Hi everyone, I really need advice because I’ve never experienced something like this on Mercari Japan.
Last night around 3 AM, I was adjusting the price of my listing and accidentally removed a zero.
The item was supposed to be 28,500 yen, but because I was half–asleep, it got listed as 2,850 yen for a few seconds and the buyer purchased it immediately.
As soon as I noticed the mistake, I apologized politely and explained that it was a human error. I asked for a cancellation many times, but the buyer keeps refusing every single cancellation request, no matter how nicely I explain the situation.
The item is a high-value authentic skincare device (normally around 40,000 yen), so sending it for 2,850 yen is absolutely impossible. I already contacted Mercari support with all screenshots and details, but I don’t know if they will side with me.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Does Mercari usually cancel when the seller clearly mispriced due to a typo?
I’ve always maintained a 5-star rating and never had issues before. I’m honestly in shock because most sellers/buyers just cancel immediately when a mistake happens, we are all human and it happens.
Any experiences or advice would be really appreciated.
Upd:
Thank you so much to everyone who gave me advice in the comments 🙏🏻. I ended up canceling the transaction by choosing the option that the item is out of stock. Mercari didn’t give me any ban or warning. They just showed a message asking me to be careful next time and to make sure the item is actually available. Maybe because this was my first mistake, nothing happened to my account.
Also, sorry for accidentally posting this twice. I didn’t realize it went through two times. Thank you again to everyone who helped me. I really appreciate it 🥹
by Mental-Breakdown1511
25 comments
Just don’t ship it, they will eventually cancel it themselves or it will automatically be cancelled in 2 weeks.
You can even list the same item again in the mean time.
Goodluck!
Sounds like you need to take responsibility for your mistake and cancel on your end?
Yeah don’t bother shipping. Nothing is likely to happen to your account, but just to save yourself from potential spamming block the buyer when possible.
Agree just don’t ship and Mercari will auto cancel eventually. you may get a warning from Mercari or even a 1-2 day lock on your account but that’s really all you can do. The buyer won’t be able to rate you or anything. I’d block the buyer just in case (once it’s cancelled).
Ship him a picture of the product.
/s
Just don’t send it, fuck that buyer
Getting bad review once is no a big deal
I have had it happen before and just told the buyer it will not be shipped as it was mispriced and you were in the process of fixing it. They know it was mispriced and are seeing if they can pull a fast one. Let them know that the secretariat is informed and the transaction will end up canceled either way and they can avoid tying up their money by just accepting the cancellation.
If you select cancel reason as “not in stock” it will cancel without buyer’s agreement.
Why does the buyer need to cancel? You should be able to start the cancellation process on your end. Mercari then looks at the situation and assigns fault, likely to you in this case.
Oh, I’ll also add that I once bought an item that the seller never shipped (it was like ¥500). The order never got cancelled until I myself requested a cancellation, which was like 3 months later. I don’t know how long the buyer is willing to wait since they’re out of pocket until they agree to the cancellation, but since it’s not an untrivial amount, they’ll probably cancel soon, fingers crossed.
Mercari is very clear in their TOS that as soon as the buyer clicks the purchase button, the contract is made and cannot be cancelled without an agreement between the two parts. It does not matter if you made a mistake in the price, regretted publishing the item, etc. You have to send the item now according to their policy.
You can technically follow what the other folks are telling you to do and not ship the item, but don’t be surprised if you get banned from Mercari. If you ignore their messages, wait for them to cancel and post the same product again at a higher price you’re going to get penalized twice: one for not shipping the item and another for posting the same item at a higher price.
You can also lie and try to cancel the item without their consent by saying you don’t have the product anymore, but don’t be surprised if the buyer sees the new listing, report your account and you get permanently banned from the platform.
There’s been plenty of fellas over the years who come here ranting about how harsh Mercari is and they got banned for “no reason” and we always find out the “no reason” was them casually trying to break the rules. Be sure to read the rules of the platforms you use.
I once purchased item but buyer never shipped it. And the order stayed as it is and got full filed. The buyer got my money
don’t ship, send a message to customer support explaining the situation and they might cancel it for you too
Whenever that has happened to me by mistake the buyer would bluntly lie saying “sorry just found out it was faulty” and then he would put it out for sale again at a different price.
I’ve had items listed that weren’t in my posession anymore and someone bought them. Mercari warned me sternly that this shouldn’t happen again, but it hasn’t impacted my rating.
Imagine Yamada Denki calling you up complaining and then not shipping your microwave because they “mispriced the item.”
You can let the order expire, by simply not shipping the item.
Mercari has a shipping deadline (usually 2-3 days). If the seller (you) fails to ship by the deadline, the transaction will automatically be cancelled after a certain period (usually a week or so).
The buyer will be refunded. The cancellation is still attributed to the seller for ‘non-shipment’ and carries the same, or a similar, negative penalty on the seller’s account as a seller-initiated cancellation. It also means the buyer has to wait longer for their money.
Since the buyer refuses to cooperate, you have two main options, both of which involve a penalty but prevent a major financial loss.
Wait for Mercari Support: This is the best course. You have already reached out. Mercari might see the clear error and cancel it without a major penalty.
Or you can force a cancellation. If Mercari Support fails to help, you should cancel the order immediately by selecting a seller-fault reason (like ‘Item is damaged/no longer available’)
You absolutely should not ship the item for 2,850 yen. The loss of a good rating or a temporary restriction is significantly better than losing 25,650 yen (the difference between 28,500 yen and 2,850 yen).
I had a similar situation, the buyer was so stubborn ,
We made a deal of separate items so I discontinued the two items but he end up buying only 1 and he “changed” his mind wanting only 1 .
It was a c**** of a move but he did it, after a lot of back and forth , I end up contacting Mercari to get involved, they simply cancel the transaction and I blocked the seller to prevent him from contacting me or buying anything .
Once I’ve bought an item and the seller choosen „out of stock” and after that posted the item again for a higher price. Definitely not a price error here. I tried to report to Mercari etc but they did nothing.
So I guess choosing „out of stock” would get the issue solved.
Send them a picture of the item in the mail LOL
Tbh, I don’t care about your excuses. But either just send it or don’t. You won’t get suspended after just one problem, and in fact you won’t even get a blemish on your record because the support considers the “problem solved” after simply refunding the buyer.
You dont have to do anything. You don’t have to contact support or anything. It will automatically refund him after several weeks and that will be the end of it.
If you make repeated “mistakes” then you’ll be suspended.
It doesn’t matter if the buyer refuses the refund. He can’t force you to send it. Just don’t keep responding because it resets the clock for it to happen automatically because it considers you to be “in negotiation”
Congrats. Looks like you’ve finally made your debut as a Mercari user.
I had a seller i purchased a product from just ghost me. Weeks later they still didn’t respond or send the item. But the seller was responding to comments on other items. So i canceled it from my side, which the system responded with some window how terrible i am for canceling or something. Pardon me?
Moral of the story. Just don’t do anything like others suggested.
Wow that buyer is a huge asshole. Hopefully you can cancel by saying it’s out of stock. Block that user for sure.
One time I made the same mistake and two minutes later someone commented “hello I’ve had this item faved for a while and I think you meant to reduce the price to 28000 yen, not 2800 yen right?” 🥹 So I was able to fix the price before anyone bought it, so sweet of them (they didn’t buy it for 28000 either tho lol)
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