Auction auto relisted, but a customer says they've won and it's in their cart

[plasterdisaster]

Hello, advice on how to proceed would be appreciated. I hope it's the right Board..  I'm the seller in this case -  an auction finished without bids and auto relisted. Now there is a bid on the new listing. Customer has contacted me because they've bid and won on the original auction and it is showing in their cart (twice?!).

I've looked and it is their bid on the new listing. It doesn't show as sold to me, unless I try using the eBay help process and it comes up as a sale I can query, so I believe the customers account of what happened. Obviously a glitch in the system somewhere. I was thinking I could cancel the auction and see if that fixes it on their end allowing them to pay and finalise the sale. If I cancel this listing with a bid (6 days to go) will I incur fees or negative effects as a seller?

[plasterdisaster]

Additional info - I've checked the customers feedback and there is a mix of good and extremely bad feedback, a LOT of bad feedback. People saying they never pay and should be banned from ebay. Either dodgy or plagued by technical difficulties. I can't see how they would pull this one off though. I've messaged and asked if they can try to pay to see if that jogs the system.

[sandypebbles]

Buyers can only be given positive feedback (or no feedback)

All the sellers leaving this person false positives are not only helping the buyer keep doing what they are doing, they are also risking their own accounts by violating eBay policy

eBay do not read feedback, so when the buyer reports the comments or the bots pick up keywords used , those leaving them will be pinged, the neg comment removed and all the green ticks left

[sandypebbles]

Forgot to add, giving scammer buyers false positive feedback is also pointless because nobody else reading the feedback will have a clue who the scammer buyer is, since they do not see the scammer buyer's actual ID/username (the seller does, anyone else does not)

[jellybirddesigns]

Just cancel this persons bid and block them. Don't communicate with them.

Otherwise you're just going to have one headache after another.

There's nothing showing in your "Sold" category since the 9th of March, so this person definitely hasn't won anything recent.

Some buyers are really not worth it for the few bucks you might get.

[plasterdisaster]

I got some great assistance from ebay customer service - not a glitch. Must be in my 'recent orders' because of the current bid. Buyer obviously bid later than they thought, and maybe it isn't in their cart after all.

The feedback is a tricky issue, it doesn't leave many options for people who have had bad experiences. It does falsely boost ratings but also leaves a written history for sellers to see if they're having issues. 

[sandypebbles]

It also gets the seller's account pinged and possibly  even deleted if it is reported 

Rewarding scammer 'buyers' is not solving the problem, it is encouraging it more and more

The buyer/s know they can only get real positives, they know if they report it, eBay will leave the green tick and remove the actual 'neg feedback'

It's not tricky at all 

It is only the seller who is going to be punished for going against eBay policy 

[plasterdisaster]

Thank you, that's a good assessment of the situation. eBay recommended that I let the auction end and then block them and relist (they could see all the negative feedback too). Can I block them before it ends if they've already bid? It would be a shame for them to be able to waste other bidders time, if it gets to that.

[countessalmirena]

Cancel their bids, then block.

https://www.ebay.com.au/bfl/cancelbid

[gutterpunkz05 · Accepted solution]

Sounds like you have a dodgy buyer,   cancel their bid, and block.  Then just let the Auction proceed as normal.  If you do not cancel their bid and they subsequently win the Auction, you are obligated to complete the sale and will be subject to any claims, FB etc  from this dodgy buyer.