Cancelled Transaction: Breck's Fine Watches & Collectibles - eBay Store/Seller

[wesdaniel]

I had been watching a 18239 full set on eBay for a while. It was priced at $16.7K which wasn't a bad deal, but, not a stellar deal.

This morning, I got an eBay notification that the seller was offering 20% off on the watch, bringing the price down to $13,359.20 - which is a stellar deal.

I made the purchase immediately (purchase made at 11:17 AM PST today) and paid in full.

At 4:13 PM PST, I received notification from eBay that the seller cancelled the transaction with the reason of, "Out of stock or damaged." I presume that this literally translates to, "I sold it somewhere else for more money."

Unfortunately, when a seller does this on eBay, you can't leave feedback for the seller, so, can't share the shady business practices with others.

IMO, this is simply broken mazal - no other way to put it. If the cancellation were within 30 minutes or an hour, it would be one thing. But, it was a full five hours after the purchase.

[wesdaniel]

I made contact with the seller and he nonchalantly told me that he had not intended to offer a sale on the watch, so cancelled the transaction.

Had he simply sent me a message and advised that he made a mistake and offered to, in some way, make a reasonable effort to find a solution, things would have been fine. But, instead, he cancelled the transaction for a reason that (to eBay) is not an appropriate reason and didn't make any effort to contact me directly.

The only reason there was communication is because I contacted him (obviously) angered.

Really bad form.

[wesdaniel]

After several communications with the seller, he offered to make it right.

While I didn't complete the transaction with the offer, based on the outcome, I would do business with him if the opportunity to presented itself.

Thanks for reading.

[southtexas]

Originally Posted by wesdaniel

After several communications with the seller, he offered to make it right.

While I didn't complete the transaction with the offer, based on the outcome, I would do business with him if the opportunity to presented itself.

Thanks for reading.

What did he offer you to "make it right" if it was simply a listing error or he inadvertantly set the listing to offer item watchers a discount?

[wesdaniel]

Originally Posted by southtexas

What did he offer you to "make it right" if it was simply a listing error or he inadvertantly set the listing to offer item watchers a discount?

Not quite sure that I fully understand your question, but, the full sequence of events was this:

Originally Posted by southtexas

What did he offer you to "make it right" if it was simply a listing error or he inadvertantly set the listing to offer item watchers a discount?

So, the situation is that he had listed this 18239 full collector's set (box, papers, hang tag, service records, etc.) with factory diamond dial in excellent condition (literally no bracelet stretch) for sale. The listing price was $16,699 which is a fair price. Not particularly high and not particularly low. The seller sells both watches and sports cards.

Because the 36mm DD is my favorite watch (and I do / have owned several), when I see an interesting like this come up for sale, I always put it in my ebay watch list because I want to see what they end up going for.

I got a push notification from eBay that there was a 20% discount offered on it which brought the price down to $13,359.20 which is a smokin' deal. So, I immediately bought it and paid in full.

Five hours later, he cancelled the transaction with the eBay reason of "Item out of stock or damaged" (which is the only reason eBay allows a cancellation - error in listing price IS NOT a reason for cancellation on eBay).

Understandably bothered, I sent a message to the seller of what a horrible business practice it was (I presumed that he had sold it to someone else at a higher price). He responded and told me that, when he offered the sale, he intended to offer it on his sports cards only but, somehow, made a mistake on eBay and applied it to this watch as well and, therefore he cancelled the transaction.

By this point, I had already reported the issue to eBay (not that they're likely to do anything about it).

I was (and am) of the mindset that, if he made a mistake, he should have sent me a message, apologized for the error, let me know that he couldn't complete the transaction and tried to find some mutually acceptable solution. But, presumably, he figured I would be fine with the cancelled transaction and rolled the dice.

Ultimately, he was transparent with me about how much he had into the watch and he offered to sell it to me at a very fair price. He also offered a couple of other alternative watches which I also passed on.

So, I don't think he's a bad guy or a bad seller. I think he made an honest mistake. I just think that, in the beginning, he handled the communication poorly. I can also understand why he may not have wanted to message me - it could have made things even worse for him depending on how things went. In my case, once I understood what happened, I understood and was fine with it. But, being ont he buyer end of it, from my perspective, I had lived up to my end of the deal - immediate payment, etc. and expected that from the other side. With no explanation of why it wasn't happening, it seemed shady.

Does that make sense?