posted on April 8, 2002 05:07:52 AM new
All of my auctions were schedule to end Sunday night. All but a handful wre in the clothing and jewelry categories. Some of them were extended, but most ended an hour and minutes after service was restored. In my e-mail inbox this morning, I have several e-mails from frustrated East Coast bidders who gave up and went to bed before service was restored. And two messages from West Coast bidders gloating about how they won my auction for 99c because they just happened to be there when service was restored. I think eBay should really refund all fees for any auction ending at any time on Sunday after the problems started, and any ending before 8am or so Monday morning. Just how many bidders do they expect to stay up all night to see when service will be restored?
posted on April 8, 2002 06:44:21 AM new
You can certainly ask eBay to do that; it's still a free country. They may even say yes. More likely, though, they will refer you to the outrage...er, outage policy.
You do have my sympathies. eBay was so dependable for so long that we tend to lose track of the possibility of an extended outage. This one was nearly 12 hours, an eternity in online time.
posted on April 8, 2002 07:04:00 AM new
I think a seller might want to put a disclaimer in their auctions that the seller can reject any and all bids if there is an eBay outage that effects the listing.
It would seem that a seller would be justified to nullify an auction that was blacked out due to an outage, whether there was a disclaimer or not.
posted on April 8, 2002 07:15:52 AM new
You cannot add that disclaimer ... I had something similar in an auction and received an email from eBay stating that was a no no.
FYI
I, however, agree that it is horrible and am very glad that I didn't have anything in those categories during the outage.
posted on April 8, 2002 07:18:58 AM new
Many sellers do put such disclaimers in the auctions, but it doesn't mean much. Such a seller can still be nicked for transaction non-completion, can still be left negative feedback, can still have fraud charges filed, etc.
My friends have a game of finding unusual disclaimers in eBay auctions and bringing them to my attention. Some of these statements are pretty funny but all-too-obviously based on seller frustration.
