so this is over, you got refunded and are still without the product? That was the end result?

 

yup. Ebay did absolutly nothing to ensure that I got the product.

This means at any time, if a seller is not happy with the price he got, even after you have paid he can decide to not sell. I think its total crap and am fed up with ebay due to their lack of a true buyer protection

 

Yep, I had a similar issue last year when I won the bid on a portable winch carrier I was buying for me Jeep from a company in California. They had the product listed - new in box - up for bid with a reserve price and also a "buy it now" price. Apparently they bought out a lot from a company in China who was making these and they were a 100% clone of the Warn carrier at a fraction of the price.

I won the bid, which was above the reserve amount, but considerably lower than the "buy it now" price and I was notified that they sold out all they had in stock at the "buy it now" price and would be unable to fulfill my order.

Of course I bitched that they were required to hold one for an open bid they had ongoing and re-iterated the same to ebay. Apparently both they and ebay saw it differently. Ebay was satisfied because the company advised me of this at the conclusion of the bid (but only after I contacted the dealer about wanting my carrier) and never took my money. I always thought the "rules" were if you met the reserve, they had to sell you the item, but apparently ebay changes the rules as they go along.

I ended up getting a carrier from Amazon.com for all of $6 more to my door than the bid + shipping would have been on ebay. So I go to Amazon.com when I am looking for "deals" now and don't mess with ebay anymore...