Got stiffed on Ebay

[76eldo]

I had one of my Eldorados listed on Ebay, and this time it sold for $9200.00, which i was very happy with, except the "winning" bidder has a past reputation of bidding on expensive items and they not paying and just ignoring emails and messages.  His contact info on his ebay account lists a disconnected phone number.

Here is the auction listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250589582269

The two under bidders were at $8700 and $8800, which would have been fine as well, and I have spoken to both of them, but the ebay ether wears off after the auction ends, and they are bidding on other cars.

I live in the Phia, Pa area, and the guy that totally screwed me is in North Jersey, not very far away.  I filed a dispute with ebay, which will not make him pay for the car, but hopefully they will do something to keep him from doing this again.

His ebay user name is "Potse" so I am letting you guys know just in case he decides to bid on any cars or parts you may have on ebay.

Ebay is not at fault here, and I still feel that ebay is a great way to buy and sell car stuff, but there always will be a certain element that play games and created problems for no good reason.

The car was above reserve when he got involved, so it's not like making a bid on a car at the beginning of an auction when the item is priced low and has not met reserve.  He bid at the very end of the auction, sniping the car, and then does not communicate in any way or answer messages left.

Bad news.

Brian

[Carfreak]

His contact info on his ebay account lists a disconnected phone number.

Doesn't Ebay have a requirement that a registration must have correct contact information including a working phone number and email address? 

Not that it will help your situation, but to be a PITA to Mr. Potse, perhaps file a complaint with Ebay regarding the non-working phone #?  'Wrong contact information'

[Otto Skorzeny]

Did you know about his crappy history before the auction ended? I've seen lots of auctions that forbid anyone with negative feedback from bidding. You can also ban specific people from bidding on your stuff , I believe.

[Carfreak]

Did you know about his crappy history before the auction ended?

Looks like his first bid was 3 days before the auction ended. 

Guess a good idea might be to review who's bidding on your car as the auction progresses and cancel someone's bid if they have a lot of negs, old or new. 

Doesn't help if they bid at the last minute though. 

[76eldo]

At a glance, his feedback seemed OK.

I truly do wish I had read his complete feedback profile, and I would have been able to block him from bidding.

Live and learn...

It's truly amazing how interested and pumped up people are when they are bidding, then after the auction they cool off immediately.  I am referring to the next two bidders down from the "winner".

I plan to re-list the car Sunday night.

[Bob Hoffmann CLC#96]

Brian,
Sorry for your problem. I've had the same experience with second & third place bidders. They cooled off to ICE!
Better luck next time.
Bob

[Greg McDonnell]

Brian said it right when he referred to 'Ebay ether'.  I don't know what it is about being in the heat of the moment and all pumped as the end of the aution approaches.  Some persons seem to lose touch with reality-it seems to become more about winning.  It is amazing how those other bidders could have been so interested before the auction ended, yet show absolutely no interest when contacted later.  You'd think if they truly wanted the car in the first place, they'd still be interested (imho).

Greg McDonnell
CLC #20841

[Otto Skorzeny]

It's just like that at real auctions. That's why you see all kinds of Earl Sheib'd, so/so cars going for big bucks at RM, Kruse, BJ, etc. People get caught up n the frenzy and it becomes more about winning than making a solid purchase. It's like being in Vegas!

[Ted in Olympia WA]

At a glance, his feedback seemed OK.

Ebay will not let seller's post negitive feedback for buyers anymore so how would you know.  This really upset me because some buyers need negitive feedback.  When you could do it I only did it a couple of times and only when they would not respond in anyway. 

I hope you can get eBay to back off on the seller's fees.

TED

[76eldo]

Ebay changed their policies a while back, and you can't leave negative feedback if you are the seller.  This was done because they said that some sellers that have negatives left against them by buyers were retaliating with unjustified negatives.  I had it happen to me when I bought a cell phone battery for $5.00.

They never shipped the battery even after claiming 5 times that they did.  I left a negative comment, and they slammed me, and negatives stay on there for a year.

Before ebay, I did business through Hemmings and Old Cars Weekly, and always had pleasant experiences buying and selling.  I have been on ebay for 10 years, and have only had a few problems, but two of them were with expensive cars.

I can get the fees reversed, but I don't know if I can get the bidders back.  Timing is everything.

Brian

[Jeffrey Burland]

This is just 2 cents - I've been on eBay since '99 - before ebaymotors.com. They've made a lot of changes and while they've gotten better, a lot of them are put in place, then removed after discovering they're dumb. Car auctions and high dollar auctions are always a crap shoot. I've heard excuses from - "my crazy brother does this all the time" to " my son thought I was going to buy him a car". A few things that work well are filters. You can stop problems before they start by using them. This will not allow certain bidders to bid. Filters include: negative feedback ratings, non paying bidders, not having a PayPal account, not living in the US, etc. I find these cut NPB (non paying bidders) out of the loop or at least lessen them. You can also require a bidder to have at least 10 pos feedback before bidding or require them to be pre-approved before bidding. It may seem like a pain, but less than wasting a 7 of your time. You can also cancel anyone's bid for any reason or stop an auction. eBay has a way of making it seem like they won't allow this or that, but in the end (and in the small print) it's your stuff and you call the shots, not them or the bidders. HTH, Jeff

[Fred Zwicker #23106]

Re: eBay.  My company (www.tptools.com) had a guy buy a small air-operated tool on eBay and paid by PayPal E-check or something.  The check was no good within the allowed time frame and PayPal sent us an email, telling us not to ship the goods. Accordingly we never shipped the tool, as directed. However, even though he never paid us, through some quirk in eBay's system, he was able to give us a very obscene negative (our first and only).  When I say obscene, I can assure you that it was more than obscene. We have an eBay rep who we contacted and eBay removed his obscene wording quickly, but not the negative.   

We were later able to reply to his negative, advising that his eCheck was NSF and that he had never completed the purchase. He then became very angry, sending us more obscene emails, downgrading our company, eBay and PayPal, calling us all crooks, junk equipment - don't buy and more 4 letter words.  We forwarded his nasty emails to eBay, yet still the negative remained.  I worked on this steadily for a few more weeks and eBay finally removed the negative.  Since most of his emails were not sent through the eBay reply system, it made things more difficult.  If this ever happens to anyone on this forum, be sure to reply through the eBay system if at all possible.  This gives them a record of everything to help them with their decision.  I guess that eBay receives thousands of negatives each day and everyone wants them removed, so it isn't an easy thing to do so.   

While I can see eBay's point regarding seller retaliation, sometimes the seller is the victim and should have some type of recourse - maybe not the ability to post a negative,  but the ability to offer a more-detailed explanation than at present (more characters to use). This would be a good starting point, so that potential buyers could analyze things properly if they see a few negatives.  When buying, a low percentage of negatives for an active seller should not always be a deciding factor, as many things enter into the picture.  We still like our 100% positive rating, but do not feel it is possible to keep this forever.   

Common Sense - My advice for sellers is to answer all questions and complaints promptly, describe things honestly and accurately and if buyer is unhappy, offer to have it picked  up and issue a refund immediately. This is just good business and will bring many rewards.  My advice to buyers is to ask questions in advance, be responsible for your winning bid and if buying a used part, allow a little leeway, as used is never as good as new.  Buyers who are unhappy with their purchase will do better if their complaint is polite and accurate and not emotional or crude. Overall, eBay is a good thing for our hobby, as has opened up the availability of parts that were almost impossible to locate in the past. 

Fred

[Brett Cottel]

In "happy days" didn't they tell Potse to "sit on it"? That's what I remember from 3rd grade.....teacher used to bring in a tv because he loved Happy days.  Funny the crap that you remember eh.......ya that dates me a little but being born in 65 I sure can't be the oldest here?
Too bad yoyo's like that are out in the world......makes all us good car buff's look bad.
Brett