eBay shill bidding

[Tamiyoman]

Angry emails from a seller after I used Bidnapper on his auction item............

I was watching the item for 6 days and no bidders (1 day left), item start price £49.99, put a bid on of £50.77, within 30 minutes its bid to £51 by a buyer with 7 feedback, I raise my bid to £55, 20 mins later the same bidder bids 5 more times in £1 increments to £56 so i figured balls to it, will leave it (Item is new and retails at £145 but box is damaged, contents are fine and i throw boxes away so im not fussed about that, so figure will leave it at that), had a look at sellers feedback and the bidder has won one of his previous items (whats the chances of that with 7 feedback  ), so I retract my bids and it goes back to £49.99 with him winning.

I Contacted Ebay who "could not confirm what action would be taken, but there would be action taken against the seller  (I guess he was shilling but they cannot confirm it to me), anyhoo fast forward 22hrs and I used the sniper and got it for £50 

I have received emails from a pretty stupid seller it seems................ emails go something like this..

Seller:- Oi whats goin on?, the other bidder emailed me saying he could not bid on my item!!!!, I am cancelling the sale, Thanks.

Me:- What is going on is that Ebay suspected you were bidding on your own items using another account, feel free to contact them about it!!, I have paid in full for the item and under Ebay policy we have entered into a contract (You as seller and me as buyer), failure to send me the item will result in you being reported to Ebay for breach of Ebay policy, likely being banned for shill bidding (feel free to look it up altho I suspect you know what it is) Breaking a contract (For which I am entitled to an equal replacement item at your cost) and of course the appropriate feedback will be placed.
Please ensure item is packed securely and despatched as per your listing (tomorrow) for delivery on thursday (Special delivery as per the service I paid for).

Seller:- I ave no idea what shill bidding is and ave not dun it, I am going to speak to ebay about this, your not getting the item at that price!!.

Me:- No worries, will speak to Ebay myself tomorrow about your conduct (I did indeed speak to Ebay about this).

45 minutes after my call to Ebay:-

Seller:- I am sending the item but am not happy, I feel you stole my item u shud be ashamed, it's christmas!!

Me:- I look forward to receiving my item.........................................Merry Christmas! 

Item arrived today absolutely spot on and a bargain!!!! (It is not a christmas present, well it is for me I suppose, pressie to myself), have not left feedback yet as am going to speak to Ebay again before I leave accurate feedback.

It looks like if Ebay do catch a shill bidder they remove their bids and block them from bidding (Altho both accounts still active), worked for me anyway. Normally I would only ever use a sniper but I ALWAYS put in a low bid to make sure it allows my bid as some sellers have some serious restrictions and lost a great item few years ago from that so always do it this way now.



 

[Kemnaychris]

Haha winner takes all ;)

Christmas or not donr sell things with no reserve if u can't handle taking a huge loss lol nice one dude happy days :-)

[JoeDarKa]

I never bid on anything before the last 15secs anyway. If you bid early it gives other people time to think that they will bid higher!

[JackG]

I've placed an initial bid on something that's linked from the forum, within the time I placed my bid to the time it would have taken to make a phone call (seller that is) I was outbid straight away,  same person with same feedback too, I haven't reported it yet but will keep an eye out and then I will, ebay just seems to have had its day now and is just full of people conning all the time

[Tamiyoman]

I've placed an initial bid on something that's linked from the forum, within the time I placed my bid to the time it would have taken to make a phone call (seller that is) I was outbid straight away,  same person with same feedback too, I haven't reported it yet but will keep an eye out and then I will, ebay just seems to have had its day now and is just full of people conning all the time

Agreed there are so many scammers on Ebay, I ship most items tracked mail now (at buyers cost) because of this, 3-4 years ago we used to ship std mail which saved buyers money but now it's not worth the risk, paypal fraud, shill bidding, credit card fraud, idiots leaving negative feedback because they bought the wrong item, the list goes on............................

[JackG]

I've placed an initial bid on something that's linked from the forum, within the time I placed my bid to the time it would have taken to make a phone call (seller that is) I was outbid straight away,  same person with same feedback too, I haven't reported it yet but will keep an eye out and then I will, ebay just seems to have had its day now and is just full of people conning all the time

Agreed there are so many scammers on Ebay, I ship most items tracked mail now (at buyers cost) because of this, 3-4 years ago we used to ship std mail which saved buyers money but now it's not worth the risk, paypal fraud, shill bidding, credit card fraud, idiots leaving negative feedback because they bought the wrong item, the list goes on............................

Good point, there is very few genuine sales on eBay, I've heard stories of people buying cars on there with bidding to go and collect the car and reduce there bid price once it's been sold, I'm really paranoid on there now, I'll only buy phone cases and little things,  I'll pay more for piece of mind, its certainly not cheaper too....I was looking for some genuine screen wash the other day, saw a place selling some for 5.99+1.99 p&p ... it's about 2.50+vat from the dealers
I certainly think they need to change the rule book, I even see people selling "Xbox 360 elite 250gb box" fait enough the people should read it properly but it's somone trying to catch somone out and there is nothing eBay can do about it,  it gives the company a bad name...I've even found badoo prostitue on there 
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=160941437956

[Tamiyoman]

I've placed an initial bid on something that's linked from the forum, within the time I placed my bid to the time it would have taken to make a phone call (seller that is) I was outbid straight away,  same person with same feedback too, I haven't reported it yet but will keep an eye out and then I will, ebay just seems to have had its day now and is just full of people conning all the time

Agreed there are so many scammers on Ebay, I ship most items tracked mail now (at buyers cost) because of this, 3-4 years ago we used to ship std mail which saved buyers money but now it's not worth the risk, paypal fraud, shill bidding, credit card fraud, idiots leaving negative feedback because they bought the wrong item, the list goes on............................

Good point, there is very few genuine sales on eBay, I've heard stories of people buying cars on there with bidding to go and collect the car and reduce there bid price once it's been sold, I'm really paranoid on there now, I'll only buy phone cases and little things,  I'll pay more for piece of mind, its certainly not cheaper too....I was looking for some genuine screen wash the other day, saw a place selling some for 5.99+1.99 p&p ... it's about 2.50+vat from the dealers
I certainly think they need to change the rule book, I even see people selling "Xbox 360 elite 250gb box" fait enough the people should read it properly but it's somone trying to catch somone out and there is nothing eBay can do about it,  it gives the company a bad name...I've even found badoo prostitue on there 
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=160941437956

I have been on Ebay since 2002 (joined up to sell my world cup tickets for Englands group games as my best mate broke his leg and could not travel, we tripled our money on the tickets tho  ), and back then Ebay was great, it was genuine people selling stuff, around 2006/7 it started going downhill fast!.
I sell on there regularly but buyers pay for tracked mail (with confirmed paypal accounts) so I dont lose the money and the item.

Been ripped off twice on Ebay in 10 years, one by a yank selling a toy (Got my money back tho  ) and another time by some scrote in London who said he never received it then had the balls to put pictures of the item up on a collectors forum ( ), I worked in London regularly so went round with a mate holding a "clipboard" and told him we we here to collect.....................little sh%t handed it over very quickly and off we went, never to be heard from again