Seller out of office

[gabtronic_90]

Hi.

I keep getting this message EVERYTIME I send a message to a seller: 

Hi gabtronic_90,

popsngifts is out of the office until 03/22/2018 and may not be able to respond to your message.

Message from popsngifts:
Hi

Sorry we have had to take leave for unforseen circumstances and will be returning by the 22.03.18

They've done this TWICE to me and I wanted to cancel my order!

Anyone know what's going on? 

[wide-world-of-stamps · Accepted solution]

Obviously they are away until the 22 March, unexpectedly by the sounds of it, & have set up an automatic reply to messages.

You have no idea why they are not available - it could be an illness or a death in the family, so you'll just have to be patient until they can reply to your message.

By the way, this isn't a way to contact Ebay, it's just a member board. It's also a public forum & you shouldn't be posting any of your details on here for the whole world to see. 

[countessalmirena]

@gabtronic_90

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@gabtronic_90wrote:

They've done this TWICE to me and I wanted to cancel my order!

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gabtronic_90, are you aware that once you click onto the BUY or PAY button, you have actually committed to make the purchase? (I'm mentioning that as I can see that you are a very infrequent user of eBay - at least, on this ID.)

That is, the purchase has been made. The seller is charged the relevant fees. As far as eBay is concerned, the deal has been made. The seller has no obligation whatsoever to accede to your request to cancel the order.

Indeed, if the seller is away, they don't know that you want to cancel the order, and if they don't know, they can't - literally can't - accede to your request.

The item's sold. The seller would have to go through a process involving refunding your payment (assuming you have paid), requesting that you click onto a cancellation request (or opening an unpaid item case), hoping that you don't give them negative feedback for some unreasonable cause, and then going about the hassle of contacting eBay to have their final value fee refunded.

Or is it rather that you have not paid? In that case, it may be that the seller has set up the Unpaid Item Assistant to automatically initiate Unpaid Item Cases so that if a buyer doesn't pay for their purchase, the case will be opened automatically after a certain amount of time after payment isn't received. If you don't want to pay for the item, you can simply let the case proceed. Once it's been processed, and you've not paid, the case will close. You'll receive an unpaid item strike, but as you are such a very infrequent buyer, it shouldn't impact your buying pattern at all.

Just bear in mind that on the basis of the information you've posted here, the seller has to date done nothing wrong, and has not been deliberately ignoring you.

For future reference to help you when you want to buy items on eBay, you may want to keep in mind that clicking the BUY button is your firm commitment; it's you making a purchase. The purchase commitment is made at that point, and failing to pay after making a commitment to pay will as a general rule have consequences - for both the buyer and the seller.

[enigmabear]

Yes, as do you because you have seen the messages

That is your answer, the seller is away. They have not done anything to you

And, when they do return, bare in mind that as has been mentioned, they are no obligation whatsoever to cancel your order

PLUS you have already left neutral feedback? for what reason? because they had to go away ? really ?

I do hope they will call ebay and have that removed

[padi*0409]

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@enigmabearwrote:

Yes, as do you because you have seen the messages

PLUS you have already left neutral feedback? for what reason? because they had to go away ? really ?

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The seller's unlikely to be receptive to a cancellation after that bear.................very unfair neutral IMHO.

[lyndal1838]

We know as much as you do about what is going on.   The message is very clear and self explanatory.....the seller is away till the 22nd for some unforseen reason.

No matter how many times you send a message you will get the same reply so why are you making such a point that the seller has done this every time you have sent a message?

Do you want to cancel your order because the seller has not answered you or some other reason?  What is the connection in your feedback left for the seller between you having paid and the seller being away?

[enigmabear]

But another person who has been added to many party lists no doubt

Did not even give the seller a chance to respond to the cancel request let alone anything else

[padi*0409]

I wonder if the seller has UPI's on auto ??????                        

[brerrabbit585]

To be fair, I don't think that's an automatic reply from the seller because they don't have a shop and I'm pretty sure only shops can set up automated replies.  If the seller has the time to send any sort of reply they should be making it slightly more personalised and just saying they've had to go away but will deal with it when they get back.

[digital*ghost]

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@brerrabbit585wrote:

To be fair, I don't think that's an automatic reply from the seller because they don't have a shop and I'm pretty sure only shops can set up automated replies.  

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Only a store can implement holiday settings to have a message show on listings, but any account can set up an out of office message. (To do this, they just have to go to Messages and click "change settings", there is an option there to switch the OOF response on or off).

The first response that's copy/pasted here is also referring to the seller in the third person, so it sounds like eBay are sending or displaying that, and the second message is what the seller has written as their auto-response. 

The neutral is definitely premature, but it doesn't look like any of the listings were edited to advise people of the delay, either (ETA for me is showing as the 22nd), so the only way anyone would ever know is by sending a message.