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canceled bid
In the past week I've had bids on 3 separate items canceled. The item listing is then ended.
I have not done anything that would allow the cancelation.
Is this allowed?
What can I do about it?
2 comments
woodland_gnome
·2 years agoA seller can cancel any individual bidder's bids (one cancellation removes them all) up until the auction ends, and may do so for just about any reason that leads the seller to not want that bidder's bids on that auction. The verboten reasons have to do with schemes to evade eBay's fees, such as:
It is specifically against the rules for a seller to cancel all bids and end the auction early without a winner IF it is because s/he deliberately set the Starting Price lower than s/he was willing to sell for, and it hasn't reached that high. This is considered fee avoidance because eBay charges a substantial fee for sellers to have a Reserve Price so they aren't promising to sell as low as their Starting Price.
But there are legitimate reasons why a seller would have to do so, and a few years ago eBay got tired of having to divine the subjective intent of a seller who took that action, so it adopted some procedures that make it less attractive to do so with that intention: it can only be done before the countdown reaches 12 hours AND it charges a fee (the FVF% for that seller in that category times the highest cancelled bid) when s/he does so (with the first such fee per calendar year waived to allow for the very occasional legitimate reason for doing so).
ETA: As for what you can do about it, you can avoid that seller in the future. eBay will not uncancel a cancellation nor can you leave feedback since you didn't win. You can use the Report This Item link on the listing page to report for Listing Practices: Avoiding eBay Fees: Other ways . . ., but don't expect any action beyond the automatic action they've already taken and even if they did they won't tell you about it for privacy reasons.
hessiangeneral
OP2 years agoThanks for the detailed and thoughtful reply