Ebay Question when buyer pays but wants to cancel

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I had an unopened set of my previous favourite strings going spare which I listed on ebay when I got the 'Free listing plus Max £1 final fee offer.

Someone bid on them and in the dying seconds someone outbid them by a quid and promptly paid. A short while later they messaged me saying they made a mistake and didn't want the strings as they just realised they are tapewounds not flatwounds even though the listing was clearly titled and the strings were described correctly.

If I cancel the transaction I don't think I'll get back the full paypal fee. Also I've checked the terms of the Max £1 final fee offer and if I offer the strings to the first bidder on a 2nd chance offer, I'll have to pay the full final fee as the offer won't cover it.

How should I cancel the auction & transaction so the winning bidder gets his money back without it looking like I'm the one backing out of the deal - so I can minimise my losses due to this timewaster.

[paul_c2]

Don't be the one to act first, let the buyer cancel it from their end. I can't remember the options that they have. 

Otherwise, choose one of the options like "the item is damaged and no longer available" before you mark it as sent and it will go through better.

[jrixn1]

11 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

Don't be the one to act first, let the buyer cancel it from their end. I can't remember the options that they have.

Yes, this.  I had a buyer cancel on me recently (after paying).  The buyer needs to send a "Request to cancel this order".  Then you (the seller) have the option to accept or decline.  If accept, you'll get final value fee credit about a week later.

Edited December 5, 2019 by jrixn1

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Thanks chaps. I found the option on ebay to cancel and was able to mark it as "buyer requested to cancel" I still had to pay 30p of the PayPal fee out of my pocket and can't do a second chance offer to the other bidder without losing the discounted final fees. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!