Another E-Bay question....

[hermes]

"sicktwistedandfranklyquitebizarresexualfetishshop".

Do you have the phone number?

 

[hermes]

I hope the winner of the auction does not travel to Derbyshire to pick the shallay up; he will be in the wrong country for Colwyn Bay.

 

[Softus]

Once the auction is over, he is obliged to sell it to you for the closing price. But there's SFA you can do to make him if he won't.

It's correct that you can't make him sell it, but that's because the agreement isn't a binding contract at the close of the auction.

This whole thing of an auction agreement being a legally binding contract is a popular myth. In English Contract Law, a contract is formed only when an offer is accepted. (There are other criteria too, but for clarity here I'll be brief).

There are cases where the offer comes from the seller, but in most cases, including auctions, the offer comes from the buyer.

Therefore, the contract is neither made, nor is its performance enforceable, until the seller acknowledges the closing price and agrees to accept it. This applies regardless of whether a reserve has been set.

So, you might well win the auction, and think that you've got the chalet "for a song", but the seller could then pull out simply by declining to accept the final price. He would face negative feedback, of course, and the wrath of the eBay organisers, but you cannot force him to accept your offer.

BTW, the eBay rule, the one preventing a seller from pulling out within the last 12 hours of auction end, is simply an eBay rule; it isn't anything to do with the law.

 

[masona]

So can the buyer pull out even though won the auction bids?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

It depends.

 

[masona]

That's interesting because I often wondered about the 'cooling off period' online.

In theory you haven't won the items until it arrived at your house?

 

[ninebob]

You didn't win it, then....

Still seems a good buy at £480, I wonder if he'll go through with the deal with the winning bidder?

 

[johnny_t]

Was wondering that myself - Have to keep an eye on the feedback and see what happens. I didn't go any further cos I could see a big can of worms opening up in front of me.......

 

[ninebob]

You should have just carried on - surely the worst that could have happened is that you didn't pay any money and didn't get yourself a "shalley"!

 

[Moz]

"shalley"!
wasnt he some reprobate from the 80s tv

 

[Softus]

So can the buyer pull out even though won the auction bids?

As b-a-s said, it depends, but I assume that you're asking about the general case where there is no distance selling complexity.

I suspect you already know the answer, which is that the buyer cannot pull out after auction closure. In normal contractual circumstances you could withdraw your offer before it's accepted, or withdraw from the contract, by mutual agreement, after it's accepted. However, eBay doesn't offer the buyer any mechanism for withdrawing an offer after the auction closes, and by signing up as a member you have to agree not to do this.

You could of course ask the seller (directly) to cancel the contract, but you would be legally liable to compensate the seller for any expenses incurred in the course of the auction (listing fees etc.).

 

[johnny_t]

You should have just carried on - surely the worst that could have happened is that you didn't pay any money and didn't get yourself a "shalley"!

Actually, the worst that could have happened is that I paid £500+ for the component parts of aforementioned shalley, which I then left out in the garden for the next two years whilst I got round to putting it up, they went mouldy and my wife gave me earache about it every day, but I take your point.

Either that or the whole deal went sour and I had another unfair blot on my beautiful feedback. I notice that the winner is a newb with zero feedback - Wonder if he rejoined specially for that very reason...