Ebay seller increases price after auction is won?!

[Darcy86]

Hi, I'm not a prolific ebay user so would appreciate some help here. I've just won an auction for something but the seller has messaged me saying they had listed the wrong minimum amount and would only take a minimum of £19 more than what my winning bid was. I've offered them a fiver more and am not willing to pay more than that. What can I do?! I don't have the option to cancel the item now and was under the impression if my bid won then that was that, but perhaps this is a standard thing sellers do? Plus, I've also just seen they've relisted the item already at a starting bid of £25 less than I've offered. Wtf? Help appreciated!

Walk away. The seller doesn’t want to sell the item to you. I don’t think you can force them.

Definitely not going to try and force them to sell it to me. Happy to cancel the sale but ebay says this isn't possible now so assuming I need the seller to cancel it on their end otherwise it will just sit in my basket? Will this affect my own feedback as a buyer?

Report them to ebay. It's against their rules, and the seller will get a mark on their account. If they do it too often they'll be chucked off the site.

They should cancel the sale. Which will be a strike against them. Have you paid? If you pay they'll definitely have to cancel and refund you. My guess is they're hoping after how ever many days you won't have paid and they can then cancel for that reason with no repercussions.

Report to eBay, absolutely not on.
I have a reselling business and sell on eBay all the time and this breaks all the rules.
Just reply saying that you'll be escalating to eBay, eBay can see all of your correspondence

Contact Ebay. Their chatbot is actually really helpful.

This.

Keep all messaging on eBay, don't email, that way eBay can see it if it goes to a dispute.

Their mistake is not your problem. They've had the time of the auction, usually a week, to check the price was correct.

You won the auction in good faith. Tell the seller that you want to buy the item for the winning bid. If you can afford to have the money tied up for a few days (there's no risk to you, you will get a refund if you don't receive the item in the photos) pay for it (agreed price, no need to add any extra) and maybe the seller will send it after all.

If they don't, report them as a non performing seller and you'll be refunded.

Thank you everyone, no I haven't paid - seller messaged again to ask me not to pay as they were going to relist. I did wonder if they'd try to get out of it by pinning it on me!

I tried the chatbot but several prompts later and it's not really getting what the issue is...keeps giving me links on how to sell things! Ugh. Anyone got a link to how I can report them to ebay? I'll Google it of course but this hasn't proved helpful so far!

Ah well I did this. DH told me the wrong amount to list something for, the difference was large, so then I couldn't complete the contract.

You can't make them sell to you. At least they were quick to tell you so honestly in my head, no harm done. I would let them cancel the sale & ignore the rest of the potential actions. I was willing to lose my ebay account for the amount difference if I had to. 96% of what I sell is for charity & it's a lot of work, so I wouldn't miss it too much. Sometimes life takes turns for you to create other opportunities, was my take.

Try typing 'speak to a person' in the chat bot thing, that sometimes gives you the chance to speak to a person.

Also make sure you leave the seller negative feedback.

In order to speak to a human at ebay go into the questions section and say you have a question about fees that brings up an option to have them call you (which they do really quickly). Once you've answered the phone give them the item number and then explain that you won the auction in good faith and have now been told by the seller not to pay for it as they want to relist. Tell them you want to buy it for the winning bid. They'll usually come down on the seller hard. I sell quite a bit on ebay and badly behaved sellers like this give us all a bad name so it really annoys me. If they want a specific amount for an item the should list it as a buy it now (or set a reserve).

This. I always type speak to an advisor

There's not much you can do unfortunately, as you've not paid (because they've told you not to) they don't have to send it to you, and there's nothing you can do to MAKE them sell it to you.

If you DID pay, to try and force the sale, then they could send you a blank envelope tracked to your address and claim they've sent you the item, it would be found in their favour as they have tracking (that's all they need as proof).

It's not worth the agro, so you're best to just report them and move on, you can report them here, under the 'seller has violated ebay policy', also leave them negative feedback explaining what has happened.

Online Customer Service - Report an issue with a seller (ebay.co.uk)

If they get enough sanctions they can be banned from selling.

@sandyhappypeople the OP does have the 'significantly not as described' protection if that happens.

They can do an unboxing video when they receive the parcel they suspect to be from the seller.

OP, you should've paid. The seller is trying to pull a fast one. You will get an 'unpaid strike on your account'
I was a seller on eBay for many years, and as a seller, you can choose to hide your products to buyers who have recently had "unpaid strikes" on their account.

This means you might have fewer options when searching for products on eBay in the future and miss out on all the bargains, etc.

Thanks for this! I still have the option to pay so would you recommend doing that rather than holding off and reporting? Any idea how long I've got with it just sitting in my basket, could try to report first?

Report them for price gouging.

I’d just report and move on, it’s honestly not worth the agro. eBay is very hit and miss as to whose side they come down on with regards to disputes, i doubt they’d even look at an unboxing video as anyone could fake that, in my experience as long as they are given a tracking number to prove it was sent by the seller, they don’t give a stuff what has actually turned up.

I don’t really understand why you would hold off before reporting, you need to do it now before you are accused of not paying. As it stands for official purposes, you’ve purchased something but not paid for it, so you’ve either got to pay now, or just report them for breaking eBay policy and be guided by them.

if you want to risk the money pay for it and they’ll be forced to cancel the transaction their end, or send you a dud, if you don’t want to risk the money, then just report them using the link I sent through.

you can’t make the seller do anything unfortunately.

Pay your auction win price because if you don't pay you will get a strike. When they don't send the item you can get a refund and their ebay dashboard will get a lesser rating.

When the sale concludes, a contract has been formed and they legally have to sell it to you at the auctioned price.

OK thanks everyone! Have reported and will also pay so fingers crossed...