Buyer hell

[m112cheng0161]

A buyer won an auction on a item, contacted me straight after trying to haggle to a price lower than the previous bid. When I held firm on the price he'd bid he eventually paid only to immediately message saying he'd changed his mind and didn't want it anymore. At this point I was fine with this.

My funds are on hold so I contacted customer support who told me to tell him to raise an item not received dispute, keep in mind this is still the same day he won the auction and paid.

He then proceeds to change his mind on whether he wants the item or not multiple times over the remainder of the day until i told him to take the night to think about it. At this point a little miffed but still mostly fine.

Next day he decides he doesn't want it, tells me he's done the dispute with eBay. Still fine.

Turns out his dispute with eBay is a bank chargeback. So, I'm no longer fine. This could tie up funds from other sales for a long time and also prevents me from selling the item.

I'm tempted to just send the item now.

What would you all do?

[*vyolla*]

---

@m112cheng0161 wrote:

My funds are on hold so I contacted customer support who told me to tell him to raise an item not received dispute, keep in mind this is still the same day he won the auction and paid.

---

Never tell a buyer to open a dispute unless it's absolutely necessary.

You could've simply cancelled the order (or asked eBay to do it for you). This would have refunded the buyer and given you a credit for your eBay final value fees.

Do you have that message in a transcript?

[m112cheng0161]

The message telling me to tell the buyer to open an item not received? If so..

[*vyolla* · Accepted solution]

Thanks.

Okay, eBay have goofed there and given you some incorrect advice, resulting in you being hit with a chargeback which will refund your buyer but also hit you with a £14 fee.

I'd contact them again and ask them what they are going to do about the chargeback fee, which was completely avoidable (the order just simply needed be cancelled). I'd expect them to pay that cost.

Do this by live chat and get a transcript again.

[m112cheng0161]

Ok, thank you for the advice. Just to clarify the item not received dispute isn't an internal eBay thing? Its a bank chargeback? Also I'm looking on my ebay app and there's options to cancel order and send refund. Too late to do any of those?

[m112cheng0161]

Just to update I had another live chat and they said any fees would be reimbursed so that's a relief. Thank you for your help.

[4_bathrooms]

---

@m112cheng0161 wrote:

Just to update I had another live chat and they said any fees would be reimbursed so that's a relief. Thank you for your help.

---

Given the shocking advice you were already given by a CS agent I'd now be taking anything said via live chat with a pinch of salt. eBay should reimburse you in full but keep the transcript you have just in case.

As mentioned, you should have been advised to cancel the sale selecting "Buyer asked to cancel" as the reason for cancelling or the agent should have done it for you. However, the agent advised you to direct your buyer into opening an INR case which was not only incorrect but the buyer would not have been able to do so anyway until the day after the latest estimated delivery date. The agent then advised (if an INR case had been opened) that any defects would be removed from your account. This isn't how service metrics work; they are counted against cases opened - that includes cases opened mistakenly or abusively.

I thought this might have been an AI interaction but the presence of a name in the transcript suggests otherwise. The agent you were communicating with was obviously clueless about eBay policy.

[m112cheng0161]

Thank you for the support, it's much appreciated. Its really turned me off ebay but I'm hoping it's was just a perfect storm of indecisive buyer, inexperienced seller and maybe inexperienced customer support. Main issue is I have to wait to relist the item so that'll hurt me financially as well.

[the-nutwood-collection]

I thought this might have been an AI interaction but the presence of a name in the transcript suggests otherwise. 

AI is always given a name.  Makes it sound more human, empathetic and caring.

I worked on an app called 'Ask Kate', a bot that was designed to answer user's questions and stop them annoying CS with their daft requests.

A lot of the questions Kate was asked were rather spicy.  We had to halt the trial.