Seller canceled A bid and I won...

saintdan

Personally, I would say that the seller was bidding the phone up himself using another account.

He/she was winning the bidding so cancelled it, meaning that you won it.

The fact that it was a private auction makes me think so even more as you cannot see who the bidder is so you cant look at his previous bids to link the buyer & the seller.

If you dont want the phone - dont pay for it - just explain what happened.

Apparently you are obliged by law to pay for it but that is rubbish. The amount of times I have not been paid for things by sellers & EBAY dont care. In fact ebay dont care about anything apart from their profits.

I sold some concert tickets about 6 months ago, the person who purchased them lived local to me & wanted to pay for them & collect them when I got them from the promoters. I saw this as no problem and agreed. However I received the tickets about 10 days b4 the gig & advised the buyer who told me she no longer wanted them. By this time the price had serioulsy deflated for the tickets so I couldnt even sell them for face value leaving me about £100 down. Now I contacted ebay regarding this & they were not interested, saying they dont get involved in personal disputes - what rubbish!!!!

The buyer then had the cheek to leave me negative feedback saying that I was offensive to them.

I have many other stories about times I have been fleeced by ebay & paypal but I'll save them for another day.

antilles

saintdan wrote: »

Personally, I would say that the seller was bidding the phone up himself using another account.

He/she was winning the bidding so cancelled it, meaning that you won it.

This is possible but there could be a more innocent explanation. About 12 months ago I was selling a mobile, during the last few minutes of the auction a newly registered bidder with 0 feedback outbid everyone on the auction.

I quickly checked them out and they were bidding on around 30 other mobiles - an obvious scammer. So I cancelled their bid and blocked them. The next bidder down then won the phone (which was a surprise to them as they thought they'd been outbid). The buyer bid on another phone and won that one instead - in the end I didn't sell to them and reclaimed my fees.

However - the fact that it was a private auction seems very dodgy so you may well be right here.

Time2Go_25

If it happens again, remember to cancel your bids on the items you don't want.

Not sure what the legal position would be on this, as I would think that once your maximum bid has been exceeded that ends your contract to buy, I know what the Ebay rules says, but that doesn't mean they are enforceable.

frivolous_fay

OP, did the bidding go over £100?

Alfie_E

Tirian wrote: »

Remember kids, this is why you should always snipe your auctions…

Using eBay’s Bid Assistant would also avoid the problem.

pdel61 wrote: »

Not sure what the legal position would be on this…

There’d need to have been cases go to court over this to set precedent. Sellers taking non-paying bidders to court is virtual unheard of, even when it’s completely clear the bidder should pay. The problem is eBays rules. They say you can receive an NPB strike, so you can receive a NPB strike regardless.

Time2Go_25

Alfie_E wrote: »

The problem is eBays rules. They say you can receive an NPB strike, so you can receive a NPB strike regardless.

Wow, so it's a NPB stirke or you pay an amount of money for something you don't want, not much thought needed their then.

I'd see if the seller would withdraw your bid, if not take wait and let it go to dispute and see if he'll allow it to be closed with a "We've agreed not to complete the deal", if not then drag it out as long as you can and contest the dispute, get Ebay to investigate the bid cancellation, if you still get no joy then just accept the NPB strike, unless you really want another phone.

M-People

simple - dont pay him
he cant send it
end of problem

AlexisV

Yes the bid is binding, but nobody gets taken to court for breaking that.

If you bid for something and lost it would be very unreasonable to be expected to wait 7 or 10 days before purchasing another one. This is the real world - it just doesn't happen and you've got no reason to waste your time doing that.

Don't pay and accept the negative, if you do get left one. Negatives are not the end of the world, really.

Taffyscot

I didn't know that if someone bid higher than you you could still be liable for the bid. In the real world if you bid so high and someone outbids you and then withdraws it is them not you responsible for the closing bid. Is this legal by Ebay? Several times I have had ebayers email me to tell me the item is now on for a second chance and do I want it. I always say no as I feel they have had a friend make the bids go higher to see how high I will go. If they want to play that game they know where they can go. I have never had someone tell me that it is now mine as the other person has opted out. Surely the onus is on the last person bidding to carry the can for non payment not yourself. I would not pay for it - to hell with them and their money making schemes and the world as Ebay sees it. Taffy

custardy

the last persons bid was cancelled so how can they be responsible?