead in the long run. You never know you might get a higher bid second time of listing!

Ta for the replies.

If I go straight to relist what happens? Obviously eBay currently wants its 10% of what now is a no sale although my account says you have still not been paid.

Do I first have to go through the raise and close a dispute process before they cancel this or will missing this out and simply relisting automatically let them know there's been no deal?

 

[Paul77]

Sold about £4k in Canon DSLR camera stuff on Ebay in the last wee while and to be honest it's a buyers market out there and there's not much support for the seller. Ebay will just say to relist it. It's even more difficult to leave neutral or negative feedback these days. Ebay want everyone all holding hands while they rip you off in fees.

There's loads of FB groups, well organised to sell stuff on. More serious people will know what they are buying therefore make it an easy process. Clowns who think they know what they want for the cheapest price will always let you down.

 

[Foxholer]

I agree with both the above - though I haven't had any purchasers pull out like that.

Second Chance offer is the most convenient, if it's available to you. The Resolution Centre process is (probably deliberately) pretty cumbersome!

 

[Deleted member 18121]

I know its a pain......but was there another bidder? You could always offer it to them at their highest bid?

 

[Martin70]

Sold quite a bit of stuff on ebay in January and although quite happy with my sales I didn't find it an easy experience. Everything is set up for the buyer. I put a guitar up for sale and expected about £300 for it. Two people upped the bids to bid 650 for it and pulled out at the last opportunity leaving the previous high bid of £120 winning ( I would bet anything they were the same person or at least a team).

From a 7 day auction I was now down to a 12 hour one I think it was 12 anyway. The purpose would have been to stop people returning to my item or following it with such an overpriced bid on it, luckily I had a late flurry of bids and got my £350 in the end.

Trying to get anything done as a seller is a nightmare it is all automated questions and replies and isn't even relevant half the time.

I stick to buying these days.

In the OP's case I wouldn't think ebay would automatically refund the fee I think you will have to open a case about it - I stand to be corrected though. Good luck.

 

[Khamelion]

I've just had the same thing with my driver I sold, original buyer backed out, so I did a second chance offer to the next highest bidder, but he didn't bite, so I just relisted. Mind you I hadn't realised how much Ebay and Paypal take, combined it's 13.4% of your total sales for the month up to £250

 

[road2ruin]

As above, eBay is totally geared towards the buyers with sellers getting stiffed at every opportunity. If a buyer is unhappy about something (no matter how trivial) the seller will find the money refunded to the buyer with few questions asked. I feel that if someone 'wins' an auction then the money should be instantly withdrawn from the buyers account.

I've had so many experiences recently of non-payment by buyers. I've now set up my sellers account that I don't accept bidders with low feedback scores or any instances of non-payment which I am hoping will help.

 

[guest100718]

Not much you can do except claim the fees back. Ebay gets a lot of stick but there isn't anywhere else I can sell stuff I don't need with the Same kind of exposure. I rarely do auctions these days as I find buy it now with best offer works well.

 

[Ethan]

Give it up as a bad job and relist.

 

[markgs]

if he has sent you that via ebay messages they will check it so continue with sale

 

[Alex1975]

On at least three occasions I have inboxed people having seen an item sold and then re-listed. I have been able to make a deal with the seller at this point so look out for messages and also maybe contact the person bidding in second from your original sale.

 

[Foxholer]

if he has sent you that via ebay messages they will check it so continue with sale

I don't believe the above is correct! From what I understand, Ebay messages are private, so Ebay doesn't have access to them (except maybe in very exceptional - crime related - cases).

But by all means quote the message and specify the date/time. They can probably see that there was a message then, even though they can't access the content.

There is no point continuing with the sale, at least not with that purchaser!

 

[pbrown7582]

unfortunately as stated nothing much you can do other than relist/ second chance and request sale cancelled you can report it to ebay so the winner gets an unpaid strike (3 AND OUT) that's no help to you and pretty pointless exercise.

 

[BoadieBroadus]

yes just relist, or do a second chance offer to the next highest bidder (i think that tends to be available a few days after listing ends).

ebay won't take any money from the transaction if it isn't completed, so other than it being a PITA you shouldnt have lost out.

 

[MadAdey]

Sold quite a bit of stuff on ebay in January and although quite happy with my sales I didn't find it an easy experience. Everything is set up for the buyer. I put a guitar up for sale and expected about £300 for it. Two people upped the bids to bid 650 for it and pulled out at the last opportunity leaving the previous high bid of £120 winning ( I would bet anything they were the same person or at least a team).

From a 7 day auction I was now down to a 12 hour one I think it was 12 anyway. The purpose would have been to stop people returning to my item or following it with such an overpriced bid on it, luckily I had a late flurry of bids and got my £350 in the end.

Trying to get anything done as a seller is a nightmare it is all automated questions and replies and isn't even relevant half the time.

I stick to buying these days.

In the OP's case I wouldn't think ebay would automatically refund the fee I think you will have to open a case about it - I stand to be corrected though. Good luck.

Thats a very common Ebay scam. Because by making the bid go so high people stop watching it and don't then bother bidding. Then like you said at the last minute someone drops out reverting the bid back down to a silly low price.

Or the other well known scam is when selling something get a mate to bid on it to try and push any proxy bids up that have been left riding on it.

Another Ebay scam is to sell 2 items to the same person, ask if they want combined shipping and when they say yes only send one. You have tracking to say you posted one parcel with both items in it, but they can't prove you only sent one.