Ebay Make Offer no warnings

soolin

xxxxxxxx said:

theoretica said:

For me, the issue is withdrawing offers should be easy before the seller has accepted it.  Just as a seller can take down a listing before anyone has bought it. A contract needs both offer and acceptance.

In practice it is easy and I did it for the first time a month or so ago.  Put in an offer, looked again at the picture and spotted a rather major detraction cleverly photographed to be there but in the background.  When I went to my offers there was a link which was even labelled something like 'changed your mind, retract your offer'.  So I did, and was a bit surprised to get a warning page that said I could only retract if I ticked a box saying I had entered the wrong amount.  But no consequences I have noticed.

This is it exactly.  It should be easy to withdraw before it has been accepted/rejected.  A seller can trap a buyer by not responding for days.    And the threats by ebay on the cancellation page then reinforces the trap.  

It is an unfair situation where the seller has all the power.

Offer times out after 48 hours if seller doesn't respond.

soolin

hermante said:

Buyers can retract offers and bids with no repercussions, you just get your total number of retractions displayed on your feedback page. Lots of people do it as a "shill bidding" thing, to discover someone's max bid on their auction and then use another account to bid just under. Or they use one account and retract the bid then a different account to snipe 1p over the other guy's max bid. I'm not bothered when it happens on my sales as it just means more money for me - and more money for ebay too so they probably don't care. But I will block anyone who retracts and doesn't re-bid.

You can retract an offer- if you look previously on the thread there are limited options and reasons for being able to do so. You can also retract a live bid , again for certain reasons only, and the number of these bid retractions used to be shown on your feedback page, but I don't think it is there any longer.
An offer though is not a bid- do not mistake the difference between the two , a bid is placed on a live auction and stands until either buyer is outbid or auction ends with them as the winner. An offer is a binding offer made to a seller through the ebay system - ie not just an email saying 'will you take £8 mate'. 

Re the contract part mentioned in an earlier post, the contract is formed at point seller accepts the offer- so bidder offers £8 - seller can either reject or accept the offer, accepting forms the contract. 

jon81uk

soolin said:

xxxxxxxx said:

theoretica said:

For me, the issue is withdrawing offers should be easy before the seller has accepted it.  Just as a seller can take down a listing before anyone has bought it. A contract needs both offer and acceptance.

In practice it is easy and I did it for the first time a month or so ago.  Put in an offer, looked again at the picture and spotted a rather major detraction cleverly photographed to be there but in the background.  When I went to my offers there was a link which was even labelled something like 'changed your mind, retract your offer'.  So I did, and was a bit surprised to get a warning page that said I could only retract if I ticked a box saying I had entered the wrong amount.  But no consequences I have noticed.

This is it exactly.  It should be easy to withdraw before it has been accepted/rejected.  A seller can trap a buyer by not responding for days.    And the threats by ebay on the cancellation page then reinforces the trap.  

It is an unfair situation where the seller has all the power.

Offer times out after 48 hours if seller doesn't respond.

When making an offer I've been able to specify the timescale for a response, my last few defaulted to 24hrs, but I think there was 48 & 72 hours as options.

soolin

jon81uk said:

soolin said:

xxxxxxxx said:

theoretica said:

For me, the issue is withdrawing offers should be easy before the seller has accepted it.  Just as a seller can take down a listing before anyone has bought it. A contract needs both offer and acceptance.

In practice it is easy and I did it for the first time a month or so ago.  Put in an offer, looked again at the picture and spotted a rather major detraction cleverly photographed to be there but in the background.  When I went to my offers there was a link which was even labelled something like 'changed your mind, retract your offer'.  So I did, and was a bit surprised to get a warning page that said I could only retract if I ticked a box saying I had entered the wrong amount.  But no consequences I have noticed.

This is it exactly.  It should be easy to withdraw before it has been accepted/rejected.  A seller can trap a buyer by not responding for days.    And the threats by ebay on the cancellation page then reinforces the trap.  

It is an unfair situation where the seller has all the power.

Offer times out after 48 hours if seller doesn't respond.

When making an offer I've been able to specify the timescale for a response, my last few defaulted to 24hrs, but I think there was 48 & 72 hours as options.

I have never ever seen that in all my years on ebay mine has always been 48 hours  exactly as per the T and C's
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/buy-now/making-best-offer?id=4019&st=3&pos=1&query=Making a Best Offer&intent=make an offer&context=9056_SELLER&lucenceai=lucenceai

Each offer is valid for 48 hours or until an offer is accepted, whichever comes first

RFW

soolin said:

I have never ever seen that in all my years on ebay mine has always been 48 hours  exactly as per the T and C's
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/buy-now/making-best-offer?id=4019&st=3&pos=1&query=Making a Best Offer&intent=make an offer&context=9056_SELLER&lucenceai=lucenceai

Each offer is valid for 48 hours or until an offer is accepted, whichever comes first

I agree. They can also time out with the listing. I've had offers in the last few seconds of a listing, so there's no chance to respond to it.

jon81uk

soolin said:

jon81uk said:

soolin said:

xxxxxxxx said:

theoretica said:

For me, the issue is withdrawing offers should be easy before the seller has accepted it.  Just as a seller can take down a listing before anyone has bought it. A contract needs both offer and acceptance.

In practice it is easy and I did it for the first time a month or so ago.  Put in an offer, looked again at the picture and spotted a rather major detraction cleverly photographed to be there but in the background.  When I went to my offers there was a link which was even labelled something like 'changed your mind, retract your offer'.  So I did, and was a bit surprised to get a warning page that said I could only retract if I ticked a box saying I had entered the wrong amount.  But no consequences I have noticed.

This is it exactly.  It should be easy to withdraw before it has been accepted/rejected.  A seller can trap a buyer by not responding for days.    And the threats by ebay on the cancellation page then reinforces the trap.  

It is an unfair situation where the seller has all the power.

Offer times out after 48 hours if seller doesn't respond.

When making an offer I've been able to specify the timescale for a response, my last few defaulted to 24hrs, but I think there was 48 & 72 hours as options.

I have never ever seen that in all my years on ebay mine has always been 48 hours  exactly as per the T and C's
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/buy-now/making-best-offer?id=4019&st=3&pos=1&query=Making a Best Offer&intent=make an offer&context=9056_SELLER&lucenceai=lucenceai

Each offer is valid for 48 hours or until an offer is accepted, whichever comes first

I mis-membered the times offered, but when I go into make an offer on something right now I get this

There is a drop down to expire the offer in 12 hours, 1 day or 2 days.