Ebay timewasters

[Steve Maskery]

Why do people do this?

I've just sold (hollow laughter) my mobile phone on Ebay. Everything was going tickety boo, I had a very acceptable price ten minutes before the auction ended. Withing the final minute two people have bid stupid amounts, which means the guy who bid properly doesn't win, and (call me a cynic if you must) I don't get paid for the phone, becasue I don't actually believe that the winner wants to part with £410 for a second-hand mobile phone. However Ebay will still want their percentage of the final price.

It's just stupid and hassle. Why do people do it? Why?

 

[Scrit]

So which West African country did these two nutters come from, then?

Scrit

 

[Steve Maskery]

Dublin.

It's actually an illegitimate bid (even if it wasn't deliberately fraudulent) as I stated I'd post to anywhere in the UK, and last time I looked Dublin wasn't in the UK. But it's the hassle of dealing with it all, and, of course, you can't ring eBay up and actually talk to someone, can you?

The same person has done something similar to someone else this week, also regarding a Nokia mobile phone. But if they bid 29 seconds before the auction end, there is precious little opportunuty to check them out and ban them before it's all over.

 

[gidon]

Steve - that's very frustrating - hope you sort it out. I find Ebay helpful if you have a dispute - you should be able to offer the phone to the genuine bidders.
I've sold quite a bit on Ebay and the only hassle I ever had was over selling a mobile phone!
Cheers
Gidon

 

[wrightclan]

Steve - that's very frustrating - hope you sort it out. I find Ebay helpful if you have a dispute - you should be able to offer the phone to the genuine bidders.
I've sold quite a bit on Ebay and the only hassle I ever had was over selling a mobile phone!
Cheers
Gidon

Yes, you can present a second-chance offer to the 'legitimate' bidder if you get no response from the high bidder. Unfortunately, the 'legitimate' bidder may be complicit. i.e. they may have decided against the purchase after having bid; then decided to set up a shill account 'in Dublin,' so as to outbid themselves. Or they may have a friend do so on their behalf. I hope this is not the case.

Unfortunately sellers can be just as guilty. I recently purchased a tool from a seller who is obviously engaging in shill bidding. I bid on the tool once, and was the second highest bidder. The highest bidder had a '0' feedback. The tool was readvertised, I bid again, this time higher and a '0' feedback bidder bid up to just below my maximum bid. I won, but at a slightly higher price than I originally wanted to pay. I think I still got a reasonable deal on the item; but I was raging when I figured out what had gone on.

I suspected that had happened, then I went to look at his completed listings-- there's a lot of bids by '0' or low feedback accounts, and more by accounts that are no longer registered. I reported it to ebay. Not sure if anything will be done or can be proven.

Brad

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well full marks to eBay. Without me having to do anything, they have identified that the transaction was fraudulent, apologized for the inconvenience, suspended the bidding account and refunded all resultant fees.

I have to re-list from the beginning, of course, and I may not get such a good price next time. Indeed there is no guarantee that the same thing won't happen again (there were 2 different fraudulent bids, one out-bidding the other!) but at least I'm not out of pocket.

Heigh ho.

 

[gidon]

Glad to hear it Steve! Hope you have better luck the next time. I change my ebay preferences so as to not allow anyone with negative feedback to bid - helps a bit if you haven't already done that.
Cheers
Gidon

 

[stairman]

Glad to hear it Steve! Hope you have better luck the next time. I change my ebay preferences so as to not allow anyone with negative feedback to bid - helps a bit if you haven't already done that.
Cheers
Gidon

I hope you let those with negative feedback contact you before biding as I have a neg feedback due to leaving one to a seller that did not send the wright goods I always pay at end of auction or as soon as possible :?

 

[Vormulac]

Don't you hate it when the seller waits until you've left your feedback before he leaves his own? I always pay immediately and am happy to converse on details of delivery and so-on, so as far as I can see, the moment the money's in their bank I should get positive feedback, but they nearly always wait to see what you've left them first these days so they can 'retaliate' if necessary. :evil:
I bought the missus a very expensive handbag on ebay and paid about 6 quid in postage assuming it would be recorded delivery or courier or something, about 10 days later it turned up in a plastic bag with the address written on the front in felt tip pen and a second class stamp on it. I left 'neutral' feedback and a comment explaining why (I knew this joker would nerf me if I left bad feedback and I didn't want to lose my 100% positive) and sure enough he left me neutral feedback in return.

 

[Losos]

Hi Vormulac,
I'm a bit confused, are you saying you sent the guy money without talking to him on the phone on the phone first? Is this how E-Bay works?

 

[stairman]

Losos yes ebay works that way you don't need to speak to the person you are buying from

just bid, win, pay, receive goods, leave feedback. job dun

 

[Vormulac]

Hi Losos,

Yup, as Stairman said, you rarely need to have any kind of contact with the person you are dealing with on ebay, most of it is handled automatically (the transfer of address to ship items to and so-on) by ebay; if you're buying, pretty much all you need to do is pay and then wait for the goods to turn up, if you are selling you just wait until payment is received and then you send the goods. You only really need to converse with the person you are dealing with if they have alternative postage requirements or something like that.
Most of the time it works very well, but sadly there are some pointless morons out there who chose to abuse the system, such as those that spoiled Steve's auction.

Vormulac.

 

[mel]

its funny you should mention that the only trouble that youve had is over selling a mobile phone .
because the only trouble ive had is over a mobile phone , however i was buying and the goods were not as described . completley wrong charger
and i had to wait nearly two weeks for the seller to win me a cheap nokia charger in another auction :evil:
still like ebay thou you have to be careful
mel