ebay......

Has anyone ever had to back out of an auction that they have won?

I won something, and am now thinking of backing out of it. The emailing back and forth is becoming too much of a hassle, and the guy says he won't be able to ship out next week because he lives in a rural area. Well, he lives in Tuscon, AZ, and I live in Gilbert, which is 2 hours away. I asked about meeting half way, and he said no because it would cost too much for him to drive all the way out. Another thing is with the emails: he has admitted that in a few emails, it is his wife answering the emails and not him. He appologized for not getting back to me sooner because 'they have 3 kids and sometimes they miss details' (or something to that level) I know they have post offices out there, and I just don't see why it would take so long to ship it out. Also, he is charging $20.00 instead of $10.00 for priority mail. I checked on USPS & to ship a 10 lb package from my zip to his, it only cost $10.00 I had emailed him that, and whoever it was, said they'd be willing to knock it down to $15.00, instead of $20.00 I'm guessing that was his wife?
The thing is, is I don't know if I trust this guy now. The guy has one negative feedback due to shipping issues. I just don't buy it how he cannot ship til next Monday..... I can just as easily go to the store and get the item for the same price. Now, I know this will leave me negative feedback, but I really don't care. Plus, I have a home equity payment that is due on Sunday and a HOA bill, due. What would you do? And, if you do back out, how do I explain it to him politely? I was just goint to say "Sorry, but I am going to have to back out of your auction. This is becoming to much of a hassle for me. I won't leave feedback against you." Would that be good enough?

Your answer is good, he can only blame himself for losing you! What a mess, and completely his fault. You have every right to back off, since he doesn't meet the agreements. Good luck!

you can back out but you will get negged! i had this problem with a $20 item and did not want to do business with the guy. he was a jerk! he left me a neg , which was actually under positive. and when he realized what he did he tried to get townsquare to remove my positive to a neg. thing is i had to agree. no way. you would not beleive how this guy cussed me out in lots of emails. and threatend to email every future bid i made and tell them what a "loser" i was. this guy really scared me. i reported him to ebay and they did nothing. he pulled my contact info and everything. we even talked to our lawyer about harassment charges, which could have been filed. after 80 something positives and no negs this was the first time i ever backed out of an auction. but, he should have treated me a little nicer! anyway, since then, i been buying under a different username. one i already had set up for selling. most people are nice on ebay. but beware!!! there are alot of phycos out there. oh, he may report you as a non paying bidder, but you just get a warning. as far as shipping, was the price in the auction? did you ask befor you bid? thier are alot of sellers who make a killing on "handling". i don't. i always try to get it as acurate as possible.

Tigger,

I am no longer an ebay addict for this very reason. I pulled out of an auction last year and the guy went cyber ballistic. Never mind that he failed to answer my emails about when the item (a horse halter) for gosh sakes would ship! When he did finally get around to answering me, his email was long and involved about his wife leaving him and he couldn't find the item and if I wanted to meet for coffee at this dorky little resturant in Washington he would just give me the thing! LOL Hellloooo- earth to reality? So I backed out, and I reported him, sent his emails which were actually hits for a date, companion, whatever to ebay and NEVER heard back. Told the guy politely to get lost and he left a neg on my record and flooded me with emails. It was a mess, and it looked from my end that he didn't even have the item, just wanted to meet a "horsey-type person" to date. I cancelled my account and never looked back.



If you really want to continue doing business with ebay, then you need to play the game, but if not, then just tell this joker to get lost (nicely) and cancel your account and go away. Sounds to me like he is not on the up-and-up at all.

I am done with ebay. I wont the auction for a silver ring. When I finally got it, it was CRAP! I sent it back to the guy, who said he would credit my credit card, he still hasn't. I won an auction for some body jewelry. I got it yesterday after a month of going back and forth with this idiot. It was such crap I am not going to be able to sell it. It isn't even close to the picture. I think ebay was a good thing until everybody who has a computer decided it was a good way to get top dollar for their junk. Why don't they just have a yard sale?

I have bought some things from E-bay very successfully, but I usually don't spend more than like $5 (except with yarn, I have gotten some lovely knitting supplies from them) because I'm just looking for collage materials. I'm not a collector of any kind, and I'm just gonna glue it to something else anyway.

I usually buy from someone with a photo or who seems to be reputable. I leave feedback as soon as I receive the item. And I set a price cap for myself, so that I don't spend $15 on a $3 item because I got caught up in the thrill of the auction.

Can't you dispute negative feedback? I mean, isn't there a space somewhere for the person who gets negged to leave a response?

I emailed him, and politely told him that I am going to be unable to buy the item, and that it is too much of a hassle. I told him if he wanted to leave me neg. feedback, I'd understand. I didn't want to come across as a %&#*$.

Hubby used to be into selling and buying stuff off ebay until some jerk tryed to pull a quick one past him. Hubby was selling his laptop, so he could get another one. (It was practically brand new). Anwyays, the guy who won the auction, which was well over $1,000 had little or no feedback. He never sent the money, then he wanted hubby to send it to him COD. YEAH RIGHT! We weren't that stupid. They guy kept playing around and took FOREVER to answer his emails. So, finally hubby called him and guess what!?! The number was disconnected...a bogus number. So he cancelled the auction and sent a major complaint to eBay and they said that they've been having problems with him. We checked out the other auctions that he had won and they were all for very expensive things. I just hope that someone wasn't stupid enough to send him what he won COD. Anyways, hubby relisted the laptop and someone good won.

Tigger-you have every right to back out of this auction if this guy and his wife seem fishy. You really have to be careful on eBay b/c you really don't know who you are dealing with. There are alot of nice and honest people who buy and sell on eBay though. Good luck!

There are some real tricksters on Ebay. I've never had any problems with buying an item. However, I did have a very bad experience selling an item.

This woman won one of my Barbie auctions. I contacted her immediately got her mailing info, etc. She wanted to know just how "perfect" the doll was, and I told her there was only very minor shelf ware on the box but was still Mint in Mint Box. The doll was released almost 10 years ago, shelf wear is to be expected. She went ballistic. I got the payment and told her and about 5 other winners that I may not be able to ship the item the next day since I had just started a new job, but it would go out within two days. She had a fit! I had Hubby ship it UPS the next day to appease her (paid $15 more on shipping than she paid me to get it out). She got mad because I hadn't shipped it personally. Then, (surprise, surprise) the package never showed up even though UPS had records of delivery. So then I had to deal with Mailboxes Etc to try and get the money back from UPS since it was insured for the value of the doll. It was a nightmare. This woman emailed me at least twice a day to find out the status and to make sure I was getting her money back. Personally, I really think that she had a case of buyer's remorse on spending over $100 on the Barbie, wanted the doll but wanted her money back too. I still think she ended up getting the doll for free. Since I have no proof, just suspicions, and I had already left positive feedback for her when I got the payment, there was nothing I could do. I thought it was suspicious since all of the other 30 packages got to their places just fine, on time and everyone else was happy.

I hate people who try to scam you! They should have thought about the price BEFORE they even decided to bid on the item.

I have been buying items off ebay for about 8 months now with no problems. My dad has been selling items on ebay for a few years with no serious problems. The first thing I do when I look at an auction is see how much the item is going for. How much do I want to spend on it (altogether with shipping)? And then the feedback. If there is an item that I want and the person selling it has negative feedback that is not justifiable to me, then I won't bid. The person basically has to have perfect feedback for me to even think about dealing with them. And I always make sure that they send me an email first before I send payment. Just to make sure that they really do answer their emails and stuff. But I have heard of people getting ripped off on ebay. Most of the things that I buy are items that I collect. Anything Jennifer Saunders related I get. I have received some items though that were not as they were described. I received a book that I paid about $8 for....excellent wonderful condition. Looked brand new. Another person was selling a book that went along with the first one I bought. They claimed it was in excellent condition. I paid about $20 for this book to receive it and find out that it had a big coffee stain on the back (cleaned off with a dishrag and water, but couldn't the seller clean it up first?), and the binding and the edges were all worn. I was figuring that the book would look just like the other one for $20, but I guess not. I wasn't completely upset...at least I got the book. It's out of print, so I guess it's not too bad. I was just a bit upset about it. I won a video one time that was converted from PAL format to the American format. I had heard horror stories about who people received converted tapes and they were terrible. I paid $20 for the tape and the whole time waiting for it to arrive I was worried about what it would look like when I played it. I received it and was thrilled!! It was grainy (which is expected from converting) and it had a couple spots where it was a bit bumpy, but for a tape that you can not get in America, it was well worth it!! My final little story today is that I won a vhs tape. It was only about $5 and I completely forgot about it. After about three months the guy emailed me about the tape. Since I had won the auction, I had bought the tape only I bought the dvd instead of vhs. Once the guy emailed me, I sent payment ASAP. I received the tape. A couple days later when I was watching it I realized that the guy had actually sent me the correct case, but the wrong tape. He never emailed me back so I guess maybe it was his way of getting back at me for waiting to send the money so long. Maybe he's still waiting for me to contact him about the mistake tape that I received. Anyway, it didn't bother me. I didn't want to waste more time sending it back to receive the tape I was originally supposed to have, so I kept it. A friend of mine has since bought the tape from me. So I guess if this guy wants his tape back now, it's too late. My advice to people ebaying.....check the feedback. If the person selling the item seems shady, don't bid. If you aren't sure, send them some emails before the auction ends. Ask them questions about shipping and stuff like that to get a good idea of the time from it takes them to answer emails and stuff. Good luck to everyone in future auctions. For those who have given up on ebay, I'm sorry for the bad experiences you had.

I got an email from him, and he was very nice about it He said he wouldn't leave me any negative feedback.

I've been selling on eBay a lot lately, and I think that you should be able to get out of your auction. If the seller is changing the terms, report him to eBay, and they should let you out fine. They are usually pretty good about dealing with problem members. But they usually don't email you back about their actions due to their privacy rules. Even their automated response emails say they may not get back to you on the matter, but it will be taken care of.

I've had quite a few deadbeat auction winners lately, and it can get pretty tiresome. But all in all, most of the people are honest and nice.

I did have one laday who went wacko on me though. She bought a cookie jar from from and refused to buy insurance on it. She wouldn't even pay Priority Mail even though it was only $.50 more. She would only do Parcel Post. So I wrapped it up as well as I could, but it got damaged during transit. Well, she wanted her money back. I told her no because that's what insurance is for - I'm very explicit about it in my listings and in my invoices. She left me negative feedback, but that's the way it goes. Anyway, one morning I got up and someone had created a user name of "dawnt91rippedmeoff!!!" and bid on all 35 of my items. I know it was her! There's no one else I've had problems with. So I got to spend two hours deleting all her bids. Thankfully she didn't do it as my auctions were closing or it really would have been a mess. I reported her, but that's all I can do. She actually has a lot of positive feedback, but she's a wacko through and through.

Anyway, if you want a positive eBay experience, you can always check out my auctions. I treat others like I want to be treated.

A friend of mine bought some "genuine" Oakley sunglasses through an auction. When he got them, they were anything but the real deal. The guy was a major jerk. My friend had to end up stopping payment on a check because he wouldn't honor his "guarantee".

On the other hand, another friend of mine sells Star Wars memorabilia through eBay. He has always had good experiences as a seller.

For the most part, I've always had really good experiences on Ebay - just that one woman who drove me nuts.

I think a lot of it depends on what you are buying. We bought a lot of collectibles (Barbie and Star Wars) on Ebay, generally from other collectors. I always figured that one collector isn't going to screw over another collector because they know how they want their collectibles.

I guess there is always going to be one or two rotten apples when you get that many people together, even if 99% are true to their word.

Wow! I guess I must be lucky so far...I just started buying things on e-bay....baby stuff...and so far I have gotten all my things (crib, changer, baby bath tub, playpen, swing, etc...) in good time, and great shape! Guess I have been lucky! All the people I have dealt with are so nice! I don't know why some people have to be buttheads about stuff...I can't believe someone created a username like that and bid on all your stuff, Dawn...what a jerk!!!! I hope this never happens to me, but I guess that's the chance we take.

I do agree that a lot of it depends on what type of items you deal in. I try to specialize in vintage items, and I have really good buyers with this stuff. Same for my James Avery stuff. But I've had nothing but problems with my videos and laser discs. I'm still trying to get my Final Value fees reimbursed from all my deadbeat winners. As soon as I get these items sold and shipped out, I won't ever list anything like them again.