Hello, I've just bought an item on ebay only to receive an email from the seller saying they didn't mean to sell the item for such a low price and could I agree not to buy it.

I don't what the best approach is. For starters it just seems odd that the seller says she was going to retract the item but she thought that the bid was set to close a day later. This seems a bit odd that she wouldn't set a reserve on the item, especially as she seems to have sold quite a few items previously.

What I'd like to know is she allowed to do this and what can I reasonably do about it?(I emailed ebay support but havn't had an answer despite their automated reply saying that they would respond within 24-48 hrs).

My concern is this might be some sort of scam (banking the temporary interest on the transaction, money laundering???). I'd be interested to know if anybody else has had a similar experience..

Have you tried the eBay Community pages Dakron? You will get a rapid reply from those who know exactly how to deal with this issue (I had an unrelated concern a while ago and was amazed at the speed & quality of the information received). Sorry I can't help you, but I feel sure that someone there can and it is better to ask fellow users than a helpdesk if you want a rapid response. (Feel your seller is wrong, wrong, wrong, however - a deal is a deal!)

Fairly sure the seller is not allowed to do that and ebay would be annoyed with them. They set a low price to avoid paying sellers fees for a higher starting price.

Report it to ebay as soon as you can and keep reporting it.

she can do watever she wants as its her stuff. if u report it ebay wont care if shes got a high seller rating. been there done it. the only time ebay will clamp down is if its a respected seller been duped

quote:

Originally posted by vidovitz:
she can do watever she wants as its her stuff. if u report it ebay wont care if shes got a high seller rating. been there done it. the only time ebay will clamp down is if its a respected seller been duped

They still can't refuse to sell something after it has ended. Ebay often don't ban or suspend someone until 2 or 3 complaints though, and they can't make someone sell it at a cheap price.

LOL course you can and more and more ppl r doin just that, do you honestly think ebay will take someone to court on your behalf because u got a computer for £100 when they should ve had a reserve on it????I THINK NOT....ITS ALL BASED ON TRUST........

The person should have had the common sense to set a reserve price.

quote:

Originally posted by vidovitz:
LOL course you can and more and more ppl r doin just that, do you honestly think ebay will take someone to court on your behalf because u got a computer for £100 when they should ve had a reserve on it????I THINK NOT....ITS ALL BASED ON TRUST........

they can't really make them do anything, they can still ban them though.

I think it's disgusting that this person is asking you to do this. I would think carefully how you word feedback as it can come back nastily to you but I definitely would not be giving a positive feedback on this.

You have to pay quite a bit more to set a researve on a item. So she probably though she would risk it and it would sell for more....

However once the sale has finished she is very wrong not to sell it. She should have just said - some you win some you lose etc. I would give her bad fedback if I was you (however watch it as some sellers give you bad fedback in return when you have done nothing wrong) mad really...- or report her to ebay.

Dakron - what happened in the end?

I sold some CDs on ebay as I was clearing out and tidying up my collection. I was surprised to receive so much good feedback and remarks like "exactly as described". I thought it was strange but perhaps not.

I do remember thinking on a few items how the postage seemed to be a bit of a scam and wondered how they could possibly charge such high price for normal postage.

Have not been on for ages.

Sorry to put a dampner on things... but all my experiences on Ebay have been positive!

You should report her to Ebay but unfortunately, as people have already mentioned, Ebay don't really do a lot about it. Somebody with bad feedback can also just seem to start again with a different name also.

Since using Ebay once to sell some tickets I'm wary about it. Although we never sent the tickets as the person didn't pay it put us into difficulties as the date of the venue was very close making it difficult to sell them again. Beware!!!

As has been mentioned, its all based on trust and ebay will not take any sort of legal action on your behalf, so be careful and check the sellers history and have realistic expectations as generally you aint going to get something for nothing, there's always a catch!

dakron

what happened re ebay

Just read through the previous posts,was thinking about selling a few items, any tips good or bad on how to get it right.Any advice appreciated.Never usd e-bay before and know virtually nothing about it. Thanks in anticipation.

patpot.

I've been using Ebay for selling & buying for over a year now. As long as you make your starting bid the lowest price you are prepared to accept, you can't go wrong. Try to weigh items for posting & allow a small bit extra for packaging. Also, put nice clear pictures with the ad. Only costs 15p more & you'll get loads more response. And, don't send goods until payment received. I generally wait for cheques to clear although i believe that a cheque can be cancelled up to 6 months after it's been paid. (unlikely somebody would do this on small amounts as costs to cancel a cheque!). Get an idea what things are selling for before you put yours on auction. Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by jenny35:
I've been using Ebay for selling & buying for over a year now. As long as you make your starting bid the lowest price you are prepared to accept, you can't go wrong. Try to weigh items for posting & allow a small bit extra for packaging. Also, put nice clear pictures with the ad. Only costs 15p more & you'll get loads more response. And, don't send goods until payment received. I generally wait for cheques to clear although i believe that a cheque can be cancelled up to 6 months after it's been paid. (unlikely somebody would do this on small amounts as costs to cancel a cheque!). Get an idea what things are selling for before you put yours on auction. Good luck.

Thanks Jenny35, Points taken,(especially re, the cash!)

Once a cheque has been paid, it cannot be cancelled.

As far as I understood it it is a binding contract between buyer and seller.The seller has the option to cancel all bids before auction end if he/she feels it is not going to sell for as much as they were hoping for.It happens all the time with cars.You watch something for days thinking you may get a bargain-then suddenly "the seller cancelled the listing because the item is no longer for sale"
Then its back on a week later.I wouldnt bother pursuing it with the seller personally-if you leave a neg you will get a retaliatory one back even though you have done nothing wrong.I would complain to ebay and say that the seller has refused to sell at the auction end price.But be warned-Ebay is all automated emails and very long-winded.Myself and 70 others have been scammed for over £10,000 by one seller selling non-existent items on "buy-it-now" listings.
She has vanished with the money and neither Ebay or the Police seem interested in the scale of the fraud.Luckily I am covered by Paypal so should get all my money back.
Its my first bad experience in over 2 years and 200 transactions.
My advice would be:always pay by Paypal where possible,NEVER send cash,and watch out for incomplete seller contact information like vague home addresses.
Better to be safe than sorry.
And feedback counts for nowt-this seller had 99.8% positives up until this point.
Then ripped off 70 of us at once.....
Take care folks.

sounds familiar that does, just been ripped off myself, bought a cd from a buy it now, no cd, and no cash either, but i have his home address.....

I've been ripped off on postage badly - I asked why I shoule pay £16 postage for an item that cost 2.99 and 1.50 to post and he threatened to leave a negative mark.

And the first thing I bought on ebay was never sent to me. Now I only use paypal.

Overall I've had good experiences but it really annoys me that if you leave a neg you just get one in return even though you've done nothing so I won't leave a neg on anyone who deserves it in case I risk my 100% rating.

i just can't believe some of the lengths people would go to make cash after using ebay for quite some time, you have to be careful what you buy and read through everything in detail.

I dont think this is a 'scam' as such it sounds like she was expecting higher bids than she actually got. I think you should register negative feedback on this person and also inform Ebay. Most sellers are genuine honest people which is good seeing Ebay is generally based on trust between buyers - so dont let it put you off buying from Ebay!!!