Why can sellers cancel an order and not buyers

[dancom123]

I "bought " the same item from 2 different sellers and they both cancelled and refunded. Maybe it was too much trouble to post to OS.

One had it for $35 cancelled and then relisted at $3500!! Is this some sort of scam?

Buyers can't back out of a deal so why can sellers?

Anyone else this has happened to

Dan

[repentatleisure1952]

"Buyers can't back out of a deal "

Yes they can.

"Anyone else this has happened to"

Happened to me four times this year...I left appropriate feedback & moved on.

[gutterpunkz05]

Maybe the item is a restricted Australian import

[enigmabear]

Where do you get buyers can't back out of a deal from?

Whoever told you that needs to get their facts right before spreading nonsense 

Happens over and over and over, every day

Not to mention the amount of time wasters who buy and then refuse to pay,or who make up garbage about 'it was'nt them that bid' 

[kopenhagen5 · Accepted solution]

Buyers can back out before paying but can't cancel a transaction in eBay.

If a seller cancels, even though it's not good form then just move on and find another seller.

[dancom123]

They cancelled a week later after I messaged asking progress. The money was taken out of Paypal, so a dispute with them takes time and effort..It says on Ebay site if a buyer wants to cancel contact seller to agree - I got no correspondance just an automated respose saying seller refunded

[dancom123]

It was from US with free international postage - maybe that factored into it

[enigmabear]

Your question was why can sellers cancel but not buyers, which was the question I answered

Buyers back out constantly. either by placing fake bids or making garbage excuses as to why they won't be paying, either way not paying so the sale does not happen

And usually they do not bother to message the seller either to let them know

So regardless of what the site says, in reality, 'buyers' don't have to even message the seller at all and most don't, they just don't pay

If the seller does not agree, the 'buyer' still does not end up paying, or does pay and then makes a false claim about the item to 'get even' 

Opening an unpaid item dispute cannot be done for four days, eBay gives the fake bidder another four day to not pay and the seller is not allowed to re-list in the meantime, so any other bidders/potential bidders have lost interest 

What the site says and what many,many sellers experience are two very different things 

[springyzone]

---

@dancom123 wrote:

I "bought " the same item from 2 different sellers and they both cancelled and refunded. Maybe it was too much trouble to post to OS.

One had it for $35 cancelled and then relisted at $3500!! Is this some sort of scam?

Buyers can't back out of a deal so why can sellers?

Anyone else this has happened to

Dan

---

You're right in that buyers can't officially cancel a sale off their own bat, the way that a seller can.

They can cancel a bid before the end of an auction or they can refuse to pay for an item they have bought. If they do the latter, they might get an unpaid item strike against them.

The good news (for you) is that usually sellers who are responsible for a cancellation-maybe as they don't have the goods or who don't want to proceed-might have their selling account affected too. They wouldn't want to do it too many times. It's not an option they can use with total impunity.