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When
and How to
Withdraw your eBay
Bid |
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When and How to Withdraw Your eBay Bid (and Why
You Might Not Want To).
eBay are a little strict about letting you
withdraw your bid. They call it a 'bid retraction', and have a
stringent set of conditions that you must meet before you are
allowed to do it. Here are eBay's three acceptable reasons for
withdrawing a bid.
You made a typographical error: This means that
you accidentally typed the wrong amount into the bid box,
bidding a far higher price than you meant to. This can be
scary: imagine bidding $100 and accidentally adding an extra
'0'! You are entirely allowed to withdraw your bid in this
situation, and bid again if you want to.
The item's description changed: If you bid on
something and then the seller updates the description, you
have the right to withdraw your bid. It wouldn't be fair,
after all, to force you to take something that you now realise
you don't want.
The seller is uncontactable: If emails to the
seller bounce and they don't answer their phone, then the
auction obviously can't continue, and you can cancel
it.
So How Do I Retract My Bid?
eBay hide away the bid retraction form a bit,
because they don't like people using it. You can find it by
going here: http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RetractBidShow.
Now all you need is the item number from your
auction: this can be found on the item description page's top
right corner. If you can't see it on the page, look in your
browser's title bar, and in any emails eBay have sent you
about your bid on the item. Choose one of the three allowed
reasons, click 'retract bid', and you're
done.
Are There Any Consequences?
Well yes, there are. The more unethical among
you might have considered that you could just cancel bids
anytime you feel like it by saying that you accidentally
entered the wrong amount. eBay are one step ahead of you. Each
time you retract a bid, it is counted on your feedback page
for all to see - and anyone with a lot of retracted bids looks
more than a little dodgy. eBay also say that abusing the bid
retraction feature could get you banned.
So is there a way to retract your bid without
facing a penalty? There is if your seller is nice, and most
are. Sellers can cancel bids on their auctions at any time,
and if you email them with a half-decent excuse then most will
be more than happy to do this for you. After all, it's not in
their interest for their item to go to someone who won't like
it, as you might leave negative feedback.
Of course, retracting your bid should still be a
rare thing: you won't win auctions that way! If you've
followed us this far, the chances are you've won an auction by
now, or you're close - but you might be a little puzzled about
what to do next. Our next email will give you a few
pointers.
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