An eBay rant...

Man oh man, when will they learn?

Long story short, a friend of mine has me snipe auctions for him because he sucks at it. He asked me, earlier in the week, to snipe this one for him today. So, I had a look at it last night to see where it was. I checked the bid history, and lo and behold...is that blatant shilling I see? Ohnohedidnt just outbid the high bidder, expose his max, and then retract and rebid right under him, did he?

Why, yes, yes, he did. Not only that, but he did it on the seller's other auction as well--an item completely unrelated to the first item. Whoa, what are the odds that a person would make the same sort of error on two auctions by the same exact seller? Did my finger just slip on the reporting button? Gee, I hope those two IDs don't get, like, suspended or anything. Because that would be tragic.

Well. It would be tragic for the high bidders, anyway, if they pay this numpty. Because eBay's been known to void auctions after they end, and if a money order's in the mail while the seller's been suspended, then you don't really have any recourse through eBay. I hear filing Postal Fraud charges has been known to get a recalcitrant seller off their butts, though. Not everyone knows about that. Hope they pay with Paypal, with a credit card.

What kills me is that someone actually sniped the auction after the blatant shilling. Do people just not look at the bid history page? Are they not paying attention? *headdesk* eBay will only go so far to protect you, people. You have to have some common sense and look out for yourselves as well. I mean, this wasn't even subtle.

Rawr.

An eBay rant...

Man oh man, when will they learn?

Long story short, a friend of mine has me snipe auctions for him because he sucks at it. He asked me, earlier in the week, to snipe this one for him today. So, I had a look at it last night to see where it was. I checked the bid history, and lo and behold...is that blatant shilling I see? Ohnohedidnt just outbid the high bidder, expose his max, and then retract and rebid right under him, did he?

Why, yes, yes, he did. Not only that, but he did it on the seller's other auction as well--an item completely unrelated to the first item. Whoa, what are the odds that a person would make the same sort of error on two auctions by the same exact seller? Did my finger just slip on the reporting button? Gee, I hope those two IDs don't get, like, suspended or anything. Because that would be tragic.

Well. It would be tragic for the high bidders, anyway, if they pay this numpty. Because eBay's been known to void auctions after they end, and if a money order's in the mail while the seller's been suspended, then you don't really have any recourse through eBay. I hear filing Postal Fraud charges has been known to get a recalcitrant seller off their butts, though. Not everyone knows about that. Hope they pay with Paypal, with a credit card.

What kills me is that someone actually sniped the auction after the blatant shilling. Do people just not look at the bid history page? Are they not paying attention? *headdesk* eBay will only go so far to protect you, people. You have to have some common sense and look out for yourselves as well. I mean, this wasn't even subtle.

Rawr.