ebay scam

markbradbury33

I have just been the victim of a scam on ebay.

I was biddiing for an item and placed a max bid of £600, I was winning the item with a bid of £480 when another bidder placed a higher bid of £640.

This bid was then removed 5 mins before the end of the auction, but rather than reverting back to my previous winning bid of £420 it went straight to my max bid of £600 where it stayed until the end of the auction.

I was not happy that the bid had not gone back to the original winning bid and contacted Ebay, I was told by the manager (so he said) Luke Daniels, that it was my own fault as i had bidded £600.

Even after trying to explain to him that I would have won it at £480, he told me that I had entered a contract and would have to pay up.

As far as I can see this is a very usefull way for some sellers to boost their profit, and for Ebay to gain a higher return from the sale. (hence why they do not seem bothered enough to act on it):mad:

I wonder how many other people out there have been subject to this scam.

I have 100% feedback on Ebay and always pay as soon as the item has finished, but I will not be paying the £600 and am awaiting the sellers reponse to my email sent to them.

terra_ferma

markbradbury33 wrote: »

I have just been the victim of a scam on ebay.

I was biddiing for an item and placed a max bid of £600, I was winning the item with a bid of £480 when another bidder placed a higher bid of £640.

This bid was then removed 5 mins before the end of the auction, but rather than reverting back to my previous winning bid of £420 it went straight to my max bid of £600 where it stayed until the end of the auction.

I was not happy that the bid had not gone back to the original winning bid and contacted Ebay, I was told by the manager (so he said) Luke Daniels, that it was my own fault as i had bidded £600.

Even after trying to explain to him that I would have won it at £480, he told me that I had entered a contract and would have to pay up.

As far as I can see this is a very usefull way for some sellers to boost their profit, and for Ebay to gain a higher return from the sale. (hence why they do not seem bothered enough to act on it):mad:

I wonder how many other people out there have been subject to this scam.

I have 100% feedback on Ebay and always pay as soon as the item has finished, but I will not be paying the £600 and am awaiting the sellers reponse to my email sent to them.

This is not something a seller would be able to control, AFAK. I can't see how they would be able to change your bid.
You could try and negotiate with the seller, who may think the bid is high enough. You could not pay and would get a strike (if you get two in 12 months you would be blocked by many buyers). There are rumours of buyers being sued, but I don't think it's likely to happen.

soolin

The circumstances as you outline them sugegst a glitch unless there was another underbidder as well. Usually where a buyer withdraws a bid the next bid falls to the highest bid that has bene placed that exceeds the next or underbidder.

So for instance if bidder A bids 99p bidder B £50 and bidder C £60 and bidder c withdraws their bid entirely then bidder B would win at £1.04.

have you checked there wasn't a third bidder in the running?

hermum

Could the £640 bidder have withdrawn that bid but left a bid of £590?

GabbaGabbaHey

terra_ferma wrote: »

This is not something a seller would be able to control, AFAK. I can't see how they would be able to change your bid.

No, but a dishonest seller could have placed a high shill bid in order to see what the OP's maximum bid was. They then could have retracted it, and placed another bid one increment below the OP's £600 maximum, pushing the final sale price up to £600.

OP - can you look at the auction history (there will be a link on the listing, next to the final auction price, saying "X bids") and see if my scenario is correct?

If so, then eBay should take an accusation of shill bidding seriously, as it is not just against eBay's Ts&Cs, but is actually illegal.

hcb42

if you are not happy and suspect shill bidding, do not pay...what's the worse that can happen....

soolin

GabbaGabbaHey wrote: »

No, but a dishonest seller could have placed a high shill bid in order to see what the OP's maximum bid was. They then could have retracted it, and placed another bid one increment below the OP's £600 maximum, pushing the final sale price up to £600.

OP - can you look at the auction history (there will be a link on the listing, next to the final auction price, saying "X bids") and see if my scenario is correct?

If so, then eBay should take an accusation of shill bidding seriously, as it is not just against eBay's Ts&Cs, but is actually illegal.

The underbid though should still show and whilst the OP has not been back to confirm they appear to suggest that their bid was the only high one.

jabdc5

Not sure I'm being clear here but if it had a £600 reserve would it accept the buyers bid at £600 to make the sale as he had actually bid £640?

mcjordi

this happened to me when i was bidding on a car on ebay.. luckily i checked the bidding history on the car and found bidder 2's history was 100% on this seller... funny i was outbid then all of a sudden bidder 2 retracted their bids and i was winning at my max bid.. seller messaged me and asked if it was my max bid.. i replied well you should know as your shill bidding petal. I cancelled my bids..

Check the bidding history when bidding and be wary..

Mistral001

markbradbury33 wrote: »

I have just been the victim of a scam on ebay.

I was winning the item with a bid of £480 when another bidder placed a higher bid of £640.

How did you know that they placed that bid of £640? Surely if they did that it would just go up by one increment which I think is £10 for that range, which means that all you would see is the price going up to £490.

kurgon

markbradbury33 wrote: »

I have just been the victim of a scam on ebay.

I was biddiing for an item and placed a max bid of £600, I was winning the item with a bid of £480 when another bidder placed a higher bid of £640.

This bid was then removed 5 mins before the end of the auction, but rather than reverting back to my previous winning bid of £420 it went straight to my max bid of £600 where it stayed until the end of the auction.

I was not happy that the bid had not gone back to the original winning bid and contacted Ebay, I was told by the manager (so he said) Luke Daniels, that it was my own fault as i had bidded £600.

Even after trying to explain to him that I would have won it at £480, he told me that I had entered a contract and would have to pay up.

As far as I can see this is a very usefull way for some sellers to boost their profit, and for Ebay to gain a higher return from the sale. (hence why they do not seem bothered enough to act on it):mad:

I wonder how many other people out there have been subject to this scam.

I have 100% feedback on Ebay and always pay as soon as the item has finished, but I will not be paying the £600 and am awaiting the sellers reponse to my email sent to them.

Are you trying to learn how to shill bid? You are talking absolute rubbish. If your highest bid was £600 then their bid would have been £620 (not £640 as you claim) as this is the increment between £600 and £1000. I know it's school holidays but have you not got anything better to do?