Bid retractions - just seeing what others think of them , are they fair ?

[buggerit234]

My opinion  - the fairest solution is that if a buyer wants to cancel / retract a bid within the last 24hrs of an auction this  can only be done by contacting the seller & all bids removed by this bid retractor.  If the seller doesnt agree to cancel their bids , tough luck ,  that bidder either pays up or gets a non paying strike.

I was outbid by someone making small manual incremental bids , about 10 of them with about 1 hr left on the auction,    his/her last bid outbid me, fair enough.  But with about 7 mins left on then auction his/ her bid was retracted leaving me the next highest bidder.  The problem is only that last bid is retracted leaving me to pay my MAX bid not the next highest up from the bidder below me,  result is I'm expected to pay approx $40 more than what I should have been if this idiot bidder did not bid.   

I'd wear it if he/ she stopped bidding just below my MAX bid but when they bid over me to see what my max bid is then retract it,  well what can i say.

Normally I'll wait till the last few mins of auction end to see what price its up to & decide to bid or not.  This time I was on road trip & had no internet connection,  so I used ebay proxy bidding by putting my max bid in 2 or 3 days before.   Needless to say I'll never use ebay proxy bidding again.

Looking at Ebay's bidding policy they dont remove all bids by the retractor ( if those bids come in within 12hrs of auction end ) to combat buyers bid "sheilding"  which I've never done or heard of before.    But this does nothing stop sellers "shill bidding"  ,  or even its not bid shilling & just a buyer finding out they can find a cheaper item elsewehere ie changing their mind  it still pushes up the price higher unfairly .  

Its a joke using the excuse " entered wrong amount " as a reason for a bid retraction , more so when they have made several small bids previously say $3 or $4 each bid 8 times before  , then **bleep** I've bid $4 too much ,  now I'm the highest bidder ,  I'll retract my bid......  

What other auctions can you retract your bid??   Please let me know  . 

Yes I contacted the seller ,  they are not intested in either cancelling the transaction or me to pay my bid above the 2 highest bidder.  Understand the seller pays no fee if the transaction is cancelled ,  relisting the item would probably be the fairest solution and the seller blocking that bid retractor from bidding again.

When I mentioned to the seller did they know about a bid retraction with mins to the end of the auction and I thought the bidding activity looked unusual he said if I was trying to say it was bid shilling he'd be offended.

Yes I emailed Ebay after that & the person who responded wasnt helpful at all & made no sense,  English wasnt very good at all.

[chameleon54]

It sounds a lot like shill bidding by the seller. Click on the coded id that bid you up and see how many bids they have made with the seller concerned, and what % of their bids are with this seller. This can give an indication of shill bidding activity.

You could try contacting CS again and ask to speak to a superviser to report the suspicious activity. Also ask them to cancel the transaction. I have had a couple of transactions cancelled before when the seller has played "silly bug gers". I wouldnt be too woried about "offending" the seller. It sounds like they are not too concerned about you.

[*tippy*toes*]

Sounds like shill bidding to me. Bid up to see what the max bid is then retract in the last few minutes. I find it interesting that you said only the highest bid was removed. I've retracted bids 3 times in over 10 years and all bids were removed. One time was because I bid $5,000 instead of $50, so I retracted and placed the correct amount. I had placed a small bid of $2 when the auction had started with the intention of placing my max bid later. By that point obviously I knew what the highest bid was, which was still less than what I was happy to pay, so placed my $50 bid. I ended up winning the item for $48.

Another time was because I noticed after I'd bid that the seller was using the GSP and I'd bid on 2 of her items. I knew that to send both items was going to cost me half my house as you can't combine postage with the GSP. At that point I was the only bidder so I cancelled them and sent the (newish) seller a message apologising for cancelling my bid and told her why. She ended up getting a good price for them.

As far as I'm aware, all bids get removed. I'm wondering if the seller has then placed the bids again to just under your maximum bid so it looks like they have placed a new bid after retracting for putting in the wrong amount to start with ($5,000 instead of $50).

[phorum_junkie*]

the fairest solution is that if a buyer wants to cancel / retract a bid within the last 24hrs of an auction this  can only be done by contacting the seller & all bids removed by this bid retractor.  If the seller doesnt agree to cancel their bids , tough luck ,  that bidder either pays up or gets a non paying strike.

This already partially applies, only a seller can cancel bids within 12 hours of the auction ending.

Re the discrepency about all or only the latest bid being removed I believe from memory that if the bids are automatic bids then all will be removed but if they are individual, manual bids then only the last one will be cancelled.

[go-tazz]

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buggerit234 wrote:
 

I was outbid by someone making small manual incremental bids , about 10 of them with about 1 hr left on the auction,    his/her last bid outbid me, fair enough.  But with about 7 mins left on then auction his/ her bid was retracted leaving me the next highest bidder.  The problem is only that last bid is retracted leaving me to pay my MAX bid not the next highest up from the bidder below me,  result is I'm expected to pay approx $40 more than what I should have been if this idiot bidder did not bid.   

Classic shill bidding,(find your maximum through manual bids and then retract the "winning" bid.).

By only cancelling the last bid eBay and the seller still make a bigger profit when shill bidding is involved,(in

a genuine case the seller would lose money as others may have bid more if the shill bidder hadn't

become involved)

Yes I contacted the seller ,  they are not intested in either cancelling the transaction or me to pay my bid above the 2 highest bidder.  Understand the seller pays no fee if the transaction is cancelled ,  relisting the item would probably be the fairest solution and the seller blocking that bid retractor from bidding again.

They don't want to cancel as that meant that their shill bidding didn't work and they would lose the extra

money that the shiller made for them.

When I mentioned to the seller did they know about a bid retraction with mins to the end of the auction and I thought the bidding activity looked unusual he said if I was trying to say it was bid shilling he'd be offended.

With less than 12 hours to go only the seller can cancel the bid/s,(so they would've known about the retraction

and them claiming to be offended would be suss as they mentioned shill biding).

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[the_pooze]

I think bid retractions are a crock UNLESS the Buyer has legitimately made a blunder in their bid, retracted the incorrect bid then re-bid their originally intended amount (have had it happen in it was clearly a legitimate mistake, decimal point in th wrong place).

This "can't contact Seller" and other extraordinary balderdash should not be permitted.  It's an invitation for people to engage in shill bidding.

Buyers should be allowed the option to revise a bid (where it's clear and error has been made in the bid) once and once only but, beyond that the fallback must be the bid stands and then becomes a non-payment with all it entails.

[buggerit234]

*tippy*toes*
I looked at the eBay bid retraction page yesterday and the rules , only the last bid is removed within the last 12 hrs of auction end , also has to be done within 1hr of placing the bid. If more than. 12 hrs then all bids removed .
The reason only 1 bid is removed that buyers were scamming sellers , they would work in pairs bidding up an item from the start , bidding v high . So one of the bidders would retract their bids with mins to spare and the other buyer would get the item v cheap .
So that's why I think it would be fairer for everyone if all bids are removed by the bid retractor but only if the seller agrees. Protects the seller and fairer for the bidding buyers, stops possible shill bids.

[buggerit234]

phorum_junkie

I'm fairly sure eBay Australia policy regarding bid retractions can be made by a buyer within 12 hrs of auction end. But they need to be done within 1 HR of placing that bid.
The seller told me he knew nothing of the retraction till after the auction end , so no permission needed from the seller for the buyer to cancel the bid , even if only mins till auction end . It's a **bleep** eBay policy.

[buggerit234]

The seller cancelled the transaction earlier today , saying I'm blocked from his future auctions.
Wonder if I can put a reminder alert in my settings to not buy / bid on certain sellers?

[davewil1964]

If they have blocked you, you will get the reminder if you try to buy from them again.