Artist Beware : Fenrisu

[bunnystrut.livejournal.com]

WHO : Fenrisu

WHERE : http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fenrisu/

WHAT : Backed out of YCH http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14645993/ (NSFW)

WHEN : YCH Started on Sept. 28th, they bid on it then, then backed out October 1st

PROOF : http://i.imgur.com/bowqkJT.png

EXPLAIN : Quite simple situation, Fenrisu backed out of a YCH I posted, they bid twice, first the $25 then a $45, then decided on October 1st, that they didn't want it anymore and to give it to the person behind them. I already have it clearly written in my rules to not do this and they ignored it.

I am posting this A_B so other people can watch out for this person and be wary of them.

Comments

[eikthyrnir.livejournal.com]

Seems they ran into bills etc?
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6159862/

Not excusing their behavior/backing out though

[kayla-na.livejournal.com]

Had a YCH customer do that to me because he wanted to bid on another YCH that I put up, and I was not happy about it at all. The runner-up didn't want it either and I lost about $150 of potential sales because of that Though, he did promptly apologize and gave me the money anyway for free.

Even if bills come up, that's a pretty shitty thing to do to an artist. If you don't have the funds to pay for a YCH, you don't bid at all. =\

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

Law shit warning! But I think it's very important to know for people running auctions on FA for fursuits or YHCs.

Auction bidding has 2 legal statuses, binding & non-binding. The USA is especially seller protective so has more of a lean towards auctions defaulting to binding bid status.That means you CAN'T JUST CHANGE YOUR MIND once you bid. You gotta pay up and then try and recoup your loss by reselling the item you bought.
This is the law. False bids are illegal, same as trying to interfere with anyone else bidding.
I'm surprised FA doesn't take auction harassment and false bids more serious, since as long as they allow auctions to run on FA they open up to potential legal issues. It's why auction sites are usually just dedicated auction sites, because you have a lot of legal issues wrapped up in auctions. The site can be fined along with the persons who committed the illegal acts during auctions.
You, as the winner, also cannot try and change payment period. If the payment period is 72 hours after auction ends you pay up within that time frame. You can't try and get a payment plan after the auction ends.
(of course as a seller you can always be more flexible than the law and work with a buyer, no shame in that, it's great for building goodwill)

Binding bid status auctions must have clear contract info available to allow you to enforce the binding status.
[TOS does not replace a contract/buyer's agreement, remember. I suggest a simple BA to be included with every auction, plus a link to your TOS and very clear end and start dates, including hour and minute. You can't extend the auction once you have bids(even if you feel it's too low a bid amount, so a reserve or a min starting bid are a good idea) or you negate your auction and bidders can try and get after you for auction fraud. However: if there's an issue with a bid you can resume the auction at the next highest valid bid, or start the bidding again. If you have to restart the bidding you still can't extend the time. Your only option is to cancel if no bids other than the questionable bid, or restart the bidding from the beginning with whatever time is left
Be sure and have clear payment due dates as well. Also many areas have a min preview time, sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes a day. Part of this is to prevent impulse bids. So check the auction law for your state/province and add a wait time to your posting(ie: no bids until the YHC as been up for 1 hour)].

Non-binding bid auctions allow a bid to = showing interest in buying, with the option to pass once bidding ends.
I'm worried most auctions on FA as of now might get lumped into this category because some vital auction info is missing.
Sellers you'll want to get your ducks in a row to allow you to run binding bid auctions since you know that the amount of the winning bid is the amount you get. You can enforce bids.

So for the folks running auctions on FA:

• Check auction law for the US where FA is based, and your area's laws. (if you need help, google your state plus buyer's agreement and you can get forms already done up, you'll want to change dates and item description for every new auction.) A bid is consent to buyer's agreement in auction sales.

• Have your buyer's agreement/auction contract + TOS info together as the Terms of your Auctions and have it easily accessible to bidders on the auction listing(so the FA page with your YHC). Make sure to state explicitly all bids are binding, just for clarity's sake.
Make sure with every first bid a bidder makes that they also comment that they read the terms of the auction!!!

• Be clear with open and end times, include hour and minute along with the dates, allowing for a short preview time(I think going for an hour from post time to first bid being accepted on FA would cover your butt securely) before bidding.

• Be clear with payment timeframe(generally 72 hours), if you accept payment plans include the detailed specifics of that in your auction terms.
Include what payment types you accept. (this will probably be in your TOS

So do all that and you have yourself a binding bid auction! Now you can go after anyone who tries to back out of bidding!

(and buyers do NOT bid if you are not 100% sure you can pay)

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

I just had someone back out of my most recent YCH as well, though they didn't even say anything about it until I called them out on deleting their bid comment, and then just said "I checked my account after bidding and didn't have the funds". :\ Luckily for me, the runner-up still wanted the pic.