ARCHITECTURAL WAREHOUSE

Description of Work: I found the perfect, very unusual, antique bookcase on EBay with them on Wed Feb 9 and contacted them to see if they would ship it, and for the cost of shipping. As recommended by EBay, I send them a message through that auction site's communications. I did not receive an answer. Since the auction was still active, I phoned them that night and left a message. I did not get a call back. I called again the next morning when I still hadn't heard anything, and spoke with Bonnie there. She said they were working on it - I told her I wanted to buy the piece assuming the shipping wasn't extremely high, but they didn't have any idea of the amount yet. So I asked her if there was a way to hold the piece, and she said they could do that, and that she would mark my name on it. Later I received an email from Andy who verified that he was working on the costs, but still didn't have anything. It was the next afternoon, Friday Feb 11, before I got a call from him with the costs. I agreed to them, and to the timing they wanted for shipment, and told him I wanted to definitely buy the piece. I asked what the next step was. I was driving, but intended to call my husband and have him enter the bid, if the auction hadn't been cancelled. Andy said they were going to cancel the auction, and assured me the piece was sold to me. I asked him how he wanted me to send the payment, and he said he had to check on that. I emailed him the next day, Sat, Feb 12, and again asked how he wanted the payment. He called me to apologize and say that they were selling it to someone else. Apparently he hadn't pulled the auction. Someone saw the bookcase in the store with my name on it, went home, and put in a bid on the still live EBay site Friday night - after he had sold it to me. Rather unusually, they immediately sent payment by Paypal (instead of the normal course of having the seller contact them after the auction's close to give payment instructions). Since the payment was already there, Andy said he didn't see how they could send it back. I explained to him that there were procedures for that, and that I expected them to honor their word and to explain to the other buyer that the piece was already sold (which they knew from seeing it in the store anyway). He took it to the owner, who refused my request to discuss the situation with me directly, or to even return my calls. Andy again called to apologize, and to say how bad he felt, but that he couldn't do anything. I contacted EBay, who verified there were several violations of EBay rules, and that they considered this unethical behavior. They said they would send a warning to Refindings,and that if it happened again, that they would bar them from trading on their website.