A Buyer on Ebay Just Screwed me Big Time!

[romantico]

I sold a rather expensive item on Ebay this weekend.The buyer paid right away and all was well. However,about 5 or 6 hours after then won and paid they sent me an email and said they changed their mind and wanted a full refund. What could I do? I told them since they paid, I transferred most the money into my bank account and it would not be clear for a few days.What sucks is,I in that time paid some bills.This really screws me because I now spent money I don't have.I had to withdraw $$$ from another account and deposit into another account and so on.

FUnds were clear and I issued a full refund. Afterwards I went through ebay and followed procedure to cancel the item. This way I would not be charged a fee from EBay and would be reimbursed by Paypal.Well, the buyer denied my cancellation so not only am I out the $$$ for the item but I get ebay and Paypal will go ahead and charge me,which is a lot.

I know on ebay sellers have no rights.Still, is there anything I can do? In the morning I plan on calling EBay and asking for advice. I also have the contact info of the buyer. I thought I would ask ebay if they advise me to contact her.WHat sucks is, there is no way for me to be reimbursed. I'd say I will go ahead and send out the item or wait to be paid(again) and if not file a claim(if I can now)for an unpaid item.

Any advice?

[Incitatus]

1. I thought all sales on EBAY were final.

Did you choose to return to the seller out of kindness? If so, whatever burden seems to be on you.

[romantico]

2. I

I issued a full refund. Then sent the request to cancel the transaction. I figured I've refunded her so all she has to do is accept and we are done. AT least this way I would not be out anything.She declined and wrote a note in the case file that she was advised not cancel unless she got refunded. Apparently,PAYPAL has to wait til funds clear since I did not have the amount in my Paypal account.I wish she would have waited until it cleared instead of INSTANTLY NOT ACCEPTING because I can not re-open the case.

I've never had this happen to me before.

[TorchTheWitch]

3. Why in the world would you send the item to the buyer when

you gave them their money back? And since they said they changed their mind and don't want the item, I don't get why you would send it to them for that reason either.

I'm not getting what's going on here... what money are you looking to have reimbursed? Some kind of fee that ebay is charging you?

If it were me I would never have given their money back until I went through the cancelation procedure at ebay and the buyer agreed to the cancellation. If they didn't agree, and the result of that was ebay charging me some kind of fee then I would only reimburse them whatever money may be owed minus the fee. Now, I really don't understand how this all works on ebay with cancellations and fees and all that, but there's no way I'd let a buyer scam me in canceling an order and demanding a full refund if I was going to be charged a fee especially if they buyer had any control of whether or not I even got charged the fee because of some cancellation denial on their part. Personally, I wouldn't do refunds, period. You buy it, you own it is what I'd do... no changing your mind at some point and expecting to get your money back, but of course, I'd send them the item if they paid for it. Their changing their mind caused enough trouble for you aside from the financial issue of having spent the money when you got it... it also put you in the position of not being able to sell the item to someone else while they dingled around changing their mind and whatever this denial of cancellation thing they pulled on you and on top of it all being charged a fee by ebay.

I REALLY don't understand why on earth you would even consider sending the item to the buyer (who is no longer a buyer) when you already gave them their money back and it's caused you all this hassle! If you haven't got money from them for the item that you actually get to keep, why in the world would you send them a free item and one they decided they didn't want???

There's shopaholics all over ebay buying up things that when they come to their senses decide they really don't want and sellers shouldn't have to be the ones to deal with that headache especially if they get charged fees from ebay for cancelling a transaction. For that reason alone it's better to have a "you buy it, you own it" policy and only do refunds if there is something legitimately wrong with an item sold. Once an item is paid for then, too bad, they own it, and if they change their mind after buying it then they can sell it on ebay. Sellers shouldn't have to deal with these "mind changers" and be the ones to have to suffer the consequences of fees, refunds, having their items taken out of circulation for other buyers, etc.

[grasswire]

4. how can the buyer deny your cancellation if you have refunded the money..

....at his/her request?

Don't mail the item. It's yours.

Consult with eBay. Send a copy of the message from the buyer asking for the refund, and a copy of the receipt for your payment to him/her.

[romantico]

5. Yes

First off,I won't send them the item. I was just confused. The buyer buys item. Buyer changes mind and wants refund. I give them refund.They don't want to cancel the sale of the item. I assumed they want it still. I am calling ebay today for advice.

Ebay does NOT protect sellers at all. I've heard this for years,I know people who will not sell on ebay for this reason. I however, have never had any bad luck or reason to not sell. Til now. Since the case is closed and can not be re-opened,the $$$ Ebay charged me is done. I won't get that back.Period. Unless they can some wave that by talking to a rep and explaining the situation. The way I see it is,since she does not wish to cancel and has denied the cancellation, the item is now hers again. If I do not get payment within a week I can report to ebay that I have not received payment for an item sold. However, I can not open a dispute on this case.

[pipi_k]

6. Not sure what you can do now but

for future reference, the rule is...or should be...all sales are final, even if the person does not pay.

That means if someone bids on, and wins, your item, it's a contract to buy and they must honor that contract.

If they don't, you need to report it.

If someone pays for the item and then wants to cancel, too bad. Send the item out, but make sure to take a photo of it so buyer can't claim you sent out a damaged item. Send it so it can be tracked and you have record of delivery so they can't say they never got it.

I don't know if it's true that sellers have no rights, but there are ways to protect yourself.

[romantico]

7. Yup

Yup. I am going to have make all sales final. I spent 40 minutes on the phone with Ebay and then they transferred me over to Paypal. I got all my fee's restored but damn, it sure took a lot of work to do so. Paypal sent this buyer a notice saying she had a refund but it was pending and would take a day or two for funds to clear,even though it was taken out of my checking account about an hour after I issued her a refund.She knew a refund had been issued and still cancelled the transaction. I don't get that. I would have been okay if she wanted to wait a few days til payment cleared and it was back in her Paypal account or bank account.

[OhioChick]

10. You can list all of your sales as "final"

However, no sale is final due to the "Buyer Protection" program. For whatever reason, (Even buyer's remorse) a buyer can file an "Item not as Described" case against you for up until 45 days from their initial purchase date, returning the item to you and receiving a full refund (Including S&H).

Be sure to add this buyer to your "Blocked Buyers List." In the future, they'll no longer be able to bid/buy any of your items.

[HopeHoops]

8. Definitely report the buyer to eBay - that's a clear breach of contract. They do clamp on this.

I've only had one case where a buyer didn't come through. It wasn't an expensive item and I never got paid, so I never shipped it. The issue went away and all I did was alert eBay about the buyer and they didn't charge a fee for it. That was a couple of years ago, but they are responsive to such things. It's their reputation as much as anything.

[Panasonic]

9. Next time use Craigslist.

Ebay and their insane fees at 10% for everything over 99 dollars has pissed me off, and may just leave eBay holding the pot.

I am going to use Craigslist to sell my stuff locally.

[Corgigal]

11. dont forget to destroy her on feedback

Sometimes I sell things on ebay and I look at feedback, if you wrote what actually happened she might not ever be able to buy again on ebay. Don't forget she will probably ding your feedback too, which to me is a huge thing.

I've been lucky on ebay and paypal I guess. Sure I've had problems but it's always worked out OK in the end.

[OhioChick]

12. A Seller can only leave Positive FB for a buyer now..

I think they did away with allowing sellers to leave negative FB for buyers in '08.

[Corgigal]

13. well damn

Nevermind then, but that certainly does hurt sellers.

[RedCloud]

14. Does the phrase "take the money and run" not mean anything?

[Rochester]

15. I think your biggest mistake was

issuing the refund before sending the cancel transaction request. I'm not 100% certain but I think agreeing to cancel through the system will get Ebay to refund your selling fees. You could have told the buyer that if he wanted to cancel out, that was the only way you'd be willing to cooperate.

Meanwhile, if you used the issue refund feature in Paypal (as opposed to simply sending a payment to him without telling the system what it was for), you should have at least been refunded your Paypal fees. I've done this a time or two and got my PP fees back immediately.

[legup]

16. Beware of Order Cancellation

FYI to all Ebay Sellers and Buyers. If a buyer accepts YOUR cancellation of HIS purchase then HE NO LONGER HAS ANY RIGHTS AND ALSO CANNOT EFFECT ANY CLAIM. IF HE RETURNS THE ITEM THEN IT WOULD BE A MISTAKE TO ACCEPT CANCELLATION PRIOR TO RECEIVING HIS REFUND. THIS IS SPECIFICALLY WHY THE BUYER REFUSED THE SELLER'S CANCELLATION. POSSESSION IS 9/10ths OF THE LAW AND PRIOR TO ANY CANCELLATION THE BUYER HAS ALL THE RIGHTS. AFTER IT HE HAS NONE.

[gopiscrap]

17. welcome to du