Won Auction & Paid for item. Then seller cancels transaction! :(

[be-like-water]

I won an auction and paid immediately. A few days later I received notification from eBay that the order had been cancelled, with zero communication from the seller.

Naturally I was quite annoyed and sent a message questioning the cancellation, to which the seller replied that the item was no longer available.

Is a seller allowed to put an item up for auction if it is unavailable?

Personally, I suspect that she wasn't happy with the amount it sold for....

I did receive a refund, but I am unable to leave any feedback for the transaction.

Surely the seller shouldn't be able to get away with that.... People are going to be swindled left and right if seller's are able to just cancel because they're unhappy with the outcome of an auction 😕

Is there anything I can do, to warn others of this seller's shadiness?

[be-like-water]

Yes, this has been my experience in the past also. I'm seriously baffled by this and buggin' 'cause I was so excited when I won, too!

I guess there's not much I can do but cop it sweet...

[wildviolet]

a_whimsical_thyme, although no reason is shown to the buyer when the seller cancels without buyer's consent, I undetstand from eBay customer service that the seller has to give eBay a reason - such as 'out of stock" and that 'out of stock' gets a defect  on the seller's account- so hopefully sellers who actually are refusing to sell can't get away with that behaviour often or continually...if I can find any written information about seller defects in relation to cancelling without consent I will add it to this discussion.

[wildviolet]

a_whimsical_thyme, going back to your original question, in which you mention you cannot leave feedback for the seller-cancelled without-buyer consent transaction,  you could try calling eBay for assistance with leaving  feedback for this seller... as I was able to leave feedback in the same situation....also I have had eBay enter feedback for me in the past when there has been a "glitch" in the system.

[be-like-water]

Thanks for the info, wildviolet. I'll give eBay a call and see how I go. Appreciate the help!

[wildviolet]

Hi a_whimsical_thyme,  i hope you get the help you need. 🙂

[lane-ends]

If it makes you feel any better the seller will get a defect strike for cancelling due to being out of stock. The cancellation requests the are provided for your agreement or otherwise determine whether they get their fvfs back or not. Don't know if the system may have changed to sellers not being ablle to get their fees back due to out of stock or not. If so as far as Ebay is concerned there is no need to seek your agreement. If they are out of stock then you are not getting it anyway.

The only outstanding issue is your apparent inability to leave fbs.

Some sellers resort to lost in post followed by quick refund when enquiry recieved, to avoid out of stock defect. Instead get glowing fb because of quick reefund.

Bottom line out of stock happens, here and in stores, it is near impossible to always get restocking and sell through in total sync. The Ebay system is simply clumsy to handle this, as sellers dont want to remove listing due to loss of sales history and any watchers. I think Ebay are changing this to improve out of stock listing handling.

[be-like-water]

Thanks for the insights, lane-ends.
Your perspective on this issue is very helpful!