I tried to cancel the bids, but eBay’s bid cancellation process is cumbersome, involving collecting the id of the bidder, the number of the item being sold, and submitting both on a separate page from the auction. (Hello? How about a simple button next to each bid – the seller can just click it to cancel the bid and block future bids from that user id.)

These bids were apparently placed by longtime eBay members with good feedback, but they were obviously fakes. In the end, the entire auction was cancelled and I was refunded all of my listing fees. Obviously I’m glad for that, but I seriously doubt I’ll try to sell anything on eBay again.

I fully understand the importance of this matter to you and I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. After reading your email I immediately and thoroughly reviewed your account for you and found out that we cancelled your listing after determining that bidding activity on your item took place without the account owner’s authorization. In order to limit the negative impact to you and the account owner, we temporarily suspended the bidding account and ended
the listing in question.

Jim, I am happy to report to you that I have now credited the $94.5 fee for your notebook and rest assured that any negative actions resulting from this listing, including unpaid item reports and negative feedback are taken care of. We encourage you to list your item again, either through the Sell Your Item process or through your third-party listing service.

If you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email and let us know.

Sincerely,
Gale

eBay Customer Support