Some E-bay People

[edwardw]

So I bid on an item on e-Bay. I was the only bidder and there were only 5 hours left. The item for sale was a great deal and I was willing to offer they guy at close of auction 1/4 now by check the rest cash when I picked it up. So I go to church for a class and it had 5 hours left. I come back and I'm still the high bidder with 2 hours left. My current bid was also about $200 more than the current price so that I (hopefully) would not get outbid at the last minute. So with about an hour left I look at the auction to see how it is doing and it is ENDED EARLY. OH MY GOSH I get an e-mail from the guy stating that some guy off e-bay offered him more than the current price so he closed the auction and SOLD IT TO THE GUY!!! What a SLIMEBALL! I reported it to e-bay and am waiting for a response. The seller also had his phone number so tomorrow I'm going to call him and ask him what happened. I would not have thought this would have happened with a guy that has 496 positive feedbacks and 100% positive. I really hope his karma comes back in the form of a prostate exam with a doctor with unusually long fingers.




(As you can tell I'm a little hot about this. Admins if you want to remove any or all of it go ahead, my apologies for my imagery)

 

[iGGiE]

Do you know if the guy selling the item had agreed to end the auction early, or whether it was just the guy who worked for ebay being greedy and unfair?
Either way it sucks and think you should definately complain, but its the sellers loss if u were prepared to bid higher!

iGGiE

 

[flying_silverad]

Wow, I'm glad that wasn't me. I hate doctors!

Indeed it is frustrating but I don't hold alot of stock with Ebay about correcting this. One only has to spend about ten minutes looking through the auctions and you can find all kinds of issues.

I myself have been contacted SEVERAL times regarding my auctions and ending them early for a given price. Trust me when I say, if a person wants continued business, he/she doesn't follow that type of practice as it will slowly have some very adverse affects!!

 

[edwardw]

I don't know about the guy he sold the item to, but he never contacted me (the high bidder) about ending the auction early. He just e-mailed me after it was cancelled saying he had another buyer contact him and he agreed to sell it to him rather than continue the auction.

I don't really have that much faith in e-Bay doing anything than giving me the auto-response e-mail.

 

[wwattles]

I got the opposite problem! I won an auction for one of the old Estes fin alignment guides 2 days ago, and haven't heard from the seller what the shipping costs will be, despite an e-mail requesting the info! Without that, I can't pay him, but the terms of the sale said that I had to pay within 4 days. Makes it hard to follow through on that promise.

WW

 

[LMazza]

I would stay hopeful about Ebay doing something about it. I know that they have a rule saying you cannot bypass a sale on Ebay by selling or making an offer outside of the auction. Ebay can potentially lose a lot of money this way and so it is strictly enforced.

On a related note, one of my dad's auctions just ended without sale and a guy made an offer on the item after the fact through email. My dad knows who the guy is (a competing seller) and he plans on giving the guy a taste of the Ebay rule book.

 

[flying_silverad]

Originally posted by LMazza
I would stay hopeful about Ebay doing something about it. I know that they have a rule saying you cannot bypass a sale on Ebay by selling or making an offer outside of the auction. Ebay can potentially lose a lot of money this way and so it is strictly enforced.

On a related note, one of my dad's auctions just ended without sale and a guy made an offer on the item after the fact through email. My dad knows who the guy is (a competing seller) and he plans on giving the guy a taste of the Ebay rule book.

What was the item?

 

[LMazza]

It was an old guitar.

 

[flying_silverad]

Here's the thing. And I know i might be stirring up a hornets nest but if one of my auctions goes 10 days, and no bids were taken. If I got an after auction offer, I would not be peeved. Does Ebay have a policy against such offers? Yes. But, there are a number of issues about Ebay that they don't live up to as well and don't take any action against. Higher than normal shipping costs, delayed start times, non-refunding for un bidded auctions, Delayed store listings, catagory shifting, picture host issues....I could go on and on.

Besides, if someone contacts you, you have the option of just saying.....NO.

 

[LMazza]

Yeah, normally there wouldn't have been a problem. I won't get into specifics simply because I wasn't involved and I don't feel like speaking for someone else.