To think that this buyer probably had no intentions of buying the car?

[100DaysofSummer]

I've finally upgraded my trusty 10 year old car.

I listed my old car on ebay, it has a few problems and it seemed beyond me repairing it, but it's a reliable little car for someone who want a runabout or who has the time to give it some tlc.

It was listed cheap £500 and I put both mine and my partners phone number on the listing to contact if interested or to arrange to view. Up until the last hour of the auction I'd had no calls or interest at all in the car, I went out for the afternoon and decided to just give the car to a family member who doesn't have one.

Anyway, I got home late that night to discover someone had bid on the car and won the auction, I was surprised to say the least as I'd expect someone buying a cheap car to at least want to come and look over it before bidding. The buyer hadn't made any contact at all by the following evening to arrange to pay or collect the car, I looked at their ebay profile and realised that they lived in Norfolk. Which is 170 miles away from me and a 3.5 hour drive going by their postcode. I thought who is going to travel 170 miles to buy a £500 car which they haven't even seen?

I decided to send a request to cancel the sale. If the buyer agrees then the sale won't go through and I won't have to pay a final value fee. I they decline then I do.

The buyer declined the cancellation and sent an abrupt message saying that I was out of order and he needed the car urgently.

I sent him a message saying I'd opted to cancel the sale as I'd realised he lived so far away, and due to the fact that he hadn't contacted me I'd assumed it wasn't a serious bid, but asked him if he wanted to go ahead. No reply.

Luckily Ebay have sorted it out with regards to the charges, but aibu to think that this guy was probably having a bit of a laugh?

Possibly a bit U. I think you should have given him more chance to pay / collect before cancelling the sale. Then you'd covered yourself and couldn't be accused of being out of order. Unless you didn't really want to sell it of course, in which case the listing should be closed before anyone had placed a bid.

Never assume anything. He could have been in the area for a reason and needed the car. It wouldn't have taken you a moment to message him before cancelling the sale to find out if he was genuine or not.

I don't get why you cancelled. The distance was his problem. No wonder he is pissed off.

YABU. And missing the point of ebay. Where someone lives and whether or not they want to view an item before buying is none of your business. And most bids are last minute. I never bid on anything more than a few minutes before.
From the sellers POV, you cancelled for no apparent reason other than maybe you didnt get what you wanted for the item. I dont know the timescales so I can't comment on the time you waited for him to contact you.

YABU. He's not actually obligated to view, or to explain to you why he's bought a car without doing so, or why he's chosen to buy one so far from where he lives. He made no indication that he didn't want it, you cancelled out of the blue as far as he's concerned. I'd be pissed off too. Maybe he was busy after he'd won the auction and hadn't had time to message you to arrange pick up. All within the space of two days you made these decisions for him, which isn't very much time at all.

I get very irritated when I buy something and the seller threatens to cancel the sale because I haven't messaged them within an hour of the auction ending. They may have all the time in the world to sit at the computer contemplating these things but I certainly don't.

YABU, you don't know if they work away, in your area, stay the working week in digs and need a runaround.

I don't get why you did this!!!

If he hadn't wanted to buy it, he wouldn't have bid on it surely

Why cancel it, why not just message him and give him a chance to reply?

I sold a shed on eBay a while ago. I live on the South Coast, the buyer was in Liverpool - I wondered why on earth you'd bid on a shed hundreds of miles away, but it turned out they were moving here the following weekend and needed a shed. There's all sorts of reasons why he may have bid on it

YANBU. DH has sold tyres twice on ebay and twice they have been "bought" by buyers living hundreds of miles away, who simply don;t pay and don't respond.

I think people bid accidentally, but YANBU if your t & cs allow it, to cancel, if they don't respond.

For a buyer it would seem like you had no intentions selling it. It's not mandatory to view the item before purchase and distance was his problem, not yours.

I think yabu as it would have been polite to send him a message asking if he realises you are so far away and still wants the car before cancelling.

Though tbf I am also annoyed at time wasters on eBay, I've sold things stating collection only then had 2 no shows by the same buyer, no apology, then they were annoyed when I cancelled the sale.

YABU. I bought my car on ebay from 120 miles away. It was only 2 miles from my dad though, and he was happy to check out and collect the car for me. I'd be very annoyed if I were him and I'm surprised ebay are happy to help as you are in the wrong by their rules!

This sounds a bit like the radio advert for shopping possible terrorists.

Yabu.

You should at least have messaged the buyer asking them to contact you within the week before you cancelled.

He paid for the car? And you cancelled it because he lived far away?

You really were out of order requesting a cancellation. None of your business where he lives, perhaps he was at Uni or something near you. You should have waited until he was not forthcoming with the money before you contacted EBay.

YABU. What on earth are you doing cancelling the sale before even attempting to make contact with the buyer?

YABVU and I agree with the other posters who suggest that you don't quite understand how ebay works.

I would have sent him a message asking when he wanted to collect the car and waited a few days for a reply

YABU.

Why on earth would someone travel that distance to view an old banger?

I think you really misjudged this one. The sort of person who buys a car for £500 on ebay, from a distance, is probably someone who knows how to strip it for parts, and they probably don't care too much what state the car is in, because chances are they can get the value.

No you've been rather pathetic, you dont auction something and then not check the auction and give away the item before its finished. You clearly don't have the sense to be using Ebay in the first place I suggest you avoid it, hpopefuly youl garner some deserved awful feedback as a result.

Yabu

I probably should have added, going by this guys feedback he has form for not paying and also for leaving sellers bad feedback. He had left quite a few negative feedback and had comments about not paying, misunderstandings, being unresponsive, deals not going through etc.

Perhaps I was too quick to jump. I have been using ebay as a seller for 8 years and haven't had a problem and always have good feedback, I have always found that when people collect items they are usually local and respond to messages re collecting and paying, I'd listed the car as needing to go for a quick sale for space needed and it was only a 3 day auction. I think I've had bad experiences with things like this and had had a few people contact me over the car messing around.