Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Accidentally buying something
- This topic has 15 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 7 months ago by
TopNotch.
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07/13/2018 at 6:10 pm #45368
A fun story from this Friday afternoon:
You ever get a message from someone saying they didn’t buy something? They always claim to have no recollection of buying the item, no idea how it happened, etc.
Today I had to send one of those messages.
There I am, standing in the 100 degree heat at a flea market with not a bit of shade in sight, when I hear the dreaded “doo-do-dooooo” sound from my phone. What will it be? A return? A buyer with an issue?
“Item shipped: Est. arrival <date>”
Honest to god, I thought I was hallucinating from the heat. I start scrambling through more notifications to see “PayPal: You sent $x to <person>.” Now I’m really tripping, questioning the last few hours I had in the heat.
I immediately send a message to the seller explaining the accident, claiming “I have no idea how I purchased this” and the usual stuff we as sellers see from buyers when this happens.
They happily refunded moments later.
Theories? Maybe heat-related blackout prompting eBay splurge? “Pocket purchase?” Mysterious paranormal activity? Slight-of-hand trickster stealing phones just long enough for rogue eBay buys? We may never know.
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07/13/2018 at 6:38 pm #45369
Were you using your phone to research prices?
Only two things could have happened:
–you “pocket bought” an item.
–eBay has some bug where items are being bought on their servers without any interaction with the buyer.-
07/13/2018 at 6:59 pm #45370
It must have been a pocket buy, but how I actually navigated to that specific item is beyond me. All this had to happen in my pocket:
1) Navigate to search screen
2) Execute a search for completed listings
3) Select a completed listing
4) Scroll down to show similar in-stock items, click one
5) Click buy, go through the purchasing process (never done it on a phone so no idea how many steps this adds.)This is the only logical answer, but it’s extraordinary. At least I’ll have a bit more perspective next time a buyer claims the same thing happened to them.
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07/13/2018 at 7:19 pm #45371
And no one else has access to your account? Kids or partner?
It would be a very big bombshell if somehow eBay’s system was automatically buying and paying for items. Actually I dont know how itd be possible because the eBay system would need to log into Paypal which is now a separate company.
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07/13/2018 at 7:28 pm #45372
I’ve heard of a pocket dial but a pocket buy is a very first, LOL!
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07/13/2018 at 8:09 pm #45376
A lot of buyers have a their accounts set to automatically pay, once a purchase it made.
I once sold an item to a local buyer. After paying me cash, he hit the buy it now and I got paid again automatically, through Paypal, so I had to refund him.
I generally want them to buy it before the pickup, but this was an unusual item that required an inspection.
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07/13/2018 at 10:26 pm #45380
It would be very, very difficult to “accidentally buy” something on Ebay through the mobile app, especially if you have never done so through there. I’d be more concerned of a possible hack to your account or maybe someone in your family made the purchase?
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07/14/2018 at 12:39 pm #45402
Thought it was a hack at first also, but the shipping address was unchanged. Pretty ineffective hack unless their plan was to come to my doorstep and steal it upon delivery 🙂
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07/13/2018 at 11:02 pm #45382
This past Monday, I was gathering all the items that had sold over the weekend. Usually, when I put my phone in my pocket, I turn it off first. However, I had it on because I was still looking at my sold items. Somehow, I pocket marked one item as shipped. It was easy to unmark it later, but it was weird that it happened. Pocket buying something would be much more complicated.
I’m curious, what did you accidentally buy?
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07/14/2018 at 12:35 pm #45401
It was a power supply designed for ham/CB radio usage. I was at a ham radio convention when it happened, too.
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07/14/2018 at 4:53 pm #45408
This is a huge piece of evidence. I cant be a coincidence that you were at a ham radio convention and accidentally bought a ham radio part.
–Did you at any point use eBay to search for an item at the event, and then pocket your phone?
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07/14/2018 at 5:10 pm #45410
I checked prices on a few items, but not the one I ended up purchasing. The implication here is that I got from a search page that was showing ONLY completed listings to an active, in stock item that I then purchased.
I think I owe a bit of a clarification that I didn’t intend this to be an accusation of eBay purchasing things on my behalf, but perspective for sellers who might think “Oh, THIS excuse again” when a buyer asks to cancel an order for the same reason I ran into. If anything, I thought people would get a chuckle out of it. I should have made that clear in the OP, sorry.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by
IndySales.
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07/14/2018 at 5:31 pm #45412
Understood. I’m sorry if my questions made it sound like I was accusing you of anything.
I just think its a very interesting mystery. Seems “pocket buys” are possible. Somehow it happened to you. We dont buy on our phone either so I actually dont know the how many clicks it would take.
Anyway, glad the seller was nice about it.
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07/14/2018 at 11:41 pm #45418
“perspective for sellers who might think “Oh, THIS excuse again” when a buyer asks to cancel an order for the same reason I ran into. ”
Heard you loud and clear. I think you make a very good point.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by
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07/15/2018 at 1:10 pm #45448
Yes, this has happened to us. Its like butt dialing. And twice, buyers have said they didn’t purchase an item. I always think, well your spouse probably did, or your kid probably did. Anyway, if they notify us fast enough then we cancel the sale. I’ve got a return pending right now on one of these butt buys.
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07/15/2018 at 5:31 pm #45455
I did this a couple weeks ago. researched an item and decided not to purchase it for 2 bucks, butt purchased for $10+$16 shipping. I didnt realize it until the item arrived, so I kept it. It’s not opened, just waiting to delist and hopefully recover some of the loss.
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