I listed 3 cell phones (1 auction) on ebay. The auction ended today. In the middle of trying to entertain company today I got away to check the auctions. I seen that that had ended so I did my normal and sent my invoices for payment. Several hours go by and I get a chance to check my email again and this is what I find....

Letter from my buyer... (of course I took out the names)


Hi xxxxxxxxx:

I will buy this item but I am buying under PROTEST!!!

Here is what happened. my MAXIMUM bid was $165.00. After that I never bid anything. So how come I won this item at $217.00, when I never bid on it??!!

Secondly you can see the records. That My maximum bid was shown as: $17,500.00 for this item. How come??!! Is there some kind of SCAM going on??!! If so, it is highly cheap of E-bay to be doing this.

thirdly, how come I am out-bidded the very second I bid, before even anybody has seen my bid??!! Ridiculous & rather undignified for E-ABY to indulge in such low-down activities.
Regards.......
xxxxx
xxx.xxx.xxxx

PS: How do I contact E-BAY management??!!


How would you handle this? Keep in mind the buyer has sent the payment via PP.

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err you know what, i had EXACT thing happen last week to me too..

The bid was up to 202 on an item and i had a guy mail me saying that he was high bidder and had put in a lower bid but now he was winning at 202 and he didnt bid that much, and he couldnt figure out how to cancel it. The auction hadn't ended yet so i cancelled it for him and when the cancelled bid amount showed up it was 17,500 , exactly like your bidder.

weird that both our 'overbidders' bid the exact same insane high amount? This might be some sort of weird ebay bug then..

You can always do a second chance offer to next highest bidder if he don't want it.

That definitely sounds like a bug and I would ask for listing fee and FVF back!!

What I hate is When you have had a HIGH bidder for days and just moment before an auction ends, they retract their bid using the excuse that, "seller changed XXX"., when I clearly did NOT!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder if this is a way of shilling by buyers???

I've had to retract when I hit the comma instead of the decimal and missed it on the confirm screen.

Thus $175,00 will become $17,500.00 instead of $175.00.

Seller might want to explain the probable cause and offer a release as mutually agreed.

Ebay should not allow the comma to be put in a bid if their edits can't catch these errors..

On his "third" point, If you are feeling inclined to actually answer his question since obviously he doesn't understand ebay/maximum bid/proxy bidding... I would tell him that obviously another bidder entered a maximum bid/proxy bid that was higher than his bid, so everytime he raised his bid, he was automatically outbid immediately by the higher bid...and he will keep being outbid until his bid is higher than the max. bid that the other bidder has entered.

And on his other issue, like another poster mentioned, it sounds like he forgot to enter the decimal when he entered his bid...making his bid in the thousands, rather than the hundreds.

Ok here is how I replied and the buyers next answer...

My reply:

xxxxx,
I apologize for this happening. Ebay has been in trouble for doing this same thing to other bidders. If you don't want to go through with the transaction I will completely understand and will refund your money.

I'm not able to see what each bidder's max bid is unless they have been outbid by another bidder.

You can contact Ebay with this situation but I can't promise you a positive outcome. You can contact Ebay through the "Live Help" link on the home page.

xxxxx xxxxxxxx

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Buyer's reply:

Hi xxxxx:

Thank you for your response. How come at the very second I bid, I have been "OUT-BIDDED??!!" This is total cheating, to artifically up the bid amount, very shameful, indeed & fraud & nonsense.Mainly because if I bid & in the very next second I cannot be out-bidden because nobody has even seen my bid yet except CHEATING E-BAY who up it artificially.
Everytime I bid & in the next second I have been out-bidded/before anybody else has even seen it??!! Total undignified FRAUD.& please let me have phone contacts of E-bay Executives/CEO/Management. Thank You.I have already paid for the 3 used RAZRs therefore, it is OK but E-bay is being a SCAM & a CHEAT........rather undignified.

xxxxx

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I'm going to ship the package today but for some reason I dont think this is over with just yet.

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If you read my post above your last post...it addresses his rant about being immediately outbid & ebay "scamming" him. He obviously doesn't understand how maximum bid/proxy bidding works. If someone has a higher maximum bid/proxy bid entered...the computerized system will immediately put the highest bid in the lead, thus immediately outbidding other bidders as they enter their bids. He needs this explained to him in extremely simple wording. He seems to have no concept of how it works.

His complaint is that he never bid over $165 and he was out bid immediately because someone had a higher bid. Then he gets a email saying he won the auction for $215 because ebay had his high bid at $17,500, which he never bid.

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If this is the correct auction I found this bidder is brand new to eBay and no doubt screwed up his bid. I surely wouldn't be leaving him any feedback until he left yours first.

He shouldn't complain........he got an excellent deal.

I haven't searched auctions lately, so this is the first time I saw the bidders listed as Bidder 1, Bidder 2, etc. instead of real usernames.

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Living well IS the best revenge!!

I'd point bidder to the ebay help for proxy bidding which may clear this up.

You might also summarize it like this.

Dear bidder,

Proxy bidding as used by ebay can be confusing. Ebay has a help section on this, but I may be able to explain it for you here.

If I bid a maximum of $200 but the current high bid is $150, my bid will not go to $200 but will be only enough to outbid the current high bidder - say $152.50.

Now, you come in with a bid of $165.00.

Since I told ebay I would go as high as $200.00, my bid is AUTOMATICALLY and INSTANTLY raised by ebay to outbid you at $167.50.

That's why you see the almost instant outbid messages.

Hope this helps you understand proxy bidding.

Seller

He entered the wrong bid amount and eBay automatically bid higher for him each time he was outbid -- proxy bidding, NOT an eBay scam!

He gave you the goahead to mail but, yes, I'd wait to leave feedback until after he leaves yours. Protect yourself.

package has been shipped. I will keep everyone updated.

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Good luck with this one. It also sounds like the bidder's first language may not be English. That may also have contributed to the use of the comma in the bid amount instead of a decimal. I remember from taking Spanish classes that they reverse periods and commas when writing dollar amounts.

This guy concerns me. I hope it goes OK with this guy - the language to me (use of undignified, etc. plus the rant) sounds like the same lingo the scammers use. I hope it is on the up and up.

Well everything turned out good with this....buyer finally left positive feedback today "Excellent, very happy with product, thank you"

I also left positive feedback despite how the transaction started.

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That's wonderful!

I'd still block any from further bidding on your items. He doesn't seem too ebay savvy.

Perhaps he has now learned about bidding and will be a good buyer.

LOL, my thoughts exactly!

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Lizzzz
Haunted_Studio