Can website auction off a product they don't have?

[Sara]

Can a website legally auction off products they currently don't have without telling the buyer they are out of stock?

I ask because I won an auction on ibid2save.com over a month ago. The status on of my order still says "processing, not shipped" For two weeks I emailed them several times and got no answer so I filed a claim through paypal. Paypal has been waiting to hear back from the company for a week now.

I just got an email from the company today stating that my product was out of stock when I bought it and that they were having problems getting more from their vender. They did not offer my money back, they simply told me to be patient and when they get the product they will send it to me. No estimated date of when they will get the product either.

That just doesn't sound legal. I paid for a product that I believed was in stock because the auction didn't say otherwise. They did not inform me that my product was not in stock in a timely manner either.

[Jake]

Your dealing with a penny auction, which are by nature rater slimy and deceptive. Some poorly managed store sites innocently sell more than they have, some employ drop shippers who warehouse and ship from some remote location. No doubt the penny auction will stretch any rules to extract more money.

If you had searched the name before dealing with them;

Scam claim
http://pennydecisions.com/ibid2save-review/

0% aautomated trust rating
http://www.scamadviser.com/is-ibid2save....-site.html

Complaints in the comments
http://pennyauctionlist.com/ibid2save/

The WORST company I've come across so far
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaint...76135.html

BBB C-
http://www.bbb.org/charlotte/business-re...-nc-284954