eBay frustration.

[epigramophone]

An eBay listing in which I was interested had the "Make Offer" option, and I made an offer. The seller responded with a counter offer which I was prepared to accept, but when I clicked on "Respond Now" I was directed back to the original listing page.
The counter offer had several hours to run and the seller had not withdrawn it, so what was going wrong?

The answer was that someone had made an opening bid AFTER I had made my offer. I am well aware that a bid automatically removes the "Make Offer" option from the listing, but I was not aware that it also cancelled pre-existing and ongoing offers and counter offers. Surely buyers and sellers should be allowed to complete pre-existing negotiations instead of being overridden by a later opening bid.

I have now placed a maximum bid of the amount of the seller's counter offer and am currently the high bidder, but if I had been able to accept that counter offer the item would have been on it's way to me by now .

[emerson]

I would like to know the phone number for Ebay----to ask a question, anybody know it?

[epigramophone]

If there is such a number I expect it will be at premium rate to discourage anyone from calling it.

[Raphael]

Here in the U.S. I use: 1-866-540-3229

One can probably use WhatsApp and call for free.

Raphael

[emerson]

Raphael, Thanks for the info. --Herb

[Granby]

I do understand the frustration regarding the "make an offer" function in some scenarios. I made an offer a while back and it took quite a while for the seller to respond. I got a little worried and starting thinking maybe the seller was going to "sit" on my offer and see if there were any bids in the meantime.... I almost withdrew the offer but fate intervened and someone else bid or the offer was declined, I can't quite remember..... Interesting....

Straying off topic a little.... But, I can't find a bargain anywhere on ebay anymore. The opening bids are full retail price or someone comes in at the last minute and pays almost full retail price. No fun for a bargain hunter like me!! I guess I will stick the backroads and yard sales....

[Inigo]

As for what you're saying, the make an offer feature is working just like making a lower bid, but instead of being automatically rejected, it remains there, secret and unanswered, at the discretion of the seller to consider it or not... pretty thrilling! Seems logic!

[epigramophone]

As for what you're saying, the make an offer feature is working just like making a lower bid, but instead of being automatically rejected, it remains there, secret and unanswered, at the discretion of the seller to consider it or not... pretty thrilling! Seems logic!

That scenario was not the case here. There were no bids when I made an offer. The seller responded with a counter offer which eBay prevented me from accepting. All because some cheapskate made a 99p opening bid during the negotiations and never bid again.

[Steve]

As for what you're saying, the make an offer feature is working just like making a lower bid, but instead of being automatically rejected, it remains there, secret and unanswered, at the discretion of the seller to consider it or not... pretty thrilling! Seems logic!

That scenario was not the case here. There were no bids when I made an offer. The seller responded with a counter offer which eBay prevented me from accepting. All because some cheapskate made a 99p opening bid during the negotiations and never bid again.

The process is very simple and yet many people cannot fathom it out for some reason. The FIRST bidder only has the opportunity to bid OR place an offer. A bid placed automatically removes the offer facility. An offer allows the prospective buyer the chance to anticipate the selling price and buy it at once without having to wait. It's a variation on a Buy It Now, with both buyer and seller having the opportunity to negotiate the price. But, without B.I.N., there is a risk that the seller will take their time responding to "low offers" anticipating that they might potentially be under-selling something if they accept the offer. Whilst they are thinking about it someone else can bid at a low start price who wants something cheaper and maybe isn't prepared to pay top price. That does then remove the offer facility so if the buyer and seller haven't yet agreed formally to the offer, the opportunity will sadly be gone!

What I can't understand for the life of me, is auctions where I've had an offer facility on an item I'm selling and a bidder has placed a bid instead of making an offer, thus having to wait a week to buy something AND risk being outbid when I would have happily accepted the start / asking price! You get 3 goes with offers, so even if the first one is rejected you still have two attempts. As a buyer I usually message the seller after my first offer is rejected to see if we can negotiate a price and then I know my second offer will be accepted and I'm not gambling unnecessarily with my 3 goes.

I have had sellers ignore offers and then someone has bid at a low start price and I've forgotten about the item by the time it finishes so the seller ends up selling it for less then I offered! I'm sure some lazy sellers who don't pay close attention to their listings or read anything carefully when they upload their item, completely miss that they are inviting offers in the first place! If so, that's their loss.