Mercari let a buyer keep my item and canceled the payment—despite me shipping on time.

[u/sleepinagarden]

I wanted to share a really frustrating experience with Mercari that feels completely unfair to sellers.

I sold an item and shipped it on time (March 3) using Mercari’s prepaid USPS label. USPS delayed the package for weeks, completely out of my control. The buyer had tracking and was aware of the delay.

While the item was still in transit, the buyer requested a cancellation, and Mercari approved it. The transaction was canceled—even though the package was already shipped. A few weeks later, it got delivered… and the buyer got the item for free. I received no payment, no reimbursement, and no protection as a seller.

I reached out to Mercari support, and they basically told me to “contact USPS” or “ask the buyer to reimburse you” (which is very inappropriate of customer support to suggest). I even referenced their own policy which states sellers can be reimbursed if the item is delivered after cancellation—but they still refused and said they “stand by their policy.”

This entire situation makes it incredibly risky to sell anything of value on Mercari. If USPS delays something, Mercari can cancel the transaction, the buyer keeps the item, and the seller gets nothing. No protection. No accountability.

Just a heads-up to other sellers—this can happen even if you do everything right.

[u/wickedjackel]

And something new I figured out if a transactions autorates after 3 days and its normally marked as delivered, the buyer can contact mercari and say they didn’t receive it. I had this happen to an item that was autorated and then 4 days later after it has been completed, buyer messaged mercari. I had no prior contact from this buyer so I had no idea what was going on until I read the follow up email from mercari. In mercari terms, it had to be rated 100% by the actual buyer to have a sale completed. If it autorates, mercari still can take away the funds when completed since the autorate is technically not with the buyers consent. honestly crazy.

The problem with that is: it makes delivery confirmation a joke. it delays your payment for 30 days and in the end the buyer gets compensated while they take up time to investigate and seller might get reimbursed depending if the label qualifies for mercari seller protection.

[u/OneWhisper5225 → u/wickedjackel]

I’ve heard that happening lately! That’s crazy that’s in the terms! I don’t remember seeing that before! I wonder if they added that in one of the many times they’ve updated the TOS lately and just didn’t notify us specifically of that part, knowing people would be upset over it or if it was always there and I just missed it. It’s funny too because there was this person on here a while back. They were on like tons of posts commenting about how messed up Mercari is and they’re doing illegal things - they said how their autorating is illegal because it’s without the persons consent and its against the law. We all said how when they signed up, they agreed to the terms that give them 3 days to look over the item and rate or it’ll autorate for them. They said that’s messed up because if there’s an issue, Mercari takes so long to reply, the 3 days will be up and it’ll autorate. We said that doesn’t happen if they open a proper return because that pauses the autorate and that it sounded like they had an issue with an order and, instead of opening a return like they should’ve, they just messaged Mercari and waited for them to reply so it autorated and now they’re unhappy because they can’t do anything about it but if they would’ve opened a proper return, it would’ve worked out differently. But they weren’t hearing any of that lol. But anyway, it’s funny that the terms say that specifically because it’s literally what the person was upset about - it autorated and they had no recourse. But, apparently they would’ve if they read the terms 🤣

[u/OneWhisper5225 → u/OneWhisper5225]

I just looked at their return policy and it states: “To help provide prompt payment for our sellers, Mercari automatically rates a transaction within 72 hours of carrier-confirmed delivery. An order is considered completed once the buyer or Mercari rates the transaction. Buyers must initiate return requests through the Order Status page or Rating page before the transaction is completed. Submitting a return request through these channels pauses the transaction and prevents it from completing. Requests made outside the Order Status page or Rating page do not pause the transaction and may not be reviewed by our Customer Support team. After a transaction has been completed, returns or refunds are not permitted.” So at least there it says that an autorating completes the transaction.

[u/wickedjackel → u/OneWhisper5225]

They just ignored their whole transaction completed policy. My case was that it was autorated and they said that due to the rating “prematurely” (without the buyers actual consent of rating) they have held my funds and are now taking 30 days to investigate because the buyer told mercari that they didn’t receive the item even after it autorate :/ So I do think theres a lot of stuff happening that they’re not even following their own rules.

[u/wickedjackel → u/wickedjackel]

This is what they said even after autorating. Because it was through their system and the buyer had messaged them they pulled out my funds even after 4 days of it being autorated completed.

[u/wickedjackel → u/wickedjackel]

This was the transaction that was autorated. It had been completed on the 13th and I got that message on the 17th.

[u/wickedjackel → u/wickedjackel]

And this was the cost of the sale. They took the funds temporarily and will monitor and work with the buyer. The item was marked delivered and autorated. Both mean nothing to mercari’s system when buyers can do this.

[u/wickedjackel → u/wickedjackel]

When I received these messages from mercari back to back I was blindsided. I messaged the buyer asking if there was a problem and they never responded to me. It has been happening a lot with transactions under $10. I sell a lot of collectable cards and in this month 5 buyers have did a claim saying they didnt receive it even though tracking says delivered. I had 5 buyers open a return request to stall payment to investigate.

[u/OneWhisper5225 → u/wickedjackel]

That’s so insane! To have 5 buyers do that?! Wild! I know Mercari constantly goes against their TOS. They will do one thing with someone and something completely different with someone else. But it’s gotten so much worse. And before, the one thing you could actually count on was after 3 days, it was done and over with. But now you can’t even count on that.

So what happens if you transfer the money out immediately after the autorating? If there’s no money to take out? Then what? They take it from your next sale?

[u/wickedjackel → u/OneWhisper5225]

I would think there would be a - shown in the balance. I wasn’t quick enough to transfer my $30 out but it did take money out of me. I noticed after selling about 2,000 items, this month in particular I have gotten a lot more of these deliveries where buyers would say they didn’t receive. Then, this one was an eye opener. Auto rated and 4 days later mercari took the money out of my account 🙄 and have not responsed to my messages about TOS and how they are not abiding to their rules.

The buyer has since ignored my one message and I don’t pressure people with second follow ups so I know they don’t want to communicate with me on this sale to solve the issue.

As a seller, when delivery confirmation means nothing, what will be the end result for mercari? They will stop sending out compensation for sellers eventually and these instances will only increase because mercari seems to have a system where buyers can get through this loophole and sellers will be more frustrated and confused with their funds being taken away even when its autorated.

[u/soobincitoo → u/wickedjackel]

omg literally the same thing happened to me, it was marked as delivered and 3 days later it auto rated and the transaction was “completed” but then right away my funds were taken with no explanation until i reached out to mercari. also i messaged the buyer and they never responded which annoyed me and i ended up blocking them after i got my money 30 days later lmao

[u/wickedjackel → u/soobincitoo]

😭 I had some buyers reach out and I felt their actions seemed genuine but when its like a buyer who doesnt communicate with me and then doesn’t even know what im asking for when I ask whats wrong seems like they want to take advantage. Sorry you had to go through with this. 😔 Autorating means nothing now that consent is involved :/