eBay

realjazz-123 · ‎07-31-2014

A few days ago I called eBay to get help in cancelling a bid from a buyer in a country to which I do not ship. Following the directions given to me on the phone when I was still the phone, I cancelled the bid for the shipping reason. The buyer accepted the cancellation in about an hour. THIS ACTION LED TO A DEFECT FOR ME!

I just spoke to eBay and was now told the proper way was to first email the buyer and and let buyer initiate the cancellation. I was also told that the defect I got although from bad advice would stay on my record.

I write to give you all heads up any time a cancellation is in order. As seller, do not offer to do it. Let buyer do it first.

pierrelebel · ‎07-31-2014

This is the type of nonsense we get from eBay from time to time and it should be brought to the attention of eBay-Canada management on Wednesday "Board Hour".

I would love to read what "Rodney" has to say to justify such nonsense. It is bad enough they give members wrong advise, the least they could do is to correct the problem they created..

mr.elmwood · ‎07-31-2014

Aside from the "are your blocks correctly set, etc", I was under the impression that cancelling due to the bidder residing in a country you do not ship to WAS acceptable.

Since when can buyers initiate a cancellation? I thought that was purely with-in the seller's domain?

I am really not following this, and, this is not my first day.

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realjazz-123 · ‎07-31-2014

All I can say is that following eBay advice on phone, I gave reason for cancellation as ' do not ship to this country'. I was then told I would have to wait up to a week for buyer to reply and then I could relist the item. The buyer then agreed to cancel about an hour later after he must have received the eBay message. My new defect appeared on my dashboard at some time after this cancellation which was last week. I have not cancelled any other sale for a long while so it has to be from that cancellation. I will wait until 20 August to see if it disappears or not.

mr.elmwood · ‎07-31-2014

Yeah, I think it will disappear. I think that all cancellations are generating a defect pre Aug 20th. That is what I want to believe.

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realjazz-123 · ‎07-31-2014

"This refers to any transaction you have cancelled-either on eBay or PayPal-because you don't have the item anymore or you chose not to ship the item after it was sold."

Above quote is from seller dashboard and reason for my defect under 'cancelled transactions'.

I think you are right in that it seems that ANY cancelled transaction will lead to a defect despite "country not shipped to."

I will await changes on 20 August and if the defect is not erased I will inquire.

mdf_jersey · ‎07-31-2014

Im confused why you need to send a cancellation request for a bid. I understand when it is for a cancellation of a purchased item, but on a bid?

Did they remove the cancel bids option. I have always just done it manually without the help of Ebay and certainly without sending a cancellation request.

realjazz-123 · ‎07-31-2014

To clarify, it was a cancellation of a purchased item, the winning bid.

rose-dee · ‎08-01-2014

" I think you are right in that it seems that ANY cancelled transaction will lead to a defect despite "country not shipped to." I will await changes on 20 August and if the defect is not erased I will inquire." ................................................... There seem to be a lot of reports on the boards about supposed non-defect cancellations being shown as defects -- we'll see what happens after Aug. 20th. Check the April 16th Wed. board hour with the eBay.ca staff, post #6 in reply to my specific question about which cancellation "reason(s)" would generate a defect. I would definitely follow up with the eBay.ca staffers if that defect isn't gone after Aug. 20th. Your experience is the reason I never ask or follow advice from eBay's phone-in staff -- they are appallingly clueless, IMO, or worse, one person often completely contradicts the other. I'd call it customer disservice.

38e_avenue · ‎08-01-2014

1. Buyer can't initiate the cancellation process, as Mr. Elmwood said.

2. Are you sure you did choose the right reason for the cancellation? I initiated more than 20 this year - I got NO defect (I did choose "buyer changed mind").

realjazz-123 · ‎08-01-2014

The reason I chose was that I do not ship to the buyer's country. Choosing 'I will not ship' seems to be the problem. "Buyer changed mind' appears to be a better choice if that is what happened. The buyer will then agree to cancellation. However, the buyer must agree to cancellation and a buyer from a country who had winning bid is not likely to agree to cancellation because of change of mind.

On 20 Aug I will get answers to this dilemma.

rose-dee · ‎08-02-2014

As I mentioned above, check the April 16th Wed. board hour with the eBay.ca staff, post #6. I think you should be able to use that response as a clear indication that you were not in the wrong. What your poorly informed eBay CS person SHOULD have said was that the buyer should make the "ask". This is different from initiating a cancellation (which a buyer cannot do). ............................................................... ................................................................................................... .................................. To protect yourself, according to the eBay.ca staff member who answered the questions regarding cancellation, you should always have some record of the buyer having asked you to start the cancellation process (preferably through eBay messages). Perhaps that's the reason why the other poster above didn't receive defects for his 20 cancellations. .................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................ I do this by sending a message to the buyer asking if he/she would like to have me cancel the transaction -- if the answer comes back "Yes, please", that should be sufficient to avoid a defect, as long as you don't choose "I ran out of stock" or "I sold the item to another buyer" as the cancellation reason (i.e. seller error). ............... ............................................................... ................................... ............................... ............................. .................. ........................................................................................... Still, I think you should follow up on this defect after Aug. 20th. Best of luck!

38e_avenue · ‎08-02-2014

@rose-dee wrote:
Perhaps that's the reason why the other poster above didn't receive defects for his 20 cancellations.

A good theory, but unfortunately wrong.

The buyer bought 20 items and then disappeared. Usually, I report "not paid" after one week, but in that case I was really scared to do so - 20 retaliatory negatives would be really damaging to my business. The buyer seemed to be crazy - he heavily negotiated the price, sending about 60 offers, of which I accepted only 20 (some of his offers included 1 dollar offer for a 150 dol. item). Finally, after waiting one month for the payment and sending several reminders, I decided to send cancellation requests. He never responded - so I closed all of them by choosing "buyer changed mind". I got all my FVF back. And no one defect.

thecoinhunterca · ‎08-02-2014

Simple solution is to refund the buyer but not cancel the transaction (As long as the buyer tries to resolve the issue via email prior to opening a case which everyone in the community should be promoting). It will cost you the commission but you will not have a defect. Many sellers will have to resort to this tactic if they want to keep it under 2%. Ebay will gladly keep your money in exchange for not giving you a defect.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-02-2014

@thecoinhunterca wrote:
Simple solution is to refund the buyer but not cancel the transaction (As long as the buyer tries to resolve the issue via email prior to opening a case which everyone in the community should be promoting). It will cost you the commission but you will not have a defect. Many sellers will have to resort to this tactic if they want to keep it under 2%. Ebay will gladly keep your money in exchange for not giving you a defect.

Sorry but that won't work. If the seller does not file for a cancellation, ebay will assume that it is seller cancelled and will give the seller a defect. I have 2 defects for that reason and there was no case opened in either situation.

mr.elmwood · ‎08-02-2014

Gotta agree with PJ on this one. I had several defects based simply on refunding. No cases involved. a full refund that is. Partials, I do not know.

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tobyshitzu · ‎08-02-2014

I just refunded one last week, instant defect. Then sent a cancel for "other reason', buyer agreed and the defect was gone a couple days later. Its going to be dead simple for sellers to avoid "out of stock" defects...

amethyst1415 · ‎08-03-2014

I had a buyer change their mind (they were bidding on the same items, winning them and then taking the lowest price, expecting all the other sellers to cancel the transaction) and when I canceled and put "buyer changed mind" I GOT A DEFECT!

triber · ‎08-03-2014

We need a moderator, Kevin maybe to come in here and clear this up for sellers. We really need to know exactly where we stand on this issue.

pierrelebel · ‎08-03-2014

eBay.ca no longer has the staff to visit discussion board threads and discuss issues.

All members get is one hour a week (sometimes) on Wednesday at 1:00pm on the "Weekly Board Hour" board.

And, if you have a difficult question, expect to read the following answer: "Great question. I do not have the answer but will check with the team and let you know as soon as I hear."