Trying to cancel a transaction

[loml888]

I want to cancel a transaction because the buyer did not pay, but they are not responding to but they are not responding to the open case I have against them.  What can I do to resolve this as I want to relist the item?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mr.elmwood · Accepted solution]

Buyre does not have to respond, most likely will not. I believe you can close it on the eight day yourself.

[loml888]

Thanks for the response.  Will I get my fees back?

[mr.elmwood]

Yes.

[captivatemedia · Accepted solution]

Hello, if you used the unpaid item case (As opposed to the cancel transaction case), you can close it yourself 4 days after the case was opened. If you do this, you do indeed get your fees back.

I believe, but am not 100% sure, that the cancel transaction case works pretty much the same way.

Piece of advice: When opening a case due to non-payment, always use the unpaid item case. With this type of case, there are only 2 outcomes, either the buyer pays, the case is automatically closed, then you ship the item, or the buyer does not pay and you eventually close it to get back your fees.

With a cancel transaction, there is a 3rd outcome. The buyer can simply refuse to cancel the transaction, then you do not get your fees back whether they pay or not. Also, unless something has recently changed, once a cancel transaction case is closed, you cannot open an unpaid item case at that point so your fees can never be reclaimed.

[anguscoinshop]

You can close the unpaid case after 4 days, "Request FVF" will appear at that time.

[loml888]

Thanks all for your help...Much appreciated.  I guess I cannot change it now to an unpaid item case, but will now know for next time.  Thanks again,

loml888

[loml888]

Thanks everyone for your help,  it is very much appreciated.

loml888

[rose-dee · Accepted solution]

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@loml888 wrote:

Thanks all for your help...Much appreciated.  I guess I cannot change it now to an unpaid item case, but will now know for next time.  Thanks again,

loml888

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Also be aware that (at least at the present time) cancelling a transaction leaves the item open for FB from the buyer. There are situations where you might not want that to happen.  An Unpaid Item Case found in your favour does not permit the buyer to leave FB.  On the other hand, some buyers can get miffed at an Unpaid Item Dispute being opened against them, and you run the risk that they'll leave unfair FB/DSRs if they do finally pay.  I think you have to balance which procedure to use based on each situation; it's not completely black and white across the board. 

I usually judge whether to cancel or open an UIC by the kind of response I get from the buyer.  I would definitely offer to cancel as opposed to opening a UIC if a buyer emailed me to say they'd accidentally purchased the wrong item, or if a buyer simply asks me to cancel the transaction and has a reasonable explanation for doing so.  

My feeling is that there's no point in upsetting a buyer who may have made an admittedly silly but honest mistake by forcing the buyer to pay through opening a UIC.  If they do pay, they may decide to use FB/DSRs to express their upset.  An example of this was a buyer who emailed me to say her daughter had made a purchase without her knowledge while she was in hospital.  Whether this was true or not, what point would there have been in forcing payment?  She was presumably happy to have the transaction cancelled, and just disappeared without ever leaving FB (which was fine with me). 

However, if a buyer simply vanishes for days after confirming a purchase and does not respond to any of my emails, I give them a reasonable time (usually about 6 to 7 days), then file a UIC.  Most people who honestly intend to pay will apologize, and pay, so they're unlikely to leave negative FB/DSRs.  Those who had no intention to pay in the first place won't pay, the UIC can be closed by the seller after the appropriate time, and the buyer will rightly lose the ability to leave FB/DSRs.  

The actual time you allow for buyers to make contact and/or pay has been a subject of contention on these boards, but I think the consensus is that each seller has to decide where his/her comfort zone ends. 

[craigerbombs14]

Instead of starting a new thread I was hoping to piggyback on this one if that's okay..

I recently had an item sell to a user that is located outside of North America, even though I did not have that shipping option available. I cancelled the item and indicated there was something wrong with the buyer's address...is there anything else I should do beyond that? I see the item is still listed as 'sold' and I do not have the option to relist as I've reached my maximum number of items. 

[ypdc_dennis]

It is best to start a new thread -- especially when this old one is from 2013.

Information can get out of date, as eBay is constantly changing how things are done.

Zombie thread @happy_pigeon

[pjcdn2005]

I'll reply on your original thread.  It isn't a good idea to piggyback on an old thread as some of the info earlier in the thread may be wrong.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Item-bought-by-someone-outside-of-North-America-How/m-p/...

[momcqueen]

Yes, good eye for pjcdn2005 to catch that. As I mentioned in the other thread, you don't need to cancel that transaction. What you do need to do is research the cost of postage with tracking to that location nation and then invoice them for that amount. And then if you still don't want to ship outside Canada and the USA, establish your blocks properly with your next listing. I gave instructions on how to do so in the other thread. 

Also, as pj mentioned, old threads such as this one aren't always accurate. Since this one was created, there's a new system of seller performance metrics which penalizes sellers harshly for cancelling orders so if you had accidentally picked the wrong reason to Cancel Order, you'd be in some trouble with your limited selling history. And, technically, the problem is not with the buyer's address, it's with the situation that you created when you misstepped in establishing your shipping preferences. It's not as if the buyer sneakily is trying to get you to ship somewhere you've disallowed, you didn't disallow anywhere. If you had, there would be a long list of countries under Excludes in your listings. Your buyer may well be upset with you and it's not their fault for being so.

This is what that looks like when you've done it properly:

As to the limits on your selling account now being hit, there's nothing you can do about that but wait. And wait gratefully. If not for those limits, you could be looking at 20 orders shipping to countries you thought you blocked by not selecting postage costs but didn't. That would be 20 upset buyers and 20 potential negatives for it. That's the kind of hole you don't dig from easily. Be glad you're at the limit now and take advantage of this time to really study your Shipping Preferences. 

Good luck. 

[pjcdn2005]

@momcqueen

You’re coming down hard on this seller even though almost every new seller thinks that if they specify shipping to specific countries, only buyers from those countries will be able to purchase so that tells me that the information on the SYI forms is not clear enough.  The buyer is also at fault here as when they would have looked at the sellers listings they would have seen next to the shipping information:

May not ship to Korea, South - Read item description or contact seller for shipping options. | See details

The buyer should have clicked on contact seller to find out if the item could be shipped there.  If they had done that and then selected shipping as the topic they would have seen:

• What countries do you ship to?
  This seller ships to the following countries: Canada, United States

If that wasn't clear enough they could have asked the seller if they would ship to South Korea.  Since they chose to go ahead and purchase without asking about shipping, the seller did nothing wrong by cancelling the sale. If the buyer had been able to pay using a North American address then no, they shouldn’t have  cancelled it.

[pjcdn2005]

I don’t understand why you think this seller should have a shipping exclusion list like you show in your screenshot as they only ship to Canada and the US. As I mentioned in the other thread,  when a seller can be specific about which country they do ship to there is no need to have an exclusion list like you do.  If they use the block in site preferences, buyer requirements, that will automatically block anyone without an address in the specific countries that they ship to.   Your situation is different because you pick and choose within continents but if someone ships to Canada, US and Europe, they could set up shipping for those locations, use the buyer requirement block and there would be no need for any exclusions unless  they wanted to block some countries within those areas.

[craigerbombs14]

Thanks for the feedback on this as well everyone, and my apologies for reviving a 5-year old thread, I thought for some reason it was a bit more recent.

[momcqueen]

I think you misunderstand something: I’m not telling this new seller to mimic my list of excluded countries. The screenshot serves to show them what it looks like when ship-to and ship-excluded destinations are properly established.

[pjcdn2005]

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@momcqueen wrote:
I think you misunderstand something: I’m not telling this new seller to mimic my list of excluded countries. The screenshot serves to show them what it looks like when ship-to and ship-excluded destinations are properly established.

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I was referring to this quote

And, technically, the problem is not with the buyer's address, it's with the situation that you created when you misstepped in establishing your shipping preferences. It's not as if the buyer sneakily is trying to get you to ship somewhere you've disallowed, you didn't disallow anywhere. If you had, there would be a long list of countries under Excludes in your listings. Your buyer may well be upset with you and it's not their fault for being so.

I'm not sure if you understand what I am trying to explain.  You did say that they should have "a long list of countries under Excludes in your listings" .  As I explained in both threads, this seller does not need to have any excluded countries showing if they use the buyer preferences block in site preferences which 'blocks buyers with a primary shipping address in a country I don't ship to'. 

They ship to the US and Canada only so if they use that, all buyers without a shipping address in those countries will be automatically blocked without having to use the excluded list at all. 

Using the excluded list works as well  but I think it looks messy so I only use it when I have to. For example, if I've indicated that I ship worldwide but I want to exclude Africa, some countries in Asia and Europe etc. then I have to use the exclude function.  Or, I might check off that I ship to Canada, US, Europe, Japan but then exclude Russia and a few other European countries. 

[momcqueen]

It would take me a week to find the pertinent threads and accompanying notes from my calls to Customer Service dating back six years that support my reasons for organizing the Location 'Excludes' the way that I do. Certainly, you are encouraged to organize your own the way you best see fit. 

[pjcdn2005]

Sigh

You’ve totally missed the point again.  I am NOT commenting on how you set up your shipping and I am certainly not asking for reasons why you are doing it like that because I know exactly why it has to be done like that in some cases.  But you are telling a new seller that ships to 2 countries to do something similar and  I am trying to explain that in THEIR situation there is no reason to use the exclusions IF they use the one block I referred to in those posts. I explained that to them in the other thread as well so I’ll leave it at that.