A couple weeks back, I made an impulse buy on eBay for desktop speakers that normally go for $299 MSRP. The lowest price online was $269 shipped, but I found a Buy-It-Now! listing for those speakers Brand New for $199. And with the Bing Cashback (8%), I was getting the speakers for $183, so it was a pretty sweet deal. It did occur to me that the price seemed too good to be true, but with eBay Buyer Protection, figured it was worth the risk. Either I can sell it and make around $80-100 profit or I can keep it for myself, so I purchased the item using Buy It Now.

A half hour later, I get this email from the seller:

Seller:“im sorry. i put the wrong price in. it was suppose to be 299. i am going to refund you your money back right now. i am sooooooooooooooooo sorry for the inconvenience.”

After seeing that she relisted the item at $299, I replied to the seller:

Me: “As a buyer who bid on this based on trust, the seller should
honor the sale since the wrong price entered was not the buyer’s
fault. I ask that you honor the sale and ship the item to me
(item received within 7 days). I hope you will honor your
commitment to the sale (if you honor the sale, I will post a
positive feedback). Otherwise, as you can understand I will have
to leave a negative feedback to warn any future potential buyers
of this.”

While this technically is a legal contract, eBay can’t do much about it. They can only look into suspending the seller’s account if the offense warrants it. Not sure if eBay did anything, but about a week later, the seller contacts me and agrees to send me the item. Well, I got my speakers today and have decided to keep ‘em (great sound!). As promised, I left the seller a positive feedback.

I’m wondering what made the seller change her mind? How much of it was due to fear of getting a negative feedback vs. empathy? Had she resold it, she likely could’ve netted $80 profit if she wanted to. At any rate, I’m glad that the seller did the right thing.