eBay is not enforcing the Bid Retraction Policy

[mr_lincoln]

I sell a lot Auction style and this year several Buyers have retracted bids on Auctions without replacing them with a correct bid.  Therefore, eBay is NOT enforcing their policy.  This past weekend a Bidder with 37 retractions in the last 12 months retracted a bid on one of my auctions.  I have seen much higher counts too.  I have ALWAYS cancelled bids when customers change their mind and ask for a cancellation (within the policy guidelines of course).  

There are several solutions to this ongoing unenforced policy:

-When a Buyer tries to Retract a bid a dollar amount field is opened for them to REPLACE their incorrect bid (per policy).  If they do not enter a dollar amount equal to or greater than the current winning auction bid the retraction request is denied.

-Give Sellers a setting on the Buyer Management page to BLOCK Buyers with "X" number of retractions in the last 12 months.

Either of the above recommendations would be better then how this policy is currently not being enforced ...

 Here is the eBay Policy: 

If you've made a mistake when bidding on an item, you can retract your bid in certain circumstances.

Are you a seller looking to cancel a bid? Read our article on canceling bids and managing buyers

Whenever you place a bid, you're agreeing to buy the item if you win the auction. However, in some situations you can retract your bid.

Retract a bid

Keep in mind that you can't always retract a bid once it's made. Bids on items listed in Trading Cards categories, for example, can't be retracted. If you're not able to retract your bid, you can also try contacting the seller to see if they'll cancel your bid for you. The decision to cancel is at the discretion of the seller.

When you can retract a bid

You can retract a bid if (Note: these options are only applicable for up to 1 hour after making the bid when the listing is ending in less than 12 hours):

• The seller significantly changed the description of the item
• You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid

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.

[chapeau-noir]

I don't think I ever remember eBay enforcing that clause about incorrect bids. 😞

Your first solution is a good idea, though not sure buyer-centric eBay would ever put it into action, but it would be pretty easy to implement the global block feature - similar to the old feature which used to block buyers with -1 FB or lower.

[wastingtime101]

I agree with adding an option to block buyers with X bid retractions.

I disagree with forcing buyers to place a new bid based on price. (I could give examples of why it would create problems, but I'm too lazy right now.) Also, this used to exist many years ago and eBay removed the requirement due to the problems it caused.

I think eBay should add a retraction reason "bid by mistake / changed mind" because really that's what's happening in most cases.

Wouldn't you rather have the buyer retract their bid, instead of that buyer becoming the winner / nonpayer / submitting a cancel request or return after auction ends?

[bennotbill]

Maybe something is needed like - after more than ten retractions in a month the account is suspended for a month.

Some of the worse offenders we've  seen posted on this forum do more than that in a day. It might "wake" them up.

[a_c_green]

You may remember that a seller option for screening buyers with excessive retractions was proposed in multiple Weekly Chats in the past, and one or two eBay reps even agreed with the idea, but of course it was never implemented...

[12345jamesstamps]

I made a bid of something and another bidder had 175+ bid retractions. I can't believe nothing is done about these buyers who bid and retract their bid like it's nothing. I did win the auction at a low bid which I was happy about but I think it scares a lot of bidders away and of course the seller doesn't get a good sale.

[ittybitnot]

*The seller significantly changed the description of the item

*You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid

@mr_lincoln 

Since the first option above, really can't happen once an auction has bids, it leaves the second choice as the "pick a lie" that will suffice.  In my 26 years here, I have never seen any buyer sanctions for "not entering another amount" after a retraction is made for that reason, or for excessive retractions.  

It is one of those rules with no consequences same as when buyers are told they must "return an item in same condition sent" when we all know returning the "Proverbial brick" will suffice for eBay purposes to help the seller bleed out monetarily. 

Though it would likely make some sellers feel better to know that the buyer's retractions (or even cancellation requests) suddenly produced a red banner:  "you have exceeded your 10 retractions (or cancellation requests) for the year", it is not going to happen.   They won't even get rid of chronic non-payers.  I think the old adage/attitude posted years ago by some Vice President of something at eBay:  "We want all buyers, even if they are bad" still prevails. 

[carlmarxx]

I remember it .  Ebay  still  lets the buyer  cancel  the transaction  within   1 hour  after doing  BIN or  winning   the auction  if it is too late  to retract the bid .

[redlinear]

eBay's not enforcing much of anything

[wastingtime101]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

*The seller significantly changed the description of the item

Since the first option above, really can't happen once an auction has bids,

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Sure it can @ittybitnot . Seller cannot change description, but they can add on to the description to call out an issue they did not notice when first listing. They can also add more photos. Unfortunately eBay does not send a message to active bidders when that happens which never made sense to me.

[ittybitnot]

but they can add on to the description to call out an issue

@wastingtime101 

I did not know that option was still available.  Thanks for letting me know!  

[mr_lincoln]

Thank you all for the replies. I can see the occasional mistake when placing a bid but not for members who obviously abuse the system.  The idea is to deter them from abusing the system.  Perhaps a monthly limit of 1 retraction or an annual limit of 12.

This past weekend the item in question was $ 249.95.  The bid was retracted the day before the auction ended.  Someone else bid on it the day it ended, won it and paid.

Some bidders I block but I messaged one earlier this year explaining exactly how the policy was intended to be used (because they were abusing the system).  I added them to my BBL.  The one this past weekend I did not add to my BBL.   If they bid on another one of my items I will have the option to End the listing accepting their bid, send an invoice for payment and see what happens.  

[wastingtime101]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

Perhaps a monthly limit of 1 retraction or an annual limit of 12.

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Not that simple when you have power buyers. Personally, I think it should be a system similar to how UPI blocks work.

Proposal:

Sellers can block when there are X bid retractions per year.

eBay should take action when the buyer exceeds a certain % of retractions in relation to the number of items they bid on. By take action I mean restrict the buyer to fixed price format listings for a year. Perhaps longer/lifetime restrictions for repeat offenders.

Similar to how seller OOS cancel punishments work: On bid retractions buyer would get X free passes if low volume bidder, and beyond that it goes based on percent of retractions vs items bid on.

Exception: retractions don't count at all when buyer says seller changed description and the listing was actually revised (easy to verify).

I think that's pretty reasonable.

[roadking5555]

eBay has never enforced this policy. A look back at a topic I opened in September of 2017....I had a buyer with 2,838 bid retractions in 12 months. Others chimed in that was childs play.

If you want a blast from the past to an age old problem....here's the topic link.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Buyer-Retracted-bids-Is-this-a-record/td-p/27460113

If I see no rebid after the retraction, and the buyer has a history of bid retractions, they go on the best buddy list. It is about all we can do.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[12345jamesstamps]

When I do auctions I check the bidders on a daily basis....a bidder with a lot of retractions or a bidder with 0 feedbacks I have blocked from further bidding...not erasing their bids. Bidding on an auction is somewhat like gambling...and waiting 4 days to cancel sale and having to re-list it...and seriously...wondering if eBay did truly give bidder a "ding"...how do sellers know?