eBay Question

My boyfriend recently became addicted to eBay... and now I think he's in trouble.

Basically he bid on a digital camera, max bid was $150. He was outbid, so he figured that's fine, I didn't need to spend that money anyways... the end.

Or so he though. Now he's getting emails from the seller, saying that he owes that money. As best as I can figure, the winner of the auction is either not paying/can't be reached so the seller wants the next highest bidder to win.

I can't find on the ebay site what the rules are with this... since he didn't technically win, he doesn't have to pay, does he?

As far as I know if he didn't win they are sending him a second chance offer and he doesn't have to pay if he doesn't want too. I had a second chance offer on an item that I was bidding on and decided that I didn't want it afterall so I didn't respond to that.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/personal-offer.html

Well, I was reading about the Second Chance and that's what I thought... but my bf said he got an outright email from the seller saying he owed the money, not a Second Chance email. That seems wrong.

I would get in contact with Ebay on that. The sellar can't make him pay for an item that he didn't have the winning bid on. He can send him a scond chance offer but he can't make him pay for it, since he wasn't the winning bidder.

That's what I thought and that's what I've just told him, thanks. Hopefully it'll be easy to resolve.

One thing you can do is send that email to [email protected] they will investigate it and give you an answer in 24 hours. Send that as a forwarded email to them so they can check out the header etc. from the origianl message. Hope this helps you guys on that.

Originally Posted by blondiecat

One thing you can do is send that email to [email protected] they will investigate it and give you an answer in 24 hours. Send that as a forwarded email to them so they can check out the header etc. from the origianl message. Hope this helps you guys on that.

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Thanks! I just thought about how you're not really supposed to do transactions outside of ebay and that might be what that guy is trying to do. But for all I know, maybe he's just frustrated and wants his money... it's so hard to tell and trust people sometimes, you know?

Anyway, my boyfriend is on lunch but I've told him to email me both the link to the auction and the email when he gets in, and I'm emailing him your suggestions.

No, your boyfriend does not have to pay. Sounds like the guy just doesn't want to re-post it. He can't give you negative feedback or report him to ebay because he was not the winning bidder.

A second chance offer would have appeared on myebay, and probably would have offered you the price that your maximim bid was even though you lost. In that case it has the "Buy it Now" feature only, no bidding. You do not need to accept if this does happen.

It was good to email ebay about this jerk! Some people try to pry on new users.

Originally Posted by sofiecusion

No, your boyfriend does not have to pay. Sounds like the guy just doesn't want to re-post it. He can't give you negative feedback or report him to ebay because he was not the winning bidder.

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What's dumb is that if he has an unpaying winner, he can relist for free. So why he's being a pain, I don't understand... maybe he doesn't know that? Or maybe my boyfriend's confused... sigh.

Because your boyfriend is a "newbie" to ebay and he figures he can make stuff up.

Thanks for your help guys... my boyfriend got the problem resolved, he emailed the guy back and ebay. Then he got an email from ebay saying that the dispute was closed by mutual agreement.

Strange thing though... he sent me link to the auction and if you look at it, only one person bid, him, and that's it. But he swears that someone else won and outbid him. Strange?

There is a situation where the highest bidder gets ruled out and then the next highest gets the item. If he bid on eBay and this is what happened, then yes, he's obligated. It states that when you make the bid.

Not that I am anything close to a frequent user of eBay, but while I am in the process of bidding on something, I save every email I get, including the ones that say I was outbid.