• The Clubhouse

  • eBay/Mercari sellers question about cancelling before shipping

For those who sell online, if you have a listing and a buyer bids it and wins it and then realizes it wasn't what they thought they were buying and purchased in error. Do you you refund them or do you just tell them that you're sorry they made a mistake and ship it out anyway?

Just a few minutes ago I bought something in error. I've never made a mistake quite like this one and I absolutely don't want the item and reached out to the seller right away informing him that I bought in error.

Seller has no returns listed but he hasn't even shipped it. I offered to let him keep $10 and sell it to the bidder beneath me as there were many other bids below mine.

He has perfect feedback and reached out to me immediately post sale thanking me for the purchase and asked me a question. It didn't appear to be automated.

Am I going to be stuck with this item? It is my fault but I also blame eBay. I had a search set up through eBay to notify of a particular item I wanted. I was notified of this one and had been watching it for several days. It got to the end and I'd never seen one quite this low, so I bid it and jumped the reserve price hurdle and felt great that I won it only to find out what eBay sent to me as what I wanted was absolutely not what I wanted.

What would you do in this case? Refund? Ship?

    Yipsy
    Mistakes are made often. Good, smart, sellers will refund.

    They know already, being you asked, that if shipped, you will return and they will refund at that time anyway. And they will pay return shipping, btw.

    Ebay used to be a seller's dream. It has become a buyer's domain today. Been that way for several years. The reason I quit selling there.

        Par4QC

        This seller offered no returns. If they had I wouldn't have been concerned in the slightest about getting my money returned prior to shipping.

        Have never had a single issue on eBay in all the years I've been on there. This is the first time I've ever bought something without looking at it closely assuming because eBay prompted me it was something I was looking for and I went to sleep on it. It's my fault and I would've understood if the seller refused to cancel.

        I was very pleased to see he was willing to cancel. Told me he couldn't refund because I'd made an official request to cancel and then told me not to worry about it and my money came right back.

            Yipsy This seller offered no returns.

            They also state 'like new', when items are beat to hell. 😄

            They all take returns. Like I said, Ebay is a buyer's club, not a seller's now.

              Isn't there a new "cancel sale" option for buyers? I've seen a lot of talk about it, but I am not on ebay enough to know.

                Ebay is getting tough to buy from as well. I purchased something last Tuesday and 4 days later asked when they are shipping and got no response. Yesterday I asked them to cancel as I need to go elsewhere to no response. I have to wait until the 18th before I can request any action from Ebay.

                Sparky

                There is indeed a cancel order button which is easy to find. ( took me 2 seconds)
                Go to your list of purchases , select the order, choose "more actions", select cancel this order, submit and that is it !

                Ebay will inform the seller of the cancellation.
                (Obviously, you cannot cancel an order after it has been shipped ....but I think everyone is smart enough to figure that out. )

                    Weirfan True, but once a tracking number is posted whether it leaves or not that option is gone. USPS has been waiting for my package for 7 days.

                      eBay's cancel function is no guarantee your order will be canceled. I used that button yesterday and was informed the seller had 3 days to decide as to whether to accept the cancellation.

                      It is frustrating to be told you have to wait "x" amount of days before this can or can't happen. If there is something wrong it should be addressed immediately but they love making you wait. It used to be much quicker turnaround times when issues arose. It was never fun getting into one but now it is much less fun.

                        Cancel the purchase through eBay and see what happens. I've done it on more than a couple of occasions and never got stuck. Good seller will refund.

                        Yipsy That button is for the convenience of Ebay only, not the buyer or seller. It cuts down their backlog of complaints.

                        Once you hit it, they know any smart seller is going to cancel almost immediately. Why not? Like stated above, the seller knows if shipped, you are going to return. Ebay is on the buyer's side now, and the seller will have to pay return shipping on top of it. You get the return label via Ebay and they charge the seller. (last I knew of it)

                          The eBay cancel button worked immediately for me. I saw the refund notice via email before seller even let me know he refunded me.

                          I thought it was weird the seller had 3 days to decide on whether to accept my cancellation request implying there was no guarantee they would.

                          As a buyer it is nice knowing eBay will almost always take your side of things. Haven't had much trouble there over the years outside of sellers not shipping items won at a price they aren't happy with. To have to wait over a week to get your money refunded in those situations is disappointing.

                          Over the years sellers have become more and more erratic. Used to almost count the item you purchased as guaranteed to arrive but now combined with USPS it's not the sure thing it used to be.

                          Mercari is even worse.