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Help! Have "won" on bid for item I was outbid on the day before. How? Have bought another 1 already.
Seller doesn't reply to explain how this happened, only refers me to eBay's bidding & auction policy fact sheets. I can't find any information to explain how this happened. Ebay is demanding I pay seller. I would like to, but already paid for other similar item. Don't want to be forced to buy a second 1, particularly after being told I had been outbid and giving up on buying the item at auction. Please help!
2 comments
woodland_gnome
·2 years agoYou aren't being "forced to buy a second one." You voluntarily bought the second one after you bid on the first one while your bid was still active. Now you need to pay for the first one, the one you bid on first and have now won. You can beg the seller to cancel the transaction "at buyer's request" but s/he is not required to do so and can instead wait 4 days and cancel for non-payment, giving you a strike that can affect your ability to buy in the future.
The winner and price are determined from the active bids (i.e. not cancelled or retracted before the end) at the end of the auction. Until then any bid could win, even if it has been outbid (if the higher bid is cancelled or retracted; exception: if there is a Reserve Price that remains "Reserve not met" AFTER you place your bid that bid CANNOT win the auction no matter what anyone else does). eBay does warn on your My eBay: Bids/Offers: Bids that this can happen if at least one of the bids is showing outbid, but could do a better job of warning people in the onscreen immediate outbid notice and/or any email outbid notice.
If cancellations/retractions put you back as high bidder when the auction ends, you are the winner (unless your bid was "Reserve not met" after you placed it) and are obligated to pay, so don't go looking for a replacement item unless you are willing and able to pay for both.
Once the auction ends without you as the winner (if you are watching the countdown give a hard refresh after a few seconds to what appears to be a final result before relying on the results--a last second but still timely bid might not have been processed and the new results available to all servers for a few seconds) then you owe no more obligation to that auction. The seller might send you a Second Chance Offer if the winner backs out (and you have not opted out of receiveing such SCOs in your My eBay: Account: Communication Preferences) but you are under no legal or moral obligation to accept it.
lady_madonna
Mentor2 years ago@jacq*3
Very simple, there was either a bid retraction or a bid cancellation.
Yes, you DO have to pay for the item.
Your bid was considered "live" until end of auction, even if you were outbid.
Moral of the story....never bid on/buy an identical item until the auction is over and someone else was declared the winner.