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Did competitor scam my auction?
 

I had a buyer bid and told him I would end auction and let him have for the bid price if they paid immediately. They answered yes.

4 days later won't respond to communications so I open unpaid item.

I just know this is a competitor or the like.

They only have 52 FB's so not sure what's behind that but now I see the name is Asian (don't mean offense in any way) with warehouse address.

Now my item is on hold for how long?

sigh.. you know the drill, open a case already? 4 days is long enough time to wait for them to pay. If they are a genuine buyer, they will pay when a case is opened otherwise relist it and move on. No use wasting more time an effort on this.

& lastly.............Block them.

Where did the bright spark idea of ending the auction early come from ????

Why put your account at risk?

Man, you have to learn about earning that sale. Does not seem you considered the consquences thorougly.

Open a claim now.
Block the buyer.

Use your HEAD next time.

Being nice backfires.

Now your account under ebay watch.
:mod:

The purpose of an auction is so all bidders have an opportunity to win. Why not set up a buy it now and allow best offers if you wanted to operate your auction in this manner?

By contacting a bidder outside the auction window end time, you have broken the contractual bidding agreement that you will sell to the highest bidder. (This is on the ebay help pages as a rule - I would post the link, but I don't want to direct anyone to an ebay page).

Sorry, but if you break the rules, you would also need to suffer through the consequences. Fortunately, if buyer hasn't paid, you can open a unpaid item case after 2 days (or 4 days?) of non-payment after the end of auction. The buyer then has 7 days to make payment. Afterwards, if no payment is made, you have the option to end communication w/ buyer and recoup final value fees.

If this becomes a repeated issue with potential buyers, start monitoring your auctions towards the end and plan accordingly - proactively cancel and block buyers - has worked for me

Just from ONE ended early auction?

I dont end auctions for anyone.

If they want it they will have to bid to win, otherwise they dont get it.

If someone usually ask this they believe they can snap it for a low price knowing it is worth more.

The old way the antiquers did was to ask you to remove the item and they will offer you xxx for it. Then once you remove it they have one of their own to sell and want more money for it so they get you to remove yours at the lower price and then put their own on.

Of course it would be a more rarer item and would sell at a decent bin but this use to be pulled many years ago.

On a fledgling account, I play the ebay game.

Older accounts have paid their dues and I may consider being nicer.

It's but a fleeting thought however.

:boink:

NOTE TAKEN! = never ever. :p


I had to do my 1st one a few weeks ago and i remember going thru the steps and ebay seemed to be saying - hey sucker you better not do this very often -

At least your account was not hurt or canned by eB (from what I understand).

@joesshooze, hope you are beginning backups pronto

WOW@ I never expected this type of responses. I was under the impression that ending an auction early and offering the highest bidder the item for the current bid is perfectly acceptable.

It gives you the option to do this is why I though it was ok? The bright idea that someone spoke of was the fact that I was happy with the bid and I can list another Item.

I will only list 2 items at a time so why wait the 6 or so days till the end if I am happy? Sorry I don't see any risk here as far as eb is concerned. I am doing exactly as eb directs me. Just to be on the safe side I will cease to do this for the time being.

Thing is with eB, nothing is 100% - goal is not to shake the system up too much - ending things early and such could be seen as trying to get around the auction period.

Lot of advice here is meant for you to operate safely - advice from wise members with multiple accounts and many years of sales

well i wasn't doing it to be crafty, which is why when i read this thread i was saying wohaooahoa whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat :-O

so yea, learned something :-) NEVER DO THAT NO MATTER WHAT hahha

but you should be able to tell as you are ending an items...the steps you go thru, and the things ebay says is a clear warning this isn't something you do just for the hell of it.. or very often.

Thank you all, sincerely. I will never do it again I said this. Like I always say, "it's not worth it."

On paper some times seem doable. You came to the forum AFTER you did something risky. Makes it hard to help with troubles.

I do not know how many times I have suggested to others to CHECK with the forum before implementing an idea that may damage an account.

Thus I made the bright spark comment. Read all that is going on around the life span of ebay accounts.

I recommend being careful for ALL users.

:peace: