Seller Stopped Auction

[enewbusiness]

7 days to go on an auction and the seller stopped it, is that fair?

The seller received a request for information and said they would like to buy straight away... I guess they contacted the potential buyer and made a deal... still unfair in my opinion

[chezzy]

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@imastawka wrote:

What are the guidelines?

Offers outside of eBay

Allowed	Listing an item on eBay.com.au (including eBay Motors) with local pickup, and then meeting up with the buyer to complete the sale after they win the auction or use Buy It Now. Listing a classified ad on eBay and completing a sale with a buyer who has contacted you about the item.
Not allowed	Listing an item on eBay (other than with local pickup or as a classified ad) and then completing the sale outside of eBay.

See the complete Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy for more details.

I think that  'not allowed'  bit covers the fridge on the front verandah

That's it.   I'm done

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What is the law though? What are ebay going to do if it occurs? How are they going to police it?

Many a time a listing may be ended because item no longer available - or maybe an error with the price?

I am sure the 'no longer available' items are not all broken.

I have also seen numerous items on gumtree that are also listed on ebay. Looks like people are covering

their bases which to me (honestly) seems reasonable and sensible. I have even seen people say in listings

that the item is listed elsewhere and the (ebay) listing may be cancelled at any time. Never thought anything of it

until now - never thought about "dobbing" on such a listing...

[*crikey*mate*]

i think the issue comes to the fore when there are situations like the other day. Someone sold something off eBay through either their B&M or another site (can't remember) and before they could cancel the listing on eBay, someone bought it there!

So now we get a miffed buyer who doesn't get their goods cos the seller can't/won't supply, and that miffed buyer has a bad experience (which apparently eBay is trying to avoid) and then causes the seller a few headaches ie - files non performance complaint (as this is against eBay policy, and the law) and possibly leaves the seller negative feedback.

[onlinecoinslismore]

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@imastawka wrote:

What are the guidelines?

Offers outside of eBay

Allowed	Listing an item on eBay.com.au (including eBay Motors) with local pickup, and then meeting up with the buyer to complete the sale after they win the auction or use Buy It Now. Listing a classified ad on eBay and completing a sale with a buyer who has contacted you about the item.
Not allowed	Listing an item on eBay (other than with local pickup or as a classified ad) and then completing the sale outside of eBay.

See the complete Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy for more details.

I think that  'not allowed'  bit covers the fridge on the front verandah

That's it.   I'm done

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No it doesn't. Selling an item privately or by some other means is perfectly OK as long as there was no approach or "offer" made on ebay or from information gathered on ebay.

As with the fridge, there was no offer made to trade outside of ebay. ebay had nothing to do with it. It is all OK

I think everyone should read the title of the policy "Offers to Buy or Sell Outside of eBay" - OFFERS is the key.

It  is perfectly OK to sell items outside of ebay, ebay is not the only marketplace available to sell something.

And this quote "and I am pretty sure that you are not supposed to have something listed on eBay that is for sale somewhere else."

Need to think logically about this one......

Think about all the B&M stores who are on ebay, have their own websites, and obviously there own shopfronts. There are thousands of them and many with big names we all know. They advetise items for sale on all their retail outlets whether it is a store, a website or ebay. It is just a greater challenge for them to manage stock levels across all marketplaces.

I have other retail channels, and I also have regular contact with Australian eBay reps, who even come to see me in my store. I regularly get surveys from ebay asking about the performance of my various retail outlets. Selling off ebay is fine for any item as long as the transaction does not violate the "Offers to Buy or Sell Outside of eBay" policy

[*crikey*mate*]

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@enewbusiness wrote:

7 days to go on an auction and the seller stopped it, is that fair?

The seller received a request for information and said they would like to buy straight away... I guess they contacted the potential buyer and made a deal... still unfair in my opinion

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This is the Opening Post.

This is the topic on which I commented.

The trading off eBay policy applies to both Buyers AND Sellers, NOT just sellers.

There is no dispute that it is ok to sell B&M and also on eBay, they are not mutually exclusive.

The discussion relates to the scenario posed by the OP

and I am still pretty sure that you cannot have an item listed for sale on eBay that is also for sale elsewhere.

[onlinecoinslismore]

"and I am still pretty sure that you cannot have an item listed for sale on eBay that is also for sale elsewhere"

But still not correct information. If that were the case then no B& M would be on ebay at all. And as I said, in my case ebay know I sell items through a number of channels, they just want the biggest share of that.

Perfect example

Item Number 221444560284

I think this prove that you can, expecially if one of the largest retailers in Aus can do it.

[digital*ghost]

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@onlinecoinslismore wrote:

"and I am still pretty sure that you cannot have an item listed for sale on eBay that is also for sale elsewhere"

But still not correct information. If that were the case then no B& M would be on ebay at all. And as I said, in my case ebay know I sell items through a number of channels, they just want the biggest share of that.

Perfect example

Item Number 221444560284

I think this prove that you can, expecially if one of the largest retailers in Aus can do it.

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You are mostly correct, but just to clarify the policy regarding items listed on eBay but also available elsewhere - what it basically boils down to is that if they are listed here, the available quantity is supposed to be exclusive to eBay. If you have one and list it here on eBay, it is against policy for it to be available elsewhere. If you have 50 and want 30 available in a B&M, technically you're only supposed to list a max. of 20 here. 

I can assure you this is the correct policy - I had my doubts for a very long time because so many board members would state this as policy, but no one could ever provide a link to it, and I couldn't find it in eBay's policies pages either... Until one day, anyway - I didn't bookmark it, but if I can find it again, I'll put up the link. 

BTW, eBay reps will tell people different things regarding what qualifies as against policy or not, there have been a few sellers that received a query through eBay asking if they had a particular item (items that were not listed on eBay in any way, shape or form, but related to the store which also had a B&M) - some reps say it's against policy to sell that item to the buyer without creating a listing, some reps say it's perfectly fine to do so because the item wasn't listed here, so reps don't know everything and there's always grey areas to every policy. 

[digital*ghost]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

I can assure you this is the correct policy - I had my doubts for a very long time because so many board members would state this as policy, but no one could ever provide a link to it, and I couldn't find it in eBay's policies pages either... Until one day, anyway - I didn't bookmark it, but if I can find it again, I'll put up the link. 

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Well... it ain't where I left it. 

This is a link to a thread from January 2013 regarding much the same issue - you can see  the relevant portion from the policy was copy / pasted, plus a link to the policy itself. Old thread.

But, it's not there anymore (that wording or policy, I mean). Which doesn't necessarily mean the policy doesn't exist anymore, just that it may have travelled on to greener harder to find pastures, as eBay policies are wont to do. Either way, eBay will be issuing defects to sellers if they sell an item and can't supply it, so against policy or not, it's not a good idea to list something without being able to guarantee supply if someone buys it.

[onlinecoinslismore]

Love to see that policy, cause it does not sound right.

As for special orders, it is a funny area. We do get requests often for items we dont stock. But to list an item that you do not have for sale is a no no. Especially when some of these items take many weeks or more to come in from Europe.

We also require up front payment before we do special orders as well, and this just doesn't fit in with ebay and Paypal.

[bigbrickshop]

The policy page can still be found on the UK site but it looks like it has been removed from the US and AU sites. I agree that it probably is redundant and unenforceable with the large retailers now listing on eBay.

http://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/selling-practices-policy

[imastawka]

All I can add is that it is  'policy'  not  'law'

It's ebay's site and what they say goes.

Doesn't matter what your own interpretation is,

if ebay says you're wrong then you're wrong.

The end result is you may be sanctioned in

whatever way ebay sees fit.

Even as much as discontinued selling for a time.

If someone wants to run that risk on their own interpretation

of ebay's policy, be it on their own head