Charity auction unable to deliver cancelled.

[bluraysarethefuture]

Hello,  I recently listed an item as a charity item. The item was a handmade item made by myself and as such didn't have any value, But it was signed by a band and featured in a music video and the band also promoted the listing on their Facebook page. This started a bidding war and the item went for a substantial amount of money.  So far so good.

But when I went to post the item , eBay international posting system wouldn't work. Ebay said just to post it and mark as dispatched. So I did. 

The parcel didn't make it through customs and was returned to sender. I tried again with different shipping codes that the buyer had suggested having spoken to the overseas courier. It is currently on its way back to me again. So we agreed to cancel the auction with me believing as the item hadn't been recieved thinking the funds where still with eBay. No, the funds had already been sent to the charity and now I was liable to refund the buyer the substantial amount of money. 

Ebay said I had to ask the charity for the money back. Although it felt wrong, I couldn't afford to lose that amount of money so I contacted the charity and explained the situation. So far, no communication back. Is their a flaw in eBay charity donation, could I have done something different, has anyone had any experience of this, or is it just me?

[tressygirl]

You say the item is on its way back to you again.

Once received,  then you're back to square one you have the item to sell again.  Perhaps not to the same buyers,  delist the charity donation box,  and once sold maybe send the money to this charity yourself.

When the item was returned the first time,  you should have cancelled the order citing ... Problem with Buyer's Address.  

Let's hope the item reaches you again the second time.

@bluraysarethefuture 

[bluraysarethefuture]

Thankyou for the reply.

When I cancelled the order after the second delivery attempt, I did cite as, problem with buyers address. But as the funds are sent straight to a charity before the sale is delivered and completed. The funds on cancelling are taken from the sellers funds or bank account automatically. 

So if you sold a piece of paper as a charity auction with an autograph on it for £20,000 and the order is cancelled, you now owe the buyer £20,000 if the charity decides not to reimburse. 

It's just something people should be aware of as a potential risk.

[xyz307xyz]

It changed last year. See if you can find an email titled "Update about the eBay for Charity donation process" from about 5 Sep 2024.

It starts "We have simplified the experience when you want to donate to your favourite charity."

I think these are the current terms https://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebayforcharity/terms/#q2

e.g. "If your buyer receives a refund or chargeback for the relevant item:

1. before your Donation is sent to the selected charity, your request to donate shall be cancelled and no donation is due; and

2. after your Donation is sent to the selected charity, you cannot request a refund for the Donation from eBay."

I don't know if point 2 refers to the request time or the completion time, but either way it's pretty soon after the buyer pays.

My understanding is the same, the only option is to ask the charity for your money back. Or to relist it not for charity and keep the money. Probably best to rule out international shipping (or just that one country if you think it is only an issue with that country.) If you were trying to use GSP to send to the USA, then that has been broken for a while and as far as I know still is.

I went through similar with an item, the buyer said they didn't receive (amongst other messages ...). I didn't bother contacting the charity but it was probably a small fraction of the value of your item.

[bluraysarethefuture]

Thankyou for your response. I believe you are right. But my issue is if your item goes for a large sum of money, ie much more than it's worth and much more than you can afford to lose and it is not able to reach its destination. I cancelled the sale and the refund came from me. 

The moral is to set charity listing's as buy it nows for sums you dont mind losing if things go wrong.  The item I sold for 190 is worth no more than a tenner!

Thankyou for your help.

[xyz307xyz]

Yes, it's different in that the buyer claimed item not received - but I still had to both pay the charity and refund the buyer. And I didn't get the item back. (The item had been relisted a few times and I only made it a charity auction once it hadn't sold for about 6 months - I "forgot" to change it from free postage - so I didn't even get the postage cost!)

As far as I can see, in the olden days there were two main (only?) benefits of selling for charity.

-many of the seller fees were discounted by the same amount e.g. 100% if the item was 100% to charity.

-you may get extra interest from buyers being more likely to buy as the money goes to charity.

Sellers no longer pay a final value fee or the approx 30p transaction charge, so the first point doesn't make much difference to me (I don't know how/if e.g. upgrades/promotions etc. were affected).

If I ever want to list an item for more than a few pounds for charity - I will just put "sale price goes to <name> charity" in the title and description; and send the money to them myself after 120 days,  - i.e. not use the ebay charity function, to avoid this double payout scenario.