Help! Realised item I'm selling is damaged.

[PastaandCheese]

Auction ends tonight and I am just parceling things up whilst the baby is napping ready to add addresses later.

I've noticed a top I'm selling has a small hole in the back.

I need to end the auction but I know if I do it within 24 hours of the official end time it will sell to the highest bidder who won't want a top with a hole in it.

Help please........

Do you mean you are unable to pull it out less than 24 hours before it ends?

Can you amend the description, and also email the current bidder notifying them?

There is a help number you could ring for advice.

Yes, the only option I have is to sell to the highest bidder as the auction ends tonight.

I'm worried if I email the highest bidder and ask her to cancel someone else may bid in the meantime.

I guess I should end the auction with the 'sell to highest bidder' option and then email him or her to explain what has happened and request a cancellation?

Arghhhhh. I really thought I checked it properly before listing.

It's a nice Boden top so it was already selling quite well. There is no way it is worth anything with a hole in it.

this happened to me about a month ago; I ended the auction early and contacted the winning bidder explaining and I offered a partial refund which she accepted

I haven't had that situation in selling but I have with buying.

I wouldn't have bought the item had I known about the rather large problem with it, and I think the seller ended up refunding some of the money. Could you do something like? Message the buyer after explaining and see if they still want it at a reduced price?

Thank you all. I've messages her saying that I assume she doesn't want it anymore. If she would like it still I will send it for postage only as I feel bad that I even listed it and I don't want negative feedback!

I hope she is reasonable..... Most people are and it's an honest mistake.

Thank you again.

ask a friend, or one of us, to bid very high and then end up winning it. Then send a cancellation request to be accepted which will get your final value fees refunded.

No risk of a neg then.

I thought it was possible for seller to cancel bids right up to last minute; so then OP could have cancelled them all & sent a note of apology to explain.

What I have done is msg'd bidder/buyer to explain the problem and ask them how they want to proceed. Include a picture of the problem. Sometimes they proceed, sometimes they cancel. I haven't had any neg f/back doing that yet.

(I may be very good at grovelling apologies, though)

but you won't have time to cancel any bids in the last 3 seconds - someone else may bid in that time and then you are stuffed.

HolidayCriminal eBay doesn't allow you to cancel the auction at the end. It is actually the last 12 hours, not 24 as I thought. The only thing you can do at that point is sell to the highest bidder at that point.

LavenderGreen thank you. That is exactly what I should have done! Luckily the lady has messaged back to say no problem and she has agreed to cancel the transaction.

I'm just starting on an eBay marathon over the coming weeks so really didn't want to ruin my feedback now.

I wasn't writing about ending early, but rather cancelling individual bids. I've seen other sellers mention it. I've not done it myself.