Do you have to cancel a sale if the buyer asks you to even after the auction has ended?

[blues403]

Been getting a few buyers bidding ,winning  then after they recieve thier invoice asking to cancel the sale.Do I have too or can I just open a unpaided case.?

[femmefan1946]

It's up to you.

While an Unpaid Item Dispute takes longer, it helps protect the selling community by giving deadbeats Strikes.

Many , perhaps most, sellers have set our Seller Preferences to automatically Block bidders with Strikes.

The deadbeat can't leave feedback.

There is a chance that a nutty bidder will pay and then start a Dispute requiring you to pay return postage, etc etc etc. But that requires serious nuttiness to go to all that trouble.

The cancellation is immediate, and the bidder walks away. He can leave feedback.

Both get your FVF back.

Personally, and all these decisions are personal, I might give a cancellation to a newbie who asked politely. If someone was belligerent or has some "my cat bid not me" fairytale, I would be more cynical.

[femmefan1946]

If this is really happening a lot (like more than one in fifty sales), you might consider adding Immediate Payment Required to your listings.

Those will stay active until someone pays. No cancellations necessary.

More pictures might help.

Flat things can be scanned, which to my mind is easier than photography.

[blues403]

Was thinking the same thoughts.Some of the reasons for canceling the sale are ''out there''.Last one says they contacted Ebay and said Ebay has told them that after the case closes Ebay will take off the strike agianst them? Thank you for all support info.....still learning as I go,new stuff keeps poping up

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

after the case closes Ebay will take off the strike agianst them?

Nope.

The Strike isn't even applied until the case closes.

And it lasts for 12 months.

It doesn't have much effect unless it is the second Strike. That's where the automatic Blocks by many(most?) sellers kick in, preventing the deadbeat from bidding on millions of listings.

A buyer can ask to have his first Strike removed and eBay usually will, on the basis that we can learn from our mistakes.

But only one and only once. Once ever.

[momcqueen]

Is there a pattern to the excuses? Like is everyone saying they 'changed their mind after.....'? Can any constructive criticism be taken from any aspect of it? I like to think every frustrating experiences like this can be a learning opportunity. 

[pjcdn2005]

No you're not obligated to cancel but if a person asks me to, I always do cancel...that's assuming that the item hasn't been paid for and mailed.  I don't see the point in forcing a person to pay for an item they have already said they no longer want.  Plus, if you file an unpaid and they feel obligated to pay there's a chance that they will find something to be unhappy about.

I do file an unpaid item if the person doesn't pay and i dont  hear from them.

[bpl521_sell]

In the case of cancelling the sale how do you relist so it doesn't set the view counter back to 0 and remove any previous watchers. Had the same thing happen where a new Ebayer with 0 buys asks to cancel the sale. His reason was that his account was compromised and that he really wanted the item once it gets sorted out. Not sure if I really believe him, but don't need the hassle so just cancelled the sale as per his request. The item is till showing in my sold category with a icon that is referenced as Cancelled sale buy buyer.

[pjcdn2005]

You have to relist it yourself. Go to sold items and in selling manager click on the arrow to the left of the item and use sell similar or relist.  Or do the same thing in my ebay except I believe the arrow in on the right side.

You can also just click on the listing itself, open it up and click on relist or sell similar on the top left. As far as I know there is nothing that you can do about the counter but I think (but am not positive) that watchers get notified that you relisted if you use relist rather than sell similar.

[momcqueen]

What does the 'out-of-stock option' do? It's under Account Preferences. I've never used it but I thought it was something like this. 

[pjcdn2005]

Right...that information would stay there if the out of stock option is checked off as than your listings don't end when the last item is purchased. But it isn't really intended for items that someone might buy and cancel...more for items that you have multiples of.  I use it as I don't like to say that I have 10 of an item...I prefer to show that I have 4 or 5 and then list more after I sell a few.  You cannot specify using it on just some of your listings so if you list using gtc and the listing rolls over, it still counts as a listing even if the stock is zero which could be a problem for someone who always uses up all of their free listings. I don't have extra stock for all of my listings so I have to manually end any gtc listings once I totally run out of stock.  I have been known to forget to do that.

[bpl521_sell]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

You have to relist it yourself. Go to sold items and in selling manager click on the arrow to the left of the item and use sell similar or relist.  Or do the same thing in my ebay except I believe the arrow in on the right side.

You can also just click on the listing itself, open it up and click on relist or sell similar on the top left. As far as I know there is nothing that you can do about the counter but I think (but am not positive) that watchers get notified that you relisted if you use relist rather than sell similar.

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Yes, that is what I have done, and does appear that the counter is reset, oh well no big deal, and I think you are right that the watchers are notified, which is probably a good thing, may give them the push that's needed.