eBay

sentimental_jamboree · ‎12-10-2024

Hi, so I listed a photography book for sale. It seems quite rare to the point that I couldn't find a copy listed for sale anyway online or a record of a previous sale either, so for wont of any other guide I listed it for £100 but also allowed buyers to make offers. Not long after listing it, someone offered me £70 for it, but then fifteen minutes later they bought it for the full £100 anyway but with this note added:

"Good morning, I have completed the purchase process directly and I hope to get a discount from you on the final price, as additional fees of more than 50 pounds appeared on me when completing the purchase process. With many thanks and appreciation"

Firstly, not sure how to respond to the idea of giving a discount after a sale, presumably they would like a discount of £30 since that's what they offered before then going ahead and buying anyway. But I certainly wouldn't have accepted the offer of £70 as I already had an offer of £80 from someone else that I hadn't yet responded to (and that I would most likely have declined anyway.) But not sure now if I should a) ignore the message and just send the item anyway; b) cancel the order altogether, or c) maybe just contact them and explain that I can't offer a discount but am willing to cancel if that's what they prefer?

Also maybe this would be better asked in the shipping section, but I'm confused about these additional fees of £50 they refer to. Buyer is in the UAE so obviously the GSP will be calculating its own shipping cost for them, but I can't see anything in the orders section that shows me how much eBay actually charged them. In one place it says "your buyer paid" but then it gives the item cost plus UK shipping price so can't be what eBay actually charged them. So no help, basically.

I only ask this because I'm trying to make sense of where this additional fee came from. If it's just the GSP shipping cost then they will have seen that before confirming purchase surely? So the idea that it's something that was sprung on them only after buying sounds suspicious and makes me think that they may not being entirely straight with me. Which is another reason to cancel the order possibly?

danieledwardsmall · ‎12-10-2024

@@ If it gets lost in transit, not my problem. Any attempts to get a partial refund on grounds of "not as desctibed" can be met with a hard ball approach,fine, return it, here's your free shipping label. From the shipping agent in the UK to me.

Is there any wonder why buyers hate some sellers with a passion?

What happened to polite resolution?

In my view, you are what's completely wrong with the platform.

*vyolla* · ‎13-10-2024

@sentimental_jamboree wrote:

Oh I didn't know that about the defect, I actually used that reason for a cancelled order the other week because someone bought something that I know I still have but couldn't manage to locate despite a lot of effort (I have a lot of stuff stored.) Still maybe I deserve the defect for not being able to keep track of where I've put things. Hopefully there's no permanent harm though.

These defects do impact your selling account, more than one will push you close to a dangerous edge.

I'd ensure that if you list an item that you have it to hand.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/selling/monitoring-improving-seller-performance?id=4785&st=3&pos...

sentimental_jamboree · ‎14-10-2024

The unfortunate thing is I was trying to do the right thing by eBay; I couldn't find the item and it was past the date I was supposed to ship by. So I figured from an eBay perspective the correct action to take was to cancel the order, even though I suspected that if I asked the buyer if it was ok for them to wait a few more days while I continued searching then that would've been their preferred solution (it was a vintage item so quite possibly not something they could've easily got from elsewhere even if they were in a hurry for it.) Anyway it seems that in my efforts to do the right thing by eBay I did the exact opposite. Oh well!

sentimental_jamboree · ‎14-10-2024

I've accepted this as the solution as it sums it up best; they are trying it on basically but in a way that ensures that no-one else can grab it from under their noses in the meantime. I strongly suspect they know it's worth the full amount and realise if they left it while I deliberated on their offer then it probably wouldn't be there anymore. But just because the buyer wants to have their cake and eat it doesn't mean I have to play along with them.

Having said that, though cancelling the order is the option I wanted to adopt, I didn't do it in the end because none of the reasons for cancellation offered to me applied. And some could trigger account defects as per other posts here. So rather than take that risk I ended up messaging the buyer and telling them that no discount was possible but that I would be happy to cancel the order if they didn't want to proceed on that basis. They seem fine with me sending anyway at full amount so I guess the problem is solved.