posted on January 6, 2001 11:24:29 AM
Yep, I am singing the bid retraction blues.
I hate bid retracters !!!! I despise them !!!
I monitor my auctions closely looking for user's with bid retractions. As soon as I spot one, I end the auction right then so as not to give them a chance to retract.
Well, I was monitoring my auctions today and I noticed a bidder bid on an item I had been trying to sell for awhile now. I checked to see if he had any bid retractions and he did not, so I figured I would let the auction run its course. Not 30 minutes later I get the "Bid change notice" from ebay and guess what ? Yep, he retracted. ARGHHHHHH
I have tried all I can do to stop these bid retractors from doing this, but if they have no record of doing it, there is nothing I can do aside from ending every auction as soon as it gets a bid. I don't want to do that !!!
posted on January 6, 2001 11:28:37 AM
The hard part is that eBay allows users to do the retractions themselves. If eBay got on the ball and had users ask customer service to get a bid retracted, I don't think the problem would be as great as it is now.
But, keep in mind that with current policy, you also have the right to delete a bidder from your auction. So if you feel that he might deadbeat you or retract, do it yourself.
posted on January 6, 2001 05:57:03 PM
I know I'm going to get it for this, but just this week I did my first retraction...
I had several of a certain buyers auctions on my Watch List and placed a bid on one without realizing I'd bid on the WRONG one...
To make matters WORSE, I didn't realize this for several days...
I was SO embarassed I didn't go back and bid on the RIGHT one for a few MORE days...
Fortunately, the seller must be the forgiving sort or I would have been knocked out in rather short order I imagine...
I'm sorry about all your bid retractions, but why should you waste SO much time checking everyone out to fit your "no bid retraction" criteria?
I just check 'em out to see if they've failed to make payment...
posted on January 6, 2001 06:38:11 PM
I was just wondering what you sell that you get a lot of bid retractions? I have been selling almost 3 years and have gotten very few.
The thing I sold that caused me the most pain in deadbeats and such was a friend's collection of older rock and roll albums.
posted on January 8, 2001 08:27:13 AM
barrelracer,
It is funny because I sell everything and anything under the sun !
The item does not matter because I get bid retractions on just about anything I sell.
Lately it is starting to become a daily issue.
Ebay needs to do something about this type of activity.
Like I have stated in other post about TOS, bidders are simply not reading the auctions when they bid and come back and read the auction later and decide they will retract their bid because of something they did not notice before.
If you go to a live auction and bid, you can't stand back up after 10-15 minutes and say, "OOOPS, I changed my mind"
Ebay has made it to easy to retract a bid. I feel you should only be able to retract a bid through safeharbor or timesensitive.
A bidder should have to contact ebay and have ebay retract the bid and not let the bidder do it themselves.
We all know how some buyers use this bid retracting feature for bid blocking, shilling, and to find out reserves by bidding high and then retracting.
This needs to stop ! Maybe some of you have not noticed a high number of bid retractions, but believe me, as soon as it starts happening to you, you will wonder why this issue wasn't addressed right now.
posted on January 8, 2001 10:35:17 AM
I have a question: Am I allowed to give an auction # that will close in less than 1/2 hr? (this was a world wide advertised auction). Or, am I allowed to give the # after it closes? It very much has to do with this thread...thanks for your help.
I agree with you completely that ebay needs to do something different with this, maybe some time limit on number of retractions you can make, 3 a month or something.
I have been on ebay 3 years and have never made a retraction.
I KNOW that most retractions are probably makde because they either found the item cheaper on another auction, or found something else they wanted more.
Maybe there is some comfort in that, if they really decide they don't want it it is better they retract then become a deadbeat. But I don't know for sure, like I said, I haven't had that many of them.
posted on January 8, 2001 11:55:36 AM
Personaly I would rather they retracted before the auction ends than not pay after.
The last bid retraction I had the person emailed me and said some unexpected expenses had come up.
Agin better to know before hand than to chase non existant funds after the auction ends
posted on January 8, 2001 03:43:09 PM
Have only had a few, but the only one that really ticked me off was a retraction where she put the reason as "unable to verify authenticity"...This was a piece of platinum jewelry and I always provide a super macro shot of the hallmark stamped into the piece so that anyone can see that it is indeed platinum. But what her remarked looked like to me was that I was not willing to provide something and she never contacted me at all.
Well, I emailed her and asked why she did that but she didn't have the courtesy to respond.
Fortunately the item got many bids & sold high, but I was afraid her comment was going to preclude a good sale.
posted on January 8, 2001 10:42:25 PM
I had a bid retraction at the last 10min of my auction, which I felt was now to me considered as an unfair auction. The reason was stated that he bid for a friend and just realized (4days later) it was the wrong auction. What I did was cancell all bids since I felt that it was a way for the underbidder to win the auction at a cheaper price, and by staying on my auction till the end at a very high price may have kept other bidders from bidding.
I relisted the auction right away and told the bidder that won, he could bid on my auction again if he wanted to, since I felt it was unfair to me what had happened.
We'll he didn't bid on my auction, and the auction went even higher than the first time but this time there were 14 different bidders. I don't feel what I did was wrong, because I felt the two bidders from the first auction were working together......
OF COURSE THEY WERE !!!! This is exactly what I am talking about !!! There are people on ebay doing just that and ebay does nothing about it !!!
I am tired of these types of bidders. If you are unsure of an item or have questions on an item you should contact the seller of that item or not bid at all !
Another thing that has me mad about this is that once an auction recieves a bid (whether that bid gets retracted or not) you cannot go in and revise that auction. Ebay should look into this to.
I had a bid retractor kicked off ebay yesterday ONLY because I had reported him last week. This guy bid placed 3 bids on 2 of my auctions last week and retracted all of them. I emailed him and told him never to bid on my auctions again and carboned-copied the email to safeharbor.
One of the items sold, but the other got relisted and this guy bid on it again (after being told not to). The item was $3.00 and he had made a $1,000 bid !!!
I emailed safeharbor and he got suspended.
From now on every bid retractor will be reported and I will do everything in my power to get these type of bidders kicked off.
I do not want to put TOS back in my auctions for this. I do not feel it is fair to the honest users.
Ebay really needs to address this issue as it is growing out of control.
Ebay says a bid is a binding contract, so why do they make it so easy for a bidder to retract his bid ???
posted on January 11, 2001 07:30:06 AM
Cix....
That is what I and lots of other sellers would like to know, If a bid is a contract, why is a retraction allowed?????
If your auction gets mest up because of a bid retraction Ebay should stop the auction and have an automatic relist of that auction.
And they do know who retracted the bid, so I feel that EBAY should handle this situation.
Like they handle when you list an item and it's not in there guide lines, they end your auction and then tell you why they did that.
Buyers who retract bids should get warnings also, but the problem goes unnoticed by Ebay so that leaves it open to buyers to do bid retraction.
When ever I have a bid retracted I make my own decision as to, Should I keep the auction going or end the auction, and some bidders say it's not fair to end the auction, Really, well what makes it fair to RETRACT YOUR BID????
posted on January 11, 2001 07:57:05 AM
One thing more I should mention....I was a buyer on an item and I placed my bid, but I got distracted and instead of placing my bid of $7,500.00 I placed the bid of $75,.000.00 So what I did was go and retract my first bid BUT...I Also went back and placed the correct bid of $7,500.00
so in this case I really didn't do wrong by retraction, because I went back and placed the right amount. There was no way I could have left the first bid. The seller wrote me and told me how upset he was about what I did, but I told him I could understand you being upset if I retracted my bid and didn't go back and place the correct bid. So I didn't understand him being upset, it all happened within 2min. so what problem did I cause, NONE, In that case I needed to retract and replace my bid. Because of that honest mistake I have on my clean record 1 bid retracted....So I live with that, So now when I am placing a bid I don't let nobody distract me because I don't what that to happen again, By the way, I did win the auction and the seller was happy at the end.
In this type of a situation I fell that we need to be able to retract a bid. But if you do retract, and don't go back and but in your correct bid that is wrong....What do you think about what I happened......
posted on January 11, 2001 08:13:50 AM
Bid retractions are getting out of control. I have been selling on ebay for over 3 years and have had very few up to this point. I had a bidder a few days ago place a bid on an item I was selling, retract it with"wrong item." Isn't it strange that when I looked at her bidding list she had found the SAME "wrong item" and bought that one with a BIN!! I guess mine was just the wrong price, not the wrong item.Do your research before bidding. She/he has 4 bid retractions in the past 7 days. Must be making a lot of mistakes.
I have another active bidder now that has 29 bid retractions in the past 6 months. You should not be able to make that many retractions. Nobody makes that many mistakes. I will give you a few, but 29!! Let's be more careful out there, Meredith
I have no problem with a bidder retracting a bid due to a mistake they made and then reinstating their bid right after. This is what this feature is for.
I do not appreciate bidders retracting a bid and NOT reinstating it right after.
