Blocked from Bidding

I've been waiting patiently to bid on a Pike Swaty for a couple of days now. A few days ago I had exchanged a couple of emails with the seller about the price of shipping. I thought the cost of shipping was a little high, and just wanted to know if there was any reason. They seemed a little off-put that I would ask. The question I asked is listed in the auction. I don't believe I had any harsh tone to my question or provided any other reason for the seller to be ****ed at me.

Anyone else been blocked from an auction? Any reason why?

Bidding has ended. Is that why you can't bid?

I didn't think your question was out of line at all, and I really didn't think their response was particularly harsh either?

I tried bidding a couple of minutes before the auction closed. That is when I got the message stating that I had been blocked from the auction.

I too saw your question and I often wounder the same. When some ship from Canada for 4.00$ and some one the next state(usa) is 9$ it kinda begs the question. O well there will be others ......if there that way you may be better off.

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Originally Posted by dnjrboy

I tried bidding a couple of minutes before the auction closed. That is when I got the message stating that I had been blocked from the auction.

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Gotcha.. By the time I saw the ad, it was already closed, and I didn't see when it had ended. I've never been blocked on ebay, and I didn't know it was possible to even do it? Is this a "feature" that sellers have? To block a bidder for one reason or another? Or was it maybe a glitch in the system? If you still want to buy the item, since no one won it, you might try sending him an email letting him know you'd like to buy it still and see what he says? Maybe he can just paypal invoice you and sell it to you anyway.

On the topic of shipping, I have no idea what it should/does cost to ship to canada, but shipping prices in general, from ebay sellers to internet retailers are all over the place. Sometimes I have no idea how they come to the prices they charge. It seems like some of these people just estimate the weight to be way higher than it really is, either because they don't know what it really weighs, or just to make some extra money in the sale? It especially gets me when people are shipping USPS, but don't utilize the flat rate boxes, which would end up saving money.

Half the time I pass on bidding on razors on ebay due to shipping. I'm comfortable paying the auction price, but any shipping cost more than ~$4 and I'm usually just not interested (unless I really like the razor or it's because of insurance or something). I just hate when I'm paying $6-8 for shipping when the seller just throws it in an envelope and ships it first class anyway which only cost them ~$2. In many cases, this ends up amounting to 20%+ premium on top of my actual "maximum bid."

Oh well, sorry for ranting :fim:

I've been banned by one user before. In my feedback, I mentioned that it took the seller over a week to ship the item and that the actual cost of shipping was less than half what the seller had charged me. The seller sent me a message through ebay asking me to change my feedback. I said I wouldn't, the seller told me I was unreasonable, and the seller blocked me.

Oh well.

I doubt it serves any real purpose to grouse about shipping costs to the seller. I've seen outrageous shipping costs before and I just move on. The thing about ebay is that there will amost always be another item at some point.

More than likely the seller decided you might be more trouble than it was worth if you happened to win, and just blocked you from bidding rather than argue or risk negative feedback.

As with the shipping cost, that is solely their decision. Pretty much a take it or leave it situation.

A seller can ban a bidder. There are parameters they are supposed to follow in choosing to do so but IME you can ban anyone anytime. As Hawkeye5 said, I would think that the seller was anticipating you might be a dissatisfied customer and didn't want the potential hassle.

I am blocked quite often from auction since Italy is not a very appreciated place to ship to. The bad thing is that I realise if I can bid just when I am bidding, so many times I get up in the night/morning to bid in the very last seconds of the auction but my bid is not accepted. I wonder if this is the reason why you can see bids on some items 6 days before the end of the auction..

Up to now I wrote back to three sellers with some observations about unfair shipping costs and everytime I received some money back (just the difference between declared and real costs: the one you can read over your envelope/box).

I too pass if it is unreasonable. a lot of sellers use it as an extra money maker. I know about what it should cost to ship things so if it is real high I'll pass. if just a bit high I'll contact and ask if for the price I can get priority since it's to be had for what their saying regular mail. most are reasonable about it. I also contact them if insurance isn't available by default.

Red

As far as getting banned from bidding, that's just crappy IMO.

Now me, I'm a bottom line guy. I just take the most I want to pay for an item, subtract the shipping, and that's my bid. If the seller wants to charge $10 shipping I adjust my price. I don't necessarily care if I over pay for shipping as long as the total paid is what I think the item is worth.

I did a stupid thing once and bought a piece of lingerie :D on ebay. When it arrived, I washed it by hand in cold water in the sink. It was black when it went into the sink but it immediately bled nearly all of its color out into the cold water and it ended up being a silvery gray. I wrote to the seller and told her what happened. I didn't complain. I didn't ask for a refund. I just wanted her to know as she had several more of the same item for sale and I was honestly just trying to warn her. For my trouble, I got a scathing tirade back from her, negative feedback (as if I cared), and I was blocked from future bidding.

Personally, I consider being blocked to be advantageous. If someone is going to so unreasonably react to a simple communication, I consider blocking to be doing me a favor, as it prevents me from ever accidentally dealing with that person in the future.

And finally, believe me, there will always be another Swaty up for sale!