"We’ve allowed buyers to make offers to help you sell" NO HELP!!!

[laawesome2017]

I'm new to ebay and I have noticed Ebay allowing offers on my items. I don't want this. I price my items at an excellent price and most of what I sell are handmade. I don't want to sell any lower. Ebay sends me an email and I have to go to 'manage my offers' on every single item. How do I stop this from happening all together.

Thanks Lisa xoxox

[digital*ghost]

One of the things that bugs me about it (aside from the more obvious issues), is where does that leave:

"The seller assumes all responsibility for this listing" >?

If the seller is not in full control of the content that appears (eg estimated delivery dates), and now not even the listing format and the (apparent) negotiability of the price, how can that statement hold any credence whatsoever? 

I wonder if it could be argued that by taking over aspects of the listing, ebay has assumed responsibility (partial or otherwise) for it, and if so, how far that responsibility could be pushed....  

[melbourneclearance]

Ok, so it has happened to one of my listings in a non-shop account. Now it's WAR!!

The listing had never had a Best Offer before, and ebay automatically set the minimum price for acceptance to exactly half price. The item was set at $44.95 and the minimum acceptance was set (at my convenience and to help me) at $22.48.

I rang ebay to complain and they said they would escalate it to upper management and they set my listing back to no offers. They also promised that this would not happen again in the future but also said that it was done by a robot and that they could not predict it. So I take it the "not happen again in the future" was an empty promise.

The customer service was stuttering away trying to find answers to "Who gave you the authority to do this?", "If someone buys now, are you going to pay me the difference?", "Is this within the law?", so I believe that they are well aware of the problem and may actually have escalated this problem (in general, not just my case) to the idiots further up the ladder.

Anyway, I think I get how the robot works. If someone else has sold the same item recently, your item may get a higher chance of being tagged by the bot. My listing was priced at $1 more than another listing which was sold the day before. Of course, by this logic, everything at ebay may become $0 if they had their way.

I also believe that they would let us cancel the transaction without penalty (or cancel it for us) if someone has bought. The customer service answered my "If someone buys now, are you going to pay me the difference?" with "Luckily, no one has bought, so I will just quickly remove the best offer". So long as the item has not been posted, I guess. If you post the item, it means you accept the price, is how I see it.

[digital*ghost]

😮

Wow.... just...wow.

So they really did have an auto-accept in place as well? That's all kinds of messed up.

[melbourneclearance]

Yes, definitely auto-accept at half price.

[countessalmirena]

This is wrong on so many levels, as the builder of the Crooked House said.

[twyngwyn]

it's called FRAUD in many parts of the world....astounding!

[shoppingbag*]

If they sell my items for half price without my consent, I would just cancel the sale, refund if necessary and refuse to send the item.  I would rather keep some of my things than sell them at half price, and no-one, not even the Gods at eBay are going to force me to sell at their prices.  These are my items and I, and I alone, am setting the selling price.  What a cheek they have!

[springyzone]

I agree and I would go further. I think if they set not only a best offer but also an auto accept, they would be obliged to refund any fees and remove any defects, otherwise they would risk publicity of the very worst kind.

The trouble, as I see it, is the whole scenario of ebay stepping in and adding (or accepting!) best offers would rub every seller the wrong way but I'd wager a guess quite a few small, occasional sellers would fume, decide not to accept the sale and just walk away.

Where does it leave ebay? Well, unless the seller rang ebay to explain the problem, I'd say the seller would just wear the defect and ebay would keep the fees. The buyer of course would be refunded one way or another.

Putting best offer on an ad that didn't have it is a cheeky move by ebay. They could certainly suggest it to a seller but they shouldn't automatically apply it.

Accepting an offer though on behalf of the seller is an entirely different ball game.

[joztamps]

The 2 steps in combination [namely adding Make an Offer to your listing (thereby effectively destroying your chance of selling at your nominated price) and then accepting offers on your behalf without your knowledge or consent] fundamentally changes both the nature of the whole ebay site and the relationship between the seller and ebay.

It changes ebay from a facilitator of buy/sell transactions between prospective sellers and buyers to a selling agent for sellers with completely unrestricted authority to sell their listed goods at whatever price it thinks fit.

If they are not just a glitch, these developments are surprising.

If they are intentional, the fact that they have occurred without any public announcement or explanation is more than surprising, it is flabbergasting.

[countessalmirena]

You will have to think of this as being said in a melodramatic deep American male voice:

Imagine a world where alien overlords rule... where humans clutch their pitifully few possessions in the caves which form their only shelter ... where they work at the behest of their overlords, until one day, when a child's doll is torn from her fingers and forcibly sold for half its value, one small group of villagers rise up in protest.

THEY MAY TAKE OUR HOMES. THEY MAY MAKE US SLAVES. BUT WHEN THEY TAKE OUR FEW REMAINING GOODS AND SELL THEM AT HALF PRICE AGAINST OUR WILL, THEY HAVE GONE TOO FAR...

PLANET OF THE OFFERS... COMING SOON TO A CINEMA NEAR YOU.