Ebay help - buyer wants to back out? [SOLVED]

Deadfall

I have used ebay roughly three times in my life, and this is why it makes me nervous every time. Forgive my ignorance.

I sold an item and I just got a message immediately after the bid closed from the buyer saying to sell it to the next bidder, she already obtained a copy.

My first instinct is to say too bad so sad, it said no refunds. Is this right? She can't just back out can she?

noir_blood

I don't know the ebay rules, but I'm curious as to why you just wouldn't simply say 'okay' and either contact the second highest bid/put it back up.

It'd be different if you had already mailed it out, but what exactly are you loosing at this point?

Plus forcing her to pay for it can cause her to be vindictive and either claim she never received the item or find a reason to say the thing wasn't as advertised and get her money back through paypal, which generally sides with the buyer.

Deadfall

Because she bid for it and gave me a good price? Like is backing out of a winning bid common? I'm genuinely asking I don't know.

Gaslight

Technically, as eBay says, "Your bid is a contract," so you have no obligation to let her back out.

However, it wouldn't be the worst idea for you to be a nice guy and let her bail. If she decides to be a jerk about it, eBay's policies heavily favor the buyer, and it will not be worth your time to fight her about this.

Daenris

Ebay/Paypal are all about the buyers pretty much, so in general it's not a great practice to just say "screw you" to a buyer.

In this case, like noir_blood said it seems like you can pretty easily just drop this, and since you haven't shipped anything yet or anything it doesn't seem like they're trying to scam you or anything, so if it were me I'd just let them out and move on.

see317

From the stories I've heard, Ebay/paypal will side with the buyer in 99.9% of cases. If you force the bidder to buy, chances are you're going to wind up with the short end of the stick. Even shorter then the end you've got now.

Deadfall

I see. Well that's annoying.

DevoutlyApathetic

Uh....don't just say "Sure" and let her walk. There should be something in place on Ebay's site for when this happens. If you don't you're still going to pay Ebay based on the highest price and you'll be violating the hell out of Ebay's policies if you contact the 2nd place bidder outside Ebay's system.

Letting them walk may be your best course of action but do it in the right way inside of Ebay's system or you're setting yourself up to get screwed.

@Deadfall‌

Cauld

Ebay has a system in place to contact the second highest bidder. Like others have said either relist it or offer it to the 2nd highest bidder at their reserve price (I think it shows you that in the system).

Yes it sucks that they were the highest bidder and don't want it. But they have all the power in the transaction. They can claim it isn't what you said it was, it was in worse condition, etc. You're pretty lucky you found out before you shipped it, overall.

Deadfall

Thanks. There is a Second Offer thing apparently where I can offer it to the next bidder.

Like I said I'm fairly inexperienced at eBay, so I initially panicked thinking I was getting screwed. She swooped in at the last hour and offered the buyout price, and I guess backing out of a sale like that is a foreign thing to me.

Unknown

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darqness

Make sure you send her a cancellation request in the resolution center. Otherwise eBay is going to bill you for their cut of the sale price when in reality there was no sale.

Sir Red of the Manti

Could be a scam. Low bidder low balls the auction, cooperative high bidder enforces a wide disparity between bids with a bid that's not likely to be topped/ends the auction with BIN then backs out, low bidder gets great deal. I'd recommend re-listing rather than letting the next bidder get dibs if you feel this is the case.

see317

Sir Red of the Manti wrote: »

Could be a scam. Low bidder low balls the auction, cooperative high bidder enforces a wide disparity between bids with a bid that's not likely to be topped/ends the auction with BIN then backs out, low bidder gets great deal. I'd recommend re-listing rather than letting the next bidder get dibs if you feel this is the case.

I haven't ebayed in a long time, but would that actually work? (Not asking if it's acceptable by their TOS, just if it would work within the system)
It used to be that the top bidders actual bid was hidden, only incrementing above the previous bid by a relatively small amount. If a new bidder comes along and placed a bid that didn't meet the original top bidders maximum amount, the price would be increased to match the new bidder's bid plus the increment until the top bidders bid was matched or exceeded by another bidder.

It would seem that the second place bidder's bid would be raised to their maximum bid, which if they kept it low (because they're trying to save money by scamming the system) would invite it to be beaten by any other bidder who placed a bid between what the two scam runners bid. (IE: Scam Top bidder bids $100, low bidder bids 10$, People see the current bid at $11, anyone who comes in and bids $12+ becomes the new second place bidder, and Scam Top Bidder has a bid of $NewBid+1).

Like I said though, I haven't ebayed in a long time, I imagine a lot of stuff has changed in how they run their auctions.

I think I've used my quota of the word "bid" for the next month and a half in this post.

Daenris

I think it would only work if the winner used Buy It Now, because that wouldn't increment the other bids as it's just a set price they can purchase the item at and end the auction early. If the winner just placed a high bid, it would work exactly as you said, with the final price being just incrementally above the highest bid of the second place bidder.

schuss

Regardless, there's enough buyer protections that screwing with them likely isn't worth it. My buddy runs an ebay business, and even though he's had someone buy his clothes, wear them, then return them as "defective" to him and make a youtube video about how to do that to get free clothes usage he's better off just processing things. It's not fair, but it's the way they've set things up.

Visskar

Deadfall wrote: »

Thanks. There is a Second Offer thing apparently where I can offer it to the next bidder.

Like I said I'm fairly inexperienced at eBay, so I initially panicked thinking I was getting screwed. She swooped in at the last hour and offered the buyout price, and I guess backing out of a sale like that is a foreign thing to me.

If she did use Buy It Now at the last minute, then turn around and say she already got a copy that does seem rather suspicious. I would lean towards relisting the item rather than the 2nd Chance Offer as it seems more likely it could be collusion between the pair.

Psykoma

Agree with Visskar, if she did buy it now then yeah I'd suspect collusion and would relist it.

I know ebay has seller ratings, do they have buyer ratings as well? If they do, go to her profile and rate it as 1 star, and leave a message saying she backed out of a buy it now.

Draygo

Also consider that if you force her to buy she is going to give you the lowest rating possible. For an account with so few sales that can seriously hurt your ability to sell in the future even if she doesn't hassle you in other ways.

Visskar

Psykoma wrote: »

Agree with Visskar, if she did buy it now then yeah I'd suspect collusion and would relist it.

I know ebay has seller ratings, do they have buyer ratings as well? If they do, go to her profile and rate it as 1 star, and leave a message saying she backed out of a buy it now.

They used to have Buyer ratings but a couple of years ago they did away with those.

Deadfall

Second Chance thing didn't work anyway so now it's just re listed.

Fingers crossed that I get a comparable price.