Got shilled on ebay - what should i do?

I think you are caught in between a rock and a hard place, shill bidding is pretty hard to prove. Yes, Ebay clamps down on shill bidding but provided only if they have evidence to prove that it is beyond reasonable doubt. ie. multiple buyers lodging the same complaints over several occasions. yes, I think the example you provided is a shill bid but there is very little hard evidence to prove it.

On the flip side as a buyer, you have agreed contractually to that price when you put a bid in regardless whether the other party is at fault or not. So if you choose not to pay for it, you may get hit a with non-paying strike against you. For $8, just pay for it and treat it as a lesson learnt. Sorry to be harsh but reality does hurt sometimes.
 
Im not sure what lesson i am supposed to learn from this - dont bid on items from ebay? How was i to know he was going to put in shill bids on the item?
 
You set the limit. So you were comfortable paying it i assume. Lesson would be to only bid to the limit of what the card means to you. Possibly use a snipe to bid at last minute.

It looks obvious, but hard to prove. I personally bid on a few auctions with the same seller because of combined postage. Makes it more economical. But I guess its more how and when the bids are done. If someone keeps placing individual bids that keep getting matched, then bid again this looks suspicious. If someone has one bid, sets the amount reasonably high. The bid either wins or gets matched by you.
 
Hi Owen

1. Research on seller extremely important especially for high-valued stuff. But of course if item is of low-value, I would not spend too much time on it. Personally, I would not be buying anything from a seller with no or little previous records. It could signal many things and one of them includes dodgy sellers who had to close previous accounts because they ran away with the money or not paying Ebay fees. Either way, buying from a 0-feedback seller is a no-no.
2. Only put in a bid you can afford irregardless of the final amount won. This is an extremely important notion most buyers tend to ignore. When you have placed a bid in, you effectively have agreed to paying up to that amount in your bid. Ebay do not care how the final number is achieved and may choose to award you a non-paying strike if you choose not to proceed with the deal.

Getting to reason with Ebay is extremely tough which is very much well-documented in OCT. I know you sort of feel a bit pissed off with this whole shill bid thing but your number of options in this case are pretty limited. My feedback was meant to be constructive by the way. Cheers Alex
 
AyiosYiorgos said:
what would eBay do? send them a message, telling them not to do it again....
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If you want to, you can send a message to Ebay, they will need to record it against the seller but 99% of the time, no action will be taken on seller. However, if there are multiple complaints from different buyers, Ebay will review the seller and may choose to de-register seller. i have seen it happen a few times generally on pretty extreme cases only.
 
anakinleo said:
I think you are caught in between a rock and a hard place, shill bidding is pretty hard to prove. Yes, Ebay clamps down on shill bidding but provided only if they have evidence to prove that it is beyond reasonable doubt. ie. multiple buyers lodging the same complaints over several occasions. yes, I think the example you provided is a shill bid but there is very little hard evidence to prove it.

On the flip side as a buyer, you have agreed contractually to that price when you put a bid in regardless whether the other party is at fault or not. So if you choose not to pay for it, you may get hit a with non-paying strike against you. For $8, just pay for it and treat it as a lesson learnt. Sorry to be harsh but reality does hurt sometimes.
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$8 or not, I wouldn't give the seller the satisfaction that he can get away with shilling regardless of the ending amount.
 
A_Iverson_I said:
$8 or not, I wouldn't give the seller the satisfaction that he can get away with shilling regardless of the ending amount.
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Neither would I. However, Ebay always takes the view of the presumption of innocence to both sellers and buyers unless it can be proven that one party is dodgy (which is pretty hard to prove considering that the seller has no history). So if the buyer then chooses not to pay for it just because he thinks that is a shill bid, the buyer then becomes the dodgy party. Remember that the buyer has voluntarily agreed to a contract up to the amount in his bid and that there was no gun placed in his head whilst putting that bid. I will not like to be caught in such a situation, damn if you pay and damn if you do not pay. Cheers Alex
 
Why WOULD ebay do anything... If it sells for $1, They get a % of it... If it sells for $100... They get the same %
it makes them more money if it happens.
they will pretend they are doing something to comfort disgruntled buyers... But at the end of the day there are millions of ebay users both Buyers & sellers.
They don't really care about any of us... ONLY MONEY!!
And the fact remains, If you want it.. And it's on Ebay at a price you are comfortable with... You will go there to get it!!
Ebay hasn't eliminated competition... It's Anihillated it!!
I hate eBay....
 
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