Buyer accepted an offer... that I didn't make.

[elite-thrift]

While I'm waiting on a call-back from eBay CS (it's been over an hour since the estimated 2 minute wait-time), I figured I'd ask if anyone else has encountered this issue.

Yesterday (Tuesday), we received a message about a $20 listing. Essentially, "I really want this, but I won't have the money until Thursday, and it says I can't buy without paying immediately. Can you accept a best offer so I can pay later?"

Note that the listing has been available for 1 year 9 months with no activity. "Don't worry, it's been up a while and will probably still be here Thursday."

Today... *alert tone* email: "Your item sold! Payment not received." Wait, did we have an open offer on something?  *cha-ching!* "Your item sold! [previously mentioned listing] sold for $18" Did hubby send an offer?  "Babe, did you send an offer to that girl from yesterday? No? Are you sure?"

[One grocery shopping trip later]

"If you didn't send an offer, and I didn't send an offer, how did that sell for $2 under list without immediate payment? Were we hacked? It seems awfully petty to hack an account for a 10% discount and a payment delay, but maybe she does this a lot? I mean she has over 1000 feedback. If she does it all the time, I bet a lot of sellers don't care about a couple bucks and just let it go."

"What if it was someone at eBay instead? One of those 'Hey, this in in everyone's best interest, so I'll just...' overreach moments. [insert expletive] eBay!"

We're definitely double-checking our multi-factor login settings, and I know this isn't something anyone in the community can solve, but has anyone else experienced this? I know it's not a huge deal - it's just $2 and a delayed payment from an established account - but it's a principle thing. With all the other business policies forced on sellers, unauthorized offers are going to be the metaphorical straw that breaks this camel's back.

[this*old*attic]

Any chance you bumped a wrong button yourself?

Because no one hacked Ebay to save $2, and as poorly trained as some CS workers are I don’t believe anyone went rogue and discounted your listing to please a customer.

[mtgraves7984]

The first thing that comes to mind is that the listing was set up to automatically accept a certain price... was it OBO?

I know for sure that Immediate Payment is not required on offers, just on BIN transactions.

[mtgraves7984]

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@mtgraves7984 wrote:

The first thing that comes to mind is that the listing was set up to automatically accept a certain price... was it OBO?

I know for sure that Immediate Payment is not required on offers, just on BIN transactions.

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@elite-thrift 

Okay, now that I check your recent 'solds'... if it was your North Face Hiking Sneakers (today), those were listed for $20 BIN. Are you certain that the Immediate Payment box was ticked? 

[pburn]

I got lost somewhere between the convo with the hubby and trip to grocery store. Pro tip for next time:  it might be better just to lay out the facts rather than try to compose something for your Creative Writing 101 class.

[elite-thrift]

I wish it was that simple. We've made mistakes before and just followed through with them, but this threw me for a loop. Happy to own up to a goof when the alternative is someone screwing me over.

[elite-thrift]

Almost all of our listings are OBO with auto-decline and absolutely no auto-accept. After the first few offers over asking (when we were new) we agreed that auto-accept was a bad idea. This listing, however, was priced so low we were not accepting offers.

[elite-thrift]

Correct. IPR was ticked, as per our draft settings for all listings (note buyer's initial complaint), and the sold price was $18.

[elite-thrift]

You do you, and I'll stick to my writing style when I have something to say. I wasn't asking for a solution, just if anyone else experienced the same thing.

If you can't follow the linear story, here's the Cliff-notes. Buyer wanted to buy now, pay later on BIN with IPR. Sale went through below BIN and w/o IPR as in BO sales, but no offer was made/accepted by us. Has this happened to you?

[powell-memorabilia]

@elite-thrift 

Well, I liked your post.  Some of us like reading 🙂

[releasethekraken_1]

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@elite-thrift wrote:

You do you, and I'll stick to my writing style when I have something to say. I wasn't asking for a solution, just if anyone else experienced the same thing.

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Maybe you can help me understand this. You weren't looking for a solution, i.e. you weren't looking for a way to prevent it happening again. You just wanted to know if it has happened to anyone else.

Why would you care? Since you're not interested in learning what happened and how, what possible use could it be to know that it happened to someone else?

I'm seriously asking this, because I don't understand the motivation. Misery loves company? Just looking for a chat? Why spend the time starting the thread?

[r8ylee]

< ... ... ...  but has anyone else experienced this?>

@elite-thrift 

 No. Have not happened to my selling account.

I've read posts about the ?Easy Pricing? whereby the system will automatically reduced the price of item by $xxx  - still, this feature have to be made by the seller opting/checking that particular feature within the listing.

Regarding your reply to the 1st message from the buyer, is there a phrase like " ... you can make an offer to the buyer" prompted by the system?  I have seen this phrase popped up when I reply to messages from potential buyers whether be it unsolicited offers or questions regarding the listings.

That said, you've also mentioned neither you and your hubby have made any counter offers to the buyer.

This encounter is certainly odd.   

[carlqsportscards]

Only thing I can think of is this was one of those "tests" ebay tries. Maybe the default during listing was set to automatically accept at a certain amount, and you didn't notice they had added it.

Or not. Just guessing.

[pburn · Accepted solution]

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@elite-thrift wrote:

Has this happened to you?

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@elite-thrift

No.

See how easy that was?

[elite-thrift]

Those test changes are sooooo annoying! But thankfully, we don't encounter them often, as our listings are all started from a template, including custom HTML (because the WYSIWYG editor is a bit lacking). Since an issue last year involving a shipping policy swap whenever an item was edited, we also take the time to thoroughly address each and every checkbox, radio button, dropdown, and line of text before submitting any changes. I really wish I could say it was user error this time, because the alternatives are concerning.