An Ebay WWYD

[Anaxagora]

I'll recount this without revealing whether I was the buyer or the seller in this scenario so as not to skew reactions. I'm a reasonably experienced ebayer on both sides, as it were, with no previous problems as either a buyer or a seller.

So. The auction in question is for a reasonably heavy, expensive but not particularly rare or unusual piece of equipment, which routinely fetches good prices on ebay, both used and new. The final sale price is about average for that type of item. The winning bidder pays via paypal within the hour. All good. There follows a panicked email in which the buyer explains that they have just realised that the item they bid on (and won) is in fact not the right spec for what they wanted. Buyer apologises profusely for misreading the listing (which was clear), and asks the seller to consider cancelling the transaction and refunding the payment.

Seller emails back saying they will contact the next highest bidder, and cancel the transaction only if the second chance offer is accepted. The following day seller emails the buyer to say that the second chance offer was not accepted, and that the item will be sent as per the terms of the ebay contract.

Clearly neither the buyer nor the seller is contravening the ebay rules here: the buyer made an honest (if dozy) mistake, the seller insists on the transaction being honoured, pointing out that the unwilling buyer can always resell the item. Fair enough.

But what WWYD, as the seller? Make the buyer go through with the transaction, or accept the honest mistake, curse under your breath and relist the item?

[curious]

If I was the seller, I'd curse under my breath and relist, esp if I was confident that I could get another decent price for it.

If I was the buyer, I'd suck it up buttercup, and probably resell it immediately.

This is why I don't bother selling much on ebay.

Won't the seller lose out if they don't complete the sale, in terms of having to pay ebay the fee regardless?

If not, then I would just relist personally.

If I were Seller, think I'd probably get transaction cancelled and then relist.

Yup, I'm the buyer! I can't argue, since I was clearly in the wrong (cos 20cm written down in a listing looks just like 30 cm, doesn't it? ). I will chalk it up to experience, resell the item and remember not to multitask while ebaying.

I think though if I were the seller I'd probably just curse, cancel the transaction and relist, rather than go to the trouble of sending something off to someone who didn't want it.

But I'm nice like that.

If I was the seller Id cancel the transaction and refund.

A good seller would.

Yes I would have agreed to a mutual withdrawal to avoid the fees.
If there were any fees due from refunding the payment though I would expect the Buyer to pay this - as it was their fault. But I don't think this is the case.

This did happen to me, I sold something and the buyer said she had bid on it in error so we agreed the mutual withdrawal. I'm pretty sure I relisted it for free.

There are no fees that the seller would lose out on, if they started on a 99p listing that would have been free, if they had a BIN on the item the maximum cost would be 40p.

That is all a seller would lose, nothing else.

you're the buyer, aren't you?

ah too slow!

(must read ALL thread)

yy, slightly hacked off buyer waiting for a bulky item to arrive that I don't really want and will have to fart around re-listing myself in the hope that I can recoup the loss.

Grr. Still, a salutary lesson. Easily done, actually, I"d skim-read the listing and copied it into my watch list, and then bid on it without going back to look at it again properly. Won't be doing that again. [doh]

To be honest, I'd cancel & refund (as long as your apology was very grovelling ).

I run my large bulky item business via Ebay and this happens. Have always refunded and relisted without objection. I am really grateful to Ebay (would otherwise be SAHM losing CB next April!) and my customers feedback is paramount so always best to accept even the most most fantastical excuse with a great big !

Oh and as the seller you can paypal refund without penalty and claim your final value fees back from Ebay!

As a seller I would have refunded and relisted.

As buyer, I would have asked if it could be treated as return if the other wasn't acceptable - no returns policy is actually against ebay rules as far as I'm aware.

if i were the seller i would have cancelled your bid and simply re-listed it myself ...... i would not have made you go through with a sale which you clearly didnt want

hope you get a better price when you sell it on

Well, it arrived today, in a big box. [annoyed] Luckily there was someone here to open the door for the postman, I would have been doubly/triply annoyed if I'd had to trek to the post office and carry it back.

What kind of feedback do you all reckon I should leave? On pondering, I do think that if the buyer contacts you speedily with a polite and very apologetic email pleading a genuine mistake, the seller ought to take it on the chin, cancel and refund, and then relist the item. That is what I would do as a seller. It's not like it's much extra work to relist, after all (less work than it's going to be for me to list from scratch, grr). And I wouldn't want to run the risk of bad feedback.

So what should I put in my feedback for him, d'you reckon?