Seller canceled purchace & relisted for higher amount. Thoughts on it

[aggner]

Hello fellow eBayers!

I am relatively new in eBay & would like other people's thoughts & experience about the following matter.

Purchase & cancellation

5 days ago I won two auctions for some items for 84£ +28£ (Saturday ~00.00 morning). It was an international order (I live in Greece) handled by GSP. I then messaged the seller asking to wait some days for payment to collect more auctions of his (he had 2 more I wanted, ending 2 days later. Seller agreed.

2 days later (~02:00 Monday, I didnt win any other auctions), because total shipping cost for both was around 40 (25+15) plus more for import & duties, I ask him how we could arrange combining items since the "request combined shipping" button was returning an error.

He replies the amount should be visible under the item cost etc. Later around 12:00 I propose creating a single listing to re-calculate the shipping. I have little knowledge about GSP & combining postage under it, my proposal was based on my experience from many other purchases, international (from USA) & in the EU, when presented with similar situation sellers offered to combine the listings to save shipping cost.

Seller says "ok, do you want to cancel these orders", to which I reply I can't from my end, & clarifying that I do not wish to withdraw from my orders, I am asking for combined shipping. So far no indication by the seller that anything is out of order, all questions to him politely with ample opportunity to disagree.

Some time later Seller canceled for reason "wrong buyer address" (address is fine),  & relisted the items separately "buy it now" for ~20% higher amount. I message him again thinking there is a misunderstanding, explaining politely in the line of "perhaps I didn't explain well, I asked for a combined listing, i do not want to withdraw" etc. No replies.  I see that I cannot put the item in cart, so the seller has blocked me. Item is sold fast within the hour.

The seller had over 2,500 positive feedback (100%).

I scouted the forums to find advice on how to handle the situation, after the no response treatment & selling to another, I proceed to report the seller under not wanting to complete the purchase & summarized the exchange. 

I wait some time in the hope the seller returned messages explaining what went wrong -he didn't- then I left brief negative feedback (my 1st ever) "Purchased item was canceled and relisted for a higher amount", also his only negative at the moment. His reply is "This buyer wouldn't pay and wanted me to relist items to combine postage costs , despite being patient waiting 3 to 4 days for initial payment, I had no option than to relist these items ". Not really.... Order was canceled with "wrong shipping address" & 1,5 days out of the 4 were left to the payment deadline.

tl;dr

Won 2 auctions from the same seller. 2 days go by to collect more auctions from the seller, for which he was notified beforehand and agreed. Requested combined listing  to the seller morning of the 3rd day, (2 days have passed, not 4) seller said ok! Seller then canceled for reason "wrong buyer address" (address is fine), blocked me & relisted the items for higher amount. At no point did we reach payment due to fail it (1,5 days left), nor did the seller express any concern about being paid.

• I understand that the above are the actions available to me, and that is it.
• I understand that the buyer may cancel and cannot be forced to sell something.

What I am asking here:

Thoughts or suggestions by other eBayers,

• Based on personal experience & what you see above.
• I was quite upset I lost the items as I was looking for these for a long time, and I am trying to understand where I misstepped, learn & improve for future deals, avoid problems etc.
• Should I just have paid instantly? Do you find problems asking simple questions (like combined listings, shipping etc) or other similar issues?
• Other issues I cannot see?

Thank you,

[dch2112011]

Whilst I empathise with what happened from your perspective, I would imagine that the seller felt as though you were messing him about for a little too long.

Stalling payment until his other auctions finished on the basis that you would buy more items and then didn't, asking for combined postage, then suggesting they were relisted at a lower price for you to buy.

Bearing in mind that you won them at a bargain price (otherwise they would not have sold 20% higher) was the postage cost such an issue ?

Personally I would have just paid the price you won them at or messaged the seller before bidding asking if he combined postage prior to bidding.

I would find it quite annoying if an auction ended and then the buyer tried to negotiate a lower price.

The seller chose wrong address to avoid fees on the aborted sales

[four_mid_able]

Sellers can't combine postage on GSP items won at auction.

[aggner]

Thank you for your input! On the subject:

Is it stalling if I bid on other auctions but I dont win? If the seller felt that way, wouldn't he say something?

About the bargain price, It was an open auction for 7 days (since i found it at least). I never asked for a lower price from the seller, I wasn't haggling. I was explicit in my proposal to him, that I would ofc pay the exact total amount of both original auctions.

The postage cost was not a huge issue, I found it "a bit" unfair since i was basically paying for it "twice", since it was from the same person. When I proposed It seemed normal to me, I thought that If the seller didnt want to for whatever reason (his perogative ofc) he would tell me & I wouldn't have insisted. I believe I wasn't given a chance, seller never said no, or something like "This is it, pay or don't". Anything simple, just don't agree or say ok when you are thinking about canceling. How do I know?

Message for combined shipping, prior to bidding didnt cross my mind. Haven't had such an issue before, so I will keep this in mind.

For negotiating price, do you find a question about shipping, -GSP's shipping includes no fee for the seller correct?- is it perceived as re-negotiation? Have you had that issue?

That is what I thought. Also the possibility of the seller having a private offer by pm -and thinking of my suggestion as excuse- went and canceled, crossed my mind. Otherwise why never explain or just respond to me, "no, I don't agree" at any time, but proceed to block me?

Thank you.

[aggner]

Thanks,

Have you ever asked -or has it been asked- to you to find another solution for multiple items? Auctions, buy it now listings, etc.

[dch2112011]

GSP  as stated by four_mid_able is worked out on each individual item by ebay's carrier Pitney Bowes  - so combining GSP postage cannot be done by the seller.  - This apparently is to calculate customs charges - it may be the system used is not designed to add different items with different customs codes to one invoice although this is what happens in the real world.

The only way would have been for the seller to cancel the purchases and relist on one listing with the seller being responsible for shipping (although some members state that if the seller enables combined postage and the buyer adds them to basket that sometimes GSP is combined although I have absolutely no knowledge of how or if this works.)

Some sellers use GSP because they do not want the responsibility of shipping abroad or simply lack the knowledge needed. The seller only has the responsibility to deliver to the GSP centre in the UK.

Of course because GSP is an expensive option for some items it can make two purchases from the same buyer even more expensive and hence why I understand what you were trying to achieve. 

The seller possibly felt nervous selling abroad and lacked confidence and knowledge and became worried with what you were suggesting.

Should buyers and sellers communicate better - yes of course - would it resolve these problems - possibly.

[plpmr]

Regarding combining Global Shipping purchases, this used to be my advice until recently as eBay seems to have removed the option -

Global combined postage =

The buyer can obtain combined postage by placing the items in the basket before proceeding to checkout.

https://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/private/global-shipping-programme

At this time, seller-specified combined postage discounts aren’t supported by the Global Shipping Programme. However, a combined postage discount for the international leg of the delivery will automatically be applied during checkout when the buyer places all items in their shopping basket prior to making a purchase.