I'm in a bit of a predicament. I was forced to cancel the highest bidder in one of my auctions since he was not in the states, had zero feedback, and did not respond to any of my emails. So by default, the second highest bidder won the auction, but has informed me that since he was outbid, he bought the item from aonther seller and requested his bids be canceled. I was not at my computer when he requested this so I was unable to fulfill his request. I don't want to force this guy to buy something he doesn't want, but how do I resolve this issue as I am stuck with the fees ebay charged me for the final value of the auction. What would be fair for the both of us?

I'm not sure, but the first thing I'd do is change your seller preferences so that people with 0 or negative feedback can't bid, as well as restrict bidding to only those in the US or wherever you will ship. Even if you put in the auction "US bidders only," it will still allow "foreigners" to bid. So, I'd change the selling preferences......and probably just bite the bullet and pay the ebay fees yourself.

I agree with dick grayson here. I think you have to reset your preferences and cop the fees as is not the fault of the second highest bidder that he went and bought elsewhere thinking he had been outbid on your auction. I know it sucks but think this is really your only option.

I didn't know the 2nd highest bidder was obligated to buy an item if the winner flaked out.

The winner did not "flake out" - the seller CANCELLED the highest bidder while the auction was active.

The solution is to go through the non-paying bidder procedure - you will find that one of the selections is that the seller and the buyer agreed not to complete the transaction. This will not give a bad mark to the bidder, and eBay will credit back the final value fee (but not the listing fee).

There is no way you should hold a bidder to the bid if he was later outbid by someone else.

Just for your info...The second bidder is not obligated to buy the item..
tks,
DG

Well, technically by ebay rules the 2nd bidder IS obligated if the other bidder was cancelled while the auction was still running. Also, if that person didn't want the item instead of asking the seller to cancel the bid during the auction, the 2nd bidder could have cancelled his or her own bid & not waited for the seller. So, yes the 2nd bidder IS, in fact, obligated.

Now, as far as good customer service goes, the nice thing to do would be to let the person off the hook. That's up to the seller, though.

It depends on how much time was left before the auction ended. If there are less than 12 hours left, ebay does not allowed the buyer to retract his/her bid. In this case the only way to have your bid cancelled is to have the seller do it for you.

What would be done if the higher bidder cancelled his bid himself, causing the 2nd highest bidder to be the highest and possibly win?

An update for the curious. I went with Marty's advice and filed for a dispute to allow myself and the buyer to end the transaction. I got my FVF refunded and there was no negative strike to the bidder. He was nice enough to give me positive feedback and I did the same for him. Unfortunately, after I had the item (Syriana HD) re-listed, it sold for about $10 less than the previous auction. Go figure.

I have another ebay related question in another thread.

Pleased to hear that all ended ok - sorry that your item sold for less on the re-list. (Once in a similar set of circumstances my re-list sold for a lot more that the cancelled transaction, but the other times I also ended up getting less for the item.)

Oh, yeah I didn't think about that. It would depend on the amount of time left, you're right.

Glad to hear it worked out ok.

I don't believe Ebay will allow this - it's not in their best interest to disqualify new bidders. It's ok to say it in your auction description.

Although the next highest bidder is obligated to buy, I would have left him off the hook also. I think both you and the second buyer did the right thing.

You can block bidders with up to 5 fb with some choices.

Under Seller preferences there is a lot of choices for blocking bidders:

Buyers in countries to which I don't ship

Buyers with a negative feedback score

Buyers with Unpaid Item strikes

Buyers who may bid on several of my items and not pay for them

Block buyers who are currently winning or have bought (choice of 1-10) of my items in the last 10 days.

Only apply this block to buyers who have a feedback score of (choice of 5-0) or lower.

Buyers without a PayPal account

I have my eBay settings for people buying from me listed so that someone can't bid on any of my auctions if they:

-Have a feedback score of -1 or lower
-Have received 2 Unpaid Item strikes in the last 30 days
-Don't have a PayPal account