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Buyer from Ukraine
Summary: stefha sold speakers to a buyer from Ukraine who wanted to arrange a courier service for pickup. Although payment was made, the money is being held until the pickup is confirmed. The buyer last got in touch with the message that his house was destroyed, and there has been no contact since then. verena@ebay from eBay offered to contact the buyer and explained that canceling the purchase would not cause any additional costs for stefha. stefha plans to cancel the deal in the next few days if there is no contact, and expressed concern about the uncertain situation.
Hello, 10 days ago I auctioned off speaker cabinets, and the highest bidder was someone from Ukraine. He wrote that he would send a courier service to pick up the speakers.
He has paid for the speakers, but I can’t receive the money until the pickup is confirmed. His last message on 9/7 was that his house had been destroyed by a bomb, but that he had survived. Since then, contact has been broken. Now I’m completely at a loss as to how this is supposed to continue. The speakers, well packed in two moving boxes, are standing around uselessly and need to go. Does anyone have any good advice for me? If I cancel the transaction, I have to refund the purchase price, even though I haven’t received the money paid by the buyer at all. In the eBay help topics, the case where the buyer comes from a war zone and the purchase is thereby prevented unfortunately isn’t covered at all. I’m completely at a loss at the moment...
verena@ebay
MentorJul 12, 2026 at 3:02 PMHello @stefha ,
Thank you very much for your post!
This is indeed a very difficult situation. I can offer to contact your buyer on our side and ask them to get in touch with you regarding clarification. If the buyer does not get back to you or asks to cancel the purchase, I recommend that you carry out the purchase cancellation in this case.
In the event of a purchase cancellation, the amount currently being held will be automatically refunded to the buyer. So there would be no additional costs for you here, and nothing would be deducted from your bank account. You can then simply list the item again afterward.
Best regards
Verena
stefha
OPJul 12, 2026 at 4:28 PM · EditedHello Verena, thank you very much for the good advice! Then I’ll wait a few more days, and if the contact still doesn’t get established again, I’ll call off the deal. Who knows what’s going on there. Reading "he had survived the last bombing raid with the destruction of his house" doesn’t mean that it couldn’t also turn out differently at some point. A contact of his in Germany, who was apparently supposed to organize the pickup, isn’t getting in touch either; somehow the times are so uncertain that apparently you have to expect anything.
perfect-sally
MentorJul 12, 2026 at 2:20 PMYou won’t be able to avoid a cancellation, it seems. You can’t just wait this one out.
An eBay employee will take a look at it and get back to you here.
@verena@ebay could you please take a look? Thanks a lot
verena@ebay
MentorJul 12, 2026 at 3:02 PMThanks for the tag! ❤