Retracting Bids on eBay!

[craig]

Ive just had an email though from eBay to inform me that someone has retracted a bid they made on an item of mine.

They bid last Tuesday originally, the auction ends tomorrow night and ive had no contact at all from them.

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=320566158327

He stated the reason for his retraction as "Cannot contact the seller".

This is the first ive heard of anything and i wasnt even given the option from ebay to respond to the bidder before his bid was retracted! Is this right?!

[jonnyp]

I had the same happen to me couple of weeks back. Bid few times on it one day and then retracted the next - stating entered wrong amount. Think he was checking what reserve was on my item as day before it ended he bid again exactly what reserve was. Still did not win it though. Glad about that

[foxes1]

You can complain to Ebay about this
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/questions/retract-bid.html

I would suggest you contact Ebay (Probably wont do any good but you can try) and say they have never tried to contact you.

Problem with cancelling a bid Ebay give the buyer 3 options to cancel the bid, and cannot contact the buyer is one of them. It's just a way of the buyer getting out of the contract with the seller.

[craig]

Cheers foxes.

Just placed a complaint against him but im in a no-win situation really as if ebay did reinstate his bid by any chance he could give me bad feedback as there is no threat that i could give bad feedback back to him

[paulo]

Correct - it is anoying but not a lot you can do really. Still I would rather have the person retract rather than have to chase and chase a non-payer.

I am still waiting for 5 payers out 19 to cough up on my lots that finished on Saturday afternoon. Why does it take people so long? I want to make a paypal, withdrawl, but seems a bit daft until its all in.

[goonerboy]

It is possible to retract a bid on eBay but the problem is that the reason you have to state is a drop down list of 3 options (cannot contact seller, entered wrong amount and description changed) thus it may have nothing to do with you but simply the bidder changed his/her mind. I believe that a bid can only be retracted if more than 12 hours to go.

Although clearly it is not a routine practice to be encouraged I am not sure it is an issue in my eyes. There can be legitimate reasons eg programme has been sourced from elsewhere or is available cheaper elsewhere or perhaps due to other buying activity funds are now tighter.

Even trying to find out reserve price, I am not sure I would get aerated about. After all the reserve is simply a price below which the seller does not wish to sell. I never understand this obsession about keeping a reserve price secret. Surely the goal is to sell an item. I understand the psychology about starting the price low etc but one bidder finding out reserve is hardly a catastrophe, indeed in the example given he actually was willing to meet the price. Surely that should be a good thing.

[CarlisleUtdMem]

paulo wrote:

I am still waiting for 5 payers out 19 to cough up on my lots that finished on Saturday afternoon. Why does it take people so long?

To be fair not everyone can get on the web everyday due to work, family commitments etc.

I really struggle to pay for items, reply to messages on here and through my own site for this reason. As much as I'd like to do these things every day it just isn't possible.
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Regards,
Adam