Power Sellers Unite

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17240 Location: Texas

Andre Souang thought he scored the deal of a lifetime when he won a $140,000 Bentley for $14,000 on eBay last month.

But when he went to make his payment, managers at Bentley Scottsdale refused to take his money, told him the car wasn't for sale and disavowed the auction listing as a mistake.

Bentley Scottsdale's refusal to sell was followed by a form message from eBay saying the auction had been canceled for unspecified reasons. The company scraped any trace of the auction from its website and from Souang's account.

Within hours of the Oct.25 auction, it appeared as if the car had never been for sale at all.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/11/12/20111112ebay-car-auction-mistake-questions.html

elpereles · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1478 Location: Puerto Rico

If you are buyer in eBay this is nothing new in the site. In one point or other you will find sellers that don't want to sell the item because it goes lower than expected or it was already sold long time ago.

As a seller. I know sometimes you can made a mistake posting an item, but it is clear that only one person was in charge of posting.

Also is very interesting that eBay is very good protecting other companies meanwhile the little seller can get screw in a similar situation.

armourereric · Joined: 25 Aug 2008 Posts: 129

FWIW, several months ago a long time poster to this board shared her experience when accidentally posting a painting by a know artist for $400 in stead of the intended $4000 and it was quickly purchased via BIN. According to that post ebay handled it in the same manner as this case.

elpereles · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1478 Location: Puerto Rico

armourereric, I don't remember read it. Do you have the link?

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

even the buyer said he thought it was mistake - not sure of the point of the article except to stress that ebay does occasionally do the right thing for sellers who list in error - yawn

swan20 · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 14

I do see the reason for the article being up there ...

As ebay does this from time to time for sellers who can bring in more money for them later.

over 12 years, i made the same mistake a few times, be it on shipping, listing, and such.... Ebay response was "Seller is fully responsible for their listing...and we cannot do anything about it. Sellers need to work it out with buyers"....my items were much...much...much less than this of course:)

I end up eating a loss of less than $100 overall...only missing one zero but on a small item, I am glad for that.

All Things Luxury · Joined: 26 Sep 2011 Posts: 73

That is a monster mistake. I can see why eBay did what they did in this situation. It happens.

Baconsdozen · Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 771

The seller should have handled this better. An apology,a free ride in a Bentley and some tickets to a restaurant and his reputation would have been enhanced.Ebay are woth enugh that they could have chipped in and smoothed things over,rather tan bent over backwards to help cover the sellers ares.
If I make a mistake on a price ticket and someone offers that payment I have to accept it.Thats the law in the UK maybe its different for ebay or the US.