ebay shill bidding?

1sttimer_2

Hi, on ebay I've just won and paid through paypal an item. Upon checking the sellers ratings, I noted that the item I won had been previously bought by someone else and then it appeared back in the sellers list (2 different people).
I looked at both sellers and buyers ratings and found that there was quite a few items that the seller had put on auction and that the same buyer bought them, but if the price was low, it was returned to the seller to re-sell after being bid again by same buyer, seemingly to up the price.
Item I bought was previously won by said buyer at a low price, I put an automatic bid in and was outbid so raised my bid then bidding continued to just below my top bid. All bidding was by the same buyer who won the item previously. I've looked at the rules and policies on ebay and I think this is shill bidding so complained about it.
My question is, is this legal, and because I've lodged a complaint through ebay's customer services, will I receive the items, or will they be held in abeyance till the complaint has been checked out. Will I be able to get any refund for the item if it was found to be illegally upped to a higher price (another buyer stopped bidding at quite a low price and only other bidding was done by said above buyer) and previous price was way lower than I won it for.
I know I should have checked out ratings before paying, but I have always paid instantly on previous purchases and have never had any problems before.
Thanks for any help in this matter.
BTW I know that because I put in an automatic bid that that was the price I was prepared to pay, and I would still pay that if I have to, but because price was upped by shill bidding, would that be taken into consideration?

TrickyWicky

Ebay don't care about shill bidding. When it became a public problem they just hid the usernames so that they couldn't be seen properly.

reborndoll

Yes as above replier said , ebay could not care less about this very very common practice. I found and showed them blatant case where a buyer uses a 2nd and 3rd account and possibly a 4th account, and buys their items numerous times and relisted them and awarded up to 100 self feedbacks in the month , as is a business seller on the main selling account, buys with the private ones, and ebay done nothing in this case.

You cannot prove anything and must pay for the item that you were happy to bid, and once an item has ended anyway ebay don't even bother checking back once its ended, they sometimes remove a live listing but very rare nowadays, I think cos they are a multi million pound company that people selling items entitles ebay to a juicy final value fee and with everyone and his brother shillbidding, they would lose a big chunk of revenue if they pulled the plug on it. So to cut a long story short, ebay will do nothing and the person will continue to trade and shill bid!

Your only recourse is to tell the seller you wish to cancel the sale but now you have paid you would probably have a bit of hassle and they may have posted it already , if they haven't sent it, they can maybe reverse the payment and agree that you have changed your mind .They get their FVF back .

Thousands of cases of shillbidding happens every day and most crafty ones probably do not award themselves a positive feedback giveaway, or else they use private facility to hide their sales and so it is far worse and widespread than folk realise.

cyclomonkey

you have paid what you think is a fair price for the item? is it worth you time and energy to make a fuss. There are more important things in the world than to cause a hassle for you and the seller.

It would however appear it is not legal inbrief.co.uk/consumer-law/shill-bidding.htm (sorry i cant post actual link)

but again is it worth the effort, you have a product at a fair price.

1sttimer_2

Yes I guess I did think I got the item for a fair price, (boys clothes bundle) but it is galling when the original price was a 3rd of what I paid, and the last 'proper' bid was a 1/4 of my winning price.

I think I am just so incensed by seeing it done so blatantly and of course, the extra (unfair) money it cost me!

Hubby was right when he thought I was paying too much, perhaps I should listen to him more often!!!!

cyclomonkey

if you want to avoid it in the future try last minute bidding, when I first started ebay I found its quite easy to get carried away with the thrill etc and emotionalize it, bidding to high to win an item or feeling gutted that I lost out etc also the expectation you'll grab a bargin.

Now I decide on a fair price and dont bid untill around 30 seconds to go. That way I cant be shilled and dont get carried away. I also do a unique bid such as 15.07 as if anyone has ramped the price or bidded before they normally bid a flat price.

reborndoll

cyclomonkey you may like the use of an auto sniper which is free and places your maximum bid in the final closing seconds. I set it up , and I seem to have won a lot in all fairness it has never failed, it looks a confusing website ay first, but it is free and called GIXEN just sign your ebay name and password in and the item number and your max bid and then go out, log off etc and get home to find you won it, you can withdraw your bid before it ends as well and cancel or increase or decrease by using the edit function, I don't think I have bid an auction for a few years now. I either look at buy it now only or set the sniper on auction items am interested in and I don't add them to my WATCH list either so seller thinks no one else is interested ! lessening the likelihood they fancy a cheating bid!

zerog

You can still get shilled whenever you bid unless you're the only bidder...

reborndoll

yup that's true ,shill bid patterns happen day and night ,luck of the draw be especially cautious of non private items , ie you expect some condoms etc to be set to private as why a baby outfit for example...private setting exists merely to give a little hidey hole for fraudsters bidding up and then if you lose, you get this sudden second chance offer through by desperate sellers who ended up lumbered with it! they said buyer changed mind ha

alykatz

cyclomonkey wrote: »

you have paid what you think is a fair price for the item? is it worth you time and energy to make a fuss. There are more important things in the world than to cause a hassle for you and the seller.

It would however appear it is not legal inbrief.co.uk/consumer-law/shill-bidding.htm (sorry i cant post actual link)

but again is it worth the effort, you have a product at a fair price.

Its not legal full stop and its not a fair market price if it has been artificially inflated using secondary accounts.
This is the primary reason i use a snipe bid, i know it cant prevent all shilling but does help.

porto_bello

Shill bidding is illegal - eBay don't have any grounds or excuse to turn a blind eye (but they naturally do). I've seen some blatant examples, and passed them on to Trading Standards - along with eBay's standard denials and excuses and feedback showing the shill bidding has been going on 'undiscovered' for literally years.

Until the scale of the activity gets into the wider media and eBay have their hands forced, as others have said, to best avoid shill bidders:

- Always bid in the last few seconds (either manually or using a sniper), which prevents the seller having the time to gently nudge up the price.

- Always avoid 'private auctions' where the bidder IDs are hidden. The only reason sellers don't like transparency is they have something to hide.

- Always look at the other bids on the same seller's items - if one or two bidders almost exclusively bid on just that seller's items, that's a good indication of shill bidding (particularly if the items thay bid on are in many different and unrelated categories.

- PS If the bids themselves show amounts just under natural price points, this is an indictation of possible shill bidding. For example, if a genuine bidder wanted an item and was prepared to pay £100, you would expect them to bid £100 or perhaps just over £100 - but a shill bidder would bid £98 or £99 or £99.99 - trying to avoid winning.