Bartertown.com

Is there a protocol of what to do when the seller backs out? In the past couple of weeks I've had items suddenly become unavailable after confirmation of availability. The most aggravating time was when I was going back and forth with a seller and confirmed everything - price, shipping, etc. - only to get another pm that part of what was supposed to be set aside for me was now not there because it had been sold to someone else. When I try to figure out what happened, I get answers that would make a seller cry.

I know buyers flake more than we all would prefer, but it somehow seems worse when a seller does. Is there any recourse? Obviously, I can't force them to give me something they no longer have. Anyway, thanks for listening.

You could make a Back out Report in the Dead Beats and Backouts section of the forum
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=103202 -MM explains how to set one up properly

If you had agreed on everything and it was finalized then it would qualify as a back out.

EDIT: also you have 30 days to set one up per rules placed by Porkuslime found here: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=121402

You can ONLY file a Back Out report if you make an offer/agree to their price AND the seller AGREES to sell the item to you. Simply quoting a price is not an agreement to complete a deal. It might be that he gave prices to 3 different people, and you weren't the first to respond.

Eric

I've found that the continuous banter back and forth can often lead to stuff like this. It's one reason why, by and large, I tend not to deal with people who seem to have the innate ability to stretch a simple 2 PM deal into a week long affair. I don't mind a simple offer/counter-offer deal but going back and forth with 18 questions and counter proposals is one surefire way for me to "back-out". I don't care if I've promised you the items or not, if you make the deal too cumbersome I will walk away. I'm not saying that's the case for any of the deals you've done though. Like MM said above it could have been a simple case of you being the second guy to pull the trigger.