Red wrote:

Did you receive a confirmation of sale email before they canceled? According to onthetrail, the vendor can simply cancel the sale at any time prior to you taking possession. That sounds like a useful mechanism for vendors of goods with a fluctuating value; they can simply delay shipping, and if the value increases, cite an error and re-sell at an increased price. Seems like shady business practice to me.

It is used by some sellers to that effect sadly. If a seller did this a lot, I would hope that the platform would get wise to it, but of course the higher sale often benefits them too so I doubt anyone who can actually do anything about it is too concerned about it.

The mechanics of it were designed so that human errors were not costing the retailer, which as a former retail manager and later regional manager, I agree with 100% as human error is rife in retail, but sadly it will be used by some sellers to make more money.

I should add that in the UK at least, a sale is not completed until the item is in your hands, or a seller has sent the item. If you buy an item, that is the canceled because of a pricing error, or common, they claim it sold on another platform before you bought it, they can legally cancel and we have no avenues to argue that we are owed the product. Of course they have to refund in a timely manner.