AIBU to think Ebay shouldn't allow buyers to do this?

[KitKat1985]

Sold an item today on Ebay (or rather I thought I had). Within an hour of the auction finishing the 'buyer' messaged me saying could they cancel the order (sic, it's not an 'order', it's an auction).

Ebay allows buyers to do this repercussion free it seems, as it's not the first time I've had this happen to me on Ebay. In any other auction, if you make a winning bid, you are then obliged to complete the purchase. Why is Ebay different?

Whilst not huge money, the £41 I was expecting for this sale was going to help get me through a tight month this month and now I've had my time wasted.

You don’t have to agree to cancel. Just wait for them not to pay then follow the unpaid item process. You will not get charged final value fees and can then do second chance offer (if you had any other bidders)

Oh I didn't know I could do that gassylady. I find Ebay so complicated sometimes!

It's tricky because legally they are also entitled to return the item and receive a full refund including postage costs.
So if Ebay enforced winning bidders having to pay then we would no doubt have a lot of returned items to deal with often costing the seller.

True I guess Hopefull88. I just don't understand why people bid on items if they don't really want them in the first place.

They will get a non-paying bidder strike against their name. Any seller can use this to their advantage in future by changing their settings to block non-paying bidders.

Lottie over on the ebay section knows EVERYTHING there is to know about ebay.

I have just had the exact thing happen to me.
I was advised by e bay forum members to cancel, since I would probably have a case opened against me for Item not as described, even though it was described very accurately. I would then have to pay return postage.
I really do think that ebay allow buyers to get away with far too much.

Actually legally they are not entitled to return an auction item or to a private seller. However they can claim it was not as described in order to return it.

Businesses are a different matter.

I no longer sell by auction because of people not paying and in the past I have waited and done the NPB to get my fees back rather than cancel. I sell on BIN only with immediate payment required which means if they want it they pay before they can end the listing.

The only exceptions are for collection items which are cash on collection only and then I use auction format.

I will add, giving an NPB strike will help to restrict their buying if it is done every time, some buyers just do this on several items then choose the one they want at the end.You can set your preferences to block buyers with a certain number of violations.

Even cash on collection is bad. I sold two items, one a really nice pair of skates and the buyer kept saying she'd be there to collect and never showed. I cashed and chased and in the end had to do a non-paying buyer. Wasted so much time.

Another I sold an electric fan COC - the guy came to the house, I pugged it in, he walked round it a bit, loaded it up, and drove away. Next day hewanted to return it as not cool enough. Drove back to my house - very inconvenient - and waited for me to get his money back.

Buyers can be odd. Recently got left negative feedback because the recycled plastic wrapping was too thick