Shill bidding, what a pain

Strapped

Hadn't actually come across it before on something I was bidding on, but have today - seller has 5 items for sale, lo and behold a bidder with 0-9 feedback has bid on 4 of their items, in small increments, and this is the only seller they have bid with.

Grrrr.

Tempted to retract my bid now. That will teach me not to wait until the last 20 secs lol.

colony

Yeah, I think sniping is the only way forward due to shill bidders. I would retract my bid if you can. Can you leave it the last minute?

Strapped

OK, I just read the eBay guidance about shill bidding, and it says to report the item (have done) and to retract my bid...but when you go to the retract my bid form, there are only 3 options, none of which are "I think there's shill bidding", and as far as I can see, retracting a bid can leave you open to complaint from the seller. Another case of ambiguous eBay rules me thinks.

So I've left it, and if I win, well never mind, lesson learnt.

frivolous_fay

Interesting... I'd retract the bid and show ebay their own guidelines if they query it with you.
That's just my opinion though... I don't like shillers.

emweaver

If you retract your bid for a reason other than the 3 listed you are in breach of eays terms and they can suspend you from bidding for 30 days if you do it too often

soolin

emweaver wrote: »

If you retract your bid for a reason other than the 3 listed you are in breach of eays terms and they can suspend you from bidding for 30 days if you do it too often

Once will not hurt, there was one on the community boards with almost 30 retractions in a month and they still weren't banned.

I once had 2 retractions in a week on my buying account, both times I retracted a bid due to shillers, I chose 'could not contact seller' as the reason and sent an email to ebay to report sellers. Apart from the usual 'we take your reports very seriously' standard email I never heard another thing.

Strapped

Well, this morning I had an email from eBay that they had ended the listing so I didn't have to pay. I checked the sellers' items and they have pulled ALL of their listings, so good result.

emweaver

you must feel very proud of yourself getting someone banned from ebay for anything from 30 days to indefinet. never find if they need the money to feed, clothe kids as long as you didnt have to pay more for an item

As I was told very bluntly on here a few months ago and have come to learn shill bidding is very common on ebay and this wont be the first or the last time you come across it and most times you wont even spot it.

TurkishDelight

emweaver wrote: »

you must feel very proud of yourself getting someone banned from ebay for anything from 30 days to indefinet. never find if they need the money to feed, clothe kids as long as you didnt have to pay more for an item

I'm sure some shoplifters need to feed kids.... what's your point? If they wanted a fixed price they should have set it to buy it now, like we do. As it is our only way of keeping a roof over our heads, we like to have a measure of control over it- but not to the extent that we commit fraud. The seller knew the risks when they shill bid- I have no sympathy with cheats.

niknaknoo1982

If you are depending on ebay to feed & clothe the kids, there must be a real issue!

I have 3 kids and 4th on way in a few weeks, and hubby working only on min wage...If we were struggling so badly we needed to sell on ebay to get by, i'd be worried.

If you are that strapped get rid of the net/sell the pc...call social services!

soolin

emweaver wrote: »

you must feel very proud of yourself getting someone banned from ebay for anything from 30 days to indefinet. never find if they need the money to feed, clothe kids as long as you didnt have to pay more for an item

As I was told very bluntly on here a few months ago and have come to learn shill bidding is very common on ebay and this wont be the first or the last time you come across it and most times you wont even spot it.

Gosh, so breaking rules of any sort is perfectly acceptable as long as you can justify it? How odd. The next logical step would surely be shill bidding is OK if someone says they are disabled? (Everyone and their dog seems to play the disabled card on ebay so why not as an excuse for shill bidding as well)..no, rules are rules you might not agree with them and if that is the case then the simple solution is not to use ebay.

I don't usually bother to report shill bidders unless I am directly affected, but I suddenly have an urge to report the lot of them although actually I think it a lot more amusing to see the dim ones continually win their own items and have to pay FVFS :rotfl: