Seller canceled A bid and I won...

froggy_girl128

I was bidding on a mobile and was not the highest bidder so i bought another one - now the seller canceled a bid so I won the auction

What can I do?

charlottevwa

Is there is a chance that the seller shill bid the price up? the accidently won the auction himself with a 'spare' ebay account, so cancelled his bid, so that you won? If so.. that isn't allowed. but I don't know what you would do from here etc etc, hopefully someone else can help?!

soolin

Unfortunately you will show as the highest bidder and can be given a non paying strike if you refuse to complete. There is a warning somewhere on ebay that explains this very situation but as usual it is well hidden away.

Personally I would email the seller and explain that due to the removal of another bidder you have been left with a phone you cannot proceed to buy, and see if they will let you off if you offer to pay their fees.

The only other thing to do, and this might not be possible is just to take a look at sellers history and see if there is any possibility that there is any shill bidding going on.

froggy_girl128

Thanks

All the other bids just show names like "bidder 1" - is this private?

thanks

charlottevwa

yeh it is a private auction... hmm.. thats a shame! I hope you sort things out anyways

frivolous_fay

Going by the book, you're obliged to pay up.

That said, I'd want a damn good explanation from the seller for why they cancelled that higher bid.

If the listing went over £100 that would explain the anonymous bidders.

Tirian

Remember kids, this is why you should always snipe your auctions ... no chance for the seller to sneakily cancel a higher bid and make you the winner!

Avoriaz

Call his bluff.

Ask for a precise explanation as to why he cancelled the other bid and say that you will be asking ebay for advice if he demands that you complete the sale.

Might work if he was shill bidding.

Might not work if he is genuine.

leftfield20

If it was a mobile phone, the seller probably cancelled a bid that was stupidly high bid from someone in Nigeria.
It took me about 3 weeks to sell a phone to a real person, i had to cancel loads of bids, all of which originated from Nigeria.

lisyloo

Technically you should complete the auction as the bid is binding.
Did you pay a reasonable price?

As long as the price you paid was reasonable then could you sell it on for the same sort of price?
Obviously there are postage and ebay fee costs but it would be the honourable thing to do given that your bid was binding.

Technically you shouldn't go on to buy an alternative until the auction has finished.
I know that's a pain.

I'm waiting for a CD in the post.
I can't buy a replacement until I know how it ends up even though it's been 2 weeks.
It could still turn up tomorrow so I can't go out and get a replacement unless I want to take the risk of having 2.

hm71_2

I had a recent situation like this I was trying to sell a mobile phone on e-bay and clearly stated UK buyers only. auction ended and winner was polish and had an unconfirmed polish address, tried to scare me into sending it to them by saying I'd get negs etc.. I then had a look at second chance offers and the next two were from nigeria & hong kong with both unconfirmed address so ended up selling to the forth in line who lived in dagenham although he did keep e-mailing and messing about for a week he eventually buy it. the whole experience has left me very negative of e-bay and I have found the best thing to do is to e-mail e-bay specifying what you intend to do and that you are doing it to avoid being a victim of fraudulent activity, and so inturn to avoid negative publicity to ebay. the result is that they agree with you and protect your interests.