Unsolicited offers from buyers

[cq_tech]

I've had a few buyers lately email me with offers on items which are strictly BIN (no 'Best Offer') and I'm starting to get a bit annoyed about it. I'm sure it's against policy but I'll be damned if I can find any mention of it in the help files. Only yesterday I received an email which simply said "Hi, if you accepted my offer would you hold it for me for up to 2 weeks?" yet there was no reference whatsoever to the item in question!

It's bad enough that he sends an unsolicited offer but he also wants me to wait 2 weeks for payment? What a bloody cheek! Anyway, against my better judgment I emailed back and asked what item he was talking about and it turns out that he wanted a $10 discount off an $80 item which had coincidentally been sold just 4 hours earlier, so I took great pleasure in telling him that it had already been sold at the asking price.

As some of you may know, I very politely rejected an unsolicited offer from a buyer a couple of weeks ago, so in retaliation she immediately bought the 2 items and maliciously trashed all my DSRs, leaving me with 2 undeserved defects on my account. It is now my policy that anybody making unsolicited offers immediately goes onto my BBL but I want to know if they are breaching any of eBay's policies by making these offers so I can report them to T&S (not that it will make any difference).

[repentatleisure1952]

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@cq_tech wrote:

I've had a few buyers lately email me with offers on items which are strictly BIN (no 'Best Offer') and I'm starting to get a bit annoyed about it. I'm sure it's against policy but I'll be damned if I can find any mention of it in the help files. Only yesterday I received an email which simply said "Hi, if you accepted my offer would you hold it for me for up to 2 weeks?" yet there was no reference whatsoever to the item in question!

It's bad enough that he sends an unsolicited offer but he also wants me to wait 2 weeks for payment? What a bloody cheek! Anyway, against my better judgment I emailed back and asked what item he was talking about and it turns out that he wanted a $10 discount off an $80 item which had coincidentally been sold just 4 hours earlier, so I took great pleasure in telling him that it had already been sold at the asking price.

As some of you may know, I very politely rejected an unsolicited offer from a buyer a couple of weeks ago, so in retaliation she immediately bought the 2 items and maliciously trashed all my DSRs, leaving me with 2 undeserved defects on my account. It is now my policy that anybody making unsolicited offers immediately goes onto my BBL but I want to know if they are breaching any of eBay's policies by making these offers so I can report them to T&S (not that it will make any difference).

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Hi cq, like you I am unable to find where it is against policy.Simply states that buyers are able to make an offer on BIN items.

I only run auctions on my selling id yet constantly receive offers to BIN. I simply state that I am happy to let the auction run it's course & let the market decide the final price.

I feel for you when you have to deal with numnuts......unfortunately there are too many out there who tend to spoil what could & should be a pleasant trading experience.

So many seem to treat eBay as just another form of anti social media & don't care that they are destroying someone's hard work & income.

[curraone]

If the Make Offer button does not appear in the listing, the seller is not interested in receiving offers and you should not try to contact this seller to negotiate price or terms. Doing so violates our offers to buy or sell outside eBay policy.

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/buy/best-offer.html

Contact Customer Service

Report listing violations or problems with another eBay member.

[kopenhagen5]

I have done something like this in the past. Reply to message - 

As I don't have Make an Offer in the listing and with so much interest, buyers still decide to send an offer, I have obviously undervalued the item and decided to increase the price of the item. Then revise the price.

Feel free to select BIN if you wish to purchase.

Now they wish they had selected BIN.

[kane1417]

Great post cq and thanks for your reply curraone.I'll use the link you posted and advise all the idiots who contact me on a daily basis, asking to make an offer,that they are violating feebay policy and can be reported !.I get idiots offering $ 40 on a $ 140 item and others no more than 50% of the asking price of a BIN item, with no offers.Others make offers on auction only listings ,before the auction ends, (If this item doesn't sell I'll give you $ 10 for it ,take it or leave it !!).It's not only ebay, I heard of a charity  op shop owner the other day who had a customer haggling over the price of items, can you  believe it !

[bigbrickshop]

We get offers on BINs every week. I reply to all with a similar response that sorry we are unable to accept offers on our BIN listings. Some are blocked immediately if their message is rude or demanding or just odd 🙂  The other half make the purchase at the BIN price and we haven't had any problems.

[2106greencat]

Kane - check your listings, most of them do indeed have "or Best Offer" unless you are referring to another selling id.

Not being a smart"a" just don't want you reporting some poor buyer for nothing and getting yourself in the poop. LOL

[kane1417]

Yes, cheers ! Some of my lisitngs do have best offers (and auto filters set to deflect the numbnuts who offer $ 10) and some of the listings  do not.I usually get the idiots asking on the one's that don't !!.

[thecatspjs]

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@curraone wrote:

If the Make Offer button does not appear in the listing, the seller is not interested in receiving offers and you should not try to contact this seller to negotiate price or terms. Doing so violates our offers to buy or sell outside eBay policy.

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/buy/best-offer.html

Contact Customer Service

Report listing violations or problems with another eBay member.

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The policy itself gives no reference to buyers making offers to purchase on eBay so doubt that a policy violation would be given on the basis of this policy.   Think this was discussed on the boards several times yonks ago.

The only thing in that particular policy that is in the ball park to sales on eBay relates to auctions "you are not allowed to endg a listing early to sell the item to the winning bidder at a price higher than the current bid"

I understand that others don't like to receive unsolicited offers, however I am sure there are other sellers, like myself, who don't mind it all, I just don't take low offers personally - and have made some sales that I would not have otherwise.

I just think that this is a marketplace, and in many marketplaces all over the world it is more than acceptable to haggle over price - eBay is a global marketplace afterall. 

[2106greencat]

Thought that may have been the case, just wanted to check.