Seller can't find item, do I agree to cancel?

[Hessefan]

Yesterday I won an Ebay auction and paid immediately via paypal bank transfer. Today the seller emailed me to inform me she can't find the item and I could get a refund or pick another item from her. I opted for a refund, which she sent, but also got a note from Paypal that my refund is unavailable for a week since it was initially a bank transfer, not cc. Why this is I don't really understand.
The seller sent a request for me to cancel the transaction, but I haven't replied as I am a bit worried the refund won't come through completely, and am also wondering if I can leave feedback if I agree to cancel?
I went through her feedback and she has quite a few complaints about listing things that "get lost" or "sell out", so I'd like to leave a neutral warning others, not least because this is really disappointing to me.
Should I agree to cancel or not, and what happens if I agree? Can I still get my refund guaranteed and leave feedback?

 

[Adore]

I don't think you can leave feedback if you agree to cancel.
I've had sellers cancel on me because "oh it has a rip in it!" or "oh I just got it back in the mail it's all damaged I can't possibly send it to you," and they send me one of those cancel things and it won't let me leave feedback.
I often wonder if agreeing to the cancel counts as a strike against the buyer-- it does say non paying bidder/buyer and I could have sworn I read something about that somewhere. Not sure. But if I were you I'd leave feedback first. If PayPal is saying it will take a week or however long for your money, trust in PayPal, but not in her if you only heard if from her.

 

[Hessefan]

Thanks for your reply. I tried to leave feedback, but it won't let me as it hasn't been 7 days it says. The cancellation request said that if I don't respond within 8 days it automatically gets cancelled as requested by the seller.

 

[Melissa Ann]

if you agree to cancel it just disappears. No fees to her. No feedback from you. The transaction dissolves. Some sellers who sell a lot at the same time have big warehouses and do lose things or relist things by accident that already sold.

I would just agree to cancel and be done with it. Karma is a good thing to put in the bank.

As for paypal, they "refunded" from her, but won't give it back to you since they have to wait for the clearing time. It has nothing to do with the seller.

 

[cbarrus]

I think the delay in getting your money is the same as when you transfer money out of your PP account to your bank account. It can take up to 7 days. The seller is not in control of this. I understand your wanting to leave FB to warn others, but, I honestly am not sure if the option is still available if you cancel. The seller just wants to get the fees back since she will not be sending you the item. It does not count as a strike against you since it is a "mutual" agreement to cancel. There is really nothing IMO the seller can do to you at this point if you have been refunded and you have a transaction that says the transfer to your account is "pending." She/he cannot cancel the refund, and even if that were possible, you would win a subsequent claim for "item not received." I personally would cancel and move on (since the seller did let you know fairly quickly about the problem), but I think the choice is yours and you won't be penalized if you deny the seller's request.

Here's the link regarding canceling a transaction:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/cancel-transaction-process.html

 

[Hessefan]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I agreed to cancel and hopefully the refund will go through smoothly. You can always count on tPF

 

[BeenBurned]

Yesterday I won an Ebay auction and paid immediately via paypal bank transfer. Today the seller emailed me to inform me she can't find the item and I could get a refund or pick another item from her. I opted for a refund, which she sent, but also got a note from Paypal that my refund is unavailable for a week since it was initially a bank transfer, not cc. Why this is I don't really understand.
The seller sent a request for me to cancel the transaction, but I haven't replied as I am a bit worried the refund won't come through completely, and am also wondering if I can leave feedback if I agree to cancel?
I went through her feedback and she has quite a few complaints about listing things that "get lost" or "sell out", so I'd like to leave a neutral warning others, not least because this is really disappointing to me.
Should I agree to cancel or not, and what happens if I agree? Can I still get my refund guaranteed and leave feedback?

Based on all the feedbacks implying lost items or sold out items, I'm betting that the seller is making those claims because the auctions didn't sell for as much as she would have hoped.

She probably cheated the system by listing without a reserve and not following through on the sales. An honest seller either starts the bidding at the lowest price she's willing to sell for, has a reserve price set, or she sells for the winning bid. IMO, this doesn't seem to be an honest seller.

I don't think you can leave feedback if you agree to cancel.
I've had sellers cancel on me because "oh it has a rip in it!" or "oh I just got it back in the mail it's all damaged I can't possibly send it to you," and they send me one of those cancel things and it won't let me leave feedback.
I often wonder if agreeing to the cancel counts as a strike against the buyer-- it does say non paying bidder/buyer and I could have sworn I read something about that somewhere. Not sure. But if I were you I'd leave feedback first. If PayPal is saying it will take a week or however long for your money, trust in PayPal, but not in her if you only heard if from her.

Agreeing to a mutual doesn't negate your ability to leave feedback. ONLY non-paying bidders who don't respond to UIDs cannot leave feedback. In fact, if a non-payer responds to a UID, they can still leave feedback!!

And a mutual cancellation doesn't count as a strike against the buyer. It does save the seller money so generally, you shouldn't agree to it if you think the seller is "up to something" (which I do).

Thanks for your reply. I tried to leave feedback, but it won't let me as it hasn't been 7 days it says. The cancellation request said that if I don't respond within 8 days it automatically gets cancelled as requested by the seller.

If you're a new user, I believe you have to wait 7 days before leaving anything other than positive feedback.

if you agree to cancel it just disappears. No fees to her. No feedback from you. The transaction dissolves.

See my response above. The OP can leave feedback. And the seller still pays the listing fees; it's only her FVF that she gets back.

OP, if I were you, I'd watch the seller's listings to see if she relists. If that happens, it's a pretty good indication that she didn't sell to you because it wasn't enough money. And in that case, I'd definitely leave appropriate feedback. You have 60 days to leave feedback so wait and see what happens with the listings.

 

[Hessefan]

Thanks BeenBurned. I am not sure if she was upset about the price, as it was a small item (under £10, and RRP is only £24).
I've been on Ebay for about ten years and have lots of feedback, so I don't know why I have to wait 7 days to leave feedback, I never do normally.
All in all I am not really upset I'm not getting the item, it wasn't rare or anything, but I do find it annoying as I lost out on others that ended because I was the high bidder for this one and her feedback suggests she loses things often, which is the reason I'd like to add my feedback to the pot if you will.
Thankfully she doesn't deal in high end items, so she just seems badly organised and a bit of a time-waster, but harmless otherwise.

 

[BeenBurned]

Thanks BeenBurned. I am not sure if she was upset about the price, as it was a small item (under £10, and RRP is only £24).
I've been on Ebay for about ten years and have lots of feedback, so I don't know why I have to wait 7 days to leave feedback, I never do normally.
All in all I am not really upset I'm not getting the item, it wasn't rare or anything, but I do find it annoying as I lost out on others that ended because I was the high bidder for this one and her feedback suggests she loses things often, which is the reason I'd like to add my feedback to the pot if you will.
Thankfully she doesn't deal in high end items, so she just seems badly organised and a bit of a time-waster, but harmless otherwise.

You're welcome.

I was just guessing at the reason why a seller might have so many "out of stock" or "lost" items and usually, it's a case of a no-reserve listing not selling for as much as the seller would have liked.

Again, the only times I've ever heard of an ebayer not being able to leave feedback is in the case of a newbie who wants to leave a less-than-positive feedback. In your case, I have no idea why you weren't able to leave feedback.

I do understand your frustration and I certainly sympathize. You have to leave the type of feedback you feel comfortable leaving, both to let the seller know that she needs to improve her organizational skills as well as letting future buyers know what to expect if they choose to do business with the seller.