Forced Best Offer - eBay decided to accept an offer I didn't agree to! Unbelievable... 😡

[nancysjewelsandsupplies]

I had heard this was happening but it hadn't happened to me until last night. I had a few fixed price items that were listed with the best offer option. I did not have the auto accept or decline on.

Had a customer offer me $20 on a $38 item. I countered with $28.50. This morning I woke up to two messages from eBay. The first was that the customer had counter offered $25.00. The second was telling me I had accepted his offer. Wth! 😡 

At no time did I ever give eBay permission to make deals on my products. The absolute gall of it all; that they think it's okay to take away my right to make a decision on a product I'm selling is outrageous. 

I have now removed the best offer option and will NEVER use it again since I can't trust that eBay has my best interests at heart. I'll also be checking my listings often to make sure they don't try adding it. If I want to lower the price I'll use markdown manager and put it on sale.

Anyone else have this happen to them? 

[bill.purvis2012]

That's odd. Haven't had that happened that I know of. I do use the Best Offer and set limits. But, something must be wrong. I have an order from yesterday that shows in my Paypal that never showed at all on my EBAY. I wouldn't even know about it if I hadn't checked my Paypal account this morning. It was bought and paid, not cancelled, not taken out of inventory, etc. Not showing up at all on EBAY.  I tried calling them on their channel which says 5am-1opm Pacific time and get a message unavailable. Something's wrong.

[nuclearomen]

---

@nancysjewelsandsupplies wrote:

I had heard this was happening but it hadn't happened to me until last night. I had a few fixed price items that were listed with the best offer option. I did not have the auto accept or decline on.

Had a customer offer me $20 on a $38 item. I countered with $28.50. This morning I woke up to two messages from eBay. The first was that the customer had counter offered $25.00. The second was telling me I had accepted his offer. Wth! 😡 

At no time did I ever give eBay permission to make deals on my products. The absolute gall of it all; that they think it's okay to take away my right to make a decision on a product I'm selling is outrageous. 

I have now removed the best offer option and will NEVER use it again since I can't trust that eBay has my best interests at heart. I'll also be checking my listings often to make sure they don't try adding it. If I want to lower the price I'll use markdown manager and put it on sale.

Anyone else have this happen to them? 

---

this is strange, don't have answer why but I do have say about the "Best Offer" feature, one of the worst features ebay has implemented IMO, i don't use this, doing so automatically tells buyers "don't pay my listed price", place items on sale using markdown manager is a better idea then adding the offer option to listing.

[nancysjewelsandsupplies]

Definitely sounds like something is wrong. I tried calling them too and it just keeps saying the contact channel is unavailable.

I've heard that some listings are still showing active even when they're sold. I've worried about it and even keep double checking my inventory because I don't like unhappy surprises. I'm sorry to hear that happened to you. 

[suscharmu_0]

Hi, I would write the customer & tell them E-Bay aceppted that price, not you. Say they can buy it for your price or cancel the order.  If they say cancel it, then you will not have a mark against you.

[nancysjewelsandsupplies]

I considered writing the customer about it but decided against it because their feedback is private. Normally you can get a feel for how a customer is by looking at past feedback they've left for other sellers. It wasn't worth the risk. 

When I had sent the counteroffer of $28.50, I had thanked the customer for his offer and also said this was the absolute lowest I could go on the piece. So, for him to submit a counteroffer again, and have his feedback private, raised some red flags. Then to have eBay accept that offer...well, very upsetting to say the least.    

[orangehound]

---

@nancysjewelsandsupplies wrote:

Had a customer offer me $20 on a $38 item. I countered with $28.50. This morning I woke up to two messages from eBay. The first was that the customer had counter offered $25.00. The second was telling me I had accepted his offer. Wth! 😡 

---

If that is accurate, it almost sounds like eBay has a new policy that says, "You two are almost in agreement ... 3.50 is close enough ... so ... SOLD!".

[nc-daydreamer]

Wow. So sorry! If you do use the BO again, try setting at least the rejection parameter.  Maybe that will solve it? Did you call CS? Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Something IS wrong!!! 6 AM 8/31 East Coast just did 2 new listings and have lost one completely and the other one is listed but it didn't go into my actives list on Seller Hub. GREAT, a holiday weekend and the glitches have been non stop. Just shaking my head AGAIN!!!

[sextons-sweet-deals]

how is feedback private? Is this new? You should still see their % rating.

[nuclearomen]

---

@sextons-sweet-deals wrote:
how is feedback private? Is this new? You should still see their % rating.

---

there is a setting in preferences to have your feedback private but I believe this is not available for sellers, only buyers... could be wrong but I think remember reading that through ebay help one time.

[nancysjewelsandsupplies]

I've seen the private feedback occasionally thru the years. When it's private it doesn't show what kind of feedback they have left for other sellers. It just shows the number of transactions they've had and this message is underneath: 

"Private Feedback - This member, *********, has decided to make his/her Feedback comments private. Feedback can still be left for this user and the Feedback ratings left are shown above in summary format. Learn more about private Feedback."

[nancysjewelsandsupplies]

The private feedback status is only available to the buyers, and as we know, all buyers have 100% feedback.

As a seller, I've learned thru the years to take a look at the feedback a buyer has left for past sellers.  Looking at that feedback can alert you instantly to a possible bad buyer. Most people are great and you can see that by the wonderful feedback they leave sellers. Sometimes though you'll see a buyer who has left countless negatives or used manipulation to get refunds in exchange for a positive feedback. If I get a customer like this I handle them with kid gloves, because chances are good that they will have a problem with me too.  

If their feedback is private it means I don't get to see how they treated other sellers. 

[edwardian-dreams]

hi

maybe try hitting relist (but don’t relist it) and seeing all the checked boxes. maybe you had put in a automatically accept xxx offers and above, or something in there that caused this

i doubt ebay accepted a best offer without your knowledge, that’s scary lol

[nancysjewelsandsupplies]

No, the automatically accept offers wasn't checked. I never use that. This happened because eBay decided to accept an offer for me without my knowledge or consent. 

This is just as bad as what I'd heard about eBay adding best offer to listings without consent. This time they took it a step further and accepted an offer I did not give or authorize.