Was I right to do this or wrong???

sliderider

Recently I suffered an accident at work and since I have no health insurance, I was afraid that I would have to face some huge medical bills and so I retracted a bunch of bids for items on ebay because I thought it was more fair to them to have someone else win their items than for me to win and not be able to pay. Now my employer has decided to pick up most of the bills for me and I am able to re-enter the bids I was forced to retract, but several of the sellers now have blocked me. I have sent emails to them explaining my situation but most are being jerks about it and some haven't responded at all. So did I really do so bad in light of my circumstances???

Edited to add:And the ones that blocked me didn't even bother to email me to ask why I retracted my bids or in some cases didn't even bother to look at my 100% positive feedbacks. I feel that they were remiss for blocking without first investigating the cause of my retractions.

Smitty79

If the sellers are being jerks and are unwilling to listen to the honest reasons for your actions, you're probably better off taking your buisness elsewhere. However, on the flip side of the coin () I can almost understand why sellers do this after a bid retraction, there's too much shady dealings going on ebay these days and as a seller you can't be too carefull. The best you can do is try to explain the situation and maybe they will understand and unblock you from bidding.

TUMUSS

Retracted bids on my auctions AUTOMATICALLY receive a block on that bidder. However, if someone were to email me with good reasoning for their retraction, with a nice tone, and explain that they wish to continue bidding on my coins - I would remove the block promptly.

sliderider

Well I'm glad to hear that some people are reasonable about things like this. I just thought that if I was unable to pay, they would have to neg me and file an NPB report to get their listing fees back, and have to through the trouble of relisting the item if there were no underbidders, or selling to the underbidder via a second chance offer, so I thought it would be a lot less trouble for all concerned just to retract the bids and let the underbidders have the items. I did manage to re-enter some of the bids and even won and paid for a few of the items already. I just think it's a knee jerk reaction to block someone without even looking at their history or asking for an explanation why.

TUMUSS

I think your "situation" and explanation are MORE than valid...I'll bet the seller would love to have you continue bidding on their auctions...They just want to know that you will be responsible.

joeyuk

I would have thought they would be more understanding. They should realize an option you could have used was to possibly purchase and return the items if they had a return policy. Maybe an e-mail prior to the retractions would have been better. After the fact it could just look like damage control. Joe

sliderider

The problem with purchasing and returning the items is that the money may not have been there to make the payment in the first place. They would have had no choice but to jump through ebays hoops to straighten things out. My option was a lot less messy.

oilydog

Hope you recover quickly from your accident. As for the bid cancelling problem, If you had the medical ability and the time to cancel all those bids, why didnt you email the sellers at the same time. You should be emaling them immediately as to why you really cancelled the bid. It is not the sellers responsibility to get in touch with you, rather it is your responsibility to get in touch with them immediately as soon as you retract your bid. Unfortunately, some folks use the bid cancelling ploy to find out where the high bidder stands. Not saying you do, but that is a serious problem on EBAY and is very much against their rules. You must be very careful and tread lightly about retracting a bid and then trying to rebid the auction three or four days later. You will get NARU'D quickly if someone complains to EBAY about you. That wont be me, I dont do stuff like that. But someone will if you continue to retract bids and then rebid on the auctions at a much later date. Facts are facts. This is the harsh reality of life on EBAY. We all have to deal with it.

UncleJoe

Oilydog has made a very valid point.

Why is everyone else always "Jerks"?

Just because you email me to tell me a "story" doesn't mean it is true or that I have to believe you. Actions speak louder than words. If a buyer retracts a bid I see nothing wrong with a seller blocking that buyer from bidding again for reasons presented by oilydog.

I am truly sorry to hear of your accident but unfortunately there is a consequence to your having retracted your bids (and not an Earth shattering consequence at that). I do hope that all is well with you.

Joe.

Theop

They are probably blocking your bids to prevent you from retracting bids in the future from other auctions, i.e. to avoid a repeat of the current situation.
They probably assume that if you retracted your bid on a current auction, you won't be bidding on it.

This also might have something to do with it:
Bid Retractions (Past 6 months): 38

thebeav

I'm sorry to hear of your accident and I hope for your quick recovery.....
The important part of a bid retraction is not so much the lowering of the price of the item. It's the assumption of the other prospective bidders that the retractor 'knew-something'. It is, for this reason, that a retraction can seriously damage any particular auction. Even if the bidder knows your situation, as you explained it, his auction has still been damaged. So, even if he feels badly for you, he can still, understandibly, feel badly for himself. After all, the future bidders don't know why you retracted, only the seller knew.
Paul

seanq

<< <i>They are probably blocking your bids to prevent you from retracting bids in the future from other auctions, i.e. to avoid a repeat of the current situation.
They probably assume that if you retracted your bid on a current auction, you won't be bidding on it.

This also might have something to do with it:
<STRONG>Bid Retractions (Past 6 months): 38</STRONG> >>



sliderider: not to doubt your story, but in this thread on Sunday someone else commented your retracted bids, but then you only had 37. So sometime in the last 36 to 48 hours, you retracted another one? What was your excuse that time?

Personally, even with a credible back-story, that number raises all sorts of red flags for me. Having noticed that number continuing to climb even after your situation was said to be resolved, I'd have a very hard time removing a bid block too.


Sean Reynolds

kieferscoins

Careful or he will start cussing in the threads

Which is against PCGS rules.

Cameron Kiefer

pharmer

Good luck on your recovery, how were you hurt? I once had to retract a bid, put in $30,00 with a comma which came out $3000. Emailed the seller explaining, then retracted, bid again at $30 and won. You haven't said why you did not begin emailing first after you started getting blocked. I don't think it is up to the seller to email you to ask why you did it.

ziggy29

I can understand both sides here. Given the circumstances you describe, I think a seller should be understanding, especially if a bid is retracted fairly early in the auction. As a seller, though, I'd be inclined to block the retracting bidder unless they gave me a good reason that I believed. I'd be pretty hacked off at a retraction in the last couple of hours, as that could likely have a very significant impact on the final sale price. But stuff in life happens, as they say, which may sometimes justify a retraction.

Then again, with 38 retractions in the last six months, I'd be less inclined to believe it was an isolated incident borne of legitimate necessity.

magikbilly

37 or 38 bid retractions in 6 months? I have none in 5 years of selling. That many? I'd block you too

Bill

lloydmincy

Do business with the ones that said "yes". The rest miss out.

Russ

<< <i>why didnt you email the sellers at the same time. You should be emaling them immediately as to why you really cancelled the bid. >>



This is a very valid point that should not be lost in the discussion. Not only is it the right thing to do, you'd have far few sellers blocking you right now.

As for me, I only block bid retractors if they do so in the waning hours of the auction. That's when it can have a negative impact on sales price.

Russ, NCNE

sliderider

<< <i>They are probably blocking your bids to prevent you from retracting bids in the future from other auctions, i.e. to avoid a repeat of the current situation.
They probably assume that if you retracted your bid on a current auction, you won't be bidding on it.

This also might have something to do with it:
<STRONG>Bid Retractions (Past 6 months): 38</STRONG> >>



All those retractions were made at the same time. I was bidding on a lot more items than that and already managed to put bids back in for over half of them and even paid for some already.

dlimb2

Slider, sorry to hear of your accident...but if you are on workerscomp...and do not know when the next check is going to come from...I would advise you to stay away from ebay...and savor every dime that you have...if you are hurt seriously then this could be a long drawn out affair and things can get tough.

coynclecter

Please don't tell me that a guy with 38 bid retractions in the last 6 months just called some sellers "jerks" for blocking him.

Can anyone blame them?

Coinhusker1

Stop buying coins and buy some health insurance!!

RGT

Didn't we have a thread very similar to this several weeks ago regarding a particular member withdrawing a large number of bids with Heritage. I thing the result was effectively the same. Some of the advise given there would also be applicable here.

nankraut

TUMUSS says: Retracted bids on my auctions AUTOMATICALLY receive a block on that bidder. However, if someone were to email me with good reasoning for their retraction, with a nice tone, and explain that they wish to continue bidding on my coins - I would remove the block promptly.

ms70

I would look at the retraction history. If someone has a large positive feedback # and no evidence of prior retractions, I wouldn't worry
about blocking in that particular case.

bigtonydallas

The bidder can change his id then wait the 30 days for the funky icon to go away and then they wont be blocked anymore!

FatMan

Unless you are an owner and/or a Corporate Officer who has waived your right to Worker's Compensation in writing you should not have paid a dime out of pocket for any medical service relating to your accident. Anytime you are injured on the job it is the employer's responsibility to cover all medical expenses relating to the accident from now until forever. You boss agreeing to pick up most of the costs is BS. He is obligated to pick up all the costs.

BTW, personal health insurance will not cover any accident at work. If you are an owner and / or an Corporate Officer who waives your rights to Worker's Compensation you need to make sure your personal health insurance includes a 24 hour per day rider.

If you don't have any health insurance, stop buying coins until you get some.

dthigpen

<< <i>Unless you are an owner and/or a Corporate Officer who has waived your right to Worker's Compensation in writing you should not have paid a dime out of pocket for any medical service relating to your accident. Anytime you are injured on the job it is the employer's responsibility to cover all medical expenses relating to the accident from now until forever. You boss agreeing to pick up most of the costs is BS. He is obligated to pick up all the costs.

BTW, personal health insurance will not cover any accident at work. If you are an owner and / or an Corporate Officer who waives your rights to Worker's Compensation you need to make sure your personal health insurance includes a 24 hour per day rider.

If you don't have any health insurance, stop buying coins until you get some. >>



Heh, I was just about to chime in with this factoid.

khayse

Sliderider,

You have to see their side of it. You could be BSing or making up stuff. Whatever. They have no way of knowing.
And what does one fish matter in the big ebay pond.

I would just write off the current batch of auctions.

If the seller was someone I had bought from before or someone I'm pretty sure I would want to buy from in the future I would email
them and try to work it out. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.

-KHayse

dlimb2

Workerscomp varies from state to state...some employers only pay for the medical care...some states do not have Workerscomp at all.

TWQG

What is the jerk's ebay ID?

mnmcoin

Don't really see any major problem with what you did, I guess you can say you did the responsible thing...although you probably should have been a tad more proactive and wrote the sellers, and explained what you were planning on doing, before you did that.

Overall though, f them if they block you...there loss.

morris <><

prooflike

As a seller, I'd rather have a bid retraction than a dead beat & I never have considered blocking a retracting bidder, obviously the bidder has reasons to retract, even if that reason is finding a better deal.

Tonelover

There's a forum member online right now who I blocked last week. Even though my descriptions stated that Paypal is not accepted, he chose to bid first and ask questions later. His question was "do you take Paypal?" When I sent him a considerate message informing him that I can't take Paypal and assured him that the coins were too nice for him to pass on due to such a minor inconvenience he canceled his bids anyway.

JoeBoat

Where do you live? Don’t they have Workers Compensation laws? When you are injured at work your employers are required to pay your medical bills.

http://www.edgarsnyder.com/

K6AZ

<< <i>The bidder can change his id then wait the 30 days for the funky icon to go away and then they wont be blocked anymore! >>



This is absolutely not true, and I don't know where you got this from. I have a certain deadbeat bidder who has changed his ID six times in the last three years, and eBay keeps up with his ID changes in my blocked bidder list.

ss350camaro

<< <i>This is absolutely not true, and I don't know where you got this from. I have a certain deadbeat bidder who has changed his ID six times in the last three years, and eBay keeps up with his ID changes in my blocked bidder list. >>



Wow ! That interesting. I didn't know they kept up with changed i.d.s that way.

Good info...........

IrishMike

I guess I will play the old foggy on the board, if I were in your situation I'd not be spending money on coins on ebay. Put that money in a bank account to cover expenses that will occur in your lifetime, for I will guarantee you they will happen. With that many reneged bids I would have you on my blocked bidders list. Coins should be purchased with discretionary income not money that might be needed for medical expenses and the like.

magikbilly

<< <i>I guess I will play the old foggy on the board, if I were in your situation I'd not be spending money on coins on ebay. Put that money in a bank account to cover expenses that will occur in your lifetime, for I will guarantee you they will happen. With that many reneged bids I would have you on my blocked bidders list. Coins should be purchased with discretionary income not money that might be needed for medical expenses and the like. >>

earlwbollinger

Well no matter whether it is right or wrong, it is your decision, consequences and all.
Unofortunately, you have 37 bid retractions or so, in your history, that will haunt you for a long time to come.

291fifth

My own feeling is that you should have no qualms about retracting bids when a medical emergency arises. The thing I question, however, is why you decided to reinstate your bids instead of looking into the much more serious issue of getting health insurance for yourself.

marcmoish

I guess I will play the old foggy on the board, if I were in your situation I'd not be spending money on coins on ebay. Put that money in a bank account to cover expenses that will occur in your lifetime, for I will guarantee you they will happen. With that many reneged bids I would have you on my blocked bidders list. Coins should be purchased with discretionary income not money that might be needed for medical expenses and the like.


I will concur with foggy mike - well said!



Marc