I actually had a very similar thing happen to me 2 weeks ago. eBay has really fouled up the way they do Dutch Auctions these days. A few years ago they had plenty of indicators on the auction presentation that you were entering a dutch auction and explanatory links such as "What Is A Dutch Auction". Although it's been some time since I've sold anything on eBay, it appears that your seller as well as mine was confused when he entered "quantity" and should have entered "1" for 1 auction lot.

In my auction, as yours, there was no way of knowing that eBay considered each (Quantity - "2") item a seperate lot up for bid with a bidder option of bidding on one or both. Just because I have got a few years of doing this under my belt, I was able to determine from the poorly done bidders confirmation page info that I had the option of making my bid of one lot or that I could opt to obligate myself to pay my winning bid for each of the 2 lots if I submitted the highest bid.

My seller was befuddled to receive a PayPal payment from me when I won. eBay considered me a winner along with my competitor because I had outbid the other bidder but since I had specified "1" when I placed my bid eBay considered me a winner of "1" and the other bidder the winner of the other "1 lot". Of course the poor seller had thought he was selling two items in one auction to a single winner, not 2 lots.

I sympathised with the feller and explained how he had been vitimised by the crummy confusing templates eBay provides for sellers these days. The confusion posted by various folks on this board in regards to running auction w/wo PayPal seems to indicate that eBay is pretty clumsy these days. I was going to let him off the hook no problem but he produced another example of the chip he'd put up for bid and I certainly accepted that!

Some things to consider with your situation Shawn. BTW, best of luck with your problem and you seem to be doing all the right things. I don't know STATUSCYMBALS but keep in mind that eBay notified him that he was a winner too. Think about how he might phrase the whole affair if he was explaining the magilla here today instead of you! The seller was the first to initiate this cascade of events when he failed to understand what he was presenting to eBay. I've been trained (School of Hard Knocks) to read EVERYTHING on any page of instructions before me but sometimes folks just kind of skip the fine print. Possibility that several parties kind of hurried through the due dilligence part of this unfortunate transaction. I imagine you'll get no satisfaction from eBay in regards to the seller's A to your Q on the auction page as eBay has little control over what anyone puts down as an answer to a question or any way of knowing what either of you was thinking as a result of the answer and they really wouldn't accept that as a change to the format (Dutch Auction) or as a determination of seller intent. Seems that it is permitted to add information but not revamp the whole the auction once it's been launched.

My situation worked out for me but I was prepared to just put the thing behind me and move on. I support you in your pursuit of resolution and hope you'll keep us apprised. Good Luck!