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).

[2106greencat]

I actually agree cats, but cq (and no doubt other sellers) was burnt by a particularly nasty buyer retaliating because he refused an offer, and that is why I think a seller should not be put into that position if they don't choose to be.

I used to hate it, and always felt really mean when I had to say No to an offer, some of the sob stories were quite sad, until I got wise and realised half of it was tosh! LOL

[thecatspjs]

I get that one nasty buyer can cause angst and ouchey.

Nasty buyers seem to think up horrible things to do no matter what policies are in place or what a seller does - you never quite know when you will strike one, or if what you do will cause backlash.  

Lucky for us that the majority of buyers are fantastic and easy to trade with.

I have turned down many offers, with the sorry there has been "very high interest" in this listing, and had the goods purchased moments later by the same buyer at full price with no resulting problems at all.

[2106greencat]

I was luck too cats, I never had a problem when selling, but now, with all this defect stuff and new rules, retaliatory buyers (just one or two of them) can really hurt a seller.

[chameleon54]

I take a similar track to cats. All of my items are BINS no offers, but I still get a number of offers each week. Most times I give a standard response. "Thank you for your interest and offer, all our prices are firm sorry. Kind Regards *****  ". This seems to work OK as I have had many sales at full price afterwards. Occasionally if an item is expensive and slow moving, things are slow and the offer is reasonable, allowing a decent profit, I accept the offer.

I havnt had cq,s experience of having my stars trashed but can see it could easily happen and probably should be more diligent about blocking some of the numpties. ( I do block the occasional "offer" buyer if they are clearly being an idiot ) I,ve got a fairly low "ebay idiot " care factor and someone has to really annoy me before I take 2 minutes out of my life to block them.

[digital*ghost]

I was always under the impression that making an offer when the Best Offer function isn't enabled was a policy breach due to the wording posted above, but I was looking on eBay.com recently to find out if they still have the best offer feature where a buyer isn't committed to the purchase if a seller accepts their offer, and found that the wording for that scenario makes things a bit clearer. (I know different policies on different sites etc, but in the context of both, I do believe it isn't a policy breach here either).

How it's worded on eBay.com:

"If the Make Offer button doesn't appear in the listing, the seller may not be interested in receiving offers. If you do contact a seller to negotiate price or terms, you shouldn't make offers to buy the item outside of eBay. Doing so violates our offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy."

[cherry*135]

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

If the listing has NO bids, then that doesn't apply?

I had a buyer offer more for an auction listing with no bids, they needed the item before the auction end date. I ended the auction listing and relisted the item as a BIN at the amount they offered.

If sellers don't want to receive any offers put a notice in the description saying so. I know some mightn't read the whole description but others will.

[thecatspjs]

That wording does make it clearer DG.

Lol I was just thinking of my recent buyer that I did block as I had refused a number of offers on an AH dress from them.

This buyer then proceeded to try and purchase the dress at full price via guest checkout - several times - but was  blocked by eBay - I thought it was more funny than upsetting at the time.

The buyer then sent a begging message the following week, so to make the sale and manage the risk, rather than unblock them on a selling ID,  I relisted the item on a buying ID with automatic payment required, let them know it would be available to them for a short time, they purchased and left nice feedback with no star dinging at all.

[cq_tech]

Many thanks to everybody who replied, in particular curraone for finding what appeared to be the relevant policy, and to DG and others foir ultimately determining that the wording is such that it relates only to offers to buy off eBay. The policy as written on ebay.com is much clearer in its intent and is far less ambiguous that that which appears on the AU site. I now unreservedly accept that it is not a breach of eBay policy for a buyer to submit an unsolicited offer, although given the damage caused to my account by just one disgruntled and malicious buyer, I intend to continue with my own policy of placing those who make such offers on my BBL.

Clearly, the root cause of this issue is eBay's ridiculous defect policy as it exists in its current form, with virtually no right of appeal. When I complained to eBay that the buyer was obviously being malicious because I could provide physical evidence that I had in fact posted the items the same day as the order & payment, and that I had actually undercharged the postage by more than $1.50, they were still not the least bit interested in what I had to say and told me that the defects would remain, regardless of any evidence I had to support my claim. Such a policy merely reinforces my belief that eBay has nothing but contempt for the sellers who are the primary source of its vast income.

[homeopathmichele57]

I WAS GOING TO ASK ABOUT THIS TOPIC TODAY - sorry about caps.

I am so sick of people (one in particular who is relentless) offering me low $$ for items i have listed.

I sell mostly second had designer clothing & I wonder if some are actually second hand retailers.

My items are always auctions often with a BIN option.

My lastest annoyance is "if your item doesn't sell will you accept offers".

I'm sure a few years ago it was against policy as I tried to find out but can't anymore.

So far I've always managed to be polite.

[thecatspjs]

Why do you not block the relentless buyer?

Then you won't be so annoyed?

What if they are retailers?  Many retailers buy my secondhand goods especially when discounted, and then seek to resell them at a higher price - what is wrong with that?

Maybe put something worded "nicely" in your listings to deter offers if it bothers you so much.