Ebay scam

[widget2k4]

I just wondered if anyone else has had this done to them lately? Seems to be quite a good scam not to put a reserve on ebay items.

You win an item at a good price and seller refuses to give you it, they say it's worth more than it sold for.

Ebay say they can't do anything about it and it's up to the seller if they actually give it to you.

What aload of bollocks, so basically anyone who pays for the reserve feature is wasting their money - all they have to do is refuse to sell it and the legal binding contract is useless?

[aristomatic]

Not really a scam as they refund your money, usually pretty quickly. However, it can be very frustrating, particularly if you're interested in two items that end closely and you win the first, so do not bid on the second but the seller of the first then refunds your money on the 1st so you end up with neither of them!

This seller added this to his listing recently when the bidding wasn't going up high enough early on.... The winning bidder (not me) was refunded asap:

I've just noticed my reserve price was not added to the listing when I put it on. If this goes for less than my reserve price it will not be sold so winner please contact me prior to payment.

[widget2k4]

Yeah they refund you and it's frustrating but it's still a scam to get out of paying the price for putting a reserve on because ebay charge quite a bit to put on a reserve, so I mean what's the point in paying for a reserve when you just need to refund them and refuse to sell it?
Yet ebay say it's a legal binding contract for the seller to give you the goods yet they can't do nothing about it.

It was actually a non coin operated item I won and the seller did this to me but it has happened a few times on coin operated machines as well.

[gameswat]

Can you at least leave highly negative feedback?

[aristomatic]

At least I am glad I am not new to ebay now............ have had a few years to get to know most of the tricks. I'm not really sure why sellers put reserves on items - either just list at the lowest you want to accept in an auction style listing or use the buy-it-now listing format with a high buy-it-now but use the best offer option? (I think the ebay minimum reserve is still £50?). Is the reserve fee still 5% of a reserve price, if it doesn't reach it? As I don't use it, I've not really kept in touch with the associated fees...

GP

[larry_d]

Lets face it Ebay is just a waste of time. The number of times I have had bidders spoil the end of one of my multibid auctions by not paying is unbelievable. You have to open an unpaid item case which always ends in Ebay simply telling them not to do it again. They take the commission for the sale from you and refund it if you sell the item again with them eventually!! You cannot leave negative feedback after the case is closed. Ebay a big NO NO!!!