eBay bid retraction needs to end

[blueladybug_820]

I don't know whose idea it was to introduce the ability for buyers to retract bids, but it is so abused by fake buyers that I don't offer auctions. The excuse is ALWAYS 'entered wrong amount' and some buyers will actually commit the same act TWICE on the one item.

I've had heaps of...

Retract bids in the final minutes 

Message me asking for a less than half price item to go with their other items that are bid on. If they don't get what they want, they retract all the bids 

Win the item, then message me that they forgot to retract the bid and they want the item cheaper or they won't pay so give a discount on the invoice. Then they just refuse to pay.

Heaps that win bids but don't actually retract but then just never pay 

No matter which way it swings above, it damages the reputation of the item and then it just never sells. 

Why did eBay ever think letter buyers back out of an auction was a good idea? There hasn't been a single honest mistake on my auctions. Now I just won't do it because it's a time waster, damages the chance of that item selling, so on so forth. 

I won't offer auctions again unless eBay change that policy. Do bid retractions even count against a buyer? 

[twyngwyn]

Just report the ‘buyer’ if you think they’re scamming

[davewil1964]

I don't do auctions as I know what my items are worth, so I have never had your third world issue.

Bid retractions have been possible for at least the last 18 years, longer than you've been a member, so why the sudden complaint?

[sandypebbles]

Why would eBay change something that is been in place for two decades?

Why wait til now to tell other members, who are well aware of scammer buyers?

Have you told eBay all this?

[springyzone]

I can definitely see your point of view.

But as a buyer.

These days, I don't buy much on ebay and pracrically nevr on auction, as most things seem to be set prices or make an offer etc

But I believe some changes should be made to how auction bids and retractions work.

A long, long time ago & I am talking decades ago, under a different account to this one, I recall I bid on a new dress.

Everything was auctions in those days and I was not new to ebay but not as clued up as I would be today.

But next day, someone had outbid me. Not by much, so I counter bid on it.

This went on for a few days till at the end, I thought... she can have it.

We were the only two bidding and the price had been pushed up from about $ 18 to $32.

So I bowed out and didn't bother checking ebay again for days, only by chance did I glance in later and to my absolute shock, discovered I had won the auction!

I could not believe it and looke dup the bid history, only to find the other person had withdrawn the bid the following day, several hours before the end of the auction.

I very begrudgingly paid, although these days I would not, but back then I didn't want trouble.

But my point was that if that buyer retracted that bid, then how genuine were her other bids? In my opinion, if someone retracts a bid, all their bids on that item should be retracted. Every last one of them.

This would have taken the dress back to $18 for me.

To this day, I believe that other bidder was the seller or the seller's friend, trying to push the price up.

Ebay (this is from a long ago memory) used to have a sentence next to bid retraction info that said that if a person made a mistake with price, they could retract but were then expected to enter the correct amount.

I agree with you, people retract, citing a mistake, but never rebid. It's rubbish.

Those bidders are often just trying to suss out what another bidder's highest bid is.

I would be all for retractions IF ebay followed through with their instructions- if someone says they made a mistake, they should then have to enter the corrected bid and it should have to be higher than the previous highest bid. Only then should their 'incorrect bid' be deleted, as the 'correct' one is entered.

This would stop some shill bidding, although I am not sure how common that is these days.

If I were you and you're getting someone who is making trouble, offering you half price on other items just because they are bidding on some other things, I think I would delete their bids and block them.

I think some other sellers get problems with non paying bidders, even with set price items, although I am guessing with auctions, some people may feel they paid too much if they actually win against someone else. Which is why they bow out.