Bid Cancellations

[vintagewares]

It seems that some buyers feel they can place a high bid on an auction while fishing around for similar auctions, place other bids, then cancel their original bid, which leaves the first seller high and dry.

This  has happened to me, and their reason for the bid cancellation was that they placed the amount of the bid "in error".  After three days?  An error?  Really?  I'm talking about a $90.00 loss here.

I propose that Ebay institute a Bid Cancellation Rule that any buyer is only allowed one cancellation a month...for any reason!

If there is a way to circumvent a system to their advantage, no matter who loses (usually the seller), some people will find it.

Time to step in Ebay and shut these people down!

[soh.maryl]

There's a very small window of time in which a bidder can cancel after making a bid.

After that time, that bidder would have to contact the seller and request a cancellation.

However, the issue here would be that, if you, as the seller, deny the cancellation, that buyer is either not going to pay, or is going to open an item not as described case after receiving the item.  

And, if their claim is "bid wrong amount", they are supposed to rebid the correct amount after requesting the cancellation or cancelling it themselves.  

[dbfolks166mt]

     Most of your items listed and sold are or have been BIN items. Maybe the reason for that is because the bidder has the ability to retract their bid. Unfortunately the only valid and automatic bid retraction is if the bidder selects bid wrong amount and even this has some limitations with regards to how much time is left on the auction. Any other reason for a bid retraction is considered invalid and/or requires the seller approval to retract the bid. 

     I use the auction format almost exclusively and rarely get a bid retraction but when I do I accept it as a condition of the environment and would much rather have a bid retraction than a bidder who request cancelation once the auction has ended, never pays or worse receives the item and immediately opens a return request. 

     The auction format has always presented more challenges for the seller than using BIN but I prefer the auction format for time management reasons. Instituting a policy to limit a bidders ability to retract a bid to one a month could possibly have other adverse impacts that are a bigger headache than dealing with issues under the current policy. Sellers are becoming highly aware of this with the test/pilot of the option to require bidders to provide payment information before they bid in an attempt to reduce the non-paying buyers/offerors.

     The bid retraction policy, or one of them, follows. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/retracting-bid?id=4013  

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

There's a very small window of time in which a bidder can cancel after making a bid.

After that time, that bidder would have to contact the seller and request a cancellation.....  

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A bidder can retract their bid at any time, as long as the auction has more than 12 hours left.  

During the final 12 hours of an auction, a bid can be retracted only within one hour of being placed.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote: .... Any other reason for a bid retraction is considered invalid and/or requires the seller approval to retract the bid. ...

     The bid retraction policy, or one of them, follows. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/retracting-bid?id=4013  

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As explained on the page that you linked to, there is no process for the seller approving or not approving a bid retraction.  When  buyer starts the process of retracting a bid (and if the auction has more than 12 hours left) then they are shown the very short list of valid reasons for retracting a bid. They choose one, and then proceed to retract the bid.  There is no middle step of requesting approval or validating the retraction. That's why the menu of reasons is sometime called the "Pick a lie" list. (IIRC, there used to be a third reason?)

[lacemaker3]

@nobody*s_perfect, you're right, there used to be a third reason. I'm not sure when it was changed.

@vintagewares, if you feel that someone retracted a bid on your auction without a valid reason, then you should report it. You can do this from this page:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/invalid-bid-retraction-policy?id=4227

[simba6]

Bidders are not supposed to do that.  They can only retract a bid for a few very limited reasons. However, that rule is seldom enforced by eBay.  You might want to list as fixed price/ buy it now to avoid that.  Many buyers don't want to wait for auctions to end anyway.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@simba6 wrote: ....  They can only retract a bid for a few very limited reasons. However, that rule is seldom enforced by eBay. ....

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Seldom? I'd say never. I cannot recall any examples of members being penalized for excessive or invalid retractions. Some have hundreds!

[soh.maryl]

Thank you for the correction.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@vintagewares wrote:

It seems that some buyers feel they can place a high bid on an auction while fishing around for similar auctions, place other bids, then cancel their original bid, which leaves the first seller high and dry.

This  has happened to me, and their reason for the bid cancellation was that they placed the amount of the bid "in error".  After three days?  An error?  Really?  I'm talking about a $90.00 loss here.

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At first, I saw that your own listings are FP, so I was going to assume you're a buyer who was "stuck" being a winner after what you considered to be improper retractions. 

After looking deeper, I see that the complaint is on your own item on which there were 2 retractions. 

IMO, the use of private auctions raises red flags in my mind when a listing is for an item with no valid reason why the buyer or seller would need it to be private. (Fetish, personal, health care items, etc. are often private because buyers might not want the world to know they love dirty stinky socks.) 

There are too many cases in which sellers of private auctions hide shill bidding and without being able to see what's happening, I suspect the bidders were suspicious of you. 

I understand your disappointment if you believe you lost money on the sale but I'd definitely reconsider the use of privatizing the one auction listing you have! Avoid any implications of wrongdoing and buyers will likely do the same.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@vintagewares wrote:

It seems that some buyers feel they can place a high bid on an auction while fishing around for similar auctions, place other bids, then cancel their original bid, which leaves the first seller high and dry....  I'm talking about a $90.00 loss here....

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After that bid for $91.99 was retracted there were four more bids for over $92 placed on that auction and it ended at $163.50.  So I don't see how you had a $90 loss; those retractions had no effect on the outcome of the auction.

[dbfolks166mt]

As explained on the page that you linked to, there is no process for the seller approving or not approving a bid retraction.  When  buyer starts the process of retracting a bid (and if the auction has more than 12 hours left) then they are shown the very short list of valid reasons for retracting a bid. They choose one, and then proceed to retract the bid.  There is no middle step of requesting approval or validating the retraction. That's why the menu of reasons is sometime called the "Pick a lie" list. (IIRC, there used to be a third reason?)

     Small section on requesting seller to cancel/retract a bid. Kind of the same but guess nit picking you could say the seller is not really retracting the bid but canceling it. 

Any other bids can't be retracted, but you can still contact the seller to see if they'll agree to cancel a bid for you. Remember, the seller isn't obligated to cancel the bid so they may not agree.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Yes, the buyer should ask the seller to cancel rather than retracting the bid, if they don't have a valid reason.  But they don't; they just go ahead and retract anyway and get away with it.  The Help page is inaccurate when it says, "other bids can't be retracted."

[vintagewares]

When something is done to deceive, then it's not a question of who is perfect...it is a question of how much can a person get away with!

[gone.c-33]

EBay seems to have stopped caring about bid retractions entirely in the last couple of years.  We see buyers with HUNDREDS of bid retractions in the past 12 months every other week and they keep on going.