New ebay tool for sellers?

Engineer

Forgive me for whining but I have been using ebay for many years and this has never happened to me before. Last night I bid on an auction (one of several bidders) and the seller ended the auction with a few seconds left and cancelled all bids. The same seller did this on two other auctions I was following (all had bids). To my understanding and unless I am missing something, ending auctions and cancelling all bids on auctions with only a few seconds left does not adhere to ebay policy and explicitly goes against the note in the below link.

Published ebay policy on ending auctions

I filed a report with ebay customer service and attached is an excerpt from the response I got:

"I am sorry for any frustration this situation has caused you. The most
common reason for an auction ending before the scheduled time is that
the seller decided to end the auction early. We encourage sellers to
post an addition to the description of the auction explaining why they
have ended the auction early. However, sometimes, sellers do not take
our suggestion.

Just as a storeowner can remove an item from her shelves at any time,
sellers on eBay have the right to end their listings at any time prior
to completion. While I know this policy can cause our buyers
disappointment, we don't feel it's fair to force someone to sell an item
they have decided not to sell after all.

In accordance with our site policies, we have found that there is not
enough evidence to show that a violation has taken place. We understand
your concern about this situation, and can reopen the investigation if
any additional information can be provided. "

I've written back several times asking for clarification and have not received any direct response on the apparent disconnect between what is published as policy on the website and what was in the customer service email response. This isn't really a huge deal in that the card was not something I was dieing for, just a nice item at a real low price, but it's more the principal of the thing. What the response from ebay says to me is that sellers can simply observe the bidding on their auctions and cancel with a few seconds left if the apparent final price does not meet their expectations. Would think this is a violation of reserve fee avoidance at the least. Moral of the story for ebay sellers: if an auction is not going your way I guess ebay allows you to cancel it prior to auction close (I will not do this as I still think it is wrong).

Sorry for the length of this post,

Adam

jrdolan

eBay doesn't care so much about you not getting the bargain you hoped for as it does about the seller using cancellations as a sort of "reserve" without paying the extra fee for it. There would have to be a consistent pattern of this activity before eBay would do anything. One or two isolated instances and I'd guess they give the seller the benefit of the doubt, or maybe a warning that there was a complaint.

Cancelling in the last few seconds indicates the seller's real reason rather clearly, though.

MorrellMan

So unethical is only unethical when a clear pattern emerges? That's not how I learned to live my life....

slvnumber2

We had a huge thread on this one a couple of months ago, and what the seller is doing is called reserve fee circumvention. By pulling their lot(s) with a minute or so to go they are making sure that they don't have to sell a card that is not going for what they wanted on the card, and they are also not having to pay the reserve fee to Ebay. I agree with you that it is unethical and incorrect and I would hope that would be the same for everyone else; however, some feel that Ebay is a large and successful company and even posted comments that they deserve it so who cares. If everyone lived by the golden rule I think all of us would be in a much better situation.