grrrrrr eBay numpties

yup agreed.

i bought one of my Canon 50D's off e-bay. Was due to be sent by whatever postage/courier and the guy instead emailed me and said he'd come deliver it in person, which he did at my place of work !!!!, so I could check it over and make sure I was happy with it ... I was and with his service .. oh and the 50D cost me £400 something instead of the £750 I'd paid for a brand new one a few months earlier.

I had an interesting one yesterday, a Pentax ES with an SMC Takumar 50/1.4 for a BIN of £20 that came up in a search I did in an idle moment yesterday afternoon. Lucky timing - doesn't happen often and I've probably used up my quota of luck for a bit now.

Anyway, I bought it, paid and thought nothing further of it. When I checked my e-mail later in the evening, I noticed that I had been given a refund on it with some very thin excuse about having put the wrong camera in the advert. Further investigation showed that the very same camera had been relisted almost immediately for a BIN of £50 (still not bad value).

Given how tough eBay appear to be on sellers in some respects, this seems a bit cheeky. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I would have thought a BIN price was legally binding. They do
come under the distance selling regs. as well.

Debateable, as we get into the territory of a BIN payment being an offer to buy that can be turned down, like a wrongly priced item in a shop window. I don't know the answer to that one, but short of making a fuss and going through some laborious eBay or legal process, what's to be done?

no, a BIN is legally binding, end of. "make offer" is to make an offer; go through EBay's process and see what happens.

Bret

I know what you're saying Bret, but I'm talking about the seller's willingness to sell, and I'm not so sure that is binding.

An example is say a camera in a shop window, priced at £20. We go in, say we wish to purchase, and that is an offer to buy. If the shop don't want to sell (maybe it should have been priced at £200) they don't have to.

BIN is legally binding on the buyer, who has agreed to purchase, but I'm less sure that the seller has to sell. If they are legally bound and they refuse, then we have to go to the law to enforce the sale. Is it worth it?

Seller's remorse, as the item sold in 3 mins and you look closer to see why .... I'd kick up a fuss, after all if the boot was on the other foot, you'd find yourself having to buy it or risk the wrath of ebay and getting a strike.

How would you respond if the seller put on a BIN item and in error put in £10 instead of £1000? Would you have some sympathy and let them off or would you expect the sale to proceed regardless? I'm assuming that you bought before the error was noticed and changed.

I don't hear of many people trying to find the car boot sellers of those little gems that they buy for pounds and sell at auction for thousands. They see themselves as clever at being able to spot bargains. Not carrion picking over the bones of a naive seller diddled out of a comfortable retirement.

The seller is only alerted to their mistake after the quick sale. And in this case the difference is a few notes not a few hundred notes. For £50 its a lesson for the seller to do more research or get their numbers checked.

You see people in second hand shops now barely with a customer in the shop and hunched over a screen all their goods are listed on ebay or they are checking the prices.

This is covered by a famous legal case about Carbolic Smoke Balls Putting the item in the window with a price on is the offer. It is not the customer who makes the offer. The customer picking it up and taking it to the till is the acceptance.

Honest mistakes, like your £10 instead of £1000 example, are covered by a separate principle.

I was suggesting a scenario with a simple but horrifying genuine mistake in the listing that can't be corrected before someone jumps in to buy. Suppose it was a Leica 50mm f1 Noctilux...would we expect to buy it for £10 when it's an obvious error?

Just a question out of curiosity.

Just the same as if one bought it at the car boot and ran off home gloating at ones brilliance. Do you lean over the table and whisper the real value? Depends on your morals.

Imagine the carboot seller looking you in the eye with your tenner in his hand and hands it back saying, "sorry mate it's £50 now."

Edited while you were typing I think.

With honest mistakes it depends if the buyer is aware (or should be aware given his general knowledge etc) of the mistake.

Caveat venditor

I'm pretty sure you're wrong on this, based on research I've already done quite unconnected with Pentax User. A different life elsewhere...