Seller refusing to sell

[stargirl1701]

I won a item this afternoon. The seller has emailed to say 'please don't pay' as they can't afford to sell the item for what I bid. They want to relist the item and try to get more.

I emailed back and said I thought this was against eBay rules and they should've chosen a higher starting bid.

Item is a nappy wrap. I bid 99p starting bid. No-one else bid.

I have just sold a load of reusable nappy stuff! The seller should have made the starting price higher if they wanted to guarantee a certain amount of money. Not fair to you at all.

Should I just go ahead and report the email to eBay? Or, wait to see if they respond to my email?

yes do report them as a non performing seller and neg and leave low stars - they will get a strike from eBay. Bid is a contract and all that.

I've reported the seller to eBay.

Should I go ahead and pay for the item as per the contract I entered into?

no don't pay - and if they send a cancellation request you can refuse it too. Have you left a neg too?

No, I just reported the email to eBay so far. I thought it was good practice to let them try to sort it out before I leave feedback.

Sadly ebay won't do much, even though it is against ebay rules you can not make someone sale something if they don't want to, they might receive a warning from ebay but that's it , they should have started it higher or set a reserve.

No, I realise the item is never actually going to be sold to me now. Seller seems quite inexperienced.

if it is used they will get into trouble for that too

make sure you do neg - they are not going to send it now. Have they relisted yet?

Yes, pay!!

If you don't pay for the item the seller can file 'non paying bidder' and get their fees back that way, this also means you won't be able to neg them if they do that.

Absolutely pay for the item, as it's only 99p it's not a huge amount to stand out. If seller refunds it they then can't open NPB on you, if they don't refund you can file a paypal claim for it and as well as a neg you'll get them a nice, new defect on their account.

I've paid. No word back from eBay yet.

Update: Seller has refunded through PayPal.

will you neg them now?

Not sure if I should wait for eBay to answer my email first.

Yes in principle they are wrong but seems a bit petty to try and force them into selling at a lower price than they want to especially if you think they are inexperienced. I would just move on, you can always buy from someone else.

There's no question of forcing the sale. The item will not be sold to me now. As you say, it's the principle. I made mistakes when I started selling with eBay but I just accepted I had made mistakes and sucked it up. It seems a bit churlish and childish to stamp your feet because your item didn't sell for a higher price. The concept of auction, no?

and you could argue the whole point of feedback is to warn other buyers - and if the seller wanted more money they should have started it at a higher amount. There is no excuse except greed really - and that is the fault of the seller, not the unsuspecting buyer.

Silversixpence inexperience isn't an excuse. Starting the bidding at the lowest price you want is simple stuff. Trying to save a few pence on fees by using 99p listings is all well and good as long as you are willing to accept your item might end at that price.

I'd neg every day of the week and leave 1 star across the board as well.

and it isn't cheaper to start at 99p now anyway - free listings for first 20 items whatever the start price.

Yep, seller probably isn't aware of the changes.

If you sign up to a site you should make it your business to understand how it works, for your own protection as much as anything else. I'm astounded by the number of people who don't know the basics of Paypal and never read the T&C's when they joined.