Last night during the closing hours of an auction I had on Ebay, the site went down in many areas of the country. There were 25 people watching, and four active bidders on a cymbal I was selling. Since no one could access the auction to place a bid, or defend a bid, or raise a bid, the item sold at a very low cost to the last "high bidder" that was able to get a bid in. I received some communication this morning from a bidder wondering why he could not bid, and asking had I asked Ebay about the problem. So, I called them.........

They informed me that they had no policy in place for such an occurrence...

I asked if they agreed there were site difficulties during that period of time last night? They said yes, there were.............

I asked if they would negate the auction since there were?......

They said no...................

I asked would they support me when contacting the winning bidder by confirming that there were, in fact, site difficulties during the closing hours of the auction?

They said no................

What they did suggest, was that I contact the buyer and ask if he would agree to cancel the transaction.......

I said OK, but what are the chances of that? The buyer got a great cymbal at about 60% of its value .........

They said that is all I could do.........

By this time, the buyer had already made a transfer of funds through Paypal ( as a good Ebayer should! ), so I'm thinking there is really no use to even try. But, after a couple of hours, I contacted him anyway. I explained what had happened, and asked could he see his way clear to forgo the auction under the circumstances.......

Here is his reply.............

"Kevin: I understand your situation. I concur that the eBay site was acting strange, and was very surprised to have won that K cymbal for that price. Therefore, I will indeed FORGO the auction, and permit you to relist the cymbal. I am not in this game to take advantage of anybody. I am like you: just trying to make some money, at a fair and equitable price, on drum gear that I buy and sell. SO, RELIST the K and I will re-bid.

I want to treat you in the manner that I myself would want to be treated in a similar situation."

I nearly fell out of my chair.......

During later emails, he made an offer to add on an amount of money which would have brought the price up to a fair price for both of us, but I had already refunded his Paypal payment. The transaction is now closed, and since it is now no longer any of Ebays' business, I offered to sell him the cymbal at a little less than his previous amount outside of Ebay, and hopefully outside of Paypal as well, if we can establish a little trust over the phone.

There are some good people out there, I just ran into one today!!!!