Seller Refuses To Sell After Successful Bid

WUSBDesign

Need some pointers from non-eBay sources (sometimes, they don't want to know...)

Submitted the only bid for an item on eBay thirty minutes before closing and won it. Great price. Read the listing details, and re-read it to check that nothing fishy is going on. There was no bid cancellation.

Now, the seller emailed me back (not message from eBay system) saying that the item was gone days ago, and gave a reason for that. I emailed that he accepted a contract to sell, and I will have let it go if he had modified the auction listing to state the item was gone, and no bidding is allowed.

Note that eBay does not allow auctions to be prematurely terminated if the auction is due in 48(?) hours.

I'd say he is lying. What do you say?

EDIT: seller's feedback is 23, with at least previous sells.

super_furry

He's lying. He expected to get more for it and now that he didn't, he doesn't want to sell it. Report him and leave bad feedback.

Bondvillain

Spot on. Report him as a non performing seller with this link and leave the appropriate calm, reasoned, & factual feedback - people dont need to know how evil you think he may be, they just need to be warned that he's a poor seller.

Remember that ebay have changed feedback policy and sellers can no longer leave retaliatory negatives for dissatisfied buyers. Gimps like this get the rest of us a bad name.

jor el

Bondvillain wrote: »

Spot on. Report him as a non performing seller with this link and leave the appropriate calm, reasoned, & factual feedback - people dont need to know how evil you think he may be, they just need to be warned that he's a poor seller.

Thanks for the link, I was just looking for that. In a dispute over a guy claiming to be in the UK but actually he's in Hong Kong (there's far too many doing this). I questioned him on it, when the item arrived after 3 weeks in an envelope from Hong Kong and he again told me it was sent from the UK. This is the envelope. Hong Kong postmark, Hong Kong return address and Chinese customs declaration on it. Doesn't look very UK to me.

super_furry

jor el wrote: »

Thanks for the link, I was just looking for that. In a dispute over a guy claiming to be in the UK but actually he's in Hong Kong (there's far too many doing this). I questioned him on it, when the item arrived after 3 weeks in an envelope from Hong Kong and he again told me it was sent from the UK. This is the envelope. Hong Kong postmark, Hong Kong return address and Chinese customs declaration on it. Doesn't look very UK to me.

Wouldn't be this guy http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/taozi79 would it? I had the exact same problem, waited five weeks for my item and left bad feedback, only to get the same back (before the new set-up).

WUSBDesign

Done that reporting to eBay. F**king bloke even emailed me saying I should not harass him over a small matter.

jor el

super_furry wrote: »

Wouldn't be this guy http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/taozi79 would it? I had the exact same problem, waited five weeks for my item and left bad feedback, only to get the same back (before the new set-up).

No, his name is estopchoose. His location is Hong Kong, but his auctions state the items are in Manchester. There are hundreds, of sellers pulling the same trick. Makes them seem a better deal if they're UK based, as you expect to pay a little more than from HK, plus you expect it to be faster and there's no customs/VAT liability from the UK (to EU buyers anyway).

WUSBDesign

Right guys, the trust department from eBay has emailed me. Essentially there are 3 options.

One - talk to the seller on phone. Am I going to listen to more excuses which the seller cared not to email in the first place? Or am I going to listen to more abusive regurgitations of what he has already emailed?

Two - send email exchange(s) to eBay to pursue. Taking this now - I think eBay should just suspend the seller's account. Like you all said - get rid of sources of bad eBay experiences.

Three - leave the seller negative feedback. Does this work? TBH, there is no three-strike system in place, and eBay is interested only in 5% or more negative feedbacks.

jor el

WUSBDesign wrote: »

Three - leave the seller negative feedback. Does this work? TBH, there is no three-strike system in place, and eBay is interested only in 5% or more negative feedbacks.

It will at least warn others, if they take notice. You can't really do much more than that.

jor el

I just got a reply from my complaint, and, it contained actually useful information! It also shows signs the the respondent actually read my complaint, understood it, and is taking action. Well that's a first. Any other time I've contacted eBay, I got a bland generic reply that my be only 1% related to what I actually asked. I am pleasantly surprised, especially since they say

We've reviewed your report and we assure you that
appropriate action will be taken based on the results.

The system works.

Now I have to get something done about the damn thing not working, but he is at least talking to me about this.

WUSBDesign

Good for you, wish me luck. I am just starting this process...