eBay Seller Shocked By Price Dropping Glitch
UPDATE 5-28-23
Another seller in the jewelry category is reporting two items listed for $299 and $349 respectively were able to be purchased for $25 each in another unexplained pricing glitch.
Why am I getting a request to ship to a buyer that has only paid a partial amount of the list price?...
... they paid $25 each for two items I listed for $299 and $349 and eBay is saying I should ship...
...I sent out no offers, discounts, or changes in price on these items. They have been listed for several weeks with no activity. I will check with CS and find a way to cancel the order. We definitely will not ship two pairs of gold earrings for $50. Thanks to all for the feedback. Still baffled at how eBay let this go through.
What is going on here? eBay owes these sellers an explanation!
An eBay seller was shocked when a piece of fine jewelry they had listed sold for $229.49 instead of the $637.49 price that should have been charged.
Just had an item sell for $229.49, when listed at $637.49. No offers, no communication, just sold for the wrong price. Called eBay, and apparently it's a known issue!?!?! So heads up everybody. Make sure you're double checking all of your sales. CSR was very helpful, and of course the transaction got cancelled. Just wanted to make sure this issue was a bit more public!
For those who may be skeptical, the seller also posted a screenshot of the transaction from their seller hub showing it was in fact completed and paid for at $229.49, even though looking at the item in their public facing sold history shows it was sold at $637.49.
The original listed price was $749.99 and the seller had a 15% markdown sale running to get to the $637.49 price.
The seller says support confirmed there was no Best Offer and provided no explanation beyond simply that it was a "known issue" - and that's the really scary part of the story.
Other sellers chimed in saying they've also experienced pricing glitches that have caused the purchase price to be lower than it should have been.
I've experienced this three times now.
- $9999.00 item sold for $199.00.
- $1500 item sold for $150.
- Same situation but in the $100 range.
Both ebay, and the buyers were helpful in all three cases, simply a cancellation and no risk of negative feedback (all 3 had paid), it turned out that an ebay anomaly had increased the promotional discount structure.
I've seen other complaints here on a low but steady basis about unexpected low-price sales for no apparent reason.
Given all the mechanisms in play on some listings (e.g. Make Offer, blanket discount pricing, presence or absence of auto-accept), it would not entirely surprise me if there was some nasty collision of mathematics going on with various price alterations being made, perhaps under very weird but specific conditions that may make the problem hard to trace.
Regardless of what the reason really was, it's very concerning that support was unable to offer details or an explanation that would give any confidence the same problem won't happen again.
Have you experienced glitches causing eBay listings to sell for less than the advertised price? Let us know in the comments below!
