Question
If Bid is cancelled within 12 hours of auction finish, is the auction still deemed to have bids? (Sorry ran out of letters in the title, not trying to make a teaser title)
This post was written in two sections, before and after making a decision on how to handle the situation, so is a little disjointed.
I just received a "Question for Seller" on a listing that I have running that finishes in 7 hours time. The email explained an error in my listing, (I have described the card as being in the wrong state), and this explained in detail why I was wrong (which was backed up by searching key phrases on AltaVista). Because the item has one bid, I decided to respond through Ebay which the email alleges "You'll have the option to display your response directly on the listing."
There was no option to put the additional information on the listing, and when used the Q&A did not go onto the listing. I note that the "Add to my description" does not work within twelve hours of auction end if there is any bids. Does the Question to seller mechanism work the same way?
The information may or may not be integral to the reason that the bidder(s) may bid. I am guessing that my options are to either remove the bid and change the description - or remove the bid and cancel the auction. - Since starting to write this I decided to cancel the bid (contacting the bidder to explain) and revise the auction - I cancelled the bid but couldn't revise because the item was deemed to have bids because:
You cannot Add To Description since this item has bids AND has less than 12 hours remaining.
The search had indexed the auction to show it has no bids. In this context is a cancelled bid deemed to still be a bid on the auction?
I then decided to just cancel the auction but received the following response:
Your listing can't be ended early if there are bids on the item, the reserve price has been met, or the listing ends in 12 hours or less.
IS THERE ANY WAY THAT I CAN EITHER REVISE THIS AUCTION OR CANCEL IT ENTIRELY? If I receive a snipe bid on this, I am effectively entering into a fraudulent contract given that I am now aware of the missinformation included in it?
What do you people do under this circumstance?
Confused, Kevin
Answer
This item is listed on the Australian site, but as far as I know in these areas the Australian site runs the same as the Home site.
This page explains the rules for ending the auction early.
It includes:
Timing Matters
When there are 12 hours or fewer remaining and the item has a winning bid, including a reserve met bid, sellers may not make any changes to the listing, including:
* ending the item early. Sellers may cancel bids, but not end the item
* adding to or changing the item description
* converting the item to pre-approved bidder
Canceling bids or making changes to a listing with bids when there are 12 hours or fewer remaining damages the buyer experience and can undermine trust in the marketplace.
Does anyone care to clarify for someone as ignorant as me, how the deliberate misrepresentation of an item does less to "undermine trust in the marketplace", than cancelling an auction?
I guess that I am screwed if I get any bids (other than from the bidder I was able to contact).
Kevin
Answer
Create a fake account. Bid a million dollars. File for FVF in a couple of weeks.
Answer
Kevin, I was in a similar situation at Christmas time. There's absolutely nothing you can do. I went through both regular "customer service" and Live Help, trying to frantically end an auction on an item that I had dropped and broken while pulling it off the shelf to answer a question. I was told I could cancel any bids that came in but there was no way to end the auction on the last day, and Ebay of course refused to end it for me, even though the item NO LONGER EXISTED.
I religiously cancelled all bids as they came in and emailed each bidder to explain, but of course it got sniped (by two different people) at the end. It was a huge PITA, and all very unnecessary IMO. The seller should have the right to end an auction at ANY time.
Answer
The item is in poor condition, so hopefully the only person who is going to want it is the one whose bid I did cancel. The sad thing is that about the only option available appears to be Commentary's suggestion of effectively shill bidding it. So, to do the right thing, one must do the wrong thing or (possibly) wear the consequences.
Whilst I understand what they are trying to stop, this really is an unnecessarily awkward situation in a legitimate situation. Of course not caring that you have misrepresented (or damaged) an item, would be easier.
Hmmm, Kevin
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Kevin - I do not consider this situation to be a shill. You are not acting as a decoy or pitchman with the second account. Your goal is to buy the item back no matter what.
Answer
It ended without any additional bids thankfully.
Still not happy with how that situation is forced to play out when the contract can not be completed, or is discovered to be misrepresented.
Thanks for the input, Kevin
Answer
As this picture was painted of how it was impossible to cancel the auction, I could see how this is a problem. And I could see why they don't allow cancellations at the last several hours due to fee avoidance and on no reserve auctions where seller hasn't gotten the price they want for the item.
The only thing I could think of aside from asking eBay to help, which would be worthless, was since I host my own photos, I would take down all the photos and put one photo up with text only that says the item is no longer available due to breakage or some such. I would make sure all photo files were present and had a new date, with either no content or the same text so that their presence on other's browsers would update.
Answer
Originally Posted by dstuber
As this picture was painted of how it was impossible to cancel the auction, I could see how this is a problem. And I could see why they don't allow cancellations at the last several hours due to fee avoidance and on no reserve auctions where seller hasn't gotten the price they want for the item.
The only thing I could think of aside from asking eBay to help, which would be worthless, was since I host my own photos, I would take down all the photos and put one photo up with text only that says the item is no longer available due to breakage or some such. I would make sure all photo files were present and had a new date, with either no content or the same text so that their presence on other's browsers would update.
That does not work if bidders already entered bids into robotic snipes. One may still have to go thru the hassle of dealing with an irate winning bidder.
Answer
I've run into a similar problem this weekend. My webhost has been down for over 24 hrs. All I wanted to do was upload the pictures to a different location and insert them into the auction. I was able to "add to the description" on one of the auctions, but the other was under the 12 hour mark by the time I realized nothing was showing up. It had several watchers, but I doubt it will end with any bids now.
EBay really needs to come up with a work-around solution for situations like these.