If you go into someone's feedback and click on Feedback as a Buyer, it is in wee little letters in the right hand corner.
Oh I see where it is now--I've never noticed it before. Does ebay do anything to the member if they have so many bid retratcions in 12 months?
I swear to god it's like Ebay tries to make it hard to see the bid retractions. That's why you've never noticed it before :-)
Yes, Ebay definitely punishes for bid retractions. I don't know the exact number but there have been people who have suddenly gotten their accounts suspended because they have retracted too many bids.
It's the same thing with cases. Ebay doesn't right out say that if you open so-and-so many cases against sellers that you will get suspended but they do do it. It's all very hush hush and random. I think it's an automated algorithm and suddenly you get suspended.
So yeah, even though Ebay favors buyers too much in many cases they can get banned or suspended for:
1. Not paying
2. Retracting bids
3. Opening too many cases (even if they win every one, it stays on their record. Open too many and they look fishy and may get banned or suspended).
The retracting bids is the ONLY one out of these three that doesn't automatically go on their record. That's why it's very important to make sure sellers report it. Every time you report it it does go on their record.
This is also why if a buyer asks me to remove a bid I will no longer do it. I only do it if they made a bid by accident and they tell me within a reasonable amount of time. I have made a mistake and bid on an item before but I never bid on an item for multiple days and then asked a seller to remove it. That's ridiculous.
Anyways, I just wanted to inform about the retracting bids and reporting it because many sellers aren't even aware that Ebay sends them an email. So now you know :-)