Can a seller cancel a transaction after I have paid for it?

[navar104]

An ebay seller sold me a painting at an agreed price.

After I had paid he sent me an message saying he has altered the  picture frame and asked if I still wanted the painting or a refund.  I asked for the painting to be sent anyway.

There were then several messages to and fro with him wanting to cancel the transaction and refund my $350.00.  Each time I asked him to just send the painting

I then got a notification from Pay Pal that the transcation had been cancelled and I was getting a refund anyway.

When I messaged him to say I would be complaining he sent back a rude message saying both eBay and Pay Pal were located in the Philipines and wouldnt care less. 

These types of sellers ruin the eBay experience for everyone. 

[davewil1964]

As do those that don't read board policies.

Rest happy that the seller has incurred non-refundable eBay fees of about $9.00.

You have apparently had one 'bad' experience in 12 years and over 1000 transactions, so it's hardly common.

eBay's, closed for COVID, call centre is in the Phillipines. I have no idea where Paypal's is. But it is irrelevant. Legally, until the item is posted, the item belongs to the seller.

[springyzone]

Can a seller cancel a transaction after you have paid for it?

They sure can.

I think there are a few reasons. One would be if the item had been damaged or broken by accident in the meantime and another could be if the seller was out of stock.

Sometimes buyers ask sellers to cancel a sale too as they have changed their mind.

So cancellations and refunds do happen. I wouldn't say it is common but it does happen.  It's not encouraged by ebay, it's not best practice and sellers, as someone else pointed out, are left a little out of pocket if they do it. But no one can actually force a seller to post off an item. It sounds very much to me as if the seller had a change of heart after the sale. I don't know why, maybe they feel they sold it too cheaply, maybe they decided they want to keep it after all. You can't change that.

Yes, it is a disappointing experience for a lot of buyers when it happens but look on the bright side, you got all your money back and that's the main thing.

[louisas_lines]

I was very annoyed once when a seller cancelled after payment on an international (china) sale.  I was out of pocket the international transaction fees - there was no recourse to get reimbursed by the seller and ebay couldn't care less.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@louisas_lines wrote:

I was very annoyed once when a seller cancelled after payment on an international (china) sale.  I was out of pocket the international transaction fees - there was no recourse to get reimbursed by the seller and ebay couldn't care less.

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Yeah, I can see how that would suck. 

A couple of years back, I bought something from the US. Less than a week later, the seller sent a message saying they had to cancel because eBay had kindly relisted a sold item. I believed them, because it has happened to me a number of time. Most recently, last month ( thank you so much eBay). When the seller sent the refund, I got more than I paid because the exchange rate had changed. I was pretty happy about that!