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Original poster

How to get my Mother out of an Ebay Pickle?

14 replies

Jodee · 11/02/2006 10:56

I think Mum's Brians were in a mess and she had gone completely mad, bidding and winning these sandals for £68!!!

She was bidding on another similar pair which she won at a reasonable £20.

She thought it was ok as they offer refunds, but I pointed out to her it was only on "Buy it Now" items, which these weren't!

I want to send an email to the seller on her behalf, saying she will buy the other shoes, but she went a little mad in bidding on the other ones - how should I go about it do you think?

OP posts:

tamum · 11/02/2006 11:02

Were both pairs from the same seller? I don't honestly think she's got a leg to stand on, but the best bet is just to throw herself on the seller's mercy and hope for the best. There is one other bid just below hers, so they might be willing to make an offer to that second bidder and not be out of pocket. Good luck

colditz · 11/02/2006 11:03

I think she has not much chance but to appeal to the seller's good nature, as she is legally obliged to buy these shoes now.

cupcakes · 11/02/2006 11:03

Looks odd - there was only her and one other bidder. Who started off with an unusually high starting bid. If you contact the seller and explain it was a mistake they might be happy to pass it on to the other bidder as a second chance offer. However, I would imagine that they will probably leave negative feedback for your mum. However, seeing as she only has 5 feedbacks I would suggest that she would be better off starting a new account. Or leaving ebay altogether!

tamum · 11/02/2006 11:07

cupcakes, the way I read it was the other bidder had put in one high bid to be sure of getting the shoes and then Jodee's mother had just nibbled away trying to get a bid in that would win. It's quite a common problem when you're new to eBay, I think.

cupcakes · 11/02/2006 11:08

Yes, it just seems a really odd starting bid!

Original poster

Jodee · 11/02/2006 11:09

One pair (cheaper pair) were for herself, the other were for her sister. Sister was cross Mum got hers cheap, so where the only bidder on the expensive sandals must have put in a very high bid to start with, not expecting anyone else to bid that high, sister kept telling Mum to bid again and again, to see how far it would go!

Yes, both sandals from same seller, so will try and nice begging email and see how we get on. Mums eh.

OP posts:

Original poster

Jodee · 11/02/2006 11:10

didn't see your reply to cupcakes, tamum, that's exactly it!

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misdee · 11/02/2006 11:10

tbh its her sisters fault. she should pay for them.

lovecloud · 11/02/2006 11:15

It was a genuine mistake so email the seller and explain and leave it at that.

There is not much they can do, except give you a bad comments but then they soon become history.

There have been many times when people who won my items never paid up and I did the usual emails and fot ebay to email too but nothing came of it.

Dontr worry about it.

Just make sure you apologise - they even be nice about it and not take it further.

tamum · 11/02/2006 11:18

No, I agree cupcakes- it's just that I can imagine if you were going to be away from your computer and really wanted the shoes and had never heard of electronic sniping that might be what you'd do! If that's the case then there would be a good chance that the seller would be able to do a second chance thingy.

expatinscotland · 11/02/2006 11:21

Oh, dear. They are lovely sandals. But £68!?

Good luck!

mszebra · 11/02/2006 11:33

Your mum could offer to pay fees, and then £20 or whatever she thinks is reasonable for the sandals. The seller doesn't lose so much that way, and might give her break given she's an obvious newbie.

Laura032004 · 11/02/2006 12:42

I think the reason that the other bid seems a strange amount (£66.80) is that the other E-bayer is in Germany - they probably bid a round amount of Euros, and then it looks strange converted to £'s.

All you can do really is appeal to the sellers better nature. If you offer to pay fees, then there's not much else they can do to you apart from leave negative feedback. No matter how legally binding the sale is, you can't really force a buyer to pay up.

The seller can complete a form to say that you have mutually agreed not to complete the transaction (if the other buyer doesn't want the shoes), so they get all their fees back anyway

Original poster

Jodee · 13/02/2006 23:40

Just to let you know, Mum is off the hook! I did a grovelly email on her behalf, feigning incompetence, new ebay user, blah blah, and the seller was a bit miffed but agreed to forget about it. It probably helped that Mum was buying the other pair of sandals anyway so the seller had at least one sale out of it.

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