Seller refuses to sell.

[goodnightwalter]

Purchased and paid for item. Contacted seller to arrange pickup. Seller says someone else is coming to look at item and if they don't buy I can have it.

Where do I stand?

[4channel]

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@imastawka wrote:

4channel, members don't come here looking for empathy.

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Some members post here to try and make sense of a bad situation. I little compassion, empathy, concern does no harm

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@imastawka wrote:

They come looking for advice /help.

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I have tried to show the OP that hey have a right and that this kind of selling is no good. I have been a member of ebay since around 2002 or 2003 (Can't remember without looking). I have picked up a bit of experience along the way.

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@imastawka wrote:

How is anything you post helpful?

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Some of my stuff obviously is helpful as I have been thanked for some of my posts.

[padi*0409]

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@4channel wrote:

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Hi goodnightwalter, this is a very dirty practice. This is happening more and more now. Sellers lying saying they can't provide the winning item because it's (mysteriously recently become) damaged etc. Then they re-list and sell for a higher price. Sometimes on a different site.  Anyway with this case, you took time out from your own time which is valuable to purchase an item and then get told that it is not available. The seller should be comitted to selling to you. This is wrong and it's dirty and dishonest selling. Shame on that seller for doing this to you!

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eBay ruled out their policy of only allowing sellers to list exclusively on their platform a long time ago, and while it's always going to be a problem for the seller if an item sells almost at the same time on both sites before they can end the item, it's not a "dirty practice" - foolish maybe..............

Ending and relisting an item because the seller didn't get the price they wanted ?  Well eBay is partly to blame for that by having BINs on auctions, where the seller may well think that the BIN is a reserve price or following eBay's nonsensical advice to start auctions at 99 cents. I'm not saying that the above scenarios are what the OP went through, I'm just putting my perspective on where sellers and buyers can and are put into difficult postitions on transactions where a cancellation is envolved.

[4channel]

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@padi*0409 wrote:

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@4channel wrote:

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Hi goodnightwalter, this is a very dirty practice. This is happening more and more now. Sellers lying saying they can't provide the winning item because it's (mysteriously recently become) damaged etc. Then they re-list and sell for a higher price. Sometimes on a different site.  Anyway with this case, you took time out from your own time which is valuable to purchase an item and then get told that it is not available. The seller should be comitted to selling to you. This is wrong and it's dirty and dishonest selling. Shame on that seller for doing this to you!

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eBay ruled out their policy of only allowing sellers to list exclusively on their platform a long time ago, and while it's always going to be a problem for the seller if an item sells almost at the same time on both sites before they can end the item, it's not a "dirty practice" - foolish maybe..............

Ending and relisting an item because the seller didn't get the price they wanted ?  Well eBay is partly to blame for that by having BINs on auctions, where the seller may well think that the BIN is a reserve price or following eBay's nonsensical advice to start auctions at 99 cents. I'm not saying that the above scenarios are what the OP went through, I'm just putting my perspective on where sellers and buyers can and are put into difficult postitions on transactions where a cancellation is envolved.

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Well,sellers need to organise themselves properly.And if they are listing on both Ebay and Gumtree, they need to give priortity to Ebay. You've raised a point here though.

[lyndal1838]

Why should they give priority to ebay?

If an item sells on ebay the seller is up for ebay and probably paypal fees. 

If it sells on gumtree the seller gets to keep all the money for themselves.....I know which I would choose.

[4channel]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

Why should they give priority to ebay?

If an item sells on ebay the seller is up for ebay and probably paypal fees. 

If it sells on gumtree the seller gets to keep all the money for themselves.....I know which I would choose.

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Lyndal, we are talking about an issue on eBay. And you ask  ................  "Why should they give priority to ebay?"   ......... Simple. They are selling on Ebay!  And that is why the OP came here to talk about an issue on ebay. It's immaterial if you or anyone else would rather shop anywhere else. What we need to address is this issue that has affected an eBayer and that's what has hapened. The seller's reckless, cavalier or selfish practices have now impacted on a a buyer who was involved in a transatcion that invovled a lot of money $$$$.

And as you're most likely aware, there s a lot less buyer protection on Gumtree. eBay gives more!

[digital*ghost]

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@4channel wrote:

The seller's reckless, cavalier or selfish practices have now impacted on a a buyer who was involved in a transatcion that invovled a lot of money $$$$.

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eBay doesn't get priority just because it's eBay - the seller clearly was trying to honour the first interested party who had already arranged to view their item. Wouldn't their actions be just as open to criticism if they'd instead told that person, 'I know I said you could come 'round and buy it, but I've just sold it to someone else so now you lose out'.

Ideally, the seller would have either cancelled the listing, or at least temprarily set it to out of stock, while negotiations were taking place with the first person, so I agree there are better ways to handle cases where you are advertising an item on multiple platforms, but don't have multiple items to supply, but it's not necessary to crucify each and every person that makes an error or decision that results in an eBay buyer not getting what they want.

[padi*0409]

" You took the words right out of my mouth" Digi......................

[4channel]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@4channel wrote:

The seller's reckless, cavalier or selfish practices have now impacted on a a buyer who was involved in a transatcion that invovled a lot of money $$$$.

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eBay doesn't get priority just because it's eBay - the seller clearly was trying to honour the first interested party who had already arranged to view their item. Wouldn't their actions be just as open to criticism if they'd instead told that person, 'I know I said you could come 'round and buy it, but I've just sold it to someone else so now you lose out'.

Ideally, the seller would have either cancelled the listing, or at least temprarily set it to out of stock, while negotiations were taking place with the first person, so I agree there are better ways to handle cases where you are advertising an item on multiple platforms, but don't have multiple items to supply, but it's not necessary to crucify each and every person that makes an error or decision that results in an eBay buyer not getting what they want.

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The seller would have known what time the auction or listing was ending and should have said to any potential buyers and enquirers, I am tied up for a bit longer on this. Can you call me back in 2 hours or whatever. Then the potential buyer could have said   ...  "OK, look, I'll offer you an extra $50". Anyway, that's just one of the many scenarios that would be possible. Without knowing a bit more about the circumstances it's hard to say.

Put it this way, if I was to sell an item and list it on multiple sites, the one that involves the process an automatic electronic financial transaction would take priority over anything else.

I'm not talking about crucifying "each and every person that makes an error or decision that results in an eBay buyer not getting what they want.", I'm just talking about sellers here on ebay following the rules and not putting up bogus, flimsy or "Cancel-it-If-I-Feel-Like-It" listings. Please keep in mind that goodnightwalter had paid the seller over or around nine hundred dollars and that went into the sellers PayPal account.

Some record sellers on ebay list their items on Music Stack and other websites.  Peple can click on the item they want and wait to see if the item is still available, if so the seller then confirms it and sends an invoice to pay via paypal. If the same item has been snapped up on ebay, the potential buyer will get a message saying not available. These sellers usually update their listings quite promptly. They are professional.  The seller that goodnightwalter was not!

[digital*ghost]

"The seller would have known what time the auction or listing was ending and should have said to any potential buyers and enquirers, I am tied up for a bit longer on this."

The seller could have done a lot of things.

They could have chosen to only list on one site at a time and eliminate all possibility of more than one sale taking place (personally, what I would do). They could have directed the Gumtree enquirer to purchase through eBay (illogical, all things considered). The could have done what I mentioned in my previous post.

What they chose to do was list on multiple sites, and followed a "first come, first served" MO, which created a situation where one person was going to be denied / disappointed. 

It's unlikely for a seller to do that on purpose, and most do what they feel is the right thing to do when presented with circumstances they didn't expect or account for - deciding on what the right thing to do is, is very much based on individual circumstances (which you admit you don't know, yet decided to speculate about the seller's greed rather than anything else), or if they thought about potential risks, they forge ahead thinking it's unlikely and / or with an understanding that there are solutions to those problems, anyway  - thinking about what you would do and then concluding that's what all sellers should do, is to decide that what you think is right, is what everyone else should think is right - and you don't have that right. 

[4channel]

Correction:  My last post should have said ......

Some record sellers on ebay list their items on Music Stack and other websites.  Peple can click on the item they want and wait to see if the item is still available, if so the seller then confirms it and sends an invoice to pay via paypal. If the same item has been snapped up on ebay, the potential buyer will get a message saying not available. These sellers usually update their listings quite promptly. They are professional.  The seller that goodnightwalter was dealing with, was not!