Entered wrong amount cancellation needs regulation

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

 Bidders canceling bids entered wrong amount to game the bidding process

is unfair  tiresome time consuming frustrating 

Ebay We need some better and effective bidder restrictions  to counter this epidemic 

[vinylscot]

This is an awkward situation, and I agree eBay does not deal with it well.

When a bidder retracts a bid, the easiest answer to give is the "wrong amount entered" one. Logic would suggest that the bidder would be compelled to enter the "correct" amount, but eBay doesn't go this way.

However, if you think about it for a moment, annoying as it is, it is probably better that your bidder has been able to completely retract the bid, as they may well become a problem if they were not allowed to do so. You really don't want buyers who don't want to buy - that only stores up problems.

I have suggested before that bidders should be allowed to retract a certain number of bids per year, a bit like the rules around feedback revision requests. Once they've retracted, say six, bids in any twelve month period, buyers could no longer do so. As long as they know about this, e.g. by a banner on the page where the retraction is sumbitted, the number of retractions should decrease. eBay doesn't seem to be interested.

There are allegedly some large organisations who process literally thousands of bids/retractions via automated software. On a smaller scale, there was a well-established member, prominent on these boards, who had retracted 120 bids in a year. He has been quiet for some time, but there is no excuse for such behaviour.

[plpmr]

While not excusing it and buyers should read all the listing.

Perhaps they suddenly realised you are in Global Shipping with its exorbitant charges.

for example, a £2 postcard to Eire would cost a further £14 in Global charges.

[jckl1957]

I can't agree.

If bidders want to cancel, they have to choose from:

Entered wrong amount

Seller changed item details or description (which can't actually happen once a bid has been made)

Unable to contact seller (which reflects badly on the seller.

Bidders do make mistakes or change their minds.  I don't see how Ebay could make bids legally binding as they can't access buyers' bank accounts the way they can sellers' accounts.

I would prefer the honesty of 'I made a mistake/changed my mind' for a bidder to cancel a bid.

I would rather have a cancelled bid than a non-paying bidder or a request for a cancellation after the sale.

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

weve been around  ebay for some time   now,  with  various accounts   we know when the system is being gamed,  we wont give details here , but their is a regular method useed with   bid retractions that has nothing to do with error, mistakes, or global shipping,

 we accept bidders make mistakes  and its much better a genuine mistake can be corrected

 than become complicated, though serial  retractions should have limits

 we wont detail 

[plpmr]

Yes mistakes do happen but -

There should be sanctions on members who continually retract. retractions are recorded on a members profile but eBay stopped such recording only recommencing it a while ago.

retractions can damage a seller because bidders seeing numerous retractions on an auction can think there's shill bidding going on.