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Can an eBay seller really cancel a transaction?

I erroneously bid on two eBay auctions for the same item and won both. D'oh! I asked one of the sellers if I could just cancel, and he did so instead, but now I'm wondering if it's legit?


Dave's Answer:

Sellers can cancel eBay transactions, so it sounds like you did the right thing and you encountered a friendly seller who was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and cancel your transaction so that you aren't obligated to pay them and they aren't obligated to pay the eBay closed auction fees. They just relist their item (for free) and everyone gos on their merry way.

Here's how this all looks, from a buyers perspective.

The first notification you get is probably via email. Here's what I got when I recently had a seller cancel a transaction I was involved in. Ironically, I too won multiple auctions, one for a lot of books and the other for a now duplicate copy of the same book:

ebay cancel transaction email

I am inherently skeptical of any email from eBay because of the never-ending stream of phishing and hacking attempts I see, so I won't even click on these links after inspecting the message and ascertaining that it sure looked legit.

Instead, I just logged in to the eBay site, then went to "My eBay" "Summary":

ebay my ebay summary

It immediately showed me a pending eBay Alert, which was the same transaction:

ebay alert cancel transaction

Okay, so at this point I figure it's probably a legit request. :-)

I clicked on "Take Action" and entered a response for the record:

ebay alert cancel transaction details

A click on "Send response" and the transaction is canceled:

ebay alert cancel transaction canceled

That's all there is to it.


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Categorized: Auctions and Online Shopping   (Article 8649, Written by )
Tagged: bargains, buying auctions, deals, ebay, online auctions, shopping
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Reader Comments To Date: 2

Steve said, on December 22, 2008 2:52 PM:

Yes as long as you have a legitimate reason Ebay would not have a problem .And yes not all sellers oblige like the good one that you encountered .
All also all emails about the cancellation would come in your My Ebay account so it will be for real.Do not worry .

rafael said, on March 3, 2011 5:16 AM:

hi, a seller recently cancelled an order i had placed but I've already paid for this item, if i cancel the order would i still get my money back?

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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