Headscratcher: an offer via Messages MORE than the BIN asking price!
Summary: pillarboxred shared an unusual situation where a buyer offered more than the listed price for an item on eBay due to differences in pricing across various eBay sites, questioning if this might be a scam technique. fullers_uk shared a related issue with the eBay 'best offer' system, expressing concern over glitches and a lack of support, likening it to inconsistencies in international companies. sml192 suggested that VAT differences might explain the pricing discrepancies. The conversation reflects frustration with the platform's handling of offers and support.
The buyer in Italy has offered £130 for an item priced at £114. I've pointed this out and the buyer says " on ebay.com the price is £114.00... whereas on ebay.co.uk it's £140.07... likewise on ebay.it it's £140.00... mystery solved... that's why I offered you £130.00... thanks for the reply anyway... best regards... ciao" The "..." dots are the buyer's; I've not left out any text.
Recently, I've been getting quite good offers in Messages and when I ask them to use the Make an Offer link, nothing. Is this a new scam technique and how does it work?
sml192
·1 week ago · EditedThe difference appears to be the VAT, £114.81 + 22% VAT = £140.07, which would be correct as it is an overseas sale. Presumably the VAT would be added at checkout on the US site.
How much did it say that you would actually receive for the offer?
pillarboxred
OP1 week ago£130! When in fact a bit less than £114 would have been accepted. This is happening more often and no sales result so I think I'll report everyone who does it.
fullers_uk
·1 week agoTheres many problems with best offer at this time:
I received an offer on an item.
I clicked accept and it wanted me to tell the buyer why I thought my counter offer was a fair price.
I had not made a counter offer merely accepted what I had been offered.
I accepted the offer and then the order vanished.
Its not in paid orders.
Its not in orders awaiting payment.
When I try and contact the buyer I insert the item number and it doesn’t exist.
Over 20 years experience of ebay this tells me the buyer has paid and I wont get paid, I wont know where to send it, ebay will take the money from my account to refund the buyer even thought I never had it in the first place, get a INR defect and negative feedback.
pillarboxred
OP1 week ago · EditedVery concerning. If what you say is correct, it is tantamount to theft. I blame Cloud Computing: when Internet trades were tied to phones at the end of copper wires, it was harder to spoof things. Now, no one actually knows where data is coming from or going because of dynamic Internet addresses.
fullers_uk
·1 week agoThe house always wins, it wouldnt be as much of a problem if there was real support but there isnt, your on your own. Users see ebay and use the ebay interface but they don’t realise that all the interface does is pull data from everywhere, a good example is by an international coffee shop chain, the UK division makes little profit but it has to buy coffee from its Luxemburg office, they charge £3.00 for every cup so the UK division sends them £3.00 a cup, the Luxemburg office makes 95% of all the money for the chain, so ebay feedback could be in ireland and every ebay site buys that service, best offer may be hosted by spain and ebay pays for that service, and it just goes on and on, all we see and use is an inteface that just cobbles it all together, when you log into the UK site it looks very different to when you log into the US site or the Canada site and dont forget best offer is not available on every ebay site.