Can a seller refuse to ship the item if he feels it sold less than he/she wanted without a reserve.

[stainlesskitchenguy]

This has happened to me on several occasions where as there is no reserve price, I'm the only bidder and I win the auction. In this case there was a buy it now price for $700..00 or a starting bid of $117.00 and since I'm the only bidder, I won the bid and paid immediately. I received a message from the seller stating "i did not have my settings right on the action i can not sell for 117$
i will return your money." I checked the feedback and this has happened several times before so I reminded the seller that this isn't the first time this has happened and since there was no reserve price, I want the item and not the refund. 

In previous cases the seller just refunds the money without a reply and in some cases since it's a repeat occurrence they just start under a new ebay name based on all the negative feedback due to all the refunds. Is this allowed to happen on a regular bases and what recourse does someone have if the item is sold below what the seller wants and they just refund your money?

I always thought if there is no reserve the items has to be sold to the highest bidder rather then at the sellers discretion to refund the money if they didn't get the amount they wanted.

[femmefan1946]

They are not supposed to, and if they refuse you have no way of forcing them to ship.

However, you have tools to show your displeasure.

Feedback of course. The most effective feedback is calm and factual "Refused to ship at advertised price" should put canny future bidders on advisement.

At the same time you will be asked to leave Detailed Seller Ratings. A normal satisfactory transaction should be Five Stars, because if a seller's ratings drops below 4.3 his ability to list and sell on eBay will be greatly restricted. Greatly.

The lowest Rating is ONE Star. No stars is a free pass, so rate your deadbeat seller.

You can also Respond to any feedback. Indefinitely. Again the most effective feedback is calm and factual.

Depending on the number of feedbacks a seller is getting monthly, one negative may make little or no difference. But those DSRs are calculated differently and are much much more important.

As a buyer, you should read feedback and pay attention to DSRs. DSRs under 4.7 are a Bad Sign. (Note, if a seller uses Free Shipping that is an automatic 5 star rating, so ignore it.)

And feedback may be a reasonable 99%, but there could still be a problem because; arithmetic. Read negs and neutrals for patterns. Many complaints about shipping and non-delivery are another Bad Sign.

A seller with 5 negs and 100 feedback is a bad seller. A seller with 5 negs and 10,000 FB is very good. Again, arithmetic.

[stainlesskitchenguy]

I appreciate the reply femmefan1946,

In communicating with the seller they want another $400.00 more or they won't ship. I've offered $125.00 more but that isn't enough so I'm told they refuse to ship and my money is being refunded.

I guess in the end, it's up to the sellers discretion, there is no need to set a reserve price since the seller isn't obligated to sell to the highest bidder. When enough negative feedback is received based on repeat occurrences, they start again under a new eBay name and the cycle continues.

[stainlesskitchenguy]

The seller has re-listed the item at a higher price, won't ship so I guess my only option is to ask for a refund. I don't see the need to post a reserve price when the seller can list it for any price they want and if they don't get the price they wish the just don't ship, re list the item and if they get enough negative feedback, just start under a new name. I guess that beats the need for a reserve price.

[gnarmstrong]

they way i understand it..........
the seller can force a buyer to pay for an item
BUT
a buyer can not force a seller to ship a paid for item.
its a shame the way this works BUT i always read feed back BEFORE i purchase, then i decide if the seller if worth giving my hard earned money to.

[stainlesskitchenguy]

Thanks for the reply gnarmstrong, in the end, I asked for a refund since the seller refused to ship the item even after I offered three times my winning bid.

This happened to me once again on another item and I did check feedback and it was at 98.7%. I don't understand why a seller doesn't just raise the starting bid or place a reserve as I now know sellers don't have to ship an item that has been won on Ebay. all they have to do is refund your money and relist the item.