eBay

decal-fx · ‎07-11-2014

I had this happen more than a few times this year. Buyer Purchased same item Multiple times with make an offer, each time lowering their offer to find the acceptance threshold , At which time they then Paid for the lowest one.
I did a "report buyer" at each occurrence.

What I'd like to know beside using the block feature, is there another preemptive way to stop the unscrupulous buyer from unfairly abusing the best offer feature?

amethyst1415 · ‎07-11-2014

Just choose best offer...don't put what the lowest amount you will take is.

rose-dee · ‎07-11-2014

I'm not sure I quite understand what you're describing.

Are you saying the buyer made confirmed offers on several identical items but only paid for one (the lowest price), or made an offer on one item over and over again, was rejected each time, and finally got down to your pre-set automated acceptance, at which point he paid for the item?

If it's the former situation, then you have a problem buyer. I recall some time back that there were complaints from sellers about confirmed offers not being final offers for which buyers were obligated to pay -- however I believe that was only in certain categories. Is that what happened here?

If it's the latter situation, I can't really say that I'd call it unscrupulous behaviour on the part of the buyer. Adding "Best Offer" to a listing is, after all, an invitation to negotiate or haggle. The best way to avoid downward, step-by-step "fishing" by buyers is to either not use Best Offer, or set your automated rejection level just barely below a price that you really will be happy to sell. You are using the automated option I presume? If so, it sounds as if you've set the "bottom line" too low for your own comfort. You should simply set it to reject any offer below what your expectation for a final price is.

Setting your "bottom line" higher in advance should solve the issue you feel you have with buyers fishing for the lowest price.

rose-dee · ‎07-11-2014

@spendmoneyhere2014 wrote:
Just choose best offer...don't put what the lowest amount you will take is.

Unfortunately that won't stop buyers from fishing for the lowest price -- it will just mean the seller will have to respond personally to every offer that is made if the buyer is persistent, which would be more time-consuming than having eBay's system respond.

If the issue is that too low a final price results after multiple offers are made on an item (each lower than the last), then the OP needs to set his bottom line more realistically for his own expectations.

decal-fx · ‎07-11-2014

No where in my auction do I tell the bidder what the lower I will take.

For Example I listed a Blue Widget for $75 or Best Offer.

I have set the Auto Accept at $55 (meaning $55 and above will be an accepted sale offer).
I have set the auto rejection for $55 (meaning anything below that threshold will be declined).

Joe Buyer comes in with with his first offer of $70... Ca-Ching a commit to purchase Blue Widget @ $70
Joe Buyer then puts in an offer at $65 ...Ca-Ching a commit to purchase Blue Widget @ $65
Joe Buyer then puts in an offer at $60 ... Ca-Ching a commit to purchase Blue Widget @ $60
Joe Buyer then puts in an offer at $55... Ca-Ching a commit to purchase Blue Widget @ $55
Feeling Lucky Joe Buyer then puts in an offer at $50 ... Waa Waaa No Sale Offer Declined @ $50

Weasel Buyer then pays for One item @ $55 leaving the rest Unpaid. I'd call that unscrupulous behavior.

I guess I should just take the "Mr. E" approach and be happy for the sale. Since I did get paid for the one item

at a value I can live with. But the way the sale occurred left a bad taste* in my mouth.

*On a side note, I Gotta stop licking my monitor, either that or clean it more often.

Anonymous · ‎07-11-2014

If I got those kind of offers, I would wait for some hours (some up to 48 hours) and then accepted the higghest bid and declined the rest.

decal-fx · ‎07-11-2014

@Anonymous wrote:
If I got those kind of offers, I would wait for some hours (some up to 48 hours) and then accepted the higghest bid and declined the rest.

Nice idea but, I have set the Auto Accept at $55 (meaning $55 and above will be an Immediately accepted sale).

mr.elmwood · ‎07-11-2014

Hey! What did I say! 🙂

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decal-fx · ‎07-11-2014

For the most part I employ your approach to selling on eBay. Through reading most of your posts here, I think I have a feel for how you deal with most situations. Although It takes a bit of time/experience to learn, not to take things too personal & It's a little harder when You are the creator of what you are selling. But at the end off the day it is less stressful way to go about your business.

@mr.elmwood wrote:
Hey! What did I say! 🙂

mr.elmwood · ‎07-11-2014

@decal-fx wrote:
For the most part I employ your approach to selling on eBay. Through reading most of your posts here, I think I have a feel for how you deal with most situations. Although It takes a bit of time/experience to learn, not to take things too personal & It's a little harder when You are the creator of what you are selling. But at the end off the day it is less stressful way to go about your business.

@mr.elmwood wrote:
Hey! What did I say! 🙂

If more sellers thought like that, there would be a lot less problems.

I was re-thinking about your experience, above. Was this all the same "buyer"? Buyer is an idiot. I have never seen anyone trim down. Normally they start low and go up.

I mean, can't you open unpaid item disputes for each one of those as they are valid sales? I am simply not understanding what this person is trying to do, unless, they really are that dumb.

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cumos55 · ‎07-11-2014

The new way on eBay...

Make an offer.... Accepted... but not paid.... and available for other offers... or a purchase by someone else.

Continues as long as there is no payment...

No payment... No purchase recorded...

pierrelebel · ‎07-11-2014

"But at the end off the day it is less stressful way to go about your business. "

I totally agree that a seller should have policies helping to avoid or reduce stress as much as possible.

That is why I do not accept offers at price below the stated price in the listing, ever. The front page of my eBay store states my pricing policy quite clearly:

As a matter of long standing policy and in fairness to all eBay participants, offers at prices below my discounted listed prices are never entertained.

Whenever a potential buyer contacts me asking for a lower price, I thank them for their interest and send a template answer quoting my pricing policy. I would guess about half of them come back and purchase the item at the stated price.

The "do not bargain" policy helps me eliminate the stress, as I do not have to worry about price reduction.

As a buyer, it really annoys me when I see a seller with a large quantity offering "best offer". A quick look at the "sold items" shows many were sold at "full price" while others were accepted under the "best offer" function.

cumos55 · ‎07-11-2014

Many.. Many ... years ago.

Auction started at $100

went up to about $130.

Then top bidder went searching for the Reserve Price.... and several bids later....

Finally found $350.00 as the Reserve Price .... for a Train set.... The Confederation Flyer.... should have been $500 if not for small point of damage on one rail car....

A very unique collectable... which today could be as high as $1000 in absolutely perfect condition....

Why not search for the Offer Price... Bottom up as opposed to top down

just like this buyer did for the Reserve price.....

mr.elmwood · ‎07-11-2014

Why not search for the Offer Price... Bottom up as opposed to top down

That is the part that eludes me.

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ricarmic · ‎07-11-2014

They should also end up with 4 unpaid item strikes as well, although one has to balance the risk of them leaving a neg for the one they did pay for - although I'd think a call to ebayland if they did neg might warrant a removal.

As a side note, it is entirely possible they had not idea they were doing something bad, I have talked to some people who have had no idea at all how ebay works. This person may have thought they were negotiating the price down each time....not understanding they were "purchasing it" at each iteration, although as others have said this is really a backwards way to negotiate....

Like Pierre I really dislike using best offer, although I do use it on expensive stuff - my experience is that people like to negotiate more on the bigger stuff, I have had a couple buyers who will only buy stuff they have negotiated on, even if they only get a trivial discount amount. Good bankrolls behind them so it is worth the required negotiating to deal with them.... although haven't seen any for a while, during these "dry days" it would be nice to see some big buyers!

rose-dee · ‎07-11-2014

@decal-fx wrote:
For Example I listed a Blue Widget for $75 or Best Offer.
I have set the Auto Accept at $55 (meaning $55 and above will be an accepted sale offer).
I have set the auto rejection for $55 (meaning anything below that threshold will be declined).

Joe Buyer comes in with with his first offer of $70... Ca-Ching a commit to purchase Blue Widget @ $70
Joe Buyer then puts in an offer at $65 ...Ca-Ching a commit to purchase  Blue Widget @ $65
Joe Buyer then puts in an offer at $60 ... Ca-Ching a commit to purchase  Blue Widget @ $60
Joe Buyer then puts in an offer at $55... Ca-Ching a commit to purchase Blue Widget @ @ $55
Feeling Lucky Joe Buyer then puts in an offer at $50 @... Waa Waaa No Sale Offer Declined @ $50

@ Weasel Buyer then pays for One item @ $55 leaving the rest Unpaid. I'd call that unscrupulous behavior.

OK, sorry I didn't understand your first post. So this is a multiple-quantity situation -- i.e., the same Blue Widget with a quantity of more than 2? Yes, your buyer was either a weasel or completely clueless. As others have said, he could have started with a $40 offer and worked his way up, without ending up with a bunch of committed purchases.

It's hard to say what to do with such a buyer. Clearly it's unfair to you, leaving several unpaid committed offers behind him. Strictly speaking, you could open an Unpaid Item dispute for each of them..

The problem I see is that if you decide to process the sale at the lowest end, this guy will feel rewarded for such behaviour and, like other abuses on eBay, this stupid trick will probably spread.

I guess it depends on how much you want the sale. Personally, I'd probably take the longer view, forfeit the sale by reporting him to eBay, refund his money on the one item (if he's paid), and hope eBay will not only reverse all those transactions but also ban him from the site (if each offer = a strike against him, it might be enough to get him kicked out immediately). It isn't so much about feeling personally offended by such behaviour as not wanting to encourage it, for the sake of sellers and buyers alike (as Pierre mentioned).

Personally I like using Best Offer -- it works in my areas of items -- but it may not be the right choice for every item, and for the reasons Pierre has noted, I wouldn't use it on multiple-quantity items. .

As an aside - something to consider -- in the example you gave above, if you hadn't set an acceptance figure, but only a "reject all offers below $X", wouldn't your buyer have been stuck with his first offer of $70 if you'd manually reviewed and accepted it? Then the next (lower) offer could have been rejected by you -- a bit of a waste of your time, but it might have cut him off at that point. Maybe that would work for you, i.e. weed out all the "bottom fishers" but leave the top end open for manual responses.

mr.elmwood · ‎07-11-2014

What is the FB number for the buyer?

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rose-dee · ‎07-11-2014

@ricarmic wrote:
"They should also end up with 4 unpaid item strikes as well, although one has to balance the risk of them leaving a neg for the one they did pay for - although I'd think a call to ebayland if they did neg might warrant a removal."

Yes, I agree, this is most likely what I'd do if I were in this situation.

"As a side note, it is entirely possible they had not idea they were doing something bad, I have talked to some people who have had no idea at all how ebay works. This person may have thought they were negotiating the price down each time....not understanding they were "purchasing it" at each iteration, although as others have said this is really a backwards way to negotiate...."

Yes, I think it's true that some buyers really can be that clueless, especially about "Best Offer". The problem I see is twofold though: 1) Assuming this is a clueless buyer, if he gets away with this ruse, the idea will spread around; or 2) If this is a truly cynical and irresponsible buyer, who understands that the seller may fear negative FB in retaliation for the Unpaid Item cases opened, then he really should be stopped, and the seller should deal with the problem directly with eBay -- a hassle for the seller, but he'd been doing everybody a good service.