Shill bidding - does eBay do enough to stop it?

Honey9036

Hi all!

I was minding my own business, browsing eBay for a watch for my brother's xmas, when I came across what I believe to be (yet another!) a blatent case of shill bidding.

I feel that there's little point in reporting it to eBay because by the looks of it they must be making a FORTUNE in fees from this seller. I have reported a couple of sellers in the past and eBay did not appear to do anything about it (ie the sellers continued to add more auctions daily, and the shill bidding still went on...)

Does anyone else find this frustrating, or is it just me? I'm quite sure eBay would penalise your ordinary 'Joe Bloggs', selling a couple of bits and pieces, who decided to artificially bump up the prices. But somehow the profitable BIG sellers seem to evade scrutiny. :mad:

I used the 'AuctionPix - shill bidding' form here to compile a summary of shill bidders based on a few of the seller's auctions:

eBay Item 300044829994
eBay Item 300045186276
eBay Item 300045233658

The above auctions are just a few of the MANY auctions where shill bidding is going on with this seller.

I suppose there's nothing that can be done, but I just wanted to have a rant about it...

The really annoying thing about it is I actually wanted to bid for one of his watches, but I now realise that there's no way I could win it fairly (without the price being bumped up!).

I wish eBay would apply their policies universally - regardless of whether it adversely affects their profit margin!

OK, rant over. Thanks for 'listening'!

Lori
x

tubbies74

I too have reported people and well I have refused to pay for an Item when clearly shill bidding has taken place

HugoSP

If we all got into the habit of running shill bidding checks and cold sholdering listings where it was happening then these sellers would give up and go home.

jago25_98

That's nothing, do a search in the mobile phones section for phones that sold for >£800. It happens all the time and ebay just keeps billing and marketing. It's a sweet monopoly for them and the OFT is pathetic.