Ebay - Overbidding - What To Do?

[jseklund]

Hardly the same thing. An auction is the sale of goods to the highest bidder once the auction is closed the sale is final.

Actually, in theory, every sale is an auction. When you walk into a store and buy goods, they're auction prices in a way....but this gets into economic theory and I don't think anyone really wants to talk about that....

I think Jeff is in the right here. If I bought a tool at home depot and then found out that Lowes had the same thing $10 cheaper- I would return it to Lowes and go to home depot if it was that big a deal. I don't expect stores to match prices after the sale. However, I may take advantage of their return policy if the prices are cheaper elsewhere. And sometimes I'll give the store a chance for my business by making them aware of the lower price and seeing if they want to match it. However, if they don't- no biggie. I have a choice in where to shop.

In Jeff's case, the return policy is....no policy. I may be mistaken, but I think Ebay clearly states that bids are binding contracts and that you should not bid unless you are certain. They make no mention of return policies. Jeff, I assume, made no mention of a return policy. Now if he misrepresented the item, that would have been breaking the contract (if I you describe a chevy and I exchange the promise of $1000 for a promise to receive that chevy and you send me a ford- you have not fulfilled the contract). Jeff has lived up to his contract. The fact of the matter is that it is hard to rip someone off when they are bidding. They revealed their true value for that item.

I would just ask her why she bid $255 if she thought it was too high? She cannot answer this and not provide useful info if this goes to ebay. She'll probably say, "I didn't know it wasn't worth that". Well, it was worth that to her at that moment. It is not her fault she didn't do research and see what other values people placed on the item.

Good luck Jeff. I'm not a big fan of Ebay....

[jseklund]

When I lived in NY I had a membership at BJ's Wholesale Club they are IMHO the best of these clubs. They will take coupons and with bulk packs 1 coupon for every box/bottle in the multipack. Selection is fair and also varies from time to time.

Max, you and I again are at odds! haha. I have been to Sam's Club and BJ's- never a Costco. I have memberships to both. I think BJ's is horrible. In my area Sam's is ALMOST always cheaper, they'll at least give you a box to carry things in (you're lucky if you can find one in a rack at BJs), their service is much better, etc. BJ's does have a better selection, we agree there. Sometimes Wal-Mart is as good a buy as either of them though....

You just have to shop around for the best price, but that isn't anyone's responsibility buy the consumer's.

[paintandbodtman]

[QUOTE=JTimmons;224372]For someone not meaning to be offensive you sure are jumping out there using words like delusional and naive.

So let me see if I understand this, consumers demanded this practice. It wasn't anything to do with retailers vow to not be undersold, a way for them to make a gain over the competition and increase revenue?

Marketing practices start with Data Mining at the corp level back in the mid to late 90s fortune magizine rated wal-mart at the top of the 500 corp that used coputerization to their advantage in their marketing scheme to promote growth and run their daily business,at the close of each day wal-mart knew what their cash on hand was, what widgets where selling where and when their profit margin was met and when to offer sales on what was left. they took this one step further and started doing surveys and such when you pay someone to sit and run crystal reports, oracle,etc,etc,to study customer buying habits and demands or wants based on surveys and costumer complaints at the customer support level correct me if I'm wrong all you computer gurus but they call that data mining.When you glean all this info and base your marketing decisions based on consumer demands and or complaints thats called customer driven decisions. this filters down to everyone else.Call it competition or survival depending on what level of retailing you happen to be at in the food chain buts its customer driven. back to my original statement of the customer demanded it and its created a monster bscause now their demanding more and more in every arena. I quit doing insurance work on collision repair because the insurance co's wanted me to warrant my repair work for the life of the car,one **** of a marketing tool if you're a mega dealer or collision repair shop but can be disasterous if you're that small mom and pop shop also I just be ****ed if I will be held to a higher level of accountabilty when I repair something you the consumer screwed up than the manufactuer of that vehicle is held to when he manufactuers that vehicle under ideal conditions or as close as can be had. Jeffery should understand this the insurance co are one of the biggest data mining businesses around. I could go on and on with this but the bottom line is everyone needs to be responsible and accountable for their actions regardless of the arena or venue and quit demanding to be baled out when they screwup.

[scorrpio]

You got the payment - ship it and be done.
I found the auction - she is apparently one of those compulsory bidders who cannot stand being outbid - lets see....
$167, 188, 207, 243, 257 all in space of 3 minutes. It is not like she made a typo (which, by the way, looks to be the case with the second-best bidder)

You did not stand there with a gun to her head and make her put in those stupid bids. You did not price it that way - and it looks like you did not put in a reserve. You did not set the price - she did. If she would put in a negative, you can slap her right back with same. You would still have over 99% score - but a negative to her score of 23 would have deeper impact. And you can always post an answer to a negative stating that it is not your fault that bidder put in FIVE overbids in a row. When I research a seller and see he has negatives, I usually dig in and take a look.

So, you got the payment, just ship it. This person apparently needed a hard lesson on 'reckless bidding'. She is a kind who hits an auction with some 'initial price', and then can't resist running up till she is on top, no matter the price - I looked at a couple other auctions she bid on.

[PJC]

the bottom line is everyone needs to be responsible and accountable for their actions regardless of the arena or venue and quit demanding to be baled out when they screwup.

Well said in this quote. Jeff, you are not at fault at all, nor do you need to refund any money. She should've researched better and not placed such a high bet. As far as the price matching goes, if a store offers price matching, by all means go for it if your item qualifies, but don't get angry if they don't. All bets are off for "price matching" on auction sites. You set the price you are willing to pay and that's it. If you put a price higher than what it's worth and wind up winning, tough S*%*, it's your own fault.

[jwaterdawg]

Thank you for your prompt payment. Below you will find the tracking number for the item (ebay item # here) you agreed to purchase at the price of $255. I have paid out of pocket for additional insurance of the item shipped in order to insure that your cookware arrives promptly and safely. I sincerely hope you enjoy the cookware.


If I were you I would take lots of pictures of the actual items shipped.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

If I were you I would take lots of pictures of the actual items shipped.

I packaged (thanks for the air bubbles Amazon!) and photoed the living crap out of this thing!

[Joe Lyddon]

She obviously made a mistake... an obscene one...

Why don't you just give her a $100 credit and you both will be happy (happier)?...

[cobob]

It must be a common problem.

I bought a laptop from a guy and the description was worded as if he had only one. Come to find out, he had a dozen...and was accepting 'buy it now' for less than I paid. I sent him an email asking what gives? but that I would pay regardless of his response. He sent back an email like I was a saint...but the price was firm...he did throw in free shipping and several hundred dollars of software. I got the impression many buyers make life very difficult for sellers.

Just because it's cheaper on ebay doesn't mean she didn't get a good deal off retail at a department store? I wouldn't deal with her.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Why don't you just give her a $100 credit and you both will be happy (happier)?...

I initially thought about that, but the fact is that she was outbidding other people who would have been happy to pay $250 for the item. I can't see refunding her $100 when there are other people out there who wanted it for $250. Apparently there are a few people who had no idea what they were doing!

[JSCOOK]

He earned the money fair and square ...

She obviously made a mistake... an obscene one...

Why don't you just give her a $100 credit and you both will be happy (happier)?...

[Russianwolf]

just a note on the price matching thing.

Not all store in the same chain will do this. Walmart in Fairfax VA will not price match with the store in Mannassass VA. Simple reason is their overhead is that much more. The stores are less than 10 miles apart.

Price matching is also mainly used to keep customers. ie: If the customer comes in and says that they saw the item price $10 cheaper at another chain, the manager has to decide if he wants the customer to come to him or go to the competitor first the next time. It's more about Customer retention than just straight marketing.

[mackmack]

Unless you want to lose even more money I suggest you give her the money back and re-auction the thing and cut your losses. You should be able to get your paypal and auction fees back provided this is the first time it has happened. If you havent shipped it yet UPS will give you a refund as well.

I know a little bit about this and I can tell you that the seller has close to ZERO control over this situation.

If you ship it you will have to pay for return shipping fees(paypal will deduct these automatically from whatever credit card or account you have on file and give it to her).

You can't win this one... trust me, I have been through this on SEVERAL occasions.

cut your losses while you can.

If you do ship it, here is what will happen. She will file a dispute with paypal, then you will both need to provide a written testimony, if she says anything such as "my kid did it", "I accidentally clicked to buy it", "I myself did not purchase it", "it was broken upon arrival", "it was not what I expected" you will lose, period.

I sent an electric piano to one lady in CA. I paid for tracked shipping, insurance, everything. This thing was brand new. It gets there and I guess one of her kids broke it or whatever. She contacts Paypal and as soon as she provides them with the tracking number back to me she gets all her money back, in addition to the money it cost to send it out(paypal was nice enough to go directly into my bank account to give that to her).

Two weeks later I received a broken electric piano back.

[Hellrazor]

Jeff,

Make hard copies of every email, all the ebay info, the paypal info, the bids and put it in a binder. That way you can misplace or lose any of the digital copies and still have a hard copy.

I will go on to say this: She screwed up and figured it out later. Ever go to a real auction and screw up? You bought it. I go to nursery auctions for plants, shrubs, etc in the spring/early summer and they will eat you alive if you screw up. You'll see people nod their head, they will take it as a bid and then they deny bidding. It can get ugly..

I would not offer her anything other then what she bid for and that price. She could have went the bid retraction route and claimed she mistyped it or something. No, she claimed it was your fault for an overbid, wrong answer.

[BrazosJake]

Who forced her to bid $257? I'd offer to eat the difference in shipping, other than that, it's her problem and I'd tell her to payup or file NPB with Ebay. Beyond that, you have no obligation.

I believe Ebay has a second chance offer you can give to next highest bidder, if she doesn't payup. If you're feeling generous, you can let her off the hook, but I wouldn't.