eBay auction query - winning bidder has bought another car

[TTmonkey]

Not sure there's any relevance to your cancelling the low feedback bid within a few minutes. The other buyer would have gotten a 'you've been outbid' email and has rightly moved on.

If you hadn't of cancelled the 0 feedback bid you would have probably sold the car by now.

Not sure what legal position you cancelling a higher bid puts this person in, I don't think they should be held to account for the failure of the auction.

Its part of using eBay isn't it. its not infallible, especially as you've effectively pre-chosen an auction winner by using the cancellation. Its a risk you take when doing these things I guess. You wont get a penny off them, so time to move on, put it behind you.

[blindswelledrat]

Bradley1500 said:

KFC said:

I don't think the buyer has done anything unreasonable. Once he was outbid it would be perfectly normal to look at options and see what else there is to bid on. You can't expect him to foresee you deleting the other bidder can you. And once that does happen you can't expect him to buy 2 cars.

As I mentioned the bid was deleted within 10 minutes of being placed, they must of been rather quick to bid on another car! What's more this was with 6 hours until auction end, my contact number was on the auction, they could of called and explained the issue and I would of removed their bid too.

Also at the end of my auction they still had nearly 24 hours until the other car ended, could they not have removed their bid or contacted that buyer explaining the issue?

I don't think I'm being unreasonable as this is what I would of done in the circumstances.

I agree with KFC. If I was in his shoes and saw that I had been outbid, I would instantly mentally dismiss my bid, as would most people (it also shows he wasn't particularly fussed about the car). Regardless of how you see the situation, I think 95% of people would see it as normal that if you are outbid in an auction, your offer becomes irrelevant.

[DannyScene]

Sorry OP I too agree with the buyer

Put yourself in his shoes

You are bidding on a car

You get out bid at the top of your limit/budget

You forget about your lost bid and move onto another car

meanwhile seller has cancelled the person that outbid you but not told you and you haven't looked because well why would you? You've been outbid and hit the top of your budget

Seller then contacts you saying you were outbid but didn't like him so Is demanding money from you

[Bradley1500]

DannyScene said:

meanwhile seller has cancelled the person that outbid you but not told you and you haven't looked because well why would you? You've been outbid and hit the top of your budget

I should have mentioned in my first post that eBay messaged them saying a bid had been cancelled on an auction they were bidding on thus making them the highest bidder again. This is sent out immediately after the bid is cancelled so they were well aware there was a possibility they would win the auction.

[stargazer30]

Since ebay stopped seller leaving negative feedback, buyer routinely seem to bid on multiple items with no intention of buying them all.

I've just sold an amp, winning bidder not paid and ignoring me. Had this a few times in the past. Usually I send them a request to cancel the sale and then I get my fees back so its just wasted time.

[fido]

stargazer30 said:

Usually I send them a request to cancel the sale and then I get my fees back so its just wasted time.

It's quite quick these days as well. As other posters have said to OP - just move on. Either sell to next highest bidder OR get your fees back. Simples.

[Rude-boy]

Bradley1500 said:

I should have mentioned in my first post that eBay messaged them saying a bid had been cancelled on an auction they were bidding on thus making them the highest bidder again. This is sent out immediately after the bid is cancelled so they were well aware there was a possibility they would win the auction.

As for those siding with the Buyer I'm not buying it.

You get outbid on an item like a car damn right you go back to that auction to see what's happening and what the final hammer price was.

Let us not get into the fact that we mostly suspect that the higher bidder was them...

[Kermit power]

Bradley1500 said:

DannyScene said:

meanwhile seller has cancelled the person that outbid you but not told you and you haven't looked because well why would you? You've been outbid and hit the top of your budget

I should have mentioned in my first post that eBay messaged them saying a bid had been cancelled on an auction they were bidding on thus making them the highest bidder again. This is sent out immediately after the bid is cancelled so they were well aware there was a possibility they would win the auction.

I was bidding a couple of weeks ago for a mountain bike frame. About 10 minutes after placing the bid, I saw a much, much nicer one that I preferred.

There's no way I would've messed the original seller around if I'd stayed as the highest bidder, but within 20 seconds of getting the email from eBay to tell me I'd been outbid, I placed a higher bid on the second frame, which I subsequently won.

If the seller on the first frame had cancelled the bid that beat me, even if he'd done it within the next 5 minutes, I would've been in the same position as your buyer, and would've been equally unwilling to pay anything. As far as I'm concerned - and I think any reasonable person would be concerned - if I'm outbid in an auction, then I no longer have any sort of obligation to that seller.

If they'd committed to Buy It Now, or the auction had finished with them as the highest bidder then I'd be completely on your side. I'll also be completely on your side if the zero feedback bid you cancelled proves to have come from the same person, but failing that, I'm on their side. You chose to cancel the higher bid, and now you're dealing with the consequences of that choice.

[anonymous-user]

I agree with the buyer also. They get an email telling them they've been outbid so they move on.

Then the seller then contacting them saying they've actually won as the winning bidder was deleted sounds like some kind of eBay scam, where the seller is trying to raise the final price by getting mates to bid and then deleting their top bid.

Edited by el stovey on Monday 19th January 17:35

[Rich_W]

Rude-boy said:

Let us not get into the fact that we mostly suspect that the higher bidder was them...

You might. I don't

I'm with the buyer here. Seller/OP "possibly" shilled it up then cancelled it.

Happens a lot.

[JQ]

I'm also with the buyer, and would feel I was being played. Phone calls from the sellers would just compound the suspicion and there's no way I'd be buying the car now.

Incidentally OP, if you were cancelling bids from people with no feedback, why did you allow them to bid in the first place? It's quite easy to restrict who can bid.

[Bradley1500]

JQ said:

Incidentally OP, if you were cancelling bids from people with no feedback, why did you allow them to bid in the first place? It's quite easy to restrict who can bid.

Honestly not sure why I didn't do this as it would have saved a lot of time and hassle.

I was worried of being messed around and with someone placing a bid near to auction end with 0 feedback which had only been registered that morning it was quite likely they would mess me around, hence the cancellation.

I don't begrudge the winning bidder not buying my car, I'm just annoyed that they're offering no help towards the situation. eBay messaged them confirming a bid had been cancelled and they were again the highest bidders on my auction; if within that time they had bid on something else they could of simply messaged me explaining this and I would of happily removed their bid(s) too. It may of sold at a lower price but at least it would have sold!

Anyway there isn't much I can do now. I've had no reply to my second chance offer so I've relisted the car for sale, started the process to claim my fees back and reported the buyer to eBay explaining the issue.

Hopefully this time it actually sells! Thanks for all the replies.

[Bradley1500]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Bradley1500 said:

and reported the buyer to eBay explaining the issue.

What have you reported him for? He has done nothing wrong!

He hasn't paid so I've reported him to claim my fees back? Not sure what's wrong with that?

[Rude-boy]

Rich_W said:

Rude-boy said:

Let us not get into the fact that we mostly suspect that the higher bidder was them...

You might. I don't

I'm with the buyer here. Seller/OP "possibly" shilled it up then cancelled it.

Happens a lot.

Possibly. But to do something as dickish as that and then to bring it to the PH bloodhounds? OP would have to be monumentally stupid.

[crofty1984]

Magog said:

Bradley1500 said:

Is there no better option than claiming my fees back from eBay? (which you can't claim everything back)

It annoys me that they're getting away with messing me around.

Think about it from their point of view, Ebay will probably have sent them an email saying 'you have been outbid', at that point they've quite likely thought, that's our limit for that vehicle and ceased to have any interest in it. They've gone and found something else they prefer. They're hardly messing you around.

In fact the cynically minded might think you've got a mate to put in a shill bid and then cancelled it.

Except the OP cancelled the 0 feedback bid. More likely the not-buyers put the shill bid in.

[Bradley1500]

crofty1984 said:

Except the OP cancelled the 0 feedback bid. More likely the not-buyers put the shill bid in.

I hadn't thought of this.

I don't understand why they would go through the effort of creating a new account to outbid themselves though, why not just cancel their own bid if they weren't interested anymore?

[andy-xr]

Bradley1500 said:

KFC said:

I don't think the buyer has done anything unreasonable. Once he was outbid it would be perfectly normal to look at options and see what else there is to bid on. You can't expect him to foresee you deleting the other bidder can you. And once that does happen you can't expect him to buy 2 cars.

As I mentioned the bid was deleted within 10 minutes of being placed, they must of been rather quick to bid on another car! What's more this was with 6 hours until auction end, my contact number was on the auction, they could of called and explained the issue and I would of removed their bid too.

Also at the end of my auction they still had nearly 24 hours until the other car ended, could they not have removed their bid or contacted that buyer explaining the issue?

I don't think I'm being unreasonable as this is what I would of done in the circumstances.

I think you are being unreasonable. Most people have eBay on their phones, or get notifications through email, so if they get notified however it comes over, they might have thought that was the end of it.

You cancelled a bid that was higher than theirs, I dont think it's up to you to say what length of time between a higher bid and you cancelling it is reasonable. I also dont think it's fair to expect someone who was legitimately outbid as far as they're concerned to come back and bid on yours. For them it was over, you decided to remove the higher bid, not them.

What it will boil down to is that the now highest bidder was outbid by someone who's bid you removed. Your problem really.

[Bradley1500]

andy-xr said:

I think you are being unreasonable. Most people have eBay on their phones, or get notifications through email, so if they get notified however it comes over, they might have thought that was the end of it.

But surely if they received the 'outbid' notification, they would of also received the 'cancelled bid, you're now the highest bidder' notification that eBay sends out when a bid is cancelled.

[andy-xr]

Bradley1500 said:

andy-xr said:

I think you are being unreasonable. Most people have eBay on their phones, or get notifications through email, so if they get notified however it comes over, they might have thought that was the end of it.

But surely if they received the 'outbid' notification, they would of also received the 'cancelled bid, you're now the highest bidder' notification that eBay sends out when a bid is cancelled.

To them though, once they're outbid they're free to go look at/bid on/buy anything else safe in the knowledge that they've no obligation anymore on yours. That's how everyone would look at it.

If there's then a 'hey, you're the highest bidder' that comes through later, that's unfortunate for you. I think if it was me I might have made contact if I wasnt bothered about it anymore, but that probably cant be said for everyone. You cancelled the higher bid, they've done no wrong. I think trying to chase them for it and reporting and waving round rules isnt going to particularly endear you to anyone looking at bidding/buying from you. DO what everyone else does, relist it and set the bidder ability to have good feedback only

[JQ]

Bradley1500 said:

andy-xr said:

I think you are being unreasonable. Most people have eBay on their phones, or get notifications through email, so if they get notified however it comes over, they might have thought that was the end of it.

But surely if they received the 'outbid' notification, they would of also received the 'cancelled bid, you're now the highest bidder' notification that eBay sends out when a bid is cancelled.

It's exactly how shill bidding works, and exactly why I wouldn't be buying off you. You do realise that the bid you cancelled will have sent your genuine buyers bid to their maximum, so you now know what their ceiling price was and are trying to force them to pay that price. They'd have probably got it cheaper if it wasn't for your cancelled bid. Good news for you, bad news for them.

You are being unreasonable, if you weren't prepared to accept bids from new users or people with 0 feedback you should have set up your bidder preferences correctly, not expect other people to accept strikes on their record because of your mistakes. Speak to Ebay about trying to get your fees back, but opening a case against the person who was outbid is unreasonable.