1y ago

Anyone have experience with buying on eBay?

I bought a “Buy It Now” item, payment went through. Two days later, I got an email saying I got a refund. I looked at the order and I looks like I indeed got a full refund. There are no notes or messages from the seller, so I’m not really sure what happened. Should I message the seller? Report that I haven’t received the order? The order does not show that it was canceled; it shows the Paid status, and awaiting shipping.

I’m honestly confused on what to do.

19 comments

Some sellers try to maximise their chances by listing the same item on ebay, amazon, etsy or whatever to reach as many people as possible. It can happen that they sell more items at once than they actually have in stock, so some orders get cancelled / refunded.
I am fairly sure that ebay has rules against it, but people do it anway. Reporting rarely works, and if you got your refund already, then just leave it be.
- Can they at least leave feedback? It would sure be nice to be warned about sellers like these.
  
  Yeah I’m hoping it was an honest mistake, but if I don’t get a reply, I definitely want to leave a review about what to possibly expect from the seller.
  
  The sellers usually don't say anything of the sort because ebay can use that against them and close their shop. I am unsure ATM whether a buyer can leave feedback if the purchase has been cancelled (I've not been on ebay for years) but a neutral one simply stating what happened, that might not be a bad idea.

I've had it happen before where I'll use Buy It Now for a one-off item from a seller, and then get refunded a day later. It usually happens when they double sell an item (likely within a short time frame). I've had the seller message me saying that the item was already sold and they didn't pull the listing in time, but I've also gotten no response as well. Probably nothing nefarious going on.
- I've noticed that some sellers seem to list the same item a number of times.... I'm sure not all of them are for unique items.

If you actually got the refund you should just go buy something else. I can only assume the seller canceled the order for some reason.
I've never run into this before but my experience is from over a decade ago. Probably isn't all that relevant anymore.
- It’s a vintage woodworking tool and semi-difficult to find. There are new ones available but are double the price. I’ll just have to try to find another one from a different seller, but I’m kind of upset because I thought it was a done deal.
  
  I stopped using ebay because of bad experiences. The concept is sound but people are going to be people.

They could have sold the item through another avenue, or for some reason had relisted the auction unintentionally, something happened to the item, or maybe they didn't want to risk shipping to a new buyer. Only way to know is to ask the seller and hope for an honest answer.
That's not a typical eBay experience but I try to buy from sellers with a lot of feedback and 95% or higher positive.
- The seller has high ratings. I guess I’ll just try messaging them for an answer and leave a review about my experience if they don’t respond. I had some bad experiences with eBay in the past and seemed to have gotten better, but this makes me a bit more hesitant again.

What type of product were you trying to buy? I had trouble like this when ordering borate wood preservative. Maybe six sellers cancelled my order. Not all replied to my messages asking for more info. Those that did vaguely referred to shipping problems. Eventually I gave up on eBay and got the item from an online store. HTH.
- It is an antique woodworking tool. It was a decent price, that’s why I scooped it. The idea was to buy a vintage one and fix it a little so it was cheaper than a very expensive new one. But many of the vintage ones are approaching new prices.
  
  So what kind of hand plane was it, LOL?
  
  i've seen items sell 'too fast', get refunded/cancelled as item not available, and then relisted later for a higher price. but if it's a highly rated seller, probably just sold it elsewhere or locally.

I've had this happen when they were hoping to sell it for more or actually have people bid on it to raise the price.

19 comments