The other day I screwed up badly. I placed a bid for 3500 usd for this watch:

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I used Gixen cause I was in a rush but at the time I didnt realize I was actually entering 3500 GBP. Of course when I come back home and see the ENJOY YOUR RAILMASTER email I was like woo hoo, yeah! finally! that´s until I saw the end price. Not that its not what the watch is worth, just that I was planning to bid lower, just in case I won (you never know what may happen) and wasn´t planning to fork out 5K rightnow.

I wrote the seller ASAP explaining the situation and trying to find an amicable solution to honest, human, mistake! (my feedback speaks for itself) his reaction was certainly unexpected, emails that are five paragraph long explaining why it would be highly unlikely that I bidded unadvertidly in another currency, badadi badada..sent me transcriptions of all his live chats with ebay representatives, etc etc etc...he did a crime novel for what I believe was a human mistake. He still doesnt believe in my stupidity so I will just hand and take the non paying bidder. Or should I sell another piece to pay it off. Geez

 

Thanks everyone for their reply. The first thing I did, immediately after I noticed, was offer the seller to mutually cancel the transaction (selling fees are automatically reimbursed), and offered compensation for the time lost and listing fees. The seller attitude was unreal from the begining. I´m also a seller and my feedbac shows that I never win something that I wouldnt pay for. Even if I get second thoughts after winning I will do like you say, PAY IT, AND RELIST IT!...

If I recall, the non paying bidder warnings are automatically deleted from your record after 6 months or a year if you dont do it again. I think I read that a longtime ago. Makes sense as 3 strikes is too little to terminate an account if for example they happened every 3 years. Ebay knows each member contributes to the money pit, they want you there unless you really suck as much as to get 3 NPB in a year.

As f now the seller and I have ended communication and the non paying bidder process started today. If the seller had accepted my offer to cancel the transaction the process would have been solved in a matter of hours, now the seller must wait 4 days. I´m practically sentenced for a NPB July 1st.

Thanks, feel better now

 

One non-pay should have little if any impact. Seller preferences only allow blocking for two or more in 12 months.

 

The seller payed $4 to list it and probably $100´s in seller fees, Of course the seller fees will be automatically reimbursed with either of the two options: me receiving a NPB warning, or both agreeing on the cancel transaction. Adiitionally I´d be willing to refund $40 for the trouble caused. The problem is the seller is reluctant to understand it was a mistake and wont give up the pleasure of giving me NPB for just $36. None the less I will ask!

 

Don't want to revive this old, and pretty much irrelevant thread....but....I've been holding this for two days and the rest of the story is even better than the first (if anybody cares to know it)

I got my non paying bidder strike, and moved on with my life. I listed a few watches on the bay to fund recent purchases, and sold 3 of them, and was awaiting payment for the last one ( a Tudor Submariner went for $24xx)....A couple of days go by and as I'm doing my nocturnal watch I spot the same railmaster (of course I didnt receive the ""item watched has been relisted" email because the furious buyer had blocked me)...As I'm going thru the description I see this lowlife is calling me MENTALLY CHALLENGED, openly and in big red letters. Not that I really care! (probably hurts him as a seller to display this sort of attitude) But just to play my cards I used the report item button, and stated the seller was using hateful language against other users. Nothing happened...The auction ended for $3900, that is $1100 less than what I had won it (by mistake)...

Now back to the Tudor, two days ago I receive a message from the buyer (1500 feedbacks, not the same user I won the railmaster from, but YES from the same town in the UK as the seller) saying (copy paste)

Hi, I´m the winner of the rolex auction. Not sure where to start as I´m a little bamboozled by the events. I arranged to bid 1000 USD in your auction during a vacation to Poland and was not aware that due to my location, the website facility I was using, converted to local currency in numeration but not by currency and not on the intended web site. As a result I turned out the highest bidder when my real intention was to bid 1000 USD. If you check my feedback just as a seller you will see I´m actually a trustworthy ebayer with 100% feedback. For some reason today a mistake was made by bidding in another currency. I can only appologize for wasting both of our times and trust that your secondary bidder will satisfy your requirements for this item. I´m really sorry about this, and I truly apologize.

Sounds familiar? That is more or less what I had to explain this guy when Gixen bidded 3500 GBP for me, the funny thing is my watch had a starting bid of $2000 so I was BAMBOOZLED this guy would do all this just to retaliate. I mean I don't want to bother you with my day to day life, but if you buy on ebay its always good to know the things that can happen so you don't get bamboozled too. The seller is times2wotch2011 so for future records, and to anyone reading this public forum: I recommend you do not do business with them as their practices are below standard for any watch seller, or any ebay seller for that matter.

 

Looks like he got his buddy to help him get even. This is a good example of why eBay's nickname is the swamp.

 

Be sure to notify ebay of the latest development. They are very serious about buyers attempting to interfere with business and will likely suspend him for some time if they find a connection. I've done many thousands of ebay trans, and the non pay strike is a fly speck...no worry. In the end, Ebay wants to make money, so they rarely punish anyone...and if they do, it's mild. There are thousands of sellers committing real crimes on ebay daily, and very few are ever removed. As long as you are putting money in their bank, ebay will keep you around.

 

Yes, be sure to report this incident to eBay, bid interference is a big no, no. They actually have some pretty sophisticated tools to detect inappropriate activity like shill bidding and such. Don't just use the report link, CALL them, they do take this stuff seriously.

I buy and sell with different accounts as protection from idiots like this.