E-bay

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Originally Posted by Mike51Merc

In June I placed an order for window cranks (and other stuff) from Mac's. They gladly handled the order and took my money. The box arrived without the cranks, with a notation on the slip that they were backordered. I called Mac's and asked the estimated delivery date-- the answer was 6-8 weeks.

Now how does this differ from the OP's ebay story? So the guy was out of stock and backordered. It doesn't make him the best seller, but it doesn't make him a bad guy either.

The difference is the auction format. When you are bidding on the item it is assumed/implied the seller actually has the item.

If you don't have the item you shouldn't be running auctions on it, unless you specifically word the ad to let the buyer know they are bidding on a special order item that may take weeks to receive.

With a parts house / catalog store a reasonable person could understand how they would occasionally be out of stock on some items.