eBay auction query - winning bidder has bought another car

[Bradley1500]

I sold my car through a no reserve eBay auction which ended Saturday evening. The winning bidder made contact with me after auction end explaining that they were outbid so wasn’t expecting to win my auction and in the meantime had bid on another car which they wanted instead.

The bid they mentioned was made by someone who had recently joined eBay and had 0 feedback, this was made with circa 6 hours until auction end and not wanting to be messed around I removed their bid. This was done within 10 minutes of them placing the bid.

I phoned up my winning bidder to speak to them directly rather than messaging through eBay. When they had previously mentioned they had bid on another car I assumed they had won that car, but that auction was still live and wasn’t ending until the next evening, hence they hadn’t actually bought another car yet.

I asked whether it was possible to remove their bid from that auction or to speak to the person selling that car explaining the situation to them but they didn’t want to do this. It was obvious they had changed their mind about my car and wanted that one instead. I said I would phone when that auction had completed to find out whether they were the winning bidder or not and go from there.

I phoned later and instead of the lady I had spoken to previously her husband answered the phone. They had won the other auction and he told me they were buying that instead. I explained my wasted time and money (eBay fees) I would incur relisting the car and I wanted them to pay that but he wasn’t having any of it and hung up, just before telling me to stop harassing them.

What position am I in here? It’s more their attitude and lack of help towards the situation that has annoyed me about this.

[Bradley1500]

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.

[Bradley1500]

Annoying but as I thought.

The main reason I put the car on a no reserve auction was to get rid of it quickly as I haven't got the space to keep it.

[Bradley1500]

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.

[Bradley1500]

Magog said:

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

The car was already at a price I was happy to accept, no need to bid it up and even if it wasn't that's life, I took my chances with a no reserve auction.

The winning bidder has been reported to eBay and a second chance offer offered to the next highest bidder. I can't claim my fees back yet as I haven't had enough time from the end of the auction.

[Bradley1500]

Magog said:

Bradley1500 said:

Magog said:

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

The car was already at a price I was happy to accept, no need to bid it up and even if it wasn't that's life, I took my chances with a no reserve auction.

The winning bidder has been reported to eBay and a second chance offer offered to the next highest bidder. I can't claim my fees back yet as I haven't had enough time from the end of the auction.

Just to be clear, I don't think you've done that, because you wouldn't have posted this thread if you had. But that is exactly how it might appear to the bidders who were outbid.

That's fair enough, just wanted to be clear on that point.

[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.

[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?

[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?

[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.

[Bradley1500]

I'm not fussed they're not buying as I've already mentioned, if they genuinely bid on something else in that time I understand where they're coming from.

What I don't understand is they had enough time to realise they were outbid, find a replacement and bid on that; but didn't bother letting me know this was the case until auction end. As I said if they had messaged me saying this I would of simply removed their bid(s) too.

Cases have been opened with eBay and car relisted. I doubt anything will come from the open case apart from me having my fees refunded.

[Bradley1500]

JQ said:

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.

This isn't correct. After I cancelled the 0 feedback bidder the price dropped to where it was before they bidded, not the genuine buyers maximum bid, in fact it never reached that point again and the item didn't sell for their maximum bid.

For anyone suggesting I was shill bidding, this isn't the case. I wanted my car to sell as I need it gone as soon as possible, shill bidding could jeopardise this. If I wanted something to sell for a set price I would either set a reserve or list a buy-it-now listing.

I'll update once I hear back from eBay.

R_U_LOCAL said:

OP, the first reply is the only thing you can and should do:

marshalla said:

Report/dispute as a non-paying buyer, get your fees back, relist and move on.

I used to do a lot of ebaying and I've sold quite a few cars on there. Being messed about is par for the course these days - there are a lot of bellends out there.

At least you won't be out of pocket.

Thanks.

This is what I have done, hopefully the car sells this time.

[Bradley1500]

Right for anyone interested in the outcome:

Car was relisted and has sold to a genuine bidder, they're collecting this week.

My fees were refunded to me, which I thought would be the end of it, but no...

I received a message from eBay over the weekend explaining they had received my report on the non-paying bidder who have subsequently had their accounts suspended. They didn't detail any reason why but the fact they mentioned 'accounts' I'm guessing the 0 feedback bid I cancelled had come from them?

All round happy ending for me, thanks for all the helpful replies.