Crooked Ebay Seller

[murphusa]

Call from Ebay Seller Skylite

Dear Sirs,

The other night you purchased a Babe Ruth Glove from my ebay account. At the time I was not monitoring the account but my 18 year old son was. He listed the Babe Ruth glove as a BIN for $500.00 and you purchased the glove for that amount and paid via paypal at the same time. This was a mistake. We have recevived 7 other offer's for the glove at a much higher price than what you paid. As such we are resinding the sale and will return the paypal payment to you. So that we are fair with you, we will give you the the opportunity to buy the glove first at a discounted rate of $1,500.00. Please let me know ASAP if you accept our offer.

Of course Ebay said there is nothing you can do but leave negative feedback

[scooter729]

Sorry to hear that one, Murph. Looks like he realized after the fact that his BIN was too low.

Aside from the hideous business practices, that seller should be dinged with a negative for hideous butchering of the English language.

[murphusa]

Originally Posted by scooter729

Sorry to hear that one, Murph. Looks like he realized after the fact that his BIN was too low.

Aside from the hideous business practices, that seller should be dinged with a negative for hideous butchering of the English language.

most likely me retelling his conversation but he was from Canada


Yes I will leave him negative feedback but it still sucks

just having a bad week on ebay

[deebro041]

Originally Posted by murphusa

most likely me retelling his conversation but he was from Canada


Yes I will leave him negative feedback but it still sucks

just having a bad week on ebay

I'm from Canada also, eh. I hope I will smarten up after reading all these posts.

[thetruthisoutthere]

I would leave "Negative" feedback. Ebay, in my opinion, is breaking its own rules in reference to a "Legally binding contract" which holds both the seller and buyer to that "Legally binding contract."

Leave a "Negative."

[steve B]

File a complaint for them being a nonperforming seller. It may take a phone call, but that's what I did when Historicauctions backed out of an auction I'd won. It took a bit of time for the good till closed items to finish, but they were suspended. Ebay does care, especially if the seller sells the item outside Ebay. Historicauctions were actually silly enough to put in an email sent through Ebays system that they had sold the item before it closed and didn't remove the auction. Looks like this guy is trying to sell outside Ebay, a complaint should get him a "vacation" at least.

Steve B

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by steve B

File a complaint for them being a nonperforming seller. It may take a phone call, but that's what I did when Historicauctions backed out of an auction I'd won. It took a bit of time for the good till closed items to finish, but they were suspended. Ebay does care, especially if the seller sells the item outside Ebay. Historicauctions were actually silly enough to put in an email sent through Ebays system that they had sold the item before it closed and didn't remove the auction. Looks like this guy is trying to sell outside Ebay, a complaint should get him a "vacation" at least.

Steve B

Great advice, Steve.

[GrayGhost]

Tough crap on the glove. Murph, YOU SHOULD be entitled to the glove at 500.00. TO my understanding, a purchase/sale constitutes a VALID CONTRACT w buyer and seller.

The fact that the seller was too stupid to check this auction BEFORE final listing (they give you a chance to "review listing" before submitting) and that his "son was monitoring" if thats even true, is NO excuse IMO.

This stinks, and tho we all make mistakes, his poor business practices could have avoided this and IMO owes Mr Murphy the glove at the LISTED and AGREED upon price.

ebay doesn't care? why am I not totally surprised?

[murphusa]

tough part is I won't get the refund from paypal for a few days

[D. Bergin]

Was the glove really a bargain in the first place? Seems that's about what other gloves in the same style were selling for. Is it because it was a left handers glove?

Tough break either way.

I love how he was willing to sell the glove to you for three times what you originally paid for it..........in the interest of fairness.

[ctownboy]

murphusa,

Couldn't you sue eBay, the seller (or both) in small claims court?

I am not an attorney but it sounds like there was a valid contract in place, the seller backed out of it and eBay is standing by allowing it to happen. It seems you could sue either or both for the $1,000 dollars extra the seller now wants for the glove.

I mean, if the seller originally wanted $500 dollars for the glove, was bombarded with offers above that amount and is now willing to sell it to you for $1,500 dollars then you have lost out on that extra $1,000 dollars because of the seller reneging on the deal.

David

[Hankphenom]

It's bad enough (for bidders) and for eBay's business, I would think, that they allow sellers to pull their listing after bidding has started and make a deal offsite. I hate that, and it shouldn't be allowed, IMO. But to think they would countenance cancelling a completed transaction so the seller can make an offsite deal, that's just nuts.

[thecatspajamas]

I think you are mistaken if you are thinking that eBay would ever condone pulling a listing and selling the item off-site. They have wording all in their rules and regulations prohibiting such a thing. The problem is that unscrupulous sellers don't pay attention to the rules. And eBay has to allow for sellers to pull listings in which they have legitimately made a mistake, which is what unscrupulous sellers will say happened when they go to end a listing early. (There is no check box when you're ending a listing early for "I want to sell it to someone else for more money").

Ebay can't possibly investigate every item that is pulled because "there was an error in the description" to see if that is a legit excuse, but they may take action if you report the seller for trying to jack up the price on you after the fact like this. You just have to be sure and emphasize how this is costing eBay money, because that is their main concern. Stories like this are the ones that make potential new eBay users shy away from using the site, and eBay doesn't like losing money or bad publicity.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Stories like this are the ones that make potential new eBay users shy away from using the site, and eBay doesn't like losing money or bad publicity.

That's my point. eBay should make it a rare exception for a seller to end an auction early, with some process to make them show what the error was that they didn't catch before they finalized the listing. As it is now, this practice is all too routine.

You really don't think eBay knows what's going on? Of course they do, but they've clearly decided it's better to let bidders get pissed off by the practice than to piss off sellers by trying to do something about it. Sellers pay the bills, the way they must look at it.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

That's my point. eBay should make it a rare exception for a seller to end an auction early, with some process to make them show what the error was that they didn't catch before they finalized the listing. As it is now, this practice is all too routine.

You really don't think eBay knows what's going on? Of course they do, but they've clearly decided it's better to let bidders get pissed off by the practice than to piss off sellers by trying to do something about it. Sellers pay the bills, the way they must look at it.

If you report it and there's proof of refusing to complete the sale they will do something about it. I don't know if it takes a few complaints or only one serious one, but they do suspend sellers for not completing a sale. The guy I had back out sent the info in an email through their system, and when I asked if they wanted me to forward the email to them they said I didn't have to and that not only could they see it, they were looking at it while we spoke. That seller ended up being suspended and so far hasn't returned, at least under the same name.

Steve B

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

That's my point. eBay should make it a rare exception for a seller to end an auction early, with some process to make them show what the error was that they didn't catch before they finalized the listing. As it is now, this practice is all too routine.

They have to have some way for sellers to cancel a listing if they have made a gross error. And as long as there is a way to cancel a listing, unscrupulous sellers will jump through whatever series of hoops eBay has set up to do so if it means making an extra buck or two. There is no way eBay is going to hire people to sift through a bunch of claims to "show what the error was that they didn't catch." EVERYTHING with eBay is routine, as it has to be with the kind of volume of listings they are dealing with.

Also you should know that there are no eBay detectives on staff, out there hunting through the millions of listings to sniff out crooks and their dirty dealings before they have a chance to strike unfortunate buyers. There are a few instances where a company has someone on staff that will browse eBay listings looking for counterfeits or forgeries of their employers' stuff and then report those to eBay for them to act on (try selling a bootleg Disney Song of the South DVD or unlicensed KISS memorabilia and you'll see what I mean). Otherwise, you have to report bad stuff to eBay yourself for them to do anything about it (like a "citizen's arrest"). It may take several reports on the same seller, or incontrovertible evidence of the seller's guilt, but they will (sometimes) boot them. And it seems like cases like this where the seller is skating their way around eBay fees are the ones most likely to get them booted. The thing to remember is that it is much much much harder (and more expensive) to prevent or catch these things before they happen than it is to react to the situation after the fact. Just being realistic here.

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

You really don't think eBay knows what's going on? Of course they do, but they've clearly decided it's better to let bidders get pissed off by the practice than to piss off sellers by trying to do something about it. Sellers pay the bills, the way they must look at it.

As a regular seller on eBay, I can guarantee you that they do cater more to the buyers than the sellers. Sellers do pay the bills, but if there are no buyers, nobody gets paid. Ebay knows they are the best site in town as far as general exposure, ease of access, and getting more eyes on your stuff, and they also know just how far they can push sellers without driving them away (mostly by repeatedly testing their boundaries). I would say 90-95% of the time if there is a dispute between the buyer and the seller, eBay will side with the buyer unless the seller has rock solid evidence (like a tracking number with signature, and even that isn't guaranteed).