# When paid for an ebay item, do you have to accept the final bid price by law?



## Sn@kebite (26 Oct 2007)

Another stupid question from Sn@kebite...

I had an item on ebay and the 10 day auction ran out today. However, I am not satisfied with the price the final bid for the item amounted to. The user said I had been paid via paypal, but I understand that you (the paypal a/c holder) have an option to refuse a payment (?).

So can I reject payment and notify the ebay user I have decided not to accept payment?
And how do I reject it?

Thanks!


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## tallpaul (26 Oct 2007)

If you have not set a reserve then you are bound by the selling price. You have entered into a contract to sell the item to the buyer. According to eBay if your item sells, you have to complete the sale. 

I suppose the penalty for not selling will be negative feedback...


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## miselemeas (27 Oct 2007)

I agree with previous post - if you offer the item for auction that's exactly what it is.  You have the option when listing to a) Set a Reserve, b) Sell by Auction c) offer it at a fixed price as Buy it Now. You also had the option to withdraw the item before the final bid.  Since you agreed to sell by auction and didn't use any of these options,  you should accept the final bid.


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## gebbel (27 Oct 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> So can I reject payment and notify the ebay user I have decided not to accept payment?
> And how do I reject it?


 
That would go against all the principles and ethics of ebay. Send the winner the item.


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## Sn@kebite (27 Oct 2007)

Ok thanks all! - Looks like I just gave away a digital camera...


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## beetlebum (27 Oct 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> Ok thanks all! - Looks like I just gave away a digital camera...




i rememeber once when i bought two six nations tickets for a song. the tout had put a buy-it now price for one (still over the cost price), and had listed two!!!

i sent payment via paypal straight away too.

and then the seller told me i should have know it was a mistake and he sent me back my payment. i told him it was completely unfair and that i had bought them in good faith.

He says there was nothing he could do, he relisted the tickets. and i had to move on.

couldn't give him a negative reference either cos it would have risked my 100% positives.

so you could be like that tout and refuse to send the camera to him, but it does go completly against everything that is ebay. and it is not a good way to start your ebay career,


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## car (28 Oct 2007)

Im not so sure about this that it goes against everything that ebay stands for.    Yes, there are genuine bargains to be had, but if a mistake was made by not putting in a reserve price then as with the experience with the tout, you refuse the payment, if negative feedback is received, you'll have to live with it, explain it with as a genuine error that it was posted in error, then in all further items, put on a reserved price or list the fact that there is none.   

Ive bought many items from ebay and I wouldnt think too bad of someone who did that, doubt youd get the winning bidder of your camera to accept the excuse too well but if the sum of money is significant enough, your conscience may be salved.



> couldn't give him a negative reference either cos it would have risked my 100% positives.


How does that work?


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## ClubMan (28 Oct 2007)

car said:


> How does that work?


I presume they mean that if they gave negative feedback to the seller who messed them about the seller would then give negative feedback in return. This happened to me - a seller never delivered the goods, _eBay _ruled against them on the matter and refunded me the money. I logged negative feedback against the seller and they did likewise and also threatened me with various other possible repercussions (none of which they followed up on).


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## bytelive (28 Oct 2007)

ClubMan said:


> I presume they mean that if they gave negative feedback to the seller who messed them about the seller would then give negative feedback in return. This happened to me - a seller never delivered the goods, _eBay _ruled against them on the matter and refunded me the money. I logged negative feedback against the seller and they did likewise and also threatened me with various other possible repercussions (none of which they followed up on).


This is what bugs me about eBay.  Most sellers don't give feedback until after they have been given feedback from the buyer.

So if seller doesn't ship/sell what they were supposed to, they give retaliatory negative feedback to the buyer, when it wasn't the buyer's fault!

When the buyer has paid, they have fulfilled their side of the deal, and should be given feedback there and then.


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## rmelly (29 Oct 2007)

the op didn't make a mistake - he just didn't like the price the item sold for. There is no suggestion in the post that he intended to add a reserve price but forgot, in fact it isn't mentioned. do the right thing and send the item or risk the negative feedback you otherwise deserve.


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## TreeTiger (29 Oct 2007)

If the OP is planning on selling more items on eBay in the future he should be aware that very few people will buy from a seller with a positive feedback score that is under 95%, and if this is his first sale he will be left with a 100% negative feedback score which will effectively end any possibility of selling anything else on eBay.

Here is eBay's information page on feedback: http://pages.ebay.ie/help/feedback/feedback-scores.html


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## Sn@kebite (30 Oct 2007)

rmelly said:


> the op didn't make a mistake - he just didn't like the price the item sold for. There is no suggestion in the post that he intended to add a reserve price but forgot, in fact it isn't mentioned. do the right thing and send the item or risk the negative feedback you otherwise deserve.


Yes that's right...I had a reserve price set but nobody was bidding so I removed it to see if it would entice people to bid. It certainly did! - However I neglected to read where it says you cannot add/edit a reserve price after the first bid comes through. (I suspect it is to counteract people raising the reserve forever to get maximum profits and cheating their potential buyers)(?).



TreeTiger said:


> If the OP is planning on selling more items on eBay in the future he should be aware that very few people will buy from a seller with a positive feedback score that is under 95%, and if this is his first sale he will be left with a 100% negative feedback score which will effectively end any possibility of selling anything else on eBay.


Yes I realise that so I decided to "Bite the Bullet" and give the lucky winner his camera to avoid a terrible start to ebaying 

Think I'll wait till after I get feedback from the user before I "retaliate" (as a prior poster mentioned)


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## jhegarty (30 Oct 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> Think I'll wait till after I get feedback from the user before I "retaliate" (as a prior poster mentioned)



People can see the feedback you leave as well.... so unless this user did something against the rules I would advise leaving positive or no feedback...


don't forget libel still applies here...


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## Sn@kebite (30 Oct 2007)

jhegarty said:


> People can see the feedback you leave as well.... so unless this user did something against the rules I would advise leaving positive or no feedback...
> 
> 
> don't forget libel still applies here...


Well I was only joking there but thanks anyway!


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## beetlebum (31 Oct 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> Well I was only joking there but thanks anyway!


 

and snakebite as was advised in another thread to you, start by selling small items till your references are built up. don't go selling expensive items with very little positive references because you wont get as many bids!!!
best of luck with it!


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## RainyDay (31 Oct 2007)

bytelive said:


> This is what bugs me about eBay.  Most sellers don't give feedback until after they have been given feedback from the buyer.
> 
> So if seller doesn't ship/sell what they were supposed to, they give retaliatory negative feedback to the buyer, when it wasn't the buyer's fault!
> 
> When the buyer has paid, they have fulfilled their side of the deal, and should be given feedback there and then.


THis bugs me too. I was thinking about asking sellers up-front to commit to giving buyer feedback once they receive payment.


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## Sn@kebite (31 Oct 2007)

RainyDay said:


> THis bugs me too. I was thinking about asking sellers up-front to commit to giving buyer feedback once they receive payment.


Why should they? - If you read the "retaliative" feedback you can tell it was just to get back at the buyer for giveing neutral/negative feedback so you can ignore it. Or do people just look at the percentage and make a judgement on that?


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## ClubMan (31 Oct 2007)

As mentioned earlier I had to log negative feedback against one seller, they retaliated by logging negative feedback against me but then I was still able to post follow up comments in response to this (on my profile). Presumably this is normal with _eBay _but it was the only time I ever had to experience it.


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## truthseeker (1 Nov 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> Why should they? - If you read the "retaliative" feedback you can tell it was just to get back at the buyer for giveing neutral/negative feedback so you can ignore it. Or do people just look at the percentage and make a judgement on that?


 
If its a common enough item that I want to buy and theres a lot of choice of who to buy from and similiar pricing i DO tend to just look at the percentage and make a judgement.
If its something unusual and its difficult to find many other choices available I would read through the feedback and see what kind of reasons people are complaining for - it depends, sometimes people leave negative feedback for reasons that i wouldnt consider an issue, depending on my feeling after reading the feedback Id decide to buy or not. In the case that I was a bit dubious but still wanted the item Id contact the seller and ask some questions to establish contact and see how reasonable they came across.
Ive never sold anything but I think if I was a seller Id be less inclined to look at a buyers feedback score as I wouldnt be sending an item til it was paid for anyway.


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