Denying cancellation

[nick65049]

So I denied a cancellation request. I quickly found out denying that might be a request.  The buyer hasn’t paid or answered my messages so I relisted it and sold that item. eBay won’t let me cancel that order now. 

I guess my question is what if the buyer eventually decides to purchase that item? Just send them a refund?

This system seems flawed. Seems like nothing is stopping people from just sending in cancellation requests if they don’t want an item. 

[bonjourami]

The flaw is relisting that item so quickly.

[slippinjimmy]

Ignoring/refusing a buyer cancellation request is usually not a good idea.

[gator08041971 · Accepted solution]

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@nick65049 wrote:

So I denied a cancellation request. 

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You have that right, however here's my view.  If a buyer were to ask to cancel an order while I still have the item and have not shipped, I would honor the request.  The primary reasoning behind my thinking here, is that it prevents the buyer from feeling forced to buy, and potentially giving you an angry buyer to deal with that may have a higher chance of opening a return case and leaving you a negative feedback.  If they ask to cancel while you still have it, then just do it. Far less headache.

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@nick65049 wrote:

I guess my question is what if the buyer eventually decides to purchase that item? Just send them a refund?

This system seems flawed. Seems like nothing is stopping people from just sending in cancellation requests if they don’t want an item. 

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You won't have much choice in the matter, if you already sold it.  But here's the thing.  The only option for you to cancel at that point is out of stock.  Which means you would get a defect for being out of stock on an item.

Hopefully you now know what to do differently when this sort of thing happens again.

Good luck.

[iamalwaysright]

Yea, I think we talked about this awhile ago in here. Denying a cancellation request for a buyer who hasn't paid yet, is a total crock the way ebay handles it. Because the way it was set at the moment we talked about it here (and I guess nothing has changed), a buyer CANNOT get a payment strike once they file a formal cancellation request within 1 hour of winning the auction or clicking buy it now. Big loophole here for buyers who don't want to pay and not get a payment strike.

Ebay sees that the process of getting a payment strike needs to begin with a "cancellation". Back in the day, ebay referred it to "Unpaid Item". But since they started to call it "cancellation", it's combined with the formal 1 hour cancellation request. So if you deny a cancellation, a second cancellation cannot be filed any more. Thus the beginning process of a payment strike can never be made. I recall back then many sellers here begged to differ when I mentioned this. I mean I would too if I heard it because it's so ridiculous. But a blue came in and confirmed what I said to be true. Smh.

[nick65049]

I 100% now know what to do. I’ve been doing this for a few months. Mostly doing BIN listing so a cancellation wasn’t a huge deal. The last couple months I’ve been doing more auctions, so this is my first time dealing with this situation. 

I appreciate your time! 

[lamber9347]

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@nick65049 wrote:

So I denied a cancellation request. I quickly found out denying that might be a request.  The buyer hasn’t paid or answered my messages so I relisted it and sold that item. eBay won’t let me cancel that order now. 
I guess my question is what if the buyer eventually decides to purchase that item? Just send them a refund?

This system seems flawed. Seems like nothing is stopping people from just sending in cancellation requests if they don’t want an item. 

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You seem to be a very experienced seller on here so surprised you weren't more familiar with how cancelations actually work. The system is not flawed. When a buyer tells you they no longer want an item, why would you 'insist' they must take it by refusing that request? You haven't shipped it out as they haven't paid yet, so you're not placed into a situation where you are losing money. If your item sold once it will sell again, to a much better buyer. 

When your buyer requested that cancellation, you had an option to cancel due to buyer's request, which would have refunded all of your fees and automatically relisted your item. Easy peasy, (following the prompts you would have been done in less than 1 minute) and win-win for both of you (buyer is not saddled with an item they no longer want; seller doesn't have to wait for a return, costing the seller more in return postage, and placing a hold on the seller's account). 

Always best to follow the policy for protection of your selling account. Yes, if that first buyer comes back and decides they now want your item, you will now owe it to them. Even if you refund them, that buyer can still leave you negative feedback because they paid for their item, and you never shipped it to them. Hopefully that buyer will simply leave it alone and you never hear from them again. Best of luck to you....

[iamalwaysright]

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@nick65049 wrote:

I 100% now know what to do. I’ve been doing this for a few months. Mostly doing BIN listing so a cancellation wasn’t a huge deal. The last couple months I’ve been doing more auctions, so this is my first time dealing with this situation. 

I appreciate your time! 

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Yup. I was in the same boat and only did fixed price IPR. I too learned this the hard way when I listed an auction and wanted to give the buyer a payment strike instead of accepting a cancellation request. It was possible in the past when ebay still called them "UPIs" and not "cancellations".

[gator08041971]

I think part of that problem revolves around canceling before paying vs canceling after paying.

Before paying, you have the problem of the order just being an order, and not officially finished.  (usually has a small digit number for the order on your list)

Once its paid, then you get an official order number instead and its now registered differently in the system.

So yeah.  Canceling a "pre-order" reacts completely different than canceling a full order where money has been transferred.

[wastingtime101]

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@gator08041971 wrote:

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@nick65049 wrote:

I guess my question is what if the buyer eventually decides to purchase that item? Just send them a refund?

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You won't have much choice in the matter, if you already sold it.  But here's the thing.  The only option for you to cancel at that point is out of stock.  Which means you would get a defect for being out of stock on an item.

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The seller will not be able to cancel as out of stock if the buyer eventually pays @gator08041971 because the system limits you to one cancellation (or cancellation request) per transaction. That already happened and the seller denied it. They cannot initiate an out of stock (OOS) cancellation if the buyer ends up paying. They should be able to use "send refund" and might end up with an OOS defect anyway once eBay reviews it. But the refund cannot be initiated through a formal order cancellation at this point.

[iamalwaysright]

IIRC a buyer isn't given the option to file a cancellation request if the package has been shipped and tracking has uploaded. Perhaps you're referring to the less formal buyer messages asking to cancel. With those, you can totally file a "UPI/Cancellation" after 4 days and give the buyer a strike because their initial request wasn't a formal one.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

So basically it's NOT actually a "request", so why not call it what it is?

[iamalwaysright]

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@lamber9347 wrote:

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Always best to follow the policy for protection of your selling account. Yes, if that first buyer comes back and decides they now want your item, you will now owe it to them. Even if you refund them, that buyer can still leave you negative feedback because they paid for their item, and you never shipped it to them. Hopefully that buyer will simply leave it alone and you never hear from them again. Best of luck to you....

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Yea I think the way it stands now, that transaction will sit in their awaiting payment page until it times out. I don't think there's another way to get rid of it except if the buyer ends up paying for it. Because you can't even click on "cancel order" anymore because of the only one cancellation filed per transaction rule. Not sure if the "send refund" option is even there too because you don't have any of their money to refund.

[iamalwaysright]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

So basically it's NOT actually a "request", so why not call it what it is?

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That's another question we talked about in the old thread. I conclude it's a ploy ebay is doing to try and give the seller a false sense of control.

[gator08041971]

Oh, right.  My bad.