Winning bidder withdrew bid - I ended up with 2 items - is this right?

Balor_2

Hi All

I hope you can help, as I have scanned the eBay help and cannot find the answer to my query.

Bsically, I was making a purchase on eBay. I found a seller with multiple auctions for the item I wanted, all finishing about 30 seconds apart. So, I bid on the first item, up to £140.

I was watching this item in one browser, and had a second open watching the next item to finish - so I could jump to that if the price got too high, or I lost the bid.

Item 1 - I was outbid @ £142 by another bidder.

With only 30 seconds to go, I then bid successfully on Item 2. I won this for £130 - so obviously I was please to win the item, and cheaper than my first choice.

However, this is where it goes wrong.

Approximately 10 minutes after winning Item 1, the winning bidder withdrew his bid! This AUTOMATICALLY placed me as the winning bidder @ £140 (my maximum bid).

I have therefore ended up with 2 of the same item!

Is this correct? Do I have any comeback?

I have tried to contact the seller and let them know what happened, but have yet to get a reply. I am loathe to withdraw my bid, as I presume it will affect my feedback rating, and I don't think it is fair to pass the 'problem' down to the next highest bidder.

Should I have automatically been selected as the winning bidder? I had always presumed I would have had to reeive an 'offer' from the seller to ask if I wanted to buy the item as the winner backed out.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

regards
Balor

kabman

Hi

According to the rules on ebay it states that winning bidders cannot retract there bids.
Did the item finish and then the bidder retract the bid? If so, then I would contact Ebay with your problem.

culpepper

Sounds like the seller just decided the other item was yours. I would just pay for the one item on the bid I won and not the other . The seller wont want to lose the other sale he has made with you and he can then offer it to the next bidder down and if they dont want it, they can say so too. Im sure you are not compelled to buy it .

Balor_2

Hi

Thanks for the replies.

The winning bidder retracted his bid AFTER the closure of the auction.

As for being offered the auction by the seller, this never occurred, it simply ended up as me winning it, with no interaction by myself.

I have tried contacting eBay help, but so far no reply (some 24 hours later).

regrds
Balor

redfox

Balor wrote:

The winning bidder retracted his bid AFTER the closure of the auction.

I didn't know you could do that :eek:

I thought that the high bidder was committed to purchasing when the auction finished - at least that' s what all the ebay warnings tell you when you are about to bid! "By clicking on the button below, you commit to buy this item from the seller if you're the winning bidder"

Balor_2

My sincere apologies.

Based on Red Foxes surprise that a bidder can retract a bid AFTER the auction has closed, I wen back and reviewed the bid history for the auction.

isted below the bids are the retractions, and looking at the time stamp, the retraction came exactly 2 seconds BEFORE teh end of the auction.

SO I must apologise, that in my confusion I had misread the times and had believed the bid had been retracted after.

I appreciate your replies thus far, and guess I can only recommend that if, as I did, you are watching more than one closing auction for the same item, you make sure that there are no retractions pushing you up as the winner, when you think you have lost.

regards
Balor

culpepper

oh well!
You can always sell it on to someone else.
At least you know what sort of price they are selling for:)

sunflower_2

i may be wrong - but sounds like the retracted bid may have had something to do with the actual seller?

why would u bid for something then retract it 2 mins before you were about to win...?

seems a bit odd to me

of course i could be wrong.... (and usually am)

heathen

sunflower wrote:

i may be wrong - but sounds like the retracted bid may have had something to do with the actual seller?

why would u bid for something then retract it 2 mins before you were about to win...?

seems a bit odd to me

of course i could be wrong.... (and usually am)

spot on sunflower,definatly looks like a guy bidding on his own items:(

Beninio88

Are you sure the seller has not clicked on "second chance offer"? If so you don't have to buy the item.

MarkyMarkD

It definitely sounds like shill bidding - bidding on your own item with a false name to push the price up.

Can you look at the "winner"'s bid/purchase history to see if there's any history of them dealing with your seller? Or alternatively, look at the seller's other current auctions to see if the same bidder is supposedly winning on them as well?

If they are, get screen prints, report them to ebay, refuse to pay up. And don't even bother with the one you DID win as that is probably a scam too (particularly if the same false bidder bid on that one too).