Understand: Ineligible Auction Winners

Learn why an Auction winner might be ineligible and how to select a new winner.

There are several reasons why an Auction winner may be ineligible, including:

  • The winner does not meet a specified age requirement.
  • The winner declines the prize and wants a refund.
  • The winner is not eligible per your rules/guidelines (e.g., company employees are not eligible).
  • The winner can no longer pay for the item/shipping/delivery.

When any of these scenarios occur, you may need to select a new winner.

Select a new winner

There are a couple of ways to select a new winner based on whether the original winner’s credit card payment was successful or not.

Winner’s Payment Successful

  1. Cancel and refund the current winner’s payment: How-to: Cancel and Refund Credit Card Charges.
  2. Go to View Auction Bids in the Experience management menu to look for the next highest bidder: 

  1. If you had multiple Auction items, you can filter for a specific item:

  1. Contact the next highest bidder and manually charge their card: How to Manually Charge a Donor’s Credit Card through Your Experience.

Winner’s Payment Failed

If a winner’s payment has failed and you would like to award the item to the next highest bidder:

  1. Select Experiences from the left menu.
  2. If you have chosen a list view, click on the Experience title. If you have chosen a grid view, click on the Experience image.
  3. Select View Auction Winners.
  4. Find the winner you wish to revoke and hover your mouse over their name.
  5. Click on the three-dot menu on the right and select Revoke:

  1.  Enter the reason for revoking the winner. NOTE: This reason will be sent in an email to the winner.
  2. Select REVOKE WINNER to cancel this winner and automatically charge the card of the next highest bidder. The name of the new winner will show in the View Auction Winners table.

If you opted to send the winners an email notification when you set up your Experience, the new winner will automatically be notified. If you did not select this option in Experience Setup but would like to notify the winner:

  1. Hover your mouse over the new winner’s name and click on the three-dot menu on the right.
  2. Select Send Email.

Keep the Same Winner

For highly-priced Auction items, the winning bidder’s credit cards may fail if the amount of the item exceeds their credit card limit or if their bank’s fraud detection system places a hold on the purchase. If this occurs, the donor and organizer will both receive an email notification. The donor’s email will include a link to donate again: What Should I Do If a Donor’s Credit Card Fails?

Good to Know

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