buying an item during the technical outtage?

[solley08]

Hi,

I won an item during the period of time when ebay was inaccessable, although I didn't know it at the time. I had bid a day earlier and had my max bid in place too and was not online when the auction ended. I was pleasantly surprised at the price I won the item for but wasn't aware that there was an issue with ebay at the time.

Anyway, I had already paid for the item before finding out about the issues and I'm now wondering if the seller is obligated to honour the sale or not? I'm not 100% sure if I got the good price because of the outtage but it's a possibility, so I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do now?

While I did win the item for a good price, I have seen similar items go for around the same amount elsewhere on ebay, albiet they are the exception rather than the rule- my point being that it's not unheard of, but it's also very fortuitous...

I just don't want the seller to lose out if it is down to the tech issues, but OTOH if I did win it fair and square I want that price to be honoured and to receive my item- at the end of the day I guess there's no way of really knowing if I simply snagged a good deal or if the auction was compromised which makes me feel kinda uncomfortable.

Any thoughts? Will sellers be compensated if they did lose out due to the technical glitch? Are sellers obliged to honour the sale regardless or can they reneg?

TIA for any advice.

[*crikey*mate*]

solley, sellers are constantly advised to list their items at a minimum price they are happy to part with their item for. If they weren't prepared to let it go for that price, then they needed to list it with a starting price they were happy to acheive. There are never any guarantees as to whether you will get 10 bids, 1 bid or no bids. That's the dynamics of auctions.

Do you believe that if the auction had have reached prices 2 or 3 times higher than he expected that he would have said to the buyer, "oh gosh, it's not worth that, pay me 50% less"?

The contract between you and the seller will hold. It will be up to the seller to seek recompense/restitution from eBay if it is deemed they are owed anything,

[thecatspjs]

As outlined on a thread posted by a forum moderation, and in Ebay announcements yesterday, Ebay have indicated that: 

"We’re now in the final stages of understanding the total impact of Friday’s site outage for buyers and sellers, on mobile and tablet devices, on the web and through our APIs.

We expect to be in a position to provide more detailed information tomorrow.

We’re sorry about the inconvenience of having the site unavailable and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we outline our resolution process and eligibility requirements."

As Ebay will hopefully make a further announcement today - IMO speculating on what may or may not be the status of purchases made and auctions worn during the outage period does not seem to serve a purpose that will bring you any considered advice as to what the position is on these sales.  

[mandy-gs]

If one of my auctions ended low because of the interuption, I would be angry but a buyer offering to let the item go and to rebid on it would make my day. I would not cancel the sale and refund. I would honour the sale purely because the person showed compassion for my potential loss. A happy customer is a return customer.

In short, let them know of your concern and ask for their opinion on what is fair. You may be rewarded for it.

[bsal6160]

Agree with crikey. If the seller start the listing with a price below what they were hoping then more fool them. As stated, no guarentees there would have been any bids at all, so glitch or no glitch, the seller should be happy with the price reached.

[bsal6160]

And just who would be deciding if a seller lost out? The seller?

[solley08]

I agree, I would be frustrated too. I just want to clarify though, the price wasn't ridiculously low- I have seen similar items go for comparable prices, so it's not like I bid well under the value of the item, it's simply that it's on the lower end of the price scale (I don't want to sound like I've offered well under what would be considered reasonable and am trying to get away with it).

Mind you, I have bid and won a 2012 iMac for $750 with a heap of extras too, which is around $200 less than the others I had been watching, so super bargains do sometimes happen (and boy was I happy about that one- lovely seller too, delivered it to my house and everything).

Anyway, I guess I'll find out over the next couple of days if the seller is going to reneg or agree to the winning bid.

Thank you very much for your feedback 🙂

[solley08]

Thanks for your feedback. I would feel awful if the price offered was obviously well under the value of the item, but as things stand it's simply on the low end of the price scale.
Hopefully things will proceed without any drama- I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.
Thanks again and I'll update if/when things are settled one way or another. And here's hoping those sellers that have copped a financial blow are able to work something out with their customers etc.

[solley08]

You do have a point there 😉

[solley08]

I suppose that's a cautionary tale for those who launch those "99¢ starting price" auctions. Can you imagine the drama that could cause... oh boy 😛