SolveYourProblem
Article Series:
Small Business Guide To Buying Items:
eBay Auctions
When
and How to Withdraw Your eBay Bid
(and Why You Might Not
Want To)
by Jeff Cohen
eBay are a little strict about letting you
withdraw your bid. They call it a ‘bid retraction’, and have
a stringent set of conditions that you must meet before you
are allowed to do it. Here are eBay’s three acceptable reasons
for withdrawing a bid.
You
made a typographical error: This means that you accidentally
typed the wrong amount into the bid box, bidding a far higher
price than you meant to. This can be scary: imagine bidding
$100 and accidentally adding an extra ‘0’! You are entirely
allowed to withdraw your bid in this situation, and bid again
if you want to.
The
item’s description changed: If you bid on something and
then the seller updates the description, you have the right
to withdraw your bid. It wouldn’t be fair, after all, to force
you to take something that you now realise you don’t want.
The
seller is uncontactable: If emails to the seller bounce
and they don’t answer their phone, then the auction obviously
can’t continue, and you can cancel it.
So How Do I Retract My Bid?
eBay hide away the bid retraction form a bit, because they
don’t like people using it. You can find it by going here:
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RetractBidShow.
Now all you need is the item number from your auction: this
can be found on the item description page’s top right corner.
If you can’t see it on the page, look in your browser’s title
bar, and in any emails eBay have sent you about your bid on
the item. Choose one of the three allowed reasons, click ‘retract
bid’, and you’re done.
Are There Any Consequences?
Well yes, there are. The more unethical among you might have
considered that you could just cancel bids anytime you feel
like it by saying that you accidentally entered the wrong amount.
eBay are one step ahead of you. Each time you retract a bid,
it is counted on your feedback page for all to see – and anyone
with a lot of retracted bids looks more than a little dodgy.
eBay also say that abusing the bid retraction feature could
get you banned.
So is there a way to retract your bid without facing a penalty?
There is if your seller is nice, and most are. Sellers can
cancel bids on their auctions at any time, and if you email
them with a half-decent excuse then most will be more than
happy to do this for you. After all, it’s not in their interest
for their item to go to someone who won’t like it, as you might
leave negative feedback.
Of
course, retracting your bid should still be a rare thing:
you won’t win auctions that way!
# # # # # SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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