Discovering your own item is counterfeit!?

talksalot81

Just had a major hassle. I have been selling a set of golf clubs for a colleague who got them as a Christmas present but didnt want them.

Anyhow, on the face of it they looked the genuine article and they came from a good source so I didnt think anything of it. Last night a bidder asked me for a serial number... one which the clubs didnt have. This apparently implied that the clubs were not genuine. So I rang the manufacturer this morning who directed me to a reseller. The reseller confirmed that the clubs were counterfeit.

So now I needed to cancel the auction! But... I have just gone within 12 hours so cannot. Emailling ebay is useless because they wouldnt reply rapidly enough. So I called ebay and managed to get some advice - cancel all bids and add to the listing to stop people bidding. Of course, I cannot add so this doesnt work. Another phone call and ebay basically acknowledge there is nothing to do without causing issue.

Option 1:
Cancel bids to the last min. However, with 0.01 start this is basically impossible, even moreso since 5 auctions end at the same time. So she then suggested I just let it go and then apologise and do a mutual pull out. I dont like this at all because it means I am fully open to negative feedback.

Option 2: (my suggestion)
Report MYSELF to ebay for breach of listing. This would unfortunately end up with a warning on my account and I cant talk to the people who would do it, hence the real reason wouldnt be recorded. Furthermore, they may not actually close the listing because absolutely nothing in it indicates the clubs are counterfeit. So we would be back at the stage of the listing still active!

So those are basically useless to me!

What I ended up doing was cancelling all bids and then having a friend bid 0.01 at which point I ended by selling to him. Is this liable to cause me any problems? I am presuming that the 0.01 price means almost zero FVF.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I think your solution should be OK. If you haven't already done so, I'd contact the bidders to explain to them why you cancelled their bids, otherwise any still watching the auction may suspect you of dealing outside eBay and selling to your friend for a privately agreed BIN price, and they might try reporting you to eBay, but if they know the real reason I don't think they'll complain. In your position, I would keep them informed anyway purely as a matter of courtesy even if I didn't fear being reported to eBay.

frivolous_fay

Your solution does sound like the least problematic. Is the auction over? If not, how will you stop other people outbidding him?

Ebay's suggestion of a mutual withdrawal not only leaves you wide open to a neg, it could also mean a NPS strike and the loss of your listing fees!

talksalot81

Auction is over now. Whilst you cannot end it within 12 hours, you can 'sell early', so that was what I did.

I emailed the lead bidders for each of the auctions explaining and each of the cancelled bids had the explanation that I discovered the items were counterfeit. I didnt email all of them since that would take me most of the day!

talksalot81

It is amazing the number of bidders who simply do not read. I have now had several people sending rude messages demanding that I explain why I accused them of fraudulent bidding. When the explanation of the bid retraction clearly stated that the 'sale item was found to be counterfeit' this suggests nothing more than really stupid or really lazy people (I even got one who started with - I have 1000 feedback, how dare you....).