Ebay's new policy concerning bidders.

[highfihoney]

Ebay has started a new policy for sellers under the pretense of helping to stop ebay spam & to help stop conmen from tagreting specific ebay buyers,this new policy is meaningless to protect buyers,most buyers are targeted through fake ebay emails saying various things like a bid retraction,overdue account notices,account suspension,fake emails from a supposed buyer saying they are going to file a dispute if you dont ship the item they paid for months ago or an ask seller a question email,these emails are irresitsable to most people because they think they are in some kind of trouble with ebay so they open & respond to the mail.

Here is ebays answer to stopping conmen from targeting specific buyers & what a stupid idea it is

Ebay has now given sellers the ability to hide the bidders usernames in their auctions,this spells bad news for all buyers of anything of high value making it impossible to see if a seller is (SCHILL BIDDING) on thier auctions.This is not the standard private auction format it is a new thing making the auction appear to be a standard auction.

What this new policy does is enables the seller to use another ebay account they have under a different name to bid on their own auctions & drive the auction price up, without being able to see all the bidders usernames in the auction everything looks legit & the seller is free to bid away on the auction & bidders cant research the bid histories of each bidder.

Being that this new policy puts all buyers of expensive stuff at risk to be conned by sellers ive started requiring any seller im thinking of bidding with to supply me a full list of all bidders usernames so i can look at their buying patterns before i bid,if they decline the request i simply dont bid or retract my current bid , i would reccomend this approach to everybody else especially those who have not bought alot of expensive items from ebay.

Over the years as a buyer & as a powerseller on ebay ive ran into many instances where unscrouplous sellers will schill bid on their own auctions or have another member that their working with in another state bid on the auctions to drive the bids up,i have even been contacted twice by sellers in other states who sell high end audio equipment asking me to join them & together drive the prices up on each others auctions.

Schill bidding is a real thing on ebay & this new policy makes it impossible for buyers to get a fair shake,be carefull bidding & know the max value on anything you plan to bid on before you bid.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Ebay has been going downhill for quite a while now. One of my biggest pet peeves with them is that for the past few years I consistently see the same email addresses used in hijacked accounts as a "contact me before bidding" address. I can do a simple search with the email address to find all the listings they have, yet eBay seems unable to find them on their own.

That and several 'legitimate' sellers gouge heavily on shipping, $20 buy it now with $25 shipping vs a legitimate $40 buy it now with $5 shipping. Same end cost, but one is misleading.

If this new policy you mention works as you say I see it as being pretty bad overall for the buyers. I usually see who I'm bidding against and what they have been doing.

There are still several honest and decent sellers on eBay, it just seems like more and more dishonest sellers are taking over.

$0.02
Jack

 

[masak_aer]

Ebay has been going downhill for quite a while now. One of my biggest pet peeves with them is that for the past few years I consistently see the same email addresses used in hijacked accounts as a "contact me before bidding" address. I can do a simple search with the email address to find all the listings they have, yet eBay seems unable to find them on their own.

That and several 'legitimate' sellers gouge heavily on shipping, $20 buy it now with $25 shipping vs a legitimate $40 buy it now with $5 shipping. Same end cost, but one is misleading.

If this new policy you mention works as you say I see it as being pretty bad overall for the buyers. I usually see who I'm bidding against and what they have been doing.

There are still several honest and decent sellers on eBay, it just seems like more and more dishonest sellers are taking over.

$0.02
Jack

Somehow my auction was cancelled by Ebay only 20 hours before ends because somebody reported i was overcharging the shipping (the item was for $250). It was for a phone and I mentioned that I only use UPS 3-day select. I charged $20 for the shipping to anywhere in the state (even Alaska/Hawaii for that matter). Somebody reported me for that . It was ridiculous that the policy was turned against me. Ebay made me use that shipping calculator and guess what, it was more expensive than what i charged to most areas. I feel that i don't really like selling on Ebay now.

 

[highfihoney]

If this new policy you mention works as you say I see it as being pretty bad overall for the buyers. I usually see who I'm bidding against and what they have been doing.

Jack

Of course you like to see what the other bidders have been doing,anybody who knows anything at all about buying on ebay looks at all the bidders & their bid history to see what they have been buying.

This new policy means that everybody no matter how much experience they have buying will be exposed to shill bidding sellers.

 

[stratman]

I've only bought one thing in E-Bay, it was an ok experience, but after hearing horror stories of rip-offs, stolen id's, I've never gone back. And now after this thread, forget it.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I've only bought one thing in E-Bay, it was an ok experience, but after hearing horror stories of rip-offs, stolen id's, I've never gone back. And now after this thread, forget it.

I've bought several items off eBay in the past. And will probably buy a few more, but I go there less and less. There are still some good deals to be had, you just have to know how to look for them and what to avoid. This new policy would make it more difficult to avoid some of the BS.

Jack

 

[dave1490]

Ebay has started a new policy for sellers under the pretense of helping to stop ebay spam & to help stop conmen from tagreting specific ebay buyers,this new policy is meaningless to protect buyers,most buyers are targeted through fake ebay emails saying various things like a bid retraction,overdue account notices,account suspension,fake emails from a supposed buyer saying they are going to file a dispute if you dont ship the item they paid for months ago or an ask seller a question email,these emails are irresitsable to most people because they think they are in some kind of trouble with ebay so they open & respond to the mail.

Here is ebays answer to stopping conmen from targeting specific buyers & what a stupid idea it is

Ebay has now given sellers the ability to hide the bidders usernames in their auctions,this spells bad news for all buyers of anything of high value making it impossible to see if a seller is (SCHILL BIDDING) on thier auctions.This is not the standard private auction format it is a new thing making the auction appear to be a standard auction.

What this new policy does is enables the seller to use another ebay account they have under a different name to bid on their own auctions & drive the auction price up, without being able to see all the bidders usernames in the auction everything looks legit & the seller is free to bid away on the auction & bidders cant research the bid histories of each bidder.

Being that this new policy puts all buyers of expensive stuff at risk to be conned by sellers ive started requiring any seller im thinking of bidding with to supply me a full list of all bidders usernames so i can look at their buying patterns before i bid,if they decline the request i simply dont bid or retract my current bid , i would reccomend this approach to everybody else especially those who have not bought alot of expensive items from ebay.

Over the years as a buyer & as a powerseller on ebay ive ran into many instances where unscrouplous sellers will schill bid on their own auctions or have another member that their working with in another state bid on the auctions to drive the bids up,i have even been contacted twice by sellers in other states who sell high end audio equipment asking me to join them & together drive the prices up on each others auctions.

Schill bidding is a real thing on ebay & this new policy makes it impossible for buyers to get a fair shake,be carefull bidding & know the max value on anything you plan to bid on before you bid.

exactly i always check the other bidders also,never bid against someone with only 1 point.it,s probly them "padding" thier product.

 

[Audioholics]

The policy that really got me was when I paid someone for a won auction and they invoiced me and took my PayPal money on an "in-stock" item... then two days later told me they'd have to refund my money as they nolonger could get the item (discontinued). They listed 2 items as being in stock and in fact had an auction already started for the remaining item...

I gave them negative feedback since they had made more than a simple error (and wasted 10 days of my time in the process).

The result - they gave ME a negative feedback and then utilized eBay's "multuial retract" system to blackmail me into removing mine (I didn't). Their reason? "Would not communicate after leaving negative feedback, we tried our best" What?!?!?

I simply noted that I had paid for the item and this was retaliatory for giving negative feedback.

The fact that this is even possible (how do you give negative feedback to a person who paid you?) is asinine.

 

[emorphien]

I haven't bought and sold on eBay in a few months now and I'm feeling less and less likely to do so. I hope someone comes out with a real ebay competitor sometime soon.

 

[highfihoney]

The policy that really got me was when I paid someone for a won auction and they invoiced me and took my PayPal money on an "in-stock" item... then two days later told me they'd have to refund my money as they nolonger could get the item (discontinued). They listed 2 items as being in stock and in fact had an auction already started for the remaining item...

I gave them negative feedback since they had made more than a simple error (and wasted 10 days of my time in the process).

The result - they gave ME a negative feedback and then utilized eBay's "multuial retract" system to blackmail me into removing mine (I didn't). Their reason? "Would not communicate after leaving negative feedback, we tried our best" What?!?!?

I simply noted that I had paid for the item and this was retaliatory for giving negative feedback.

The fact that this is even possible (how do you give negative feedback to a person who paid you?) is asinine.

You know whats really screwed up clint is that ebay encourages this type of activity from sellers especially power sellers,i was a power seller for several years & all ebay cared about was that i met my $3,000 a month sales quota so they could get their percentage,they send sellers emails warning them that they are going to loose their status as a power seller then quote all kinds of ways that their ebay business sales will slump because of the loss.

Many power sellers will resort to listing things they knowlingly dont own or have in stock just so they can get the auction under their belt & keep the sales volume high enough to retain their power seller status then after the auction is complete they refund the sellers payment,ebay still charges them so the sale counts twords their monthly quota.

I'd be willing to bet your seller was about to loose his status & pulled this stunt,too bad he wasnt man enough to accept his feedback.

 

[Jack Hammer]

The policy that really got me was when I paid someone for a won auction and they invoiced me and took my PayPal money on an "in-stock" item... then two days later told me they'd have to refund my money as they nolonger could get the item (discontinued). They listed 2 items as being in stock and in fact had an auction already started for the remaining item...

I gave them negative feedback since they had made more than a simple error (and wasted 10 days of my time in the process).

The result - they gave ME a negative feedback and then utilized eBay's "multuial retract" system to blackmail me into removing mine (I didn't). Their reason? "Would not communicate after leaving negative feedback, we tried our best" What?!?!?

I simply noted that I had paid for the item and this was retaliatory for giving negative feedback.

The fact that this is even possible (how do you give negative feedback to a person who paid you?) is asinine.

You should be able to leave negative feedback for some one who paid you, even if they paid as soon as the auction ended. This is to protect a seller from those people who start claiming they didn't recieve an item (who did) or are just a general illegitimate PITA.

It's a pain to do, but the few negatives I had to leave I waited until the last day to post, 3 mos later, to avoid retallitory feedback.

eBay sides heavily with sellers. The few problems I had were very difficult to find info on how to resolve it. Almost everything I found dealt with non-paying bidders, not non-shipping sellers (they've gotten better since then).

Jack

 

[Alex2507]

I just buy things and can say that it is seller's advantage. A dispute over a $2.50 has Paypal telling me to file a police report. The person responsible for that just would not own up to a mistake. One guy made me wreck his 100% feedback because he would not believe that a $20 wallet was not real leather. Then there's the mutually withdrawn negative feedback artist.

I've learned to not only look at the seller's negative feedback but to check for withdrawn feedback and neutral feedback. All those spell unhappy people. Even then you can't tell. Some car audio stuff I got doesn't seem to be all that swift and it took me a while to figure it out. I saved a bunch of money over Crutchfield prices but the quality wasn't there either. Refurbed is great but refurbed by my friends cousin Bob who takes correspondance courses can't be good.

If I do buy anything I don't spend anymore than I'm willing to loose. $25 is no problem. $50 requires some thought and $100 is consternation time.