ebay seller wont sell me item after winning auction, what to do? - Cybertron.CA - Canadian Transformers News and Discussion

chroma23 · 05-12-2014, 09:07 AM

hi,

so i won an auction for my dad on ebay (it's an antique item). item is located in Australia so upon winning the auction i immediately requested the total amount including shipping and provided the seller with a shipping address. however, the seller never got back to me regarding a total, and instead sent a request to cancel the transaction with the reason being "wrong listing". without a valid reason given, obviously i profoundly declined the offer to cancel the transaction, and messaged the seller directly asking what the hell is going on. he then said that he "accidentally" gave the item to a family member during the course of the auction and that family member is now in europe and while he said he will try to get it back he cannot guarantee that he can do so.

he offered me other similar items as substitutes, but given the nature of antique items, its hard to just do a direct swap. also, my dad, as a matter of principle, refuses to accept any substitutes at all and want to receive the exact item described in the auction, which i guess is fair

so we are now in a total limbo. the issue is, payment has not been initiated since the seller never provided the total amount including shipping. what can i do now? im not sure if i can even escalate the matter in ebay since payment has never been sent.

the seller, as well as myself, has had perfect feedback. seller has close to 600.

thanks in advance

wervenom · 05-12-2014, 09:13 AM

You can indeed escalate it but in all honesty there won't be much they can do except reprimand the seller. I had a similar experience once or you might be able to leave feedback now before it is escalated. In the end I don't believe you will end up with your item. Sucks when that happens

Team Jetfire · 05-12-2014, 10:19 AM

Leave negitive Feedback and move on. The guy clearly does not want to sell the item anylonger.

Janitor · 05-12-2014, 11:09 AM

Pretty much nothing, unfortunately.

Knew someone from another board who won an auction for dirt cheap ($14 for a basketball jersey) because it got no other bids. Seller straight up cancelled, and even said flat out "Get your your money back I'm not selling my jersey for that price" because he knew on a good day it would've gone for A LOT more. SMDH

MULTIPLEX · 05-12-2014, 03:29 PM

This is the one thing that buyers are not protected against. Basically, it's a loop hole that some sellers can exploit if the final auction price they get is not as much as they were expecting. So the seller can break the contract at any time. The worst thing that could happen is they get negative feedback. And if you had paid already, you'd get a full refund. It's happened to me a couple times.

Batman · 05-13-2014, 07:38 AM

Not much you can do. Sounds like the seller made an honest mistake and at the very least tried to offer something similar.

Just accept the cancellation and move on. There really is nothing to escalate, you can't force someone to sell you something they don't have.

Does it suck? Sure. Does he deserve negative feedback? No. He was upfront, told you what was what, offered a resolution, and cancelled the transaction. Sure it is irritating but its not the end of the world.

Bruticus82 · 05-14-2014, 09:31 PM

Unfortunately what everyone else said is accurate.

Let's make this situation a little worse. Let's say you paid him for the item through paypal, and you drove out to Niagara Falls to pick it up in person. If, at the time you got there, he had the item, but decided he wasn't going to sell it to you for the agreed upon price anymore, the most you could do is get your money back.

Even if you were to take him to court, it is extremely rare that you can force someone to go through with a contract. If they decide to breach the contract, you can get your money back, maybe you can get damages, but rarely can you force them to stick to the contract, particularly if it is a purchase/sale.

steamwhistle · 05-15-2014, 12:09 AM

There isn't much you can do... At least payment hasn't been made. Considering the positive feedback, it sounds like the seller might be a good one (in general), and could be telling the truth about the item being with a relative in Europe. Since your dad wants the specific item, you could see if the seller is able to re-acquire the item, as he suggested he might be able to do. You could give him a bit of time to see if he can do so.

The overall situation is disappointing, but there is no real loss sustained.