It's not over until the fat lady sings.
Buyers can retract bids for a few (too few in my opinion) reasons.
Sellers can cancel bids for no reason except a gut feeling or on the request of a buyer.
Both of these are reasonable responses to an ever changing marketplace.
If you are having problems with bidding in auctions, bid once, bid your maximum.
Many buyers add bid late in the auction.
These simple suggestions cover most problems seen on eBay auctions.
Better, in my opinion is to ignore all auctions entirely and purchase from Fixed Price listings.
You will know in advance what you will pay, and you will receive your item up to seven days faster.
Over 85% of eBay transactions are now Fixed Price.
directed by E-Bay Support rep & Manager to contact the seller and buy it outside the site?
There's something missing here.
Usually the problem with winning after a higher bid was Retracted or Cancelled is that the selling price remains at the price the underbidder was willing to pay when there was a higher bid.
(eg You bid $100 and are the underbidder at $100 to a high bidder at $110. When the high bid is removed, your bid stays at $100, because only that $110 high bid was removed.)
So apparently this is not the same situation as your first complaint.
It sounds as if the seller actually ended the auction, with no winner. Perhaps cancelling all bids?
In which case, it is odd that eBay would suggest contacting the seller with an off-eBay offer, since eBay makes it as difficult as possible for members to contact sellers with such off-eBay transactions.
And as noted, sellers do not have to explain why they end auctions of their own property.
