Should someone tell them it's obvious...

hermum

George_Michael wrote: »

It might stop them for a while, but unless ebay do something (a short suspension perhaps), I'm sure that they will continue doing it.

Their mate bid on baby clothes of theirs last night, so it hasn't stopped them.

soolin

Looks like shill bidder is back. Lets hope they win it again.

hermum

How many people have reported this seller?

George_Michael

What did they say? </nosy>

Dear XXX XXX,

you can go to hell as people like u have mess my ebay many time,save ur crap for something else
do not bid as i will remove ur bid

- XXXXX

Do not bid!
I tend to try not to buy from crooks and fraudsters if I can avoid doing so.

hermum

George_Michael wrote: »

Do not bid!
I tend to try not to buy from crooks and fraudsters if I can avoid doing so.

What a shame that he won't allow you in to his little inner circle. I bet you were devastated.
It will be interesting to see whether ebay actually do anything to stop this, lister I guess you would have to call him, as he doesn't seem to sell an awful lot, due to being pretty bad at shill bidding.

shaun_from_Africa

I used to report blatant shill bidders but nowadays it's not worth the time or effort to do so.

Even if ebay do decide to take action (very unlikely), the most that ever seems to happen is that the shill bidding account gets deregistered and the seller continues to keep selling and simply starts shill bidding again with a newly formed account.

The so called "trust and safety" team at ebay should be disbanded as it's a total farce and they simply play lip service to their policies and the money saved should be put to better use.

porto_bello

hermum wrote: »

It will be interesting to see whether ebay actually do anything to stop this, lister I guess you would have to call him, as he doesn't seem to sell an awful lot, due to being pretty bad at shill bidding.

Does anyone actually have any hands on experience of eBay actually doing something about shill bidding? I reported an obvious case a few months ago (so obvious that the eBay representative laughed at the sight of the 100% bidding correlation on over 100 items - including several very different vehicles)

But a couple of months later, the same seller is still listing, still selling, still shill bidding and still shill bidding using exactly the same bidding ID - always using incremental bids of £49.99, £99.99 etc etc. It would appear eBay is deliberately turning a blind eye.

I also contacted consumer direct, who 'logged' the details, then suggested I phone action fraud, but their enquiry line disconnects after you hear the automated message that you've joined a queue. I submitted the details on-line, but I have a hunch I'm wasting my time.

We've all heard about the infamous single prosecution of last year, which received extended media coverage, but that seems to be a one-off designed to make eBay appear to be doing something. Indeed, looking into the detail, trading standards got involved and the case actually started because of selling issues unrelated to shill bidding.

shaun_from_Africa

Report a listing for excessive P&P and and it often gets removed very quickly especially if you use the fee circumvention option for reporting simply because this will be costing ebay money.

Shill bidding on the other hand earns money for ebay so why would they want to remove items or sellers that participate in this activity?

porto_bello

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Shill bidding on the other hand earns money for ebay so why would they want to remove items or sellers that participate in this activity?

I appreciate that eBay gets 10% (or whatever) of everything sold and shill bidding helps nudge up that 10%.

But how much does eBay stand to lose in the longer term, both in terms of money and reputation, by being seen to be doing nothing and taking 10% of what is now an illegal practice?

EBay used to claim it was doing everything it could to prevent imitation goods being listed, but ended up in court and losing.

I'm not a big eBay buyer, but having seen some obvious shill bidding in the past, if I'm looking for something worth more than a few quid, I always look at the bids of who I'm bidding against. Sometimes it's rather easy to spot some pretty obvious cases of shill bidding, so I avoid that seller completely.

kurgon

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Report a listing for excessive P&P and and it often gets removed very quickly especially if you use the fee circumvention option for reporting simply because this will be costing ebay money.

Shill bidding on the other hand earns money for ebay so why would they want to remove items or sellers that participate in this activity?

I completely disagree....eBay seem to be doing nothing at all at the moment. I reported a listing where VAT was not included...nothing done. Seems they have taken an extended summer holiday, even if it does affect their profits