implications of seller cancelling sale

[jane-de-cluttering]

I am not a store-owner.

I sold an item & then when I went to clean it before posting (it was silver plate) I realised there was a spot of corrosion on it.  I contacted the buyer twice over the weekend & told him the story & sent photos & asked did he want to proceed.  Didn’t get a reply.  Then messaged him & said that I had to comply with my posting deadline, but wouldn’t do so unless I thought he was happy with the item.  No reply.  So I cancelled the transaction.  [And incidentally still have had no reply.]

I had NO idea that cancelling a transaction (due to not being available as advertised or whatever the words are) would lead to a DEMERIT point or whatever it is.  Why isn’t this flagged before you click the button?  In fact after doing so I had a lengthy Ebay msg telling me that everything would be refunded etc etc but no mention that I’d be penalised.

Yes I understand that strictly speaking I had not advertised the item correctly but I feel that I had done everything to honestly address the situation, the buyer & Ebay and NOW I’m being penalised.

Views?  What are the implications of this demerit point?  What should I have done?

[shoppingbag*]

I do not think there is anything more you could have done.  I had a similar thing happen to me. I contacted eBay and explained the situation and they removed the demerit, because I admitted to them that it was my fault. You could try this, and depending who you get you could be lucky. I now make sure I check everything over very, very thoroughly in a very good light. At the moment I have a black mark against me for a return which was meant for another Seller, eBay put it on by mistake, it was immediately cancelled and marked as a mistake, but despite all efforts by myself and the buyer to have it removed, and all the promises by Ebay to remove it, it still remains. Ebay is not a fair system to Sellers. Unfortunately, I don't think anything will change in that regard.

[springyzone]

I think maybe you could try what shopping bag suggested. It may not get you anywhere but giving it a try can't hurt.

I think you did the right thing in the circumstances. I do find the lack of any reply very strange. Did you message only via ebay or also by phone? I once had a seller phone me so assume phone numbers must sometimes be visible to sellers. But if the messages were via ebay then it's perfectly possible a person wouldn't log in regularly, especially give they had no current transactions or interests in progress.

If I were a buyer, I wouldn't be very happy to buy something if it had corrosion on it that had not been mentioned. That's the sort of issue that would very much affect the price a person might be prepared to pay for an item so I do think you had to cancel that transaction or negotiate a partial refund and as you were getting no answers, you had no choice but to cancel.

I don't know the exact implications of the demerit point but if you can keep it as only the once, hopefully nothing too bad.

[kitschkoven]

I've had this happen to me once before too. Also no reply from buyer. I ended up going ahead and sending as is. I felt I did my duty as seller and warned them first. Sale went fine.

[jane-de-cluttering]

I just thought that if they returned it then I'd be out of pocket over the postage. i still haven't heard from the buyer. quite odd.

[kitschkoven]

Yeah good point. I took a gamble in that regard for sure. Luckily it was just a CD. That was a long time ago, perhaps 2004.

[purplemon18]

I don't agree with it, but I do understand it. Ebay does at times have a pretty poor reputation amongst buyers, they call it things like fleabay. So they are forcing buyers to be extremely careful about supplying items on time and in the stated condition.

There are only 2 ways to get out of a sale without penalty. Either use the reason "problem with buyer address" when cancelling, or go to paypal to refund.

One demerit point will not adversely affect your account, but unless you are a high volume seller, it does take 12 months to get removed, if you are high volume seller, it takes 3 months.

Try to get it removed as someone said, but if that fails, don't worry about it, just keep plodding along.

[davewil1964]

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@kitschkoven wrote:
Yeah good point. I took a gamble in that regard for sure. Luckily it was just a CD. That was a long time ago, perhaps 2004.

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The rules of engagement were significantly different in 2004, and very few, if any, apply these days.

At best, it is an inapt comparison.

[wide-world-of-stamps]

If you refund through Paypal, eBay still picks it up and gives you a defect for "out of stock".

We got one recently on another id.

[jane-de-cluttering]

but what ARE the implications of one or more demerits? I'm weighing up the pros & cons before I make an hour long phone connection!