Ebay bidding policy...need your help

[RPMClassic]

Seeking the wisdom and experience from you active ebayers.

In the event a person bids on an item within the last hour of a no reserve auction - and the ebay site will not accept a persons bid( due to computer trouble or the site is down) - what happens?

Does the current high bidder still win? In this scenerio, the seller is refusing to ship item until " he looks into what happened".

Sounds to me that he was waiting for one of his buds to jack the price up and it never happened!

What are the rules in this case that dictates how the transaction should be completed between buyer and seller? Does the seller have the right to refuse to ship item?

Thanks for the input from a buyers perspective.

There are so many scam deals on Egad. I don't know that you have any recourse. Ebay will only "investigate" things like what happened to you, but my experience is that they don't do anything about it. Good luck.

[Joeaksa]

Have seen this happen a few times and Ebay always stopped everything and allowed an extra day to allow for the auctions to continue if the computer problems did not all for unlimited access to the auction site.

Mark is correct that Ebay investigates a lot and does not do jack $hite most of the time...

Joe

[jyl]

Seller has a point. Many buyers wait until the last hour to bid. Some use "sniping" software that places a bet X seconds before the auction ends. E.g. when I buy on eBay (have been doing for years) my bids are placed 5 seconds before the auction closes. That is why you often see prices shoot up just before the auction closes. So if eBay's computers weren't accepting bids for the last hour, the seller most likely did lose out on the full auction price. If I were the seller I wouldn't ship either - I'd repeat the auction.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by RPMClassic
In the event a person bids on an item within the last hour of a no reserve auction - and the ebay site will not accept a persons bid( due to computer trouble or the site is down) - what happens?

Ok, the person either bid or he didn't. If his 'computer was down' or 'ebay wouldn't accept his bid' then that is not a bid.
Period.
Basically, he's disappointed with the outcome of the auction. Whatever you do, don't pay a penny more for the item, even if he claims he has another buyer.
If I put a GT3 on there but screwed up the listing so that nobody found it and bid on it, and you picked it up for $1, that's my problem. The only screamin' deals I find on ebay are done this way. Unfortunately, those are also the most reluctant sellers.

Does the current high bidder still win? In this scenerio, the seller is refusing to ship item until " he looks into what happened".

Basically, he doesn't want to sell it to you for that price, irrespective of his excuses.

What are the rules in this case that dictates how the transaction should be completed between buyer and seller? Does the seller have the right to refuse to ship item?

He's obligated to sell to you at that price. If it was the other way 'round, he'd be demanding that you pay the price, right? Ebay has a complaint process for this. However, unless you're willing to take the guy to court and whatnot, you're stuck. If he don't wanna sell it, nothing short of legal action or a visit from Guido and Tony will make him change his mind.

[widebody911]

Ebay has no soft spot for snipers. A guy I know runs a sniping service, and he was telling me how the actively fight the sniping s/w by blocking IP's and constantly changing their web forms.

Originally posted by jyl
Seller has a point. Many buyers wait until the last hour to bid. Some use "sniping" software that places a bet X seconds before the auction ends. E.g. when I buy on eBay (have been doing for years) my bids are placed 5 seconds before the auction closes. That is why you often see prices shoot up just before the auction closes. So if eBay's computers weren't accepting bids for the last hour, the seller most likely did lose out on the full auction price. If I were the seller I wouldn't ship either - I'd repeat the auction.

[RPMClassic]

Mistakes do happen and computers do crash. These are facts of life. Most of you would agree ( I hope), that the difference is how " the situation is handled". A polite email or phone call from the seller would be the 1st step to ensure that the channels of communication remain open. After all, buying luxury items for our Porsches is supposed to be fun. It may all work out just fine, hopefully the seller will uphold his end of the deal.

In the event the item is relisted at a higher price, wouldn't ebay be able to tell with their "tricky software" that a system error in fact occured during the last hour of an auction.

Thanks for the feedback.

[jyl]

I realize this goes contra to the opinion I expressed earlier, but I took a look under "hard outage" in eBay's policies.

It appears that if "no one can bid or buy" for over 2 hours, then eBay extends for 24 hours auctions that were scheduled to end during, or within an hour after, the outage. For outages under 2 hours, auctions are not extended.

As I read this - admittedly I just skimmed the rules - it seems like the seller may be obligated to perform if the outage was short enough. Probably worth pointing seller to the rules, checking the bid history to see how long the outage lasted, and contacting eBay.

RPM, I'm not sure I understand what happened. Is the seller saying that Ebay had a computer glitch or that another potential buyer had a pc glitch and couldn't get in?

[widebody911]

I stand by my previous assertion that the seller is trying to weasel out of selling the item to you at the price at which the auction closed. The 'site outtage' claim is a big fat red herring.

[dad911]

If ebay sent you an email and said you are the high bidder, then you are the high bidder. If he is not willing to ship item for that price, there isn't much that you can do but leave bad feedback, and report transaction to ebay. Be thankful that you found out this is a transaction gone bad before you sent him the payment.

[RPMClassic]

Apparently, a bidder tried to bid within the last 5 minutes of the auction and did not win. This person is saying that it was "ebays problem" and not their computers. Thus making the current winning bid invalid in their opinion.

I clearly don't have, and am not being told all the details - aside from the fact that the winning bid is being contested by another ebayer and the seller is temporarily refusing to mail item - even though the $$ and shipping address were both promptly submitted within 12 hrs of auction end to the seller.

An ebay technical error is possible, another possibility is that the seller was "selling on margin" and didn't actually own the item being offered.

Not to take this out of perspective, but what if a buyer was bidding via phone on a Barrett Jackson auction. If during the process, the buyer called back to place another bid - and got a busy signal - its not the phone companys fault! Nor would the car be relisted on another day to be eligible for new bidders.

Gotcha. Seller is trying to hose you. Unfortunately, as I said before, Ebay got no teeth to prove/disprove or enforce. All you can do is leave negative feedback and post the sellers name and shenanigans(not that I'm advocating that) on BBS's.
What were you trying to buy anyway?

[widebody911]

Originally posted by RPMClassic
Apparently, a bidder tried to bid within the last 5 minutes of the auction and did not win. This person is saying that it was "ebays problem" and not their computers. Thus making the current winning bid invalid in their opinion.

Sure, I've had that happen to me - my line would drop right at the last minute. Dems da breaks - stuff happens. Ebay won't do anything about it 'cept to day "you shoulda bid sooner."

BTW - what's the item #? I'm dying to know what all the fuss is over.

[Hockey fan]

Originally posted by jyl
I realize this goes contra to the opinion I expressed earlier, but I took a look under "hard outage" in eBay's policies.

It appears that if "no one can bid or buy" for over 2 hours, then eBay extends for 24 hours auctions that were scheduled to end during, or within an hour after, the outage. For outages under 2 hours, auctions are not extended.

As I read this - admittedly I just skimmed the rules - it seems like the seller may be obligated to perform if the outage was short enough. Probably worth pointing seller to the rules, checking the bid history to see how long the outage lasted, and contacting eBay.

In several years of buying and selling on Ebay it has always worked out like above: I do recall in the past having items extended that weren't even unavailable for a full 2 hours.

Sounds like the seller was unhappy with the final bid. I always start my items for the price I'd like to get. One bid makes me happy and anything over is a bonus.

Jeff

[pjv911]

So was it a smokin deal or not ? Where`s the item # or link to the auction ?

[jrdavid68]

I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1999. I have had mostly positive experiences, however, most of the transactions I have been involved in were not high dollar events.

There is an auction right now on eBay where the seller has stolen my picture and used my description almost verbatim. I have been through this before and eBay is totally useless. I did have one seller actually link to the picture I had on my own web space - once my auction was over I replaced that picture with something else just to mess with his auction until it ended. Can't do that this time.

Here's my current auction for a Colt's helmet:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=37693&item=2718926568

Here's the seller's auction that stole my stuff:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=37693&item=2719135504&rd=1

Maybe I should consider this some lazy form of flattery?

JrDavid68
1986 Carrera