Buyer retracts bid without explanation

[powers399]

I've been a buyer on ebay for many years. I've become a seller just this year. Recently got my first cancellation on a firm bid by a buyer without any explanation. My questions to those of you more experienced sellers:

1) Is the buyer not required to give the seller a reason why?

2) Does the buyer receive any consequences or reprimands from eBay for not contacting the seller?

3) Is this a common occurrence when selling?

4) Is there a time limit for a buyer to retract?

Thanks, I appreciate any responses

[donsdetour]

Item please..

[southern*sweet*tea]

My opinion  as a seller:

I'd much rather have a bid retraction today than a not as described case later.

[tdumonde2014]

The buyer selects one of three reasons for retracting their bid, none of them truthful. No requirement to notify or contact the seller. There are no consequences for a bid retraction, I've seen buyers with 2,000 or more bid retractions. As long as there is at least 12 hours left in the auction they can retract their bid, someone will correct me if I'm wrong. 

[buyselljack2016]

@powers399 

Time was that a buyer had to supply a reason for retracting. That was shown to the seller when they check bid history. Not sure if the reason is still shown.

Some buyers have many, many, many bid retractions. eBay says that they care, but seems that there is no evidence to prove that. Posts have been made showing buyers with hundreds.

Not sure how common retractions are, but does happen, and as southernsweet posted, better for the seller when there is a retraction than a return request.

You can use "help & contact" at the bottom of most pages to search "bid retraction" and read the eBay policies.   You of course can always come here to pose a question, but "help & contact" can generally be used to search for the answers to many questions about eBay policy. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

[safan80]

I buy and sell, I noticed that an item description and was incorrect on an item I was bidding and politely contacted the seller about it and  asked for the seller to retract my bid. The response I received was you can retract the bid yourself and you will not see a better price. I found the item for $50 dollars less in another auction.

Long story short:

The buyer changed their mind and you longer have to go through any headaches of returns or seller fee refunds. 

[donsdetour]

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@tdumonde2014 wrote:

The buyer selects one of three reasons for retracting their bid, none of them truthful. No requirement to notify or contact the seller. There are no consequences for a bid retraction, I've seen buyers with 2,000 or more bid retractions. As long as there is at least 12 hours left in the auction they can retract their bid, someone will correct me if I'm wrong. 

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Use to be under auction interference:

You are right they do nothing about such today it seems...

[vintage-camerastuff]

The buyer doesn't have to give you a reason for cancellation.  But they give ebay the reason which you may not be able to see.  The usual reason it that they entered the wrong amount.  Buyer owes you no explanation.  Yes this can be a fairly common occurrence and there is a time limit when the buyer can no longer cancel their bid.

[luckythewinner]

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@powers399 wrote:

I've been a buyer on ebay for many years. I've become a seller just this year. Recently got my first cancellation on a firm bid by a buyer without any explanation. My questions to those of you more experienced sellers

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You need clarify. What is a "firm bid"?

Did he retract a bid from an auction before the auction had ended?

Did he ask to cancel a transaction after he had won an auction?

Did he make an offer through the eBay system that you accepted and then refuse to pay?

Did he  negotiate a price through messages and then back out?

We need the specifics, because on eBay the terms "cancel" and "retract" mean very different things, as do "offer" and "bid".

[buyselljack2016]

Perhaps they remembered they already saw Casper.

Perhaps they found it cheaper.

Perhaps someone told they Casper wasn't really that friendly.

Perhaps they lost their job, and now don't have the spare $7.50.

[7606dennis]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

My opinion  as a seller:

I'd much rather have a bid retraction today than a not as described case later.

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I disagree.  In my opinion there should be no bid retractions allowed.  Of the three valid bid retraction reasons allowed, only the one covering typos made when placing a bid is actually somewhat reasonable.  The ones involving the seller changing the description and not being able to contact the seller are not.  Sellers cannot change the description after a bid is placed and eBay has made it impossible to get the seller's contact information before the auction has ended.  Since sellers aren't required to respond to messages, simply not getting a reply has never been a valid reason for a retraction.

With regard to the bidding the wrong amount being a valid reason, bidders have the option to check and confirm their bid before placing it.  Thus any typo that goes through is carelessness on the part of the bidder.  Plus the fact that the requirement to immediately bid the correct amount is often not followed makes this reason prone to abuse.

Auction outcomes can be extremely damaged by bid retractions and since eBay has seen fit to make it nearly impossible to report invalid bid retractions and literally no consequences for those bidders that engage in using them, I have my own way of dealing with them.  I immediately cancel all bids placed by the retracting bidder on any of my items and place them on my BBL for all of my accounts. 

When possible I check the bid retraction record of all bidders on my items and do the same thing if their retraction record shows more than one retraction on it.  I use not to allow even one showing but I've decided to give them the benefit of the doubt on one.

[southern*sweet*tea]

@7606dennis 

I guess I disagree. 

If you don't want something of mine, I don't want you to have it and the sooner someone lets me know they don't want it, the better it is for me.  Life's too short for me to to nitpick over a retracted bid on an online auction.  I have far more important things to think about.

[bimm_corp]

AFAIK,

@powers399 

>1) Is the buyer not required to give the seller a reason why?

No.

>2) Does the buyer receive any consequences or reprimands from eBay for not contacting the seller?

No.

>3) Is this a common occurrence when selling?

Yes.

>4) Is there a time limit for a buyer to retract?

Buyer cannot retract a bid if there is less than 12 hours remaining till auction close.

>I appreciate any responses

You should know that recently eBay has changed the bid history page. It still shows buyer bid retractions but no longer show seller bid cancellations.

[femmefan1946]

1.) All those "reasons" are the same reason--"I changed my mind and don't want to buy this."

2.) The buyer's FB page shows the number of retractions he has made, so no.

3.) Only with Auctions. There is a reason why 85%+ of listings are Fixed Price and why there are ten times more UIDs with Auctions than with Fixed Price.

4.) He has to retract before the Auction ends. Otherwise eBay will open an Unpaid Item Dispute for the seller after four days.

Auctions are a dying part of eBay's branding. No other generalist site uses auctions, because buyers want to buy, pay and receive.  Auctions take too long for that mindset.

[buyselljack2016]

• If there are 12 hours or more left before the listing ends, all of your bids can be retracted
• If the listing is ending in less than 12 hours, you can retract your most recent bid if it's been less than an hour since you placed it