Ebay live chat. Do they ever see the problem?

forgotmyname

Watching an item on ebay. I forgot about it and it sold for less than £5.
Oh well plenty more.

2 days later its relisted. I stick a bid in to show there is interest in the item. Just the starting bid.
Following day i am outbid, Not unexpected but the seller has a feedback of 217. Same as the previous winning bidder.

I used the seller tool on goofbay or is it goofbid? Anyway seems its the same buyer. They won 2 items and both were relisted.
But bidding on them again.

Does this stink of shill bidding?

Ebay live chat said its normal for buyers to buy more than one item. I said yes but when you buy your items do you tell the seller to relist them so that you can bid again?

No answer.

techspec

forgotmyname wrote: »

Watching an item on ebay. I forgot about it and it sold for less than £5.
Oh well plenty more.

2 days later its relisted. I stick a bid in to show there is interest in the item. Just the starting bid.
Following day i am outbid, Not unexpected but the seller has a feedback of 217. Same as the previous winning bidder.

I used the seller tool on goofbay or is it goofbid? Anyway seems its the same buyer. They won 2 items and both were relisted.
But bidding on them again.

Does this stink of shill bidding?

Ebay live chat said its normal for buyers to buy more than one item. I said yes but when you buy your items do you tell the seller to relist them so that you can bid again?

No answer.

Ebay turn a blind eye to it as it makes them money.

As it is actually a criminal offence - its time Ebay were charged for their part.

campdave

The important thing to remember about live chat is that they are very low level advisors who will try and solve most of the queries using a script. Anything more complicated and they're simply useless. I've stopped using them completely and deal exclusively with Dublin CS who are on the whole excellent.

forgotmyname

Well they bought their own item again. I made a couple of low bids and they did the same as previously.

Outbid me by small amounts but half an hour before the end they were the winning bidder but put another bid in. I presume to their minimum price they want for the item.
I didnt take the bait. And let them win it.

RFW

I gave up with live chat a while ago, I discovered that they have as many chats open as possible. I found that out as the person chatting got my name wrong three times with three different names.

Just a note about shill bidding and other misdemeanours, Ebay are often told by legal bodies to keep listings running in order to catch the culprits. The most famous case of someone being prosecuted for shill bidding on Ebay had several auctions kept going after he had been reported several times. I doubt that is always the case but it is probably something that someone on live chat wouldn't know about and couldn't tell you.

forgotmyname

Well the 4th auction has finished... Either they got fed up of winning it themselves or just wanted rid as no shill bids this time.

I think other buyers had got fed up also. I won it for 99p. Will they sell it to me?

Left message to collect Sat AM, So fingers crossed.



FINAL UPDATE: I collected and paid for the item a whopping 99p.

So shill bidding doesnt always work in the sellers favour. One happy bunny.