Buyer increased price of an item by £61:00 when it was in my basket Is price gouging allowed

[dixo.kat]

I put an item in my basket the item cost £19:00

Other sellers had the same item for sale from between £20:00 and £28:00

I did not pay for the item right away I waited a few hours and when I came back to pay which was still in my basket the price had increased by £61:00 the price of the item was now £80:00

I thought price gouging was against ebays policy

I opened a report and ebay sided with the buyer ebay stated that what the buyer did was not in violation of ebays policy.

Has this ever happened to anyone else where an item has gone up 4 times its original price and 4 times what any other seller on ebay is selling the item for when its in your basket 

Also whay did ebay side with the buyer I thought price gouging was against ebays policy?

[routinebiteshard]

just out of interest would you have complained to the seller or reported them to ebay if the price had gone down, or offered to pay the original price it was when you added it to your basket - of course not. so you win some you lose some, you cannot have it both ways. every bought a jumper in december only for it to be half price in the sale in january - did you go back to the shop to protest it was not fair? suck it up.

[porte2425]

Agreed, it is not price gouging.

But it does sounds like the seller is trying it on. A seller can see when an item is in a basket – any user can, in fact. eBay obviously do this to encourage buyers to buy before it’s gone. If you want to test, put an item in your basket. Then view the item outside your account - in private mode, or another browser etc. You should see “IN 1 BASKET” pop up top-left of the image.

At a price increase that steep, the seller probably hopes the buyer who put it in their basket won’t notice the change before check out. I remember a post from a while back where a user who suddenly ended up paying far more than the item was listed for. I guess that is what happened.

It’s abhorrent behaviour, and I would avoid that seller, if I were you. You can't really do much else about it.