Why are Messages sent on the Message Platform on eBay not forwarded by email as they remain unseen

[algorfa1950]

When you have something urgent to communicate to a Buyer or Seller before an auction ends, you only have the option of posting a message to the messages section but buyers and sellers are not aware of the messages posted there unless they look specifically for an answer to a question they have asked and so the end of auctions may mean that the message sent to a Buyer to withdraw a bid is missed and the whole transaction has to go through!    Do eBay do this deliberately so that communication is held up deliberately so they can make fees even when sellers and buyers want to stop transactions going through for genuine reasons.

I have tried to contact a Buyer to withdraw a bid on an auction that has just hours to end but the chance of them seeing the message are negligible so I will end up having to pay fees on a damaged item I wanted to withdraw from auction and as I can't do it from my end on a live auction with a bid on it, I feel cheated by the eBay selling platform !

[1956glyn]

Hi it may help you if you read this Ebay article

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/bidding/retracting-bid?id=4013&st=3&pos=1&query=Retracting%20a%20...

as well as this

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/listings/selling-auctions/cancelling-bid?id=4140&st=3&pos=1&quer...

[algorfa1950]

I've actually already read those articles but they are written from the prospective of the Buyer more than the Seller and everywhere I have looked it said you can't retract a bid from a Buyer if less than 12 hrs to the end of the action, even though the item I was selling is now damaged and I need to cancel the listing.

[vinylscot]

I have this business account, and a private account, and I always get an email copy of any message I receive in the eBay message system.

What you want to do is contrary to the rules. If sellers were allowed to cancel bids with so little time remaining, it would become normal practice to do so. Away from your own particular situation, if it doesn't look like a buyer is going to get as much as they thought they might, they would just cancel the bids and end the auction, then try again later, possibly amending the price. 

In your example, you need to let the auction run, and take the consequences for failing to honour the transaction. That may include a defect on your account and/or negative feedback. It's unfortunate, but really, your own fault. eBay doesn't know if your reason is genuine, or if you just want a higher bid.

Hopefully the buyer will agree to an amicable cancellation once the listing is over, but you really just need to let it happen and move on, taking care not to let it happen again.

[papso22]

You can't end an auction if there are less than 12 hours to go, but you can cancel bids right up to the end.

The second link you were given takes you to guidance for sellers who want to cancel bids.

[algorfa1950]

No apparently you cannot cancel bids if there are less than 12 hrs to go, I have tried 3 times with the link I was given here and it just kept saying there were no bids on this item to cancel !

https://www.ebay.co.uk/bfl/cancelbid

[algorfa1950]

I am not failing to honour the auction !   I was not trying to cancel the auction in a devious manner, the item was fine when I listed it but when I went back to pack it I found the paint had peeled off the ceramic coating and I didn't want the buyer to be disappointed so I wanted her to retract her bid so I could then end the listing but I have written to her a couple of times without response.   If the sale goes through, she will receive a damaged item and give me negative feedback when I wanted to warn her that I found the damage and wanted to withdraw the item from sale.

What is  underhand or devious, or careless about that ?

[papso22]

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@algorfa1950 wrote:

No apparently you cannot cancel bids if there are less than 12 hrs to go, I have tried 3 times with the link I was given here and it just kept saying there were no bids on this item to cancel !

https://www.ebay.co.uk/bfl/cancelbid

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I would have expected there to be a message based on a 12 hour cut off, if you can't cancel if there is less than that time to go; your message indicates something else, maybe yet another glitch.

[algorfa1950]

Well I had the right item no because the answer included the name of the item and its no. and said it had no bids on it when it does have one bid on it, so again eBay apparently not functioning properly !

[vinylscot]

Although your reason may well be genuine, you need to recognise that, if allowed, most late cancellations would be done simply because the bids hadn't gone as high as the seller wanted, even if the seller claimed otherwise. (After all, what would stop them from doing that?)

If you can negotiate with your buyer, after the auction ends, you may well escaped unscathed.

You ask what is careless. I would have thought that was pretty obvious. You failed to mention the peeling paint in your original listing. That certainly qualifies as careless, as I'm presuming it wasn't deliberate... 

[algorfa1950]

If you read my messages above, I said that it was perfect when I took it out of the box to list it and it was only when I went to wrap it yesterday that I noticed that the paint had started peeling.   I have never set out to deliberately mislead anyone in my life nor ever been considered careless and I am in my 70's and am certainly not greedy and looking for a higher end price!   If you were to read my feedback, I gave away 3 ceramic items free of charge to someone who bought an eternal beau trolley from me and I included 3 ceramic items that matched the trolley for free and I was under no obligation to do that and received glowing feedback from the buyer !   Does that sound greedy to you ?   I wish that people would not generalise when answering questions raised by ebayers, we are not all out to get as much as we can from people.   I see that some people might set out to deceive people but I am not one of them.

[vinylscot]

With respect, you are completely missing the point, possibly quite deliberately.

Your buyer, eBay, and all of us here, all have no way of knowing if you are telling us the truth. (if you were lying, you would be telling us all exactly the same story.)

There is nothing you can do which will change that perception.

Even accepting your version of events as true, you were careless when you failed to check the item before listing it for sale. That's the bottom line. We all make mistakes - I certainly have.

Just accept the situation; try to sort somthing out with your winning buyer, and with a little luck, that'll be the end of it.

[*vyolla*]

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@algorfa1950 wrote:

I've actually already read those articles but they are written from the prospective of the Buyer more than the Seller and everywhere I have looked it said you can't retract a bid from a Buyer if less than 12 hrs to the end of the action, even though the item I was selling is now damaged and I need to cancel the listing.

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A seller can cancel a bid right up to the end of their auction if required. 

They cannot end a listing once it's received a bid and has entered the final 12 hours, just cancel bids.

A buyer cannot retract a bid once the auction enters the final 12 hours.

In your case, if you were unable to cancel the buyers bid it must've been some kind of glitch (I'm assuming that you were not using the app, which may not allow you access to all features).