OOPS! Dropped somebody right in it - doh!

[5129frederick]

A seller put up an item for 99p, trying to avoid the insertion fee.  I was watching it and it seemed a bit odd that nobody was bidding on it, so in an effort to start the ball rolling and raise her spirits, I decided to bid on it at 99p on it.  Shock, horror, I now find that nobody else has increased the bid over the course of the last five days, and it's only got about four hours to go!  I emailed her pointing out she'd better put a reserve price on it, or revise it otherwise she'd be honour bound to sell it to me for virtually nothing, advising her how to word the ad and telling her a realistic starting price - it's a 3/4 sized ladies guitar, a hobby of mine - I've sold about four over the internet, so I do know something about guitars.  We exchanged light hearted banter about me getting the sale of the century.  She then emailed me telling me that she was unable to do this, because somebody (me) had already put in a bid!  Also it would be too late anyway, as she was going to France for a few days

My conscience will not allow me to pick up something for nothing - I play a very straight bat and cannot in my heart of hearts take advantage of the situation.  The only way out I can see is for me to either buy it from her officially for 99p and settle up with her privately, or to contact Resolutions and tell them I bid in error for an item and wish to retract it, and that the seller is happy about it and wishes to oblige.  I'm sitting here praying that somebody will outbid me in the closing seconds, but I'd still hate to see her lose it for about £3.00.  It's worth about £25.00 although I wouldn't have been prepared to go over £15.00 - I'm in it to make money, as are we all.  She hasn't a great deal of selling experience and said she didn't think of putting a reserve price on it until it was too late.

Under these particular circumstances, what would you do?

[ginap.123]

So you won't give us the end of the story just the bits that you think show you in a good light. No point half a story, people need all the facts to form an opinion otherwise there is no point posting. Self confessed malicious bidding & then expecting praise

[harrydog10]

Well said Gina.

[lhasa.two]

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@ginap.123 wrote:
So you won't give us the end of the story just the bits that you think show you in a good light. No point half a story, people need all the facts to form an opinion otherwise there is no point posting. Self confessed malicious bidding & then expecting praise

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Gina, I think you might be wrong about it being malicious bidding.  I think it's again an example of bidding first, then thinking about it afterwards and feeling guilty that he's getting something for too low a price. I agree there are assumptions he's made and should have just left it alone particulary as he's not going to collect it. 

I know frederick comes out with some odd statements about things occasionally but  it seems to me he shoots from the hip by not thinking before posting sometimes. He gets wound up, but I really do think his motives are pure if sometimes misguided. On this occasion I think he was misguided and was very lucky he corresponded with a reasonable person, as someone else might not have taken his intervention as helpful and accused him of "malicious bidding". I think it's again an example of bidding first, then thinking about it and still getting it wrong. He should have cancelled his bid straight away.

What's more important is he puts his payment deadlines on his TOS. This would avoid the sending of reminder emails and panicking that they are npbs and ending up having message arguments possibly resulting in negative feedback.

[lhasa.two]

Shameful?

That's a bit strong, it's ONLY an auction for .99p

Maybe reserve that adjective for the Russian rebels who shot down an airliner in Ukraine killing 298 people, and the way they treated the dead and delayed rescuers - now that is shameful.

[ginap.123]

Well he definately deliberately bid against the terms of her advert, she wanted collection only, which she stipulated clearly & then he has a little whinge that she couldn't be bothered to wrap & post.She probably knew her price would be lower due to listing with this option but was obviously happy to do so. Personally I would have expected Fred to either collect as per listing or I would have given him a non paying bidder strike. After all, it's only a few weeks ago that he was moaning about people bidding & not paying. Seems that he does the same.

[lhasa.two]

You'd have to ask him about that gina but I suspect in his initial excitement he didn't read her TOS about delivery... as he was fixated by the .99p price!

[aernethril]

I'd call what happened to that plane more than shameful and I'd not even think of bringing that into any comparison - that is shameful IMHO - and I'm truly suprised you've stooped to doing that.

There are other things which have not been picked up on in the OPs claims which I am not going to go on a witchunt over, but which would show that the story is not exactly honest.

I understand you may feel the need to give another perspective, but not to find excuses.

[ginap.123]

That would be his excitement on bidding for something that he admits he didn't really want.

[stan3502]

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@ginap.123 wrote:
Personally I would have expected Fred to either collect as per listing or I would have given him a non paying bidder strike. After all, it's only a few weeks ago that he was moaning about people bidding & not paying. Seems that he does the same.

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Very true Gina ....... well said

[harrydog10]

I have to agree with Gina. In addition he had cast aspersions on the seller in his opening sentence by saying she listed at 99p to avoid insertion fees, how does he know that. Could be an number of reasons for a 99p start. Unfair comment in my opinion. I think its a case of not what is said, but how its said. . .

[suzieseaside]

I don’t believe it was malicious, but obviously not thought through before jumping in with a bid since it wasn’t a helpful thing to do, and I’m not convinced this seller needed advice, let alone incorrect advice.  She seems to have been extremely reasonable. I don’t know if you paid anyway, Fred, but if had made a mistake about the T&Cs I would pay her  in goodwill and suggest she kept it to sell again (if that can be done).

The two main things to learn (as have been said) are never ever bid on an item unless you want to win it and you are also prepared to follow the seller’s T&Cs.  If a seller says collection only (no delivery) then that’s what they mean, and every bidder should believe them.

No-one can assume that someone else might do what they might be prepared to do in spite of what they have written in their T&Cs.  I can fully understand why this seller would not want to pack up something delicate and awkward like a guitar. I know I wouldn’t and I wouldn’t be happy if someone bid because they assumed I could be persuaded.  I suppose you could ask the seller if they might consider allowing a courier to collect rather than yourself, but do that and wait for the answer before placing a bid.  

I have already said what I feel about unfounded and uncharitable comments about buyers and sellers’ motives (re insertion fees) and abilities (having any sense) which are your opinion, not fact, so perhaps such remarks are best not posted in future because they will put people’s backs up. They put my back up after reading this sort of thing before along with your moans about not enough free listings.It seemed to me that you were projecting your thoughts/motives onto other people. Of course I could be wrong.

Your seller listed other items at higher starting prices so there is no indication that she wasn’t aware of what she was doing with her low start on this item, or any other indication that she has little experience as you described her.  She is not a newbie but has been registered with ebay for 9 years and has a minimum of 153 transactions under her belt, including 45 items sold. So hardly a ‘poor girl’ who doesn’t know what she is doing. I would think that’s enough experience to understand how ebay works for the types and value of items she is selling.

I hope she sells her item. You seem pleased that she took your ‘advice’ about a starting price, but I suppose it could cost her more in listing fees if it doesn’t sell. I haven’t sold anything for years so I wouldn’t know how much, but I hope that she doesn’t end up worse off than if you had never hit that confirm button.   

[lhasa.two]

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@aernethril wrote:

I'd call what happened to that plane more than shameful and I'd not even think of bringing that into any comparison - that is shameful IMHO - and I'm truly suprised you've stooped to doing that.

There are other things which have not been picked up on in the OPs claims which I am not going to go on a witchunt over, but which would show that the story is not exactly honest.

I understand you may feel the need to give another perspective, but not to find excuses.

I haven't stooped to anything, you're the one "shaming and blaming" and losing more than a bit of perspective on the situation and going totally OTT. How would you like it someone sent you your post to frederike? I'm quite sure you wouldn't like it. IMHO giving someone the benefit of the doubt is preferable to jumping in feet first when you don't know the full details of his conversation with the seller.

My Ukraine example was to demonstrate what really is "shameful", not  calling a misjudgement by frederick 'shameful'  on an auction web site, that's perspective. I'm sure frederick feels truly chastened by your words. Obviously I haven't made myself clear but just to be clear, giving another perspective is not an excuse. 

[aernethril]

And I think stooping to drag such a despicable act of mass slaughter of innocent life into this discussion about actions on eBay is shameful, just as those misleading comments about facts which are designed to give a distorted view of what a person's motives have been.

I cannot find much sympathy for someone who has posted misleading information about their actions.

I have nothing more to say to a person who keeps belittling such an appalling act of wanton destruction of human life, by using it to argue the use of a word which is appropriate for my use in this context.

I'll leave it at that.

[lhasa.two]

I think you've lost the plot! 

Night night, sweet dreams.

[rose2008-2008]

Poor Old Fred,,, he always opens his G*B beforethinking LOL. Both feet in Fred,, right up to your Neck!!!. Ohhhhhh Dearry Deary Me!!!!. LOL.

[rainydaywoman11]

FTLOG - if I hadn't actually read this I would not have believed it.  

International Massacre and Ebay Sale - eh?

And yes Rose, we all make mistakes, I could win prizes, but we're supposed to learn from our mistakes, we're not talking about teenagers here.  N'est pas?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result - Albert Einstein.