What is going on with all of the retracted bids lately?

[jarjarbinks11]

Has anyone else experienced more than normal retracted bids?  I have had 5 retracted bids in several days, and one buyer who won an item, paid for it, then sent me a request to cancel the transaction after I shipped it.  He then got **bleep** when I told him there was nothing I could do and then said, he will wait until it got there and then just file a claim with ebay and get his money back!  I have NEVER had this many issues with the buying community!  I have noticed that most all of these bid retractions are from buyer with 20 or less feedback.  my biggest concern is that they are damaging my final sales numbers as it lowers the high bid within hours of the auction ending.  

[pburn]

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@lovett-1000 wrote:

Because they are hiding behind a e bay account of no use but to post in the community. That way when they are smart tails. No one really knows who it is.  

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That is an untrue, unfair, offensive, and inappropriate statement. 

As a seller, you, of all people, should realize the damage that can be done to your account by someone you've offended on the discussion boards. I have seen it myself. A person who felt insulted by a seller went into that seller's account and bought dozens of inexpensive items, only to return each of them and enter corresponding negative feedback for each and every item.

It was horrible to read that person's posts, niggling away at the seller in post after post after post, taunting the seller about how they'd get their comeuppance. 

You can only hope that never happens to you. Most other sellers are smart enough to use a posting id on the discussion boards.

[ifyouloveit]

Hi @ jarjarbinks11,

I've seen an uptick in cancellations (I sell on multiple sites), and people who buy and then do not pay. Right now I believe it has everything to do with Covid 19.

On one site I sell on, I get many messages and buyers and sellers talk to each other a lot. I have had people buy and even put combined purchases together, only to come back before I've shipped to ask me to cancel. They fear spending the money as the Corona virus hits them more and more.

Here in California we have been asked as of last night to not even go grocery shopping. Other States are doing different things and are on different timelines. I have a customer in Wyoming who barely knows the virus is in the USA. Life as usual for her, she just had guests over for a dinner. Others are panicking and cancelling, fearing they won't have the money.

I do see this with newer buyers more often, on all sites. I think seasoned buyers/sellers with a lot of transactions are less likely to cancel as they are more experienced online shoppers, but that's just a theory.

But to answer your question, yes, they are cancelling and not paying more than usual. I have one here right now who still hasn't paid.

I hope it gets better for you!

[pjcdn2005]

Most other sellers are smart enough to use a posting id on the discussion boards.

Hmmm...guess some of us just aren’t ‘smart enough’ 😛

[escarchac]

No, I don't think is has anything to do with the current Covid-19 problem.  I noticed that at the beginning of the year, I had an unusually high number of "no pay no response" customers.  I noticed that on several of them, they have been members for only a few months, or less.  The others that were members longer had very few feedbacks left for them.  I chalked this up to two things:  1)  Being a new year, several of the buyer strikes probably got dropped, and these bad buyers were allowed to bid/purchase items because they fell within the number of total strikes against buyers.   2)  I believe that several of the "New" buyers were old buyers, that weren't allowed to purchase items because they had too many strikes against them, that made ghost accounts to try and buy things.  And 3)  Again, old buyers with new accounts, but I am a firm believer that there are people out there that just put things in their carts, or make an offer and agree to buy, but never have any intention to actually pay of the item.   I can't prove any of these, and just guessing, but it is a pain in the *** when buyers just disappear like a fart in the wind when it comes time to pay of their items.  With all of these cases, the buyer automatically goes onto my Blocked Buyer List.  No strikes to worry about, no contact as to why, no nothing.   Unless the buyer contacts me before hand and explains why they can't pay, they go on the list.

[pburn]

I happen to think you are very smart! 😊

But if you had seen the bloodbath I described, you'd think twice about posting with your selling id. It was horrific!

[chapeau-noir]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Most other sellers are smart enough to use a posting id on the discussion boards.

Hmmm...guess some of us just aren’t ‘smart enough’ 😛

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I'll sit with you on the Dumb Bench.  We can stick out our tongues and make funny faces at the Smart Bench.

[upgradedendmills]

This is more or less an open forum.  Bad attitudes and rudeness towards those trying to help is not really called for. No one here is in the heads of your bidders, maybe you should try to contact them for answers.

[pburn]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Most other sellers are smart enough to use a posting id on the discussion boards.

Hmmm...guess some of us just aren’t ‘smart enough’ 😛

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I'll sit with you on the Dumb Bench.  We can stick out our tongues and make funny faces at the Smart Bench.

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Okay, you're smart, too. But just you two. No one else. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@pburn wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Most other sellers are smart enough to use a posting id on the discussion boards.

Hmmm...guess some of us just aren’t ‘smart enough’ 😛

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I'll sit with you on the Dumb Bench.  We can stick out our tongues and make funny faces at the Smart Bench.

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Okay, you're smart, too. But just you two. No one else. 

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Can we come and sit with you smart kids on your smart bench?  We have cookies and showered this morning.

[upgradedendmills]

The frustration seems to be self imposed.

[janet9988]

Has anyone else experienced more than normal retracted bids?

NO.

What is going on with all of the retracted bids lately?

Ebay policy gives buyer a choice between a few reasons why the bidder makes a retraction. You should be able to see the reason the buyer picked so I am not sure why you think WE would know what is going on inside buyers heads on why they are retracting. Since WE are not the buyer who made the retraction ..WE would have no other special powers to determine the exact cause or frequency..

In a nutshell.....the 3 reasons are...

1.  If you changed the description,

2. If the bidder could not contact you.

3. If the buyer bid the wrong amount.

So maybe the bidder are experiencing more of these scenarios that usual.

Have you read ebay policy ?

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/retracting-bid?id=4013&st=12&pos=1&query=Retracting%20a%20b...

When you can retract a bid

You can retract a bid if:

• The seller significantly changed the description of the item
• You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid
• You can't reach the seller. For example, you sent the seller an email and it comes back undeliverable, or you tried calling the seller and the phone number doesn't work

As well as the above, timing is also important when retracting a bid:

• 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

Any other bids can't be retracted, but you can contact the seller to see if they'll agree to cancel a bid for you.

[lightlily_arts]

I don't think anyone can answer your question. We can speculate that there are many people sitting at home and browsing auctions.  There are quite a few sellers for Legos and if they are watching multiple listings they may be retracting bids if the price becomes too high and bid on another instead.  Then there are the pranksters who bid on items and retract when the auction is coming to an end.  Yes there are some people that will just mess with you.

With auctions it's a risk so perhaps a Fixed Price listing with immediate payment required might be better suited.

As for the one that asked you to cancel after you shipped and stated they would file a claim to get their money back save the messages.  That is a policy violation to abuse eBay's money back guarantee.  I would report the buyer's threat now to see if you can get ahead of the problem.  I see in your listings that you don't take returns so the only kind of claim that they can use is Not As Described to get all their money back.

[littlehills-collector1]

I don't think I've seen an uptick of retractions more than usual, but do you have products that other sellers are listing as well that end within hours of each other. 

My speculation on the retraction of bids is that buyers see the same item and bid on multiple auctions of the same product with different sellers.   And, of course, they purchase the one they won with the lowest outlay of cash and don't honor the other auctions they might have won. 

I believe this is due to the fact that buyers don't receive negative feedback anymore. There is no incentive for them to honor all the bids.  And the fact that most buyers have 20 or less feedback means they don't multiple-bid all the time (just once or twice) and don't mind if they get kicked off EBay as they'll just create a new buyer id later on.

That's my thought and it's purely speculation

[fashunu4eeuh]

I haven’t experienced any problems with any buyers.

The majority of my listings are fixed price with immediate payment required. I don’t use Best Offer either. So if someone wants my item, they have to pay for it. And it doesn't get removed from the marketplace unless it is paid for.

You asked if eBay Has a solution to your problem. They provide Buyer Requirements to combat serial non-payers. I set my BR at the strictest settings, rarely have non-payers and have never had a bid retraction.

But even if i did, i wouldn't sweat it. It doesnt pay to get balled up over something beyond my control. Like what answers i might collect after posting on a public forum.

[pjcdn2005]

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@pburn wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Most other sellers are smart enough to use a posting id on the discussion boards.

Hmmm...guess some of us just aren’t ‘smart enough’ 😛

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I'll sit with you on the Dumb Bench.  We can stick out our tongues and make funny faces at the Smart Bench.

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Okay, you're smart, too. But just you two. No one else. 

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lol  You've obviously smart too!