So Many Bid-Retractions!

[muinn-on-ethernet]

Has anyone else been having trouble with bidders retracting?  I've been selling a few items (not on this account), mainly dolls, and several bidders have retracted without warning as 'Entered wrong amount' but then they don't rebid.  I didn't change the descriptions or anything like that.  I've also had about four non-payers.

I'm assuming I have to go to my feedback page to report each bidder.  eBay doesn't make it easy! 😄

[vinylscot]

As a business seller who does list everything on auction listings once, before re-listing as BIN if they don't sell, this practice really bothers me. I have proposed before that retracting bids should be treated in a similar way to non-paying bidders. Perhaps sellers could block all bids from sellers with, say, more than five retractions in the last year.

eBay obviously aren't really concerned. Logic suggests that someone who claims they "entered the wrong amount", should be compelled to enter the correct amount before  being allowed to retract the "wrong" one.

I would be interested to hear from any individuals who feel they should be allowed to retract bids whenever they like. There is one regular poster on these boards who has retracted 115 bids in the  past 12 months. He/she, is ruining over two auction listings every week, and seems to be able to do so without any consequences. Perhaps they could explain themselves.

[*help_no_brakes*]

115 bid retractions in 12 months?

Bah... amateur... I have seen hundreds with 6-8k retractions in a 30 day period... Asia based shill bidding sausage factories.

eBay will always ignore these.

[vinylscot]

@*help_no_brakes*   I don't think the OP is talking about the "sausage factories", which eBay should be able to close down in a matter of seconds, if they so wished. These tend to involve a bid, or series of bids, and a retraction all within a couple of seconds. I've seen them too.

I think OP is more likely to mean individuals, deliberately retracting individual bids. My own experience suggests this often happens because the bidder has either bought it cheaper elsewhere (perhaps on ebay), or has bid on another similar item. (Obviously, there are also the "Sunday morning" retractions after a heavy Saturday night.)

I don't know if the contributor to these boards is a shill bidder, or just enjoys wrecking other sellers' listings, but I do know that, with behaviour like that, he shuldn't be allowed to "advise" others on these boards.

[plpmr]

And remember that eBay only restarted recording retractions on profiles last Feb.

[plpmr]

A hidden problem with bid retractions is that others might to start thinking a seller is indulging in shill bidding.

[*vyolla*]

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@muinn-on-ethernet wrote:

Has anyone else been having trouble with bidders retracting?  I've been selling a few items (not on this account), mainly dolls, and several bidders have retracted without warning as 'Entered wrong amount' but then they don't rebid. 

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I'd report them for invalid bid retraction (how effective this is, I don't know, but you can only do what you can do here).

There's a button on this eBayer guidance page you can use to report them:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/report-issue-buyer?id=4084&st=3&pos=2&que...

[muinn-on-ethernet]

Thank you so much for the link!  Bookmarked.

–And thanks everyone for the replies so far! 🙂

[martmarg41]

I just take a simple course of action - any bid retracter goes on my 'Blocked Buyer' list.

[myriad*seller]

Sometimes people bid high to "bid shield" a lower bid on a different ID by putting other buyers off, then retract the high bid so their lower bid "wins" at a lower price

Alternatively, they bid high to expose the underbidders highest bid, then retract and bid again with a different ID to beat the other bidder 

There are many reasons for retractions, not all good or honest 

[myriad*seller]

"several bidders" is the same person on multiple IDs, either bid sheilding or exposing the underbidders highest bid

Bids that come in after the retractions are likely from the SAME bidder too 

Its price manipulation to keep prices low for the bidders 

Block retractors but expect them to set up more and more new accounts 

[*help_no_brakes*]

Hi, I was replying to you in a jocular manner.

Btw eBay will not do anything about serial bid retractors.

I do agree with you about the member you have referemced... should be called out.

[eastern-lights]

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@*vyolla* wrote:

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I'd report them for invalid bid retraction (how effective this is, I don't know, but you can only do what you can do here).

There's a button on this eBayer guidance page you can use to report them:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/report-issue-buyer?id=4084&st=3&pos=2&que...

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Does that actually allow to report bid retractors? It seems to be for reporting buyers, and bid retractors are not buyers. I just looked at it to report a bid retrator when the item subsequently sold, and the only person it offered me to report was the actual buyer. 

Also, the process wanted me to select a sale, so if the bid retraction had resulted in no sale it didn't look as if it would work.

Or am I missing something?

[zoomingmouse]

To add... it sounds like you've either been unlucky, or you've attracted the attention of an auction wrecker if you've had 4 non-payers as well as bid retractions yet only sold a few things.

You could change to BIN's with immediate payment required for a while in the hope that they get fed up & then you can revert to auctions again.

PITA though 🙄

[muinn-on-ethernet]

Just had another bid-retraction! 😔  It's getting idiotic.

[*vyolla*]

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@eastern-lights wrote:

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@*vyolla* wrote:

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I'd report them for invalid bid retraction (how effective this is, I don't know, but you can only do what you can do here).

There's a button on this eBayer guidance page you can use to report them:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/report-issue-buyer?id=4084&st=3&pos=2&que...

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Does that actually allow to report bid retractors? It seems to be for reporting buyers, and bid retractors are not buyers. I just looked at it to report a bid retrator when the item subsequently sold, and the only person it offered me to report was the actual buyer. 

Also, the process wanted me to select a sale, so if the bid retraction had resulted in no sale it didn't look as if it would work.

Or am I missing something?

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I'd be inclined to contact eBay CS and report invalid bid retraction manually in that case.