Make an Offer

[ugrow]

On the 9 April I had a buyer make an offer on a item that I had for sale. Having been away for several days on business I only picked it up today 11 April.

Looking to reply to the person that made the offer I find that the options to Accept, Counter or Decline are no longer there and seem to have been removed. If this is the case it does seem that these options are not available for very long. I think that 2 days is a very short period of time for these options to be shown.

If an offer was made say on a Friday night and the seller had gone away for a long weekend then the offer would possibly have been withdrawn before they had even seen it.

I think that a reasonable time for an offer to be displayed should be four to five days. This would at least give a seller time to see the offer and reply to it.

What do others think?

[TonyBridger]

If I made an offer for a item and the seller never replied to it within 48 hours I would have moved on & bought the item from someone else.

Cannot offers be automatically accepted or refused within minutes on here like they are on the other auction site

[astral276]

Cannot offers be automatically accepted or refused within minutes on here like they are on the other auction site

Yes, it's on the listing form. You can set prices at which to both auto-accept and auto-decline offers.

[NPCoin]

I believe it to be unreasonable to expect a seller to be "available" 24/7 just because they are an internet-based seller and the internet is "available" 24/7. There are a number of sellers that take days off for religious observances or holidays. Some small one-man and ma-pa establishments will only be available five days a week, even for a brick and mortar establishment.

And even with auto-decline and auto-accept, there are those prices above which one will definitely accept and those by which one will absolutely decline. However, many times there may be a grey area by which the seller may need to consider the overall quantity of the purchase in order to determine whether or not the offer is conceivable.

We are in the business to support ourselves and/or our families. We are not necessarily charities.

When I make offers on other sites, I expect the seller to take proper consideration of my offer. Thus, I wait patiently for the reply. Now, I do believe that five days may be just a bit too long. If the seller is going to be unavailable for such a period of time, perhaps they should post a notice and mark themselves appropriately. However, neither do I personally view three or four days too long a period for a seller to consider an offer.

eBid may be a more seller-friendly venue to sell your wares, but for some of us, it is not the only place. Depletion of stock, demand via other venues (including B&M physical establishments), and current costs and valuation of stock are all considerations that determine whether a specific offer will be acceptable on any given date.

[kazeran]

In my humble opinion, I think that the modern world leaves little chance in missing an offer by accident.
If I go away on business or pleasure my laptop/pad or phone comes with me. I regularly check in on my sites. Once a day, is all it takes, usually over Coffee after breakfast. Just a quick scan to stay on top of sales, offers or any possible customer questions or problems.
If I was a potential customer, I expect the same. If I don't get an answer after 48 hours I am off to buy elsewhere.
If it was a bricks and mortar store and it was closed, I would go elsewhere too, I would not stand outside over a bank holiday waiting for it to open...