I was gazumped on a bike

pep.fermi

Not sure this is the right word, but I was "gazumped" on buying a bicycle on Buycycle.

I was looking at a great bike, in the course of weeks while listed it didn't sell and the asking dropped from 2100 to 1500eur.
I "offer" the 1500eur full asking price. And I give my PayPal details for payment to the portal. The portal promptly remove the bike from their list, I got an automatic email from them saying "we now inform the vendor, he now has 24hr to accept". Of course I expected e was going to accept, after all I offered what was then the full asking price.
Fact is, he didn't reply.

I communicated with them, they say "we spoke with him, he regret he wasn't fast enough to reply, he will list it again and he will accept the 1500eur price of yesterday". Well, fact is he relisted at 1700eur, so a higher price. I didn't buy. Someone else did.
All in all I feel bitter. I think this behaviour on eBay would not be tolerated, buyers are allowed to change their mind but vendors are not (not saying this is right or wrong, just stating a fact).

Opinion?
Thanks,

Alberto

pep.fermi

Eventually I bought a different bike. Better. Also costed more. And the vendor "accepted". Mind you, haven't got it yet...

Pross

The wording of the automated response suggest he wasn’t obliged to sell. Why should they sell if someone makes a better offer? There’s no contract. I can see why it would be frustrating though.

My sister-in-law had similar with Booking.com when she managed to book a place for the British Grand Prix at a good price when everything else was astronomical. She got a similar message but the person renting obviously realised they’d been well below the market rate and didn’t accept the booking then re-advertised at a much higher price.

MidlandsGrimpeur2

It's annoying, but unfortunately one of those instances where you are at the mercy of the seller's moral code. Some people will honour the original 'deal' and others will screw you and take more money.

Personally, if I have agreed with someone, I honour that deal. I have had instances where I have sold stuff on ebay and people have offered me more after the auction (they should have offered it at the time!). I have always honoured the original sale as it is right to do so in my view.

pep.fermi

My way to avoid the moral dilemma when selling on eBay: I set only "buy it now", no auction. And I start at a price that I think is unrealistically high. And over time I lower it, slowly. When it finally sells, I always felt happy.

Mad_Malx

pep.fermi said:

My way to avoid the moral dilemma when selling on eBay: I set only "buy it now", no auction. And I start at a price that I think is unrealistically high. And over time I lower it, slowly. When it finally sells, I always felt happy.

Isn't that what is known as a dutch auction?

daniel_b

Mad_Malx said:

pep.fermi said:

My way to avoid the moral dilemma when selling on eBay: I set only "buy it now", no auction. And I start at a price that I think is unrealistically high. And over time I lower it, slowly. When it finally sells, I always felt happy.

Isn't that what is known as a dutch auction?

Not a dutch oven?

I've sold a couple of big items, both cycling related before, and accepted offers for X price, to then be offered X price plus 10 or 20%, sometimes the difference would have been over £100.

However it never occurred to me to stitch the original purchaser up, as we had an agreement, and it was my bad luck/bad judgement to accept the offer I suppose, so I stuck with the original agreed price and purchaser.

I think the OP's example could be construed as slightly different, as it was through a 3rd party website, but I do get the frustration - I too if I put in a bid for the asking amount would pretty much be certain of securing the sale.