posted on October 15, 2000 06:09:06 PM
Hi. A bidder notified me that he was planning to bid $450 on my item, which was closing 3 minutes after eBay went down (17:13 PST). The auction ended at $355, with the last bidder bidding at 17:10 PST. What are the rules about this? What are my options?
posted on October 15, 2000 06:16:48 PM
WELCOME to the club, I to have had people emailing me saying that they would pay this and that over the ending price. Thanks eBay!!
posted on October 15, 2000 06:18:37 PM
I too have the same thing, but eBay's rules say that the high bidder is the winner of an auction. Of course, it would help if the the "true" high bidder could have bid, huh!
posted on October 15, 2000 06:22:25 PM
I've had this type of thing happen to me before.
I will only sell to the winner that got their bid in before the system crashed. Why? Well, how do you know that person didn't have a proxy bid of $500 in?
The person who is offering $450 should have bid earlier when they had the chance. After all, the auction did run for X number of days and the bidder could have put in a bid on any one of those days.
I know it stinks from the sellers perspective, but it would be unfair to the buyer who put in the early bid to do anything else.
posted on October 15, 2000 10:16:33 PM
If the buyer is not local to you (can't show up at your door with a gun) then relist it and send them a link to the new auction. You should not bite it on that much money, you have a valid excuse, and besides, what the heck can they do about it? Do not respond to their Emails beyond 1 Email explaining why you are doing this. They will give up quick if you ignore them. Hopefully they won't leave a negative but if they do, then you will still be okay. Just explain the situation in your response. It is unfortunate that one would have to do these things but the world ain't perfect.
posted on October 15, 2000 10:25:50 PM
It is the lesser of two evils for this seller not to sell the item. If the seller sells it then she's out $100. If the buyer doesn't get it, they're out nothing but a little time. They can just bid on another. I have often had auction increase by 30-40% in the last minute, so she probably missed out.
posted on October 15, 2000 10:46:26 PM
Sky---the only thing wrong with your scenario is that the next time the item goes up for auction there will one less bidder (the pissed off winner) and the bidding may not even go as high without their bids
posted on October 15, 2000 11:03:06 PM
Well, my solution was to notify the winning bidder that he was very fortunate, because eBay went down 3 minutes before our auction closed, thereby securing your bid of $355. We have since been notified by a bidder who was planning to place a $450 bid during that time. Please send your address and we will give you a total with shipping and insurance.
We value our customers (this is a repeat customer) greatly and couldn't relist. I am hoping he will come through and say go ahead and sell it to the $450 bidder, but I'm not holding my breath.
I have also asked eBay for a refund of all fees. If everyone does that, maybe eBay will listen!?
If someone e-mails you after an auction is finished and offers you $50 more than the winning bidder, do you take it? Tell the winning bidder that the item broke (or whatever)? I've heard, from more than a few people, that this is one of the biggest scams going... Don't bid, wait until the auction ends, then offer more than the high bidder. This allows the person to avoid a nasty bidding war and get the item more cheaply than they would have if they had bid.
I myself would have been offended if I won on an auction and the seller sent me that notice. How would I even know that the seller had received such an email? Why should a bidder be put on the spot for placing a bid early and winning an auction.
I can see the negative being left by the bidder, "Seller said I was fortunate that ebay went down early locking in my bid and preventing the seller from making a larger profit."
As a seller, I find that type of email unprofessional. Spit happens. If you are selling on ebay, then you have to learn to roll with the punches.
posted on October 15, 2000 11:46:20 PM
Conversly, why should a seller be prevented by eBay from getting the bids their item would have had, if the system had not gone down. This bidder's bid was only three and a half minutes before the end of the auction. Does that mean he is more deserving than a bidder coming in 3 minutes after him?
[b]"If you are selling on ebay, then you have to learn to roll with the punches."
[/b] Sellers should not have to put up with eBay's outages reducing their final values. Ebay needs to start extending auctions for outages of any length of time. We sellers are the ones that lose out, not the bidders. (The bidders are making out, as in this case.) Ebay itself loses out, because of their reduced final value fees. Sellers should not just let eBay roll over them. We should all let them know what we think by requesting that eBay refund our fees for those auction.
posted on October 15, 2000 11:48:59 PM
I can not count the times I might have an item go bidless and then get emails that they missed it etc. They were going to bid this amount. I tell them I am relisting the item and somehow most I never hear from again. As the saying goes a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.
Snip
That has been my experience too. I did have an item close and received an email that someone wanted to purchase it off ebay because they couldn't bid at the last moment. They were outbid by $2.50. I told them they could have the item for the same price as the high bidder and they said yes.
They sent me $90.00 by paypal and sent the balance of $46.00 as a money order from some bank that I have never heard of. The check had none of the usual fraud protection like a watermark on the back, and it didn't even have the code at the top like, 3-121, like most checks have. The strangest part was that the rounting numbers on the bottom read, "3333333333333333337." I have never seen any check that had routing numbers like that.
I have not shipped the package, and I informed the bidder that I couldn't ship until the check cleared. I am now waiting to see if the check clears or not.
posted on October 16, 2000 12:21:54 AM
mreinkec, I do understand how you feel. It's upsetting to hear that someone would have bid in the last few seconds, but the truth is that Ebay was running for at least three days prior to the auction ending -- pleanty of time to place a bid.
This is all part of running online auctions that take days and not minutes like live auctions.
If more bidders placed early bids and used the proxy bidding, the outages wouldn't be such a problem.
If you are going to play the sniping game, having ebay go down the last few seconds is a risk you take.
I have been selling for over a year and a half. It's no fun having auctions go down in the last few minutes. By starting the bid at a higher min bid or placing a reserve protects me from the outages, and the headaches that go with them.
posted on October 16, 2000 12:35:12 AMKelly Thankfully we did have a healthy reserve on the item, which was exceeded by $5. I estimate that the auction may have gone up by as much as $200, based on previous sales by others, of similar items.
Proxy bidding is great, but snipe bidding is a fact of eBay. Many people only bid this way. Ebay needs to protect sellers from this kind of occurance. As sellers, we need to let them know what we think. Many people feel that eBay won't listen, but if enough of us complained, maybe they would.
This kind of attitude is reflected at the voting poles in the USA. I read an article stating that Australians have a 80-90% voter turnout. If 80-90% of the eBayers affected by tonights outage would ask for refunds, eBay would have to listen. If they don't there is another thread here, which give suggestions about what to do.
posted on October 16, 2000 04:17:21 AMIf the buyer is not local to you (can't show up at your door with a gun) then relist it and send them a link to the new auction.
Hey, skyscout, why limit this practice to the times when ebay's down? Why not use it anytime your item doesn't sell for what you'd like? Just tell the high bidder "too bad" and relist the item. If they leave a neg, I'm sure you'll be OK. Just explaiin it in your response.
You might enlighten us as to how this practice jibes with this statement from ebay:
Keep in mind that you are committing to selling these items at eBay. Refusing to sell these items to the high bidder at the end of your auction will cause you to lose your registered status.
[ edited by HartCottageQuilts on Oct 16, 2000 04:18 AM ]
posted on October 16, 2000 07:52:28 AM
Glenda-I did address that they'd leave negative feedback. And no, you don't sell to somebody that offers ylou more after a normal auction. However, you should not go giving stuff away because of Ebay's screw up. That is hardly "doing the right thing." Pissed off buyers don't stay pissed for long.
posted on October 16, 2000 08:09:05 AM
How can one be certain there are late bidders and snipers waiting to bid on an auction when the site goes down? I do notice that closing prices have dropped considerably lately so past results are no indication of today's closing bids. Also since the auction has been sittig for X number of days before closing and an outage at closing only lasted 30-45 minutes, I myself find no excuse to refuse to sell to an early bidder. Also , I would not trust everyone who e-mails and states they would have bid X dollars more. Many weird things have been reported on this board and apparently some people get their "funnies" in odd ways. There are too many unknowns here.
buyhigh
posted on October 16, 2000 09:08:01 AM
It's the sniper's catch-22: If I wait until the last 10 seconds & I'm willing to spend $450 then maybe I'll outfox everyone else & get it for $310 or something, right? The catch-22 is that maybe eBay will have an intermittent outage & I won't be able to bid at all.
Happens all the time, no different than if they were rushing to get back home to bid, but got stuck at a train crossing & missed your auction by 30 seconds.
Either they get their bids in, or they don't, the rest is all spilt milk.
posted on October 16, 2000 09:45:59 AM
mreinkec...hypothetical here...you've got a high bid of $355 from Bidder A. Bidder B is willing to pay $450 but can't get in. If Bidder A's proxy is maxed out at $355, then Bidder B's bid amount, could he have gotten in, would only bring the price up to $360. Remember, the max on your proxy does not mean anything. It's what others are willing to bid against you.
So, unless you know exactly what Bidder A's proxy was, there is no way to know exactly what the final amount would have been. But Bidder A's proxy would have had to have been at least $449 in order for you to have actually gotten $450 from Bidder B's bid.
With this possibility in mind, would a negative been worth $5?
*************************
That's Flunky Gerbiltush to you!
posted on October 16, 2000 10:00:15 AM
Most likely there would have been 2 or 3 bidders waiting until the last minute. That is often the case on big money items. I would just relist it and not get into it with the buyers. Clearly, a dispute has arisen because of Ebay being down. I was at a live auction the other day and it was printed right there on the card, if a dispute arises between two or more bidders, the auctioneers decision is final. That is the attitude I would take and I'd relist it. Maybe Ebay needs to remember who is doing all the work!
posted on October 16, 2000 10:00:31 AMSnip has the best point here. A bidder can SAY he was planning to bid such and such amount, but that does not equate to actually following through on that claim and completing a sale with you.
I've heard it over and over: "Oh, I really wanted that item and I would have paid more!!" Well, guess what? They didn't bid, did they? How bad did they want it? How serious are they?
I also have had these whiners claim that they would have paid more, and like Snip, when another of the same item was listed, they were nowhere to be found!!
Why would anyone risk their reputation as a legitimate, fair seller over a bunch of hot air claims?
posted on October 16, 2000 10:35:07 AM
Hi. I just wanted to give you an update to my story. The winning bidder just sent this email:
[b]Hello again to you as well.
Yes, I know ebay went down just before the end of last night's auction. The reason I know it is because I was using my usual strategy of placing a Really Good Bid, and thus forcing the "minimum increment weenies" to keep bidding until time runs out, and meanwhile waiting until the last moments to bid HUGE, and try to beat the serious players.
I cannot in all conscience pay $355. Therefore I insist on $455, since the bid I was trying to place before the crash would have beaten $450. Rather than profit on ebay's ineptitude, I would prefer to call this new bid a handshake [/b]
Isn't he great!? I emailed back:
[b]Thank you so much. We are so appreciative. This is so generous, and we accept your offer. We can't tell you how much you have restored our faith in eBay bidders. We know your bidding style as well and definitely figured that you were planning on placing a bid adequate to beat the snipers.
In appreciation of your honesty, we will pick up the shipping and insurance, so please send $455. A personal check is fine.
[/b]
It is so nice to have customers out there like this. He didn't have to do it, but he did.
[b]busybiddy]In the small area of collecting we are in, you get to know the bidding styles of many people. I am sure that the other bidder was truthful about his bid, because I know the item is worth even more than that and I know his bidding style, too.
Just thought you guys would appreciate hearing the rest of the story
