eBay

amberwoodottawa · ‎02-12-2004

I get a couple of these a week. They come from newbies who dont even bid the reserve but are frightened that they might win a $600 set of drums for $4.50 so they put in a retraction.

That doesnt bother me. What bothers me is when they make a false statement about why they retracted their bid. I had one guy with a -1 FB rating who retracted his $2.50 bid on a mandolin and stated his reason as follows: "Cannot contact the seller".

That makes me look bad as he never attempted to contact me. Am I the only one who can read bid retractions or is that something each of the bidders can read as well?

Anyway that guy is now on my Blocked Bidders list so he can go mess up somebody elses day.

Malcolm

catseye* · ‎02-12-2004

Well, they only get 3 choices, right? Guess they figured that was the lesser of three evils.

*JMHO* - to be taken with a grain of salt!

muminlaw · ‎02-12-2004

Cat.. is that right? 3 choices? And I'll bet none of them is "because I made a stupid mistake" ...

Malcolm, at first I thought youmeant the fact the he had bid gave him the right to leave feedback (speaking of stupid!) but finally I see what you mean. What's the item number - I'll go see if the rest of us can see what he said.

Glenda

Glenda

amberwoodottawa · ‎02-12-2004

Here's the item number : 3703984902

Its not bad if I am the only one seeing it but it isnt right for an idiot to retrack his bid and state the reason is he couldnt contact the seller as if I am the problem and he doesnt trust me.

Its not that big a deal as I know that most people dont look at bid retractions but its another example of how eBay has an automated mechanism that doesnt shine fairly with the sellers and I dont think that is right.

malcolm

amberwoodottawa · ‎02-12-2004

Here are the eBay rules concerning retractions:
It is ONLY OK to retract a bid if...,

You accidentally enter a wrong bid amount (for example, you bid $99.50 instead of $9.95). If this occurs, re-enter the correct bid amount immediately.
The description of an item you have bid on has changed significantly.
You cannot reach the seller. This means that you have tried calling the seller and the seller's phone number doesn't work, or you have tried emailing the seller and it comes back undeliverable.

This guy should be reported to eBay for lying however we know there is no consequence from eBay.

So that brings the following question to arise "Are the rules only for the Sellers as eBay has no control over the huyers who simply change user id?"

Seems to be the case!!!!

Malcolm

amberwoodottawa · ‎02-12-2004

For what it is worth I reported the incident to eBay and suggested they deal with the Buyer for making a false statement contrary to their rules.(I am not holding my breath)

Malcolm

muminlaw · ‎02-12-2004

Well, the bad news is that Yes, we can all see it but ... you DO have to go to bid history -- most buyers don't even know that's there and couldn't be bothered if they did. But I agree - "couldn't contact seller" does look bad.

I keep wondering how many potential bidders have emailed me a question - I've answered - and their ISP has blocked my email! I have far too large a proportion of buyers who don't get my EAO emails - have I mentioned that I HATE AOL with a passion!!!

Glenda

Glenda

amberwoodottawa · ‎02-12-2004

Glenda
Thanks for looking.

I never receieved any emails from him so its not a matter of my response not getting to him, he just retracted his bid and lied about the reason.

Its just another incident of Sellers suffering at the hands of buyers under guidelines set by eBay.

Malcolm

mahsauction · ‎02-12-2004

The reason doesn't go on any public record and as Catseye says, there are only 3 reasons listed for bid retractions. I would be glad the buyer retracted so you can block him.

deltone · ‎02-12-2004

Wow, must've been a full moon yesterday. I had two sellers do that to me yesterday, and one of them on two auctions. One of them emailed me 3 times, all within less than half an hour asking ME to cancel her bid, and when I didn't respond immediately (funny thing but I do have a life outside ebay)I figured she retracted her two bids (both on the same auction) and stated she couldn't contact me. What a joke. Not only that, in her emails she said she didn't need the dvd because she already has it yet she for some reason bid on two of mine. Go figure. Newbie who just registered yesterday. I reported her to ebay and got the typical canned response.

The other gal said she retracted bid because I changed the auction. BS!!!!!! I use the exact same auction over and over again.........probably over 300 times without change so how dare she lie and say that. I asked ebay to remove that from my auction but they refuse to. Once it's there, it's there. I was livid when I came home last night to these lies on MY auctions.

catseye* · ‎02-12-2004

1. I never retract a bidders bid, I tell them to do it. That way it's on their record.

2. If they retract, and the reason isn't valid, I report them.

simple as that.

*JMHO* - to be taken with a grain of salt!

deltone · ‎02-13-2004

Only way I'll cancel the bid is if the bidder had bid on one of my other auctions and bid on this one in error, or it's obvious that they made an honest mistake. Otherwise, I tell them to retract it themself so it goes on THEIR record. And I always report them if they put the wrong reason, although I doubt it does any good.

amberwoodottawa · ‎02-13-2004

It would be nice if eBay would acknowledge that you reported those violating the rules by lying in their retraction statement and advised the consequence they were dishing out so we knew whether we were wasting our time or not.

Malcolm