Sellers who don't respond to "Best Offer"

[dianna4600]

I'm frustrated with sellers who offer " best offer" and when you make an offer they don't respond either to reject or make counteroffer.  It leave the buyer hanging out there unable to move on to another bid until the offer time runs out 2 days later. 

[airsheep · Accepted solution]

Agreed.  If the seller has problems with many buyers lowballing on Best Offers, it would be a good idea to use the Autoreject feature.  Set the price at a level you can live with, and you will never have to see the offers you consider to be too low. 

[newenglandnew]

agree.  It's not very professional to not even reply to a best offer, especially when it can be done automatically.   The only ones I MAY not reply to are the low ball offers that come when I do not have best offer.   Still, I try to answer politely.  However, if a sellers doesn't have best offer, for the most part they are not going to accept an offer.  They've got it at their lowest price already.

[mudshark61369]

dianna,

Not saying that you do this, but sellers often get ridicuously low offers because some so do not get that Make an Offer, is not a license to make insulting offers.  If a seller uses that function, they should respond no matter how low the offer is, if only just to write "Blocked".

You sell, try using Best Offer on an item that has a reasonable BIN price sometime, and see what happens.  Maybe you'll understand why some offers do not get responses, except maybe the sound of clicking noises coming from the seller's direction.

To keep safe it is best to block lowballers, who could end up demanding a partial refund, that just coincidentally brings the price of the item to that of their offer.

[fshardy]

Every time this particular subject comes up, I'm left wondering how people who complain about being made to wait for possibly two days can cope with auctions, where they are possibly made to wait for almost four times as long.

The amount offered may or may not be the most the buyer is willing to pay.  The amount offered may or may not be the most that the seller will be offered.  How does the seller possibly know, unless he has something with which to compare?

My advice would be that if a buyer is unable or unwilling to wait for 48 hours for a decision, that perhaps the buyer shouldn't make Best Offers.

[felifoll]

If you don't want to wait you can retract your offer and move on to another listing.

[anscoman]

Ebay tells you that your offer is active for 48 hours. Getting frustrated when that actually happens seems to be a personal problem. The seller is allowed to consider your offer, to wait for competing offers, to be away from his computer, or to just change his mind about accepting any offer. Would you be less frustrated if the seller declined your offer after 47 hours?

[felifoll]

Ebay tells you that if you change your mind you can retract your offer.

[nightwolf001]

Do you get some kind of strike against you if you retract an offer?

[misterfenwick]

Perhaps they are not on eBay every second or have to think about it or have to find the item before they accept your offer, I've accept many offers and then can't find the item and I'm on the hook for the sell not a fun situation to be in.

[felifoll]

Do you get some kind of strike against you if you retract an offer?

Nope. It was discussed in the weekly chat with ebay staff on 3/5/15. Buyers can retract offers for any reason and without consequence.

[fshardy]

Buyers can do almost anything on the site without consequence.

[felifoll]

Buyers can do almost anything on the site without consequence.

A retracted BO does not affect the listing or the seller. Your anti-ebay, anti-buyer whining is not relevant to the OP's situation.

Just as a buyer can and should pass up listings if they disagree with the TOS, sellers also agree to ebay's terms by listing here. Buying either an item or ebay's serviice is the same thing. Don't do it and then gripe about it.

[wtfockers]

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@dianna4600 wrote:

I'm frustrated with sellers who offer " best offer" and when you make an offer they don't respond either to reject or make counteroffer.  It leave the buyer hanging out there unable to move on to another bid until the offer time runs out 2 days later. 

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I'll see if I can help:

When you place an offer, it states that the seller has 48 hours to accept or decline.  That is a term that you accept when making an offer.  Since it is "best offer" and not "any offer", many of us do wait most of the allotted hours before accepting or declining to see if we get another offer.  In my experience, offers on an item happen in clusters, so I rarely immediately accept the first one.  

Additionally, we only check offers once a day on the weekdays, and only once over the weekends.  Theoretically, offers should come into my phone via the app, but that appears to only work about a third of the time.  My app will sometimes show 3 offers, but the desktop dashboard shows 10.  Sometimes a buyer will send a message asking if I can check their offer, which is helpful because the message shows up in my app, but the offer did not.

Finally, if a buyer places an obscene offer, like the buyer who sent an offer for $1.00 with free shipping written into the terms on a $100 item, then I will not respond at all.  

Other posters are correct, however.  If you place an offer and do not wish to wait the 48 hours that you agreed to wait when placing the offer, simply retract it and move to the next item.  

[echo_and_zip]

Is your 'Best Offer' actually your 'Worst Offer' ?