Failed Order Mysteriously Reactivated

[re_5192]

I placed an order for a product and paid for it in the checkout. When I viewed the order there was a message telling me "This order was not successful. Order cost has not been included in the total amount".  There was no option to contact the seller and no option to cancel the order. 

I contacted eBay support via the chat function.  They told me the listing hadn't been entered correctly by the seller and I would have to contact the seller for an invoice.  I didn't wanty to do this, so they said the order would be automatically cancelled.  I then ordered the product from a different seller.

The next day I received a message from the first seller telling me the order had shipped.  The "failed" message on the order had dissappeared.  I have contected eBay support 3 more times who just keep sending messages to the seller, but the seller just keeps saying they didn't reactivate the orderm it is not their faut and won't refund unless I return the item at my own expense.  I didn't reactivate the order, so maybe the first eBay chat person did, I have no way of knowing.  Thay have acknowledged that the original order failed, but won't/can't say how it was reactivated.

eBay really can't handle issues that are not on their fixed list of problems and solutions.  Does anyone know if there is an Australian phone number or an email address where I can contact someone in eBay that can actually sort this out?

[sandypebbles]

The call center has been closed for month due to Coronavirus and the email for eBay is purely a bot (IF yo do get a reply at all, it will only be based on key words and useless

All I can suggest is keep trying Live Chat until another member comes along with a better suggestion

Other than that,all I can suggest is sell it yourself when it arrives would be the quickest and easiest way to go, but I doubt you would like that idea

[re_5192]

Thank you for your response.  I have now had a total of 5 conversations (lasting over two and a half hours between them) with eBay regarding this over their chat function.  They were definetly not 'bot' chats.  Each time the person didn't read what I was telling them until I pushed and each time they did exactly the same thing as the last person, i.e. they "reached out to the seller".  Each time the seller just rejected it and was adamant that they didn't reactivate the order.  I believe them, I think it was actually the first eBay agent that reactivated it, although I have no proof.  The fifth agent passed me on to an escallation agent who still just did exactly the same as the others.  She then passed me to another department who just didn't respond to me in the chat.

Anyway, one of the eBay agents raised a case for 'item not received' because she said there was not option available for the actual problem.  This did no good whatsoever because the item did arrive.  At this point I gave up as the value of the item just wasn't worth the time.  I then opened the item to test it and found it was faulty.  I had to close the 'item not received' case to open a new case for the faulty item.  That is still open and ongoing.

eBay has been extremely difficult to deal with.  The customer service agents just don't know what to do and are ineffectual.  They just can't handle an event that isn't on their list of standard problems and standard list of solutions.  Had this been a higher value item I would have handled it as a credit card charge back by now on the basis that reactivating a failed order after getting written confirmation that it would be cancelled constitutes an unauthorised transaction on my credit card.

The seller hasn't offered any solution yet for the faulty item, so I will ask eBay to step in tomorrow and just get a refund.  This assumes there is a button/option to ask them to step in.  This function was missing on the previous case.

I would like to make a formal complaint to eBay about the whole thing, but there doesn't seems to be a machanism for this.  I really don't want to go through a lenghty chat session again.  An emal address would be best, but I can't find one.