can anything be done when a seller just backs out on ebay?

[brianu]

perhaps some of you here have had this experience, because I haven't until now... I had some spare time over the weekend and was browsing through ebay when I noticed a victor schoolhouse machine for sale, ending saturday, with an opening bid of 2200, no reserve price, no bids, and a buy it now of 4000-something. I noted the ending time, then checked the auction again as it was nearing its end, saw that no one had bid, so I bid a bit above that opening amount... I ended up winning, as the only bidder at 2200, ebay sent me a notice of the same as well as an invoice. before paying, I tried to reach the seller (sbigalow2003, a guy named steve bigalow supposedly from central PA, but ebay also shows him in TX) by way of message, but he never got back to me. the auction had a phone number in the description, so I called that monday, but kept getting a voicemail, so I tried messaging him again... I heard back from him late that night via ebay's messaging system... according to him, there was some sort of "glitch" with ebay, his reserve price was higher than my bid (even though there was no reserve on this auction) and he couldn't sell the machine for the amount of my bid.

I'm figuring that aside from negative feedback, there's really nothing I can do here, right? it's just pretty frustrating.

[cleveland1996]

You can probably file some sort of complaint with eBay...might not do much good, but who knows

[CarlosV]

I recommend you file a complaint to EBay, joining the message you received. Sellers and buyers are committed to the deal once it is completed, so at least the seller may get some kind of punishment from EBay.

What happened to me a small number of times when I bought something on the low cost side, the deal was completed but the seller never shipped the item. When I complained that the item never arrived, I received the refund. The seller probably kept the item to resell later.

[miker2001]

I won an item on ebay once, and they did not force the seller to send it to me. The seller relisted it after and sold it for more.

[brianu]

in his message back to me, despite the final sales price of 2200, he said he wouldn't sell it for less than 3750.

he also apparently just relisted the machine, now with a reserve...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Victor-Schoolho ... 2646359393?

[Garret]

Brian,

I would report to eBay. If you really want to push the envelope, and you really, really want to get some recompense, you could probably look into a lawsuit or arbitration, the latter of which is probably written into eBay's Terms and Conditions somewhere. The email he responded back to you is only additional evidence that he is likely in breach of contract. However, whether it's worth it for you to pursue this is, well, up to you.

If you haven't done it already, you can also access the seller's contact information via the search feature at the following link: http://pages.ebay.com/help/search/members.html.

-G

[briankeith]

I gave up on EBay mainly because of stuff like this and sellers (not people here mind you) have NO CLUE how to safely ship a phonograph

[Garret]

If it's any solace, karma is a b**ch.

[Talkophone]

Very similar to a guy on the forum. Said he would buy it. It has taken a month to say he was sorry but no mention if he still wanted the item.

Larry

[brianu]

Very similar to a guy on the forum. Said he would buy it. It has taken a month to say he was sorry but no mention if he still wanted the item.

Larry

Oh Jesus Larry, you could have just responded to the message I sent you today explaining the situation and apologizing rather than resort to some public shaming or whatever this is. Regardless, I don't think the situations compare at all. And at this point, thanks, but you can keep your books.