eBay

gurlcat · ‎11-19-2018

I'm going to leave details like what the items are and dollar amounts out, because I can easily picture them distracting from the basic facts, however if anyone thinks they are necessary for some reason then we'll 'go there.'

Okay so I listed several items for auctions which end day after tomorrow. One guy bid on four of them on the second day, and THEN sends me a question about one of them (let's call it item x), and he specifies why he's concerned about it. I reply that I don't know the answer to his question and have no way of knowing, but I do know for certain that the concern he raised does not apply to item X, and I included a federal web link which proves that. But he replies that he still doesn't want the item if I can't answer the question he had. He says he is still interested in the other items but not this one, so I could just refund him for it (I assume he means he'll go ahead and pay for it so as not to violate Ebay terms, but then I'll have to issue him a refund, and still send him whichever other items he wins).
I think he is just latching onto a barely-tangilbe solution to his bidder's remorse, and by the way I asked how high his proxy bid is for item X, and I do have doubts that anyone else will bid high enough to win it. Obviously I wish this guy would get outbid on everything.

Now, I know this guy is in the wrong, not just ethically but technically; you DON'T bid first and ask questions later, especially with plenty of days left to get answers before the auction ends. I could probably hold this guy to honoring his bid and NOT sending a refund, but he could do any number of dirty things when he received the box with item X and/or others he won, and possibly get Ebay to take his side. I will say this about the items: they are one of a kind and I have stipulated 'no refunds' but that doesn't mean Ebay couldn't force a refund if the guy thought up a creative-enough complaint.

If anyone knows of the practical approach I can or should use, let me know. Like mabye his bid-regnegging behavior is grounds enough not to honor any of his wins, and just relist all those items (and if so, maybe that would be the wisest move because this **bleep** might foreshadow future **bleep** with him). What gets me about it most is, he has made no acknowledgement of wrongness or foolishness. He didn't even type the word 'Sorry' before "I don't want this".

jameshen1 · ‎11-19-2018

Put him on your blocked bidder list and then cancel his bids.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎11-19-2018

@gurlcat wrote:
... I listed several items for auctions which end day after tomorrow. ... Obviously I wish this guy would get outbid on everything. ...

Just cancel his bid on the item he's not sure about. If you're especially uncomfortable dealing with him, then cancel all of his bids and put him on your blocked-bidder list.

Cancel bid: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CancelBidShow

Block bidder: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BidderBlockLogin

emerald40 · ‎11-19-2018

Why let one listing affect the other two. If he wants only those 2 let him buy them. People do change their mind all the time on a purchase.

gurlcat · ‎11-19-2018

I did try to figure out how to cancel bids but the only answer that came up talked about blocking bidders. So are you saying it has to be done in that order? 1. Block 2. cancel.............?

gurlcat · ‎11-19-2018

How could he pay yet? I said the auctions close day after tomorrow?

emerald40 · ‎11-19-2018

See my revised post. I did not realize these were auctions.

My opinion is to let the other two alone with him as high bidder and remove his bid from the one that he does not want.

If you want to cancel all his bids follow the link above, and then block him.

gurlcat · ‎11-19-2018

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT LINK! I don't know why I couldn't find it before. I canceled his bids on the item and luckily there is one other bidder so the item will still sell! 🙂

escuintla · ‎11-19-2018

Big mistake!

Never cancel a bid. I know that there is some "cultural" thing with some buyers. They get into a bidding war without thinking about other items on the same range, size, color, etc. being cheaper. So, when they see a bid, that's when you see the watchers increasing. They have that competition gene in them, why disappoint them?

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If you haven't paid for your item, you're a winning bidder, not a buyer!
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7606dennis · ‎11-19-2018

The time for a bidder to decide if and how much to bid on an item is before placing the bid. Since the bidder would seem not to be aware of that, he becomes a bidder that I would not want to deal with. Thus I would put him on my BBL and cancel all of his bids on any of my auctions.

"It is an intelligent man that is aware of his own ignorance."

myboardid · ‎11-20-2018

@escuintla wrote:
Big mistake!

Never cancel a bid. I know that there is some "cultural" thing with some buyers. They get into a bidding war without thinking about other items on the same range, size, color, etc. being cheaper. So, when they see a bid, that's when you see the watchers increasing. They have that competition gene in them, why disappoint them?

STRONGLY disagree. These bids should be cancelled, and any time a buyer does anything that could lead to making a mess out of an auction and damaging the seller, always cancel.

Block first, then cancel. In this case, cancel ALL his bids on all items because he could use his leverage on any item he wins to damage the OP.

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Successful and experienced seller since 1997, over 70,000 feedback, boardie since the boards were begun.

emerald40 · ‎11-20-2018

@myboardid wrote:
@escuintla wrote:
Big mistake!

Never cancel a bid. I know that there is some "cultural" thing with some buyers. They get into a bidding war without thinking about other items on the same range, size, color, etc. being cheaper. So, when they see a bid, that's when you see the watchers increasing. They have that competition gene in them, why disappoint them?
STRONGLY disagree. These bids should be cancelled, and any time a buyer does anything that could lead to making a mess out of an auction and damaging the seller, always cancel.

Block first, then cancel. In this case, cancel ALL his bids on all items because he could use his leverage on any item he wins to damage the OP.

JMO but if a buyer simply changed his mind on one item why punish him by cancelling all of his bids.

Ever been in a store, get to the register and have second thoughts after the cashier rings up an item. She simply takes it off the register tape, she does not tell you you cannot have any of your other items and then banishes you from the store.

Yes there are times to block a buyer, but not every occasion warrants it.

a_c_green · ‎11-20-2018

@gurlcat wrote:
If anyone knows of the practical approach I can or should use, let me know. Like mabye his bid-regnegging behavior is grounds enough not to honor any of his wins, and just relist all those items (and if so, maybe that would be the wisest move because this **bleep** might foreshadow future **bleep** with him). What gets me about it most is, he has made no acknowledgement of wrongness or foolishness. He didn't even type the word 'Sorry' before "I don't want this".

I would keep things simple and just cancel the bid for the one item for which he's changed his mind. His recent bidding history includes other items in the "Totally Bizarre" category, so it's hard to say why he would suddenly back off of that one auction but not the others, though he may have simply found a better example at a lower price.

In addition, his record shows one Bid Retraction already, so it's possible that he's requesting a bid cancellation from you (which, unlike a bid retraction by him, does not go on his record) as an alternative to doing the retraction himself and pushing up his retraction count.

I wouldn't go cancelling all of his bids and blocking him without at least one more bid renege first, as the cancellations may make other bidders wonder what's wrong with your listings. Let them ride and he may be outbid at the end anyway.

P.S. There's no eBay policy under which "his bid-regnegging behavior is grounds enough not to honor any of his wins." If he does win one or more auctions and pays for them, you ship.

gurlcat · ‎11-23-2018

Well it looks like I should have cancelled all his bids. I got a bad feeling about this guy from the start but I listened to those who said 'just cancel his bid for the one item.' Sure enough, he won a different one and waited the whole 7 days before asking the same question about this item (which I also don't know). He says he just "assumed" I would know it (why, when I didn't know it about the other one??), and he never asked it about this one the whole time. He tells me "Just relist it." I can't imagine a clearer case of breach-of-sale, so that's what I have reported. I have all our emails of both items to back it up.

My question now is, is there any kind of way this could bite me, like can he still give me a negative feedback?