No consequences for the Seller?

[malcolmsu]

Last Friday I saw an item I'd been looking for some time, and at a price (£200) I thought was in line with others recently sold. It had a Buy It Now option, which I used.

On Saturday morning, the seller messaged me to ask why I'd chosen the Royal Mail delivery option and not Evri as he preferred that. I don't recall getting the option when I checked out, and I told him that and also said I ultimately don't have a preference and I'd be happy if he sends it via Evri.

The next thing was that I got a cancellation notice with the stated reason 'problem with the buyer's address'! I've bought and sold on eBay for 24+ years. I've not moved in that time and have never experienced such an issue.

I then received an eBay message to say he'd relisted at an inflated price and if I submitted an offer of £200, he'd accept that. His exact words were "as I am a man of my word, if you offer 199.99 GBP, I will accept. But only from you.".

I wrote back and said that's great, but you realise I'm now out of pocket by £200 as eBay can take "between 3 to 5 business days" to issue a refund. You'll get the offer once I've been refunded. I can't afford to be out of pocket to that value twice.

The refund was paid back into my bank account on Tuesday, and I went to find the auction to make my offer, but of course, he's already sold it, at the 'inflated price'.

I guess he isn't a man of his word, and greed overrode that. I've no evidence, but I could also say he realised he'd sold it too cheaply and saw a way to make more cash.

The order shows up as a cancelled order in my dashboard and has a 'leave feedback' link, but that doesn't take me to the usual feedback page. I'd love to leave feedback for others to warn them of this seller's sharp practices, but I can't.

I've raised an eBay support ticket but I suspect I'll just have to put this down to experience and move on...

[malcolmsu]

Just to add some info. Whilst I was unable to post feedback on the cancelled sale within the eBay app (my usual tool), I discovered tonight that I was able to leave appropriate feedback when accessing my account via the Web.

[malcolmsu]

I've just noticed that the negative feedback that I left for this seller has been removed!  I thought it was extremely difficult for a seller to have a buyer's feedback removed. 

As far as I can see, this seller is in breach of eBay policies, so I don't understand why.

Twice tonight I tried to raise this with Support via the chat service and both times I was told 'hold while I investigate' but no one ever came back, to me!,

To repeat my issue;

- I used Buy It Now

- I paid instantly

- The seller then cancelled the auction 

- The seller did not advise me  he was cancelling it

- The seller readvertised the item at a 25% higher price

- The item was sold again

- I was left £200 out of pocket for 4 days

I'm positive this sort of behaviour does not comply with eBay's policies, and therefore my negative feedback is valid? Agree?

[red_magpie · Accepted solution]

You have been refunded so there's nothing much you can do, except to report he seller for giving an untruthful reason for cancelling the sale. Sellers often falsely claim that there was a problem with the buyer's address to avoid being penalised by eBay for failing to honour a sale. eBay accepts this as a valid reason. 

To report this see: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/resolving-issues-sellers/report-issue-seller?id=4022&st=12&pos=1&...

There is nothing to be done about the removal of your feedback. eBay has rules about what can and can't be mentioned. Without knowing exactly what you said it's impossible to suggest why it was removed. This is another situation where a cannny seller who knows the rules may be able to report even correct and justified feedback for removal.