Buyer withdrawing bid

Bowey123

I have some items listed on EBay and a buyer contacted me to say that they had bid on an item then changed their mind, so could I cancel their bid.
I was away at the time so didn’t remove it, but by the time I got back they had removed it themselves.
I understood that once a bid was made it was binding?  So how could they do this?

Miser1964

When you can retract a bid

You can retract a bid if (Note: these options are only applicable for up to 1 hour when the listing is ending in less than 12 hours):

• The seller significantly changed the description of the item
• You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid £20, not £200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid
• You can't reach the seller. For example, you sent the seller an email and it comes back undeliverable, or you tried calling the seller and the phone number doesn't work

km1500

if the buyer has changed their mind it is much better to let them withdraw their bid than to force them to buy it and then have them post it back to you as faulty or something similar

JetpackVelociraptor

You can't force someone to pay for something they don't want, all you can do is trash your feedback trying. It's not worth the fight.

se2020

You were away but did you respond to the bidder?
Otherwise, they could legitimately use "unable to contact" seller as a reason even though "changed my mind" was not a legitimate reason.

Bowey123

se2020 said:

You were away but did you respond to the bidder?
Otherwise, they could legitimately use "unable to contact" seller as a reason even though "changed my mind" was not a legitimate reason.

The buyer withdrew the bid less than a day after contacting me.  It was that quick I had not really had time to respond.
The reason they give for changing their mind was that the postage costs were too high and had not realised until they made the bid.  So could probably have used the “mistake” excuse.
I would have removed it anyway because I would not have wanted the hassle. Eg. Item did not arrive, SNAD etc.
Just seems that buyers can use the mistake excuse when they change their minds.
I have to say EBay seems to be more trouble than it is worth.
Do people think Vinted is any better?

PocketWatchMan

It does happen. Personally I block people that do this to me, as they have marked themselves down as a time waster. 

Miser1964

Happened to me yesterday with a laptop. Buyer made offer, which I accepted. Couple of hours later they cancelled. As said above, no point in quibbling as they'd win a SNAD and just cause me more hassle.

soolin

Miser1964 said:

Happened to me yesterday with a laptop. Buyer made offer, which I accepted. Couple of hours later they cancelled. As said above, no point in quibbling as they'd win a SNAD and just cause me more hassle.

Yours is a different scenario. In the OP the buyer hadn’t bought the item, in your scenario they had .

GadgetGuru

Ignore, block, and move on. Rather this then having to pay for return postage and all the hassle.