Canceled Order

John Eckhardt

I just received a request to cancel an order within 5 minutes of it being placed. No explanation was given. It was only a 15 cent stamp, but it cost me the 30 cent to PayPal fee and the 14 cent HipStamp fee because I'm not wasting their time requesting a refund.

I'm curious as to how other sellers handle a situation like this. It's a first for me. Should I have deducted these fees from the "buyer". I asked "buyer" to more careful and not "buy" something he doesn't want. This buyer did purchase a $12.95 stamp from me several months ago, so at this time I have refrained from negative feedback? Am I doing a disservice to other sellers by not leaving it? All comments would be appreciated.

Michael Generali

I the buyer and seller agree, then the purchase can be canceled. However, the buyer cannot cancel a purchase without consent of the seller.

Personally, it would depend on who the buyer is, what my relationship is with the buyer, and why the buyer wants to cancel the order. The better the buyer is as relates to buying from me, the less problem I would have with cancelling the purchase, as I know the buyer will be back to buy more. Even if the buyer bought for the first time, sometimes, in the interest of potential future transactions with the buyer, it may be better to not fuss about it and just cancel the purchase.

Like I said, I would take a look at the wider view of the request, rather than the narrow view of where the fee costs are a negative. You may lose a positive later on if the buyer wants to buy again. Now, if the buyer does it again, then all bets are off.

Keith J. Bowen

Speaking as a long-time buyer, I have accumulated an enormous amount of duplicates. On those rare occasions when I accidentally purchase a duplicate, even though I check my order before finalizing it, I chalk it up to the oops! gremlin and add it to the pile. I would rather eat the cost than disturb my reputation with the dealer. By the same token, if a dealer fails to include, or includes the wrong item, I expect the dealer to fix his error for free. This has been a big problem for me at Delcampe, but not so far with any Hip Stamp dealer. If it was a big-ticket item I might try to sell it myself, or arrange something with the seller.