Ebay Rant!

katic22

Hi,
I just wanted to get something off my chest as I can’t believe how sad some people are out there. I listed a car for sale as an auction format and it attracted afar bids all by buyers who looked reliable. With 10 seconds to go someone bought it that had 1 feedback and had only been registered for less than 1 week. For some reason this sent alarm bells ringing and when I looked at their history I saw that in this week they had bought several similar items. I would not usually do this but I contacted one of the sellers and asked about this person. They said that they have listed their car several times and each time this person (using a different name) buys it with no intention of paying for the item (they declare they are this person after each auction ends). I contacted the second person on the list for my item and it seems that they are going to have it so really it is all good. I am just cross because eBay can be a fantastic site for people and while I accept that things do sometimes go wrong there are some very sad people in the world who have nothing better to do then create hassle for people. Especially for this poor bloke who is relisting his item several times because of this buyer. He is in talks with eBay and I plan to report this buyer also. Has anybody else had similar experiences?

jweb2k

I think there should be an option to restrict people bidding on your items with less than X feedback/items bought (X being whatever the seller wants it to be). It's your auction that you've paid for after all.

soolin

jweb2k wrote: »

I think there should be an option to restrict people bidding on your items with less than X feedback/items bought (X being whatever the seller wants it to be). It's your auction that you've paid for after all.

You can only ban buyers with overall negative feedback..which of cours eno longer exists.

Youc an ban users with less than 5 feedback who do not have a card registered with ebay, but for a car this might limit you a lot as buyers tend to not be major buyers, most sign up and buy the car they've seen.

Premier_2

jweb2k wrote: »

I think there should be an option to restrict people bidding on your items with less than X feedback/items bought (X being whatever the seller wants it to be). It's your auction that you've paid for after all.

It's never going to happen.

Most people start their accounts by buying, since people are naturally hesitant about buying from a seller with zero feedback.

Given a choice, many sellers would opt for buyers with a minimum of say 10 positive feedback, rather than zero ... but that would prevent new users. We all started with zero feedback once.

Those who are intent on causing trouble on ebay would not have any problem building up however much minimum feedback was needed anyway.

If someone you don't want to be a buyer bids on your item, you are free to cancel their bid (as long as the auction hasn't ended) and block them if necessary. If they bid again, even using another account, you can report them to ebay.

jweb2k

The problem is bid sniping has become much more popular, so the delete-bid argument is really out the window. I understand what you say about the minimum 10 positive feedback - but charge extra for it then? Many auctions would still run for all, but it's an added seller protection.