How to cancel an ongoing auction

There is no automatic way to cancel an auction, but this workaround will help you close the auction and ensure bidders aren't charged.

1. Place Higher Bids to Override Existing Ones

   • First, enable offline payments on your auction form:

   • Click on "fundraising" in the menu bar on the left and then on "campaigns"

   • Click on "edit" to the right of your auction and navigate to "Advanced settings" step

   • Under "Additional form options," select "Enable offline payments."

   • Once done, access your public Zeffy form and place a higher bid on all items (to outbid the current highest bidder and ensure they don't get charged)

   • When submitting your bid, select the "cash" payment method you just enabled. This way, you will have outbid all bidders while also ensuring you don't get charged yourself.

2. Close Sales on Your Auction Form

   • Go back to "campaigns" in the left-hand side menu of your Zeffy dashboard

   • Click the three little dots to the right of the auction form you want to cancel

   • Click "Close sales"

   This will prevent new bids from being placed on your auction items.

3. Communicate with Your Bidders

• To see who bid on your items, click "Manage event" to the right of your auction form

• Click "Bids" to see a list of bidders and copy their email addresses

• Draft an email explaining the auction cancellation
  

  • Navigate to "newsletter" > click "Emails" > click "New email"

  • Paste the bidder's email addresses in the "To" section

• You can include:

  • The reason for the cancellation

  • Confirmation that they won't be charged

  • Any alternative plans or future auction dates

  • Contact information for questions

• Once the email draft is ready click "Send"