Cheeky buyer - bid retraction

[PrincessCambridge]

The high bidder on an item I have listed retracted their bid last night because they said they had entered the wrong amount.

But surprise, surprise they haven't entered a new 'correct' bid.

I am so sick of being peed around By buyers. They have obviously decided they no longer want the item but rather than doing the right thing and asking if I would cancel the bid, they have used the bid retraction process.

Surely this is against ebay policy. I don't have much faith in ebay policing things with any enthusiasm - is it even worth me bring this to ebay's attention?

Does anyone have any experience of ebay actually responding to this sort of behaviour?

[DonkeysDontRideBicycles]

Have you checked their history do they have 'form'? Are they selling a similar item?

[PrincessCambridge]

They have 40 bits of feedback. So aren't a total newbie. And they haven't ever sold anything as far as I can see.

The feedback is all positive but that doesn't mean they don't have form...sellers are usually put off leaving negative comments by ebay's policies. I rarely leave feedback if the buyer is a pain as you aren't allowed to leave honest feedback as a seller.

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

I can understand your irritation, but does it actually make a difference whether the bid is retracted by bidder, or you cancel it? I've only ever bought on eBay (pay immediately), never sold.

[ChimeForChange]

Do you know what the bid was?

I have done this twice - once I put £100 instead of £10 and once I bidded on a pair of baby shoes without realising the size was completely wrong, so mistakes do happen...

Did you sell the item?

[LilyBossom]

I guess they changed their mind, but better they did that before the auction and not after

add them to your blocked bidder list btw.

[PrincessCambridge]

It would just be polite to be honest and approach the seller asking to cancel. A bid is binding in my view and I wouldn't dream of bidding on something unless I expected my bid to count.

A buyer would rightfully be irate if the seller decided to do something similar and just cancel the buyers bid or withdraw an item from sale for no good reason.

The most irritating thing is that they wanted the item shipped overseas and (after they had bidded) asked me for a postage quote so I spent quite a bit of time getting a good quote for them.

I just feel it's not ok to make bids on a whim and as its against ebay rules, ebay should enforce their policy.

[DonkeysDontRideBicycles]

They might have been a PITA after purchase and receiving item so maybe in the long run it's been a blessing.

[sarahtigh]

I would much rather a retracted bid as people can make mistakes , find a child has entered a bid or entered wrong amount, the bid retraction form is provided by ebay you can check on how many retracted bids in feedback if 4 with 600 stars no big deal but 4 with 20 stars would be

[sarahtigh]

also if you send message to seller when made a mistake you do not know whether they will cancel before auction ends whether they will answer etc so best just to retract immediately you do not want a buyer that does not really want item

[MsBuzz]

I never sell to people from outside the UK. Most of the problems that DP and myself have encountered have been with people from other countries.

[sarahtigh]

sorry MsBuzz but I disagree I sell at least 25% of my stuff so about 30 items per month abroad I would have to say that overseas postage is no more or less reliable than ours some countries I would not recommend sending to without a signature but something sent to Germany / norway the Netherlands is quite likely to arrive intact in 3-4 days about a day longer than 2nd class

some people report problems with italy spain greece and the eastern bloc but it seems to be mostly flats / apartments without individual secure letterboxes, sending international signed for reduces risk to say as UK roughly 0.5% have a problem most arrive eventually so less than 1:200 most business sellers agree that selling abroad is not risky