Accidental/phantom auction bids

maxeystamps

Nowadays you can buy all sorts on auction sites and with modern technology it is so easy to swipe your mouse across a screen or tap your mobile to stop it fading and find yourself buying something you don't want. There's no confirmation of your bid and auction houses will hold you to that phantom/accidental bid and pursue you for payment aggressively.  I sell on a certain site and have had buyers who change their minds and under distance selling regulations etc I have to let them off or they have 14 days to return the item anyway. Yet to auction houses, none of this applies and it's wrong....

Aylesbury_Duck

Don't use them then?

mattyprice4004

Auction houses aren’t eBay, with a real auction house you nod, you buy.

If you don’t like it, use them on a PC only. 

[Deleted User]

maxeystamps said:

Nowadays you can buy all sorts on auction sites and with modern technology it is so easy to swipe your mouse across a screen or tap your mobile to stop it fading and find yourself buying something you don't want. There's no confirmation of your bid and auction houses will hold you to that phantom/accidental bid and pursue you for payment aggressively.  I sell on a certain site and have had buyers who change their minds and under distance selling regulations etc I have to let them off or they have 14 days to return the item anyway. Yet to auction houses, none of this applies and it's wrong....

Are you saying that you can register your details, payment card etc just by "swiping your mouse across a screen"? Wow, technology has really moved on.

JJ_Egan

Post should be in praise vents and warnings as no consumer rights question asked .

soolin

I buy a lot especially now during lockdown and use sites like the saleroom.com and easylive auction. Before I could buy anything I had to register myself and supply card details and before each individual auction I have to sign in and re confirm my card. I assume this is the sort of auction you mean?

Once registered a simple click on the very small box (and it is Very small) that says bid now which is below the current price and that bid is binding. Since that bid box is probably less than 1% of the entire screen I cannot see how it is possible to accidentally bid. Swiping does not work on any of the sites I use only a clear bid and should my screen go off during the auction then I click on a corner which I know is far way from the bid box, that really doesn’t seem a particularly clever hack on my part. 

pinkshoes

Are you trying to say that you have accidentally swiped on your phone and bought something in an auction house and now they won’t refund you?

eddddy

Well here's an example...

A bungling online-auction bidder bought a disused fairground carousel for £180,000 with a pledge that he says was made in error.
The man claimed he clicked the button to make a bid unintentionally when he went to close his browser.
....
The carousel has legally been sold but discussions are ongoing to decide whether to hold the buyer to his purchase.
....
With fees and VAT the amount owed is in the region of £245,000

Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-43318976

The auction house said the bid was legally binding, but eventually agreed not to hold the buyer to it.

Although obviously, they may have said that because they thought they might lose in court, and didn't want a court ruling that online bids aren't binding - as it would impact their future sales. Who knows?

MobileSaver

eddddy said:

 they may have said that because they thought they might lose in court, and didn't want a court ruling that online bids aren't binding - as it would impact their future sales. Who knows?

Indeed, who knows. The auction house may have simply concluded that, even if they won the court case, the bidder wouldn't be able to afford £245,000 and so a pyrrhic victory; or simply that the negative PR during a court case lasting many months or even years outweighed whatever commission they had lost out on.

davidmcn

MobileSaver said:

eddddy said:

 they may have said that because they thought they might lose in court, and didn't want a court ruling that online bids aren't binding - as it would impact their future sales. Who knows?

Indeed, who knows. The auction house may have simply concluded that, even if they won the court case, the bidder wouldn't be able to afford £245,000 and so a pyrrhic victory; or simply that the negative PR during a court case lasting many months or even years outweighed whatever commission they had lost out on.

Probably just cheaper/faster for them to resell the lot, rather than hang onto it for months during a legal action. 

maxeystamps

Firstly I have been buying through the saleroom and easylive for many years. It is a relatively safe experience for leaving bids etc but it is possible to click in the heat of the moment on live auctions either by sweeping across the screen or by clicking to stop screen fading on mobiles. Many places depend on speed at 100 lots an hour.  There is confirmation for auto bids/ bids left prior to start but not live bids. Sarky comments demean the person posting!! I also have been selling online for close to 20 years thanks