What are the seller central people going on about?

RHemmings

I've just read seller central.

One person seems to be up in arms about 'bid stacking', where a buyer makes multiple bids. I can't really see the point of this, nor how it would deflate the selling price.

Secondly, one person is now saying that some sellers have opted to refuse all contact from buyers, and therefore get automatic 5* for comms. Is this true? It would seem like a very stupid policy if so and would certainly really rile me as a buyer.

For both of these, I've searched on this forum with a number of search terms, and haven't found any discussion of either point on here. This may be a search-fu failure on my part.

Anyone got any information/opinion on these points?

Edit:

http://community.ebay.co.uk/topic/Seller-Central/Buyer-Open-Case/1700124140

Once you use the contact seller link next to the item you are taken to a list of options most of which will open a case.
You can go to the bottom of the list and use 'other' but this is not really made clear and most buyers select the option that fits their query without realising a case is opened.

(my emphasis).

!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Rhymsta

As a seller if you send a message to the buyer you have communicated and can therefore be assessed on it. If you don't send any messages at all then you automatically receive 5 Stars.
However, I'm not sure a seller can 'refuse' communication?
I, for one, no longer send out a thank you for bidding / buyer message but will include it in any invoice I might send. I also leave feedback straight after payment.

vfish

Bid stacking seems silly to me too but I think it might put some people off. If someone sees that something is still at a sensible price but has 11 bids already they might assume it is popular and will go out of their price range and decide to go and look for an alternative (even though the 11 bids are from the same person of opening bid and 10 bids of 50p more each time). Personally I just bid what I'm willing to pay and see how it works out...

alykatz

Now when a buyer clicks the cotact button on their purchase they are given a list of options as to why they are contacting the seller. If they pick either where is my item or my item is not as described then when they click submit with their question it automatically opens a case.

Bid stacking seems to be a gripe with a lot of sellers as the perceived view is if you see an item you want but there are a lot of bids it can put buyers off even trying to bid thus lowering the end price, im like vfish in as much as i enter my max at the end and if i win fine if i dont than thats ok too.

porto_bello

Bid stacking is usually where a buyer chooses to gently raise their bids, trying to find out what the opposition's maximum price is (sometimes halting at that point and bidding again if the price rises. In this way, the leading bidder doesn't receive an alert from eBay that they've been outbid.

The problem is that whilst it may reveal the opposition's maximum bid, it looks very much like shill bidding to everyone else!

zerog

porto_bello wrote: »

Bid stacking is usually where a buyer chooses to gently raise their bids, trying to find out what the opposition's maximum price is (sometimes halting at that point and bidding again if the price rises. In this way, the leading bidder doesn't receive an alert from eBay that they've been outbid.

The problem is that whilst it may reveal the opposition's maximum bid, it looks very much like shill bidding to everyone else!

but you can always retract your bid after you find out what the max bid is?

alykatz

zerog wrote: »

but you can always retract your bid after you find out what the max bid is?

Which would look even more like shill bidding.

Goldiegirl

Rhymsta wrote: »

As a seller if you send a message to the buyer you have communicated and can therefore be assessed on it. If you don't send any messages at all then you automatically receive 5 Stars.
However, I'm not sure a seller can 'refuse' communication?
I, for one, no longer send out a thank you for bidding / buyer message but will include it in any invoice I might send. I also leave feedback straight after payment.

To get the 5 stars you also have to undertake to post the item within one working day.

I've been doing this for a while now. I post within 24 hours and mark as dispatched as soon as posted.

To my mind, for a standard transaction, the buyer doesn't need any other communication other than the ebay generated message to say the item is dispatched. When I'm a buyer I find it too much to get a personal message from the seller, also confirming dispatch, or thanking me for my payment, i just end up deleting those messages.

My communication star is almost 5 now after a few months taking this approach.

However, I don't refuse messages. If a buyer wants to message me, they can and I reply. Or if I find it necessary, I'll message the buyer. I'm not THAT hung up on the stars!

campdave

Goldiegirl wrote: »

To get the 5 stars you also have to undertake to post the item within one working day.

I've been doing this for a while now. I post within 24 hours and mark as dispatched as soon as posted.

I'm sure many sellers do, but I'm sure some undertake to post within a day, mark as dispatched in line with this but don't post for one or two days and blame Royal Mail for slow delivery - the amount of items I order in an evening and are marked as dispatched first thing the next morning is very suspicious!

zerog

alykatz wrote: »

Which would look even more like shill bidding.

I thought shill bidding was when you put fake bids to raise the final price. It would only look like shills if you retracted your bid and then bid 1 increment under the opposition's max. If your aim is to win the item then you'd just bid 1p over the max..

alykatz

zerog wrote: »

I thought shill bidding was when you put fake bids to raise the final price. It would only look like shills if you retracted your bid and then bid 1 increment under the opposition's max. If your aim is to win the item then you'd just bid 1p over the max..

I know what you meant , but its auction manipulation . Which can look like shilling.
Whatever way you look at it its underhand and looks dodgy.
Not to mention against t&c`s.