warning - ebay updates on fridays...

[girya32]

just a heads up, I had a bass for sale on ebay ending this morning.
I was looking at the page, and for 20 minutes before the end of the auction, it would not update. Usually there is a clock counting down to the end, but there was not and I had the enter "shift" and enter to get it to update.
After the auction someone contacted me to say they were trying to bid, but could not.

So I contacted ebay to ask them if they had "issues" this morning, and I got a mail from them saying

"Thank you for your email regarding potential buyers who are unable to
bid on your items for sale.

I realise how it concerns you. About your query, the issue you've faced
is due to our site maintenance which takes place every Friday. Some
features may be intermittently unavailable or slow during this time. To
keep up to date with our site maintenance work please copy this link
into a new browser window:

[url="http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml"]http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml[/url] " so make sure your auction does not end on a friday...

there was some evasive bull about clearing my cache, but really it was their site that was not responding. "Intermittently unavailable" seems to mean "bidders cannot bid during the last 20 minutes of your auction". Gee thanks ebay, great site.. I only realised it was a problem (not just me) when someone mailed me to say they could not bid ( "item unavailable") when they were prepared to pay much more than the winning bid. So now I have to get the "winner" to retract his paypal payment ( why aren't you allowed to say no paypal ?) , so beware auctions ending friday, ebay is as flaky as a lepers ballbag...

[Dubs]

That sucks man. They've basically cost you the sale...

[Ou7shined]

Bit of a nightmare for the guy who actually won it too.

[girya32]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='844052' date='May 21 2010, 01:46 PM']Bit of a nightmare for the guy who actually won it too. [/quote]

I am just hoping he understands its not my fault, ebay just went titsup at a bad time (for me anyway). I have refunded him the payment, if you refund within 60 days you pay no fees..

..don't end your auction on a Friday Mrs Worthington..

[stevie]

[quote name='girya32' post='844071' date='May 21 2010, 01:01 PM']..don't end your auction on a Friday Mrs Worthington..[/quote]
Very useful tip. Thanks for sharing.

[Annoying Twit]

[quote name='girya32' post='844071' date='May 21 2010, 01:01 PM']I am just hoping he understands its not my fault, ebay just went titsup at a bad time (for me anyway). I have refunded him the payment, if you refund within 60 days you pay no fees..[/quote]

To be honest, if I had been the buyer who won the auction to find you backing out of the sale, I wouldn't be "understanding". A sale is a sale and if you have any disagreements with ebay, that's between you and ebay.

[girya32]

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='844126' date='May 21 2010, 02:37 PM']To be honest, if I had been the buyer who won the auction to find you backing out of the sale, I wouldn't be "understanding". A sale is a sale and if you have any disagreements with ebay, that's between you and ebay.[/quote]

If I had bought something, and I knew the auction had been unfairly run, I would be happy not to complete the sale.

... so my respect for your viewpoint is immeasureable... :-)

[Annoying Twit]

[quote name='girya32' post='844181' date='May 21 2010, 02:11 PM']If I had bought something, and I knew the auction had been unfairly run, I would be happy not to complete the sale.[/quote]

How would the buyer know if the auction had been unfairly run? Rather than it being the case that the seller is coming up
with an excuse?

[quote]... so my respect for your viewpoint is immeasureable... :-)[/quote]

I was just saying how I would view the situation from the viewpoint of a buyer as an uninvolved bystander. Given your comment quoted above, I'm now definitely on the side of your buyer.

[girya32]

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='844231' date='May 21 2010, 04:08 PM']How would the buyer know if the auction had been unfairly run? Rather than it being the case that the seller is coming up
with an excuse?



I was just saying how I would view the situation from the viewpoint of a buyer as an uninvolved bystander. Given your comment quoted above, I'm now definitely on the side of your buyer.[/quote]

Because there are emails from the other bidder, saying that they were trying to bid, and replies from ebay, saying they had problems, I think I can show there is a valid reason; its not an invented excuse.

If I am dealing with a human being who can sympathise with me being the victim of ebays glitchy system, then there shouldbe no problem, should there? Comprende?

[Mr. Foxen]

Another reason to get your bid in before the last moments.

[Ou7shined]

I too think you should honour the contract and take it up with ebay, if they admit liability then they will intervene, there's no point taking the law into your own hands. If you have a firm statement from ebay saying the auction was invalid then case closed.

Imagine the shitstorm if everyone recanted on all Friday auctions if they didn't like the end price. (I'm guessing your motivation isn't born through sympathy for the guy that wanted to bid late)

And at the end of the day it wasn't a complete washout, you achieved £60 under your opening price on here which ain't bad.

[Annoying Twit]

[quote name='girya32' post='844261' date='May 21 2010, 03:30 PM']Because there are emails from the other bidder, saying that they were trying to bid, and replies from ebay, saying they had problems, I think I can show there is a valid reason; its not an invented excuse.[/quote]

You have emails from the other bidder saying that they tried to put a bid on, and ebay saying that things can be a bit slow on a Friday. It doesn't sound like a serious enough reason to cancel an auction to me. How long ahead of the deadline was the bidder trying to bid? If it was hours then you might have a point. But was it hours, or was it that they tried to bid in the last ten seconds and because ebay was a bit slow, they missed out? If the latter, then that doesn't sound unfair to me at all.

Edited May 21, 2010 by Annoying Twit