e-bay shill bidder

You are lucky. It's not always so easy to spot.

Have you reported it?

I wonder whether you could have someone done for fraud if you had bought an item that they or their mates had bid on.. or is it legal?

Pete (A different one.)

Report it. It's one area where Ebay actually seems to take action on a complaint.

Charles

I have now reported it. To give him the benefit of the doubt I e-mailed him first so he had a chance to explain, but obviously got no reply and he cancelled all bids and the auction. That was enough to confirm it for me and I sent the details to e-bay.

Peter

The also seem to take action on cases where the seller is doing them out of revenue - for example by setting excessive mailing charges. I wanted to bid on an item a few weeks back that should have fetched around the 20 to 25 quid mark; it was listed with a postage charge of £20 & it was light enough that 50p would probably have covered it. The listing text said "if you don't like the postage rates, don't bid" or similar. I emailed the guy pointing out that this was a bit OTT; he replied with a verbal raised digit, so I reported him to Ebay. The listing was removed by Ebay - no traces whatsoever - the item number came up as not found.

Regards, Tony

Ebay is slowly starting to realise that it has other responsibilities than just running an auction site.

The more people report this sort of thing, the quicker it will be stamped out.

Putting surcharges on for PayPal is another one that is slowley dying out, but you still see it a lot.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

They could make it easier. I saw an advert the other day for an import lathe that was full of keywords in the title. Champion lathe, not Myford, not Colchester ,not Boxford, not CNC

Definitely against their rules but I spent 10 minutes being directed to why it wasn't allowed and to report it but no easy link to do so.

.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

That tactic really does get my goat! Seems to be everywhere. I collect Bultaco competition bikes and parts, and this ploy is used a lot there too. Not Bultaco, ossa, montesa etc etc.

That's true with quite a few links on their site, seem to be buried in unexpected places & it takes an age to find the one you want unless you already know.

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

It is quite surprising how difficult it is to navigate if you want to complain which I assume means they don't want complaints. I bookmarked it when I finally found it, so here it is. Get complaining :)

That's against ebay rules now. If you report it the auction will be immediatley stopped, and if the seller does it twice thier account will be closed.

They never seemed so bothered about it before they owned paypal!!

Regards Kevin

I've been known to specify a small surcharge for paypal payments but I didn't realise this was frowned upon - can you point me at the rule?

Dave

No Surcharges. You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as payment on eBay.co.uk. This is in accordance with eBay UK's surcharging policy which states: "Sellers who accept electronic money services as a means of payment for an item purchased on eBay may not impose a surcharge. PayPal is an electronic money payment system. When you accept a PayPal payment, you are accepting e-money. You are not accepting a debit or credit card payment, even where the sender may have funded his or her PayPal account with a debit or credit card in order to fund the transaction with you. Nothing in this policy is intended to affect the legal right of a merchant in the UK to impose a surcharge for a debit or credit card transaction under the Credit Cards (Price Discrimination) Order 1990.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

That stinks! Coincidentally just this morning I suggested to a seller that he tack on the charge to his invoice to me. The US dollar money order was going to cost me a fee, plus the drive to the bank, time etc. If we hadn't done the deal that way paypal would have had no fee at all, since I was going to honour his "preference" for other payment methods.

Sounds like an illegal restriction to me, if not, it ought to be.

Adam Smith Midland, >

Why?

It's open and known about, and personally I'd rather have it that way than the other way when you are getting charged a small fortune by the seller for the privilege.

Don't forget that the buyer isn't charged anything by PayPal, only the seller who receives the payment.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

Thanks. ... looks like I won't be accepting paypal any more then.

Dave

If you have a personal account you don't have a fee to accept money either provided they use a debit card or bank transfer to send the money via paypal.

I have a personal account with paypal and sometime although quite rarely use it.

I believe that any transactions where I receive payment via paypal are charged 4% of the transaction by paypal for the service, similar to the likes of charge cards etc. I have generally accepted the charge but I guess for some the 4% plus ebay charges can amount to a fair percentage of the final price.

If I ever buy things from an auction I have found it usuall to pay bid price plus 10% or 15% buyers premium plus VAT. In that scheme of things ebay and paypal are quite cheep considering the potential market.

Lastly you never get owt for nowt!

Adrian

Where possible I always pay for items by paypal, as you have a lot of protection that way. If the item is faulty, or not as described, even if you get no joy from the seller you can still get your money back from paypal.

Regards Kevin

Ebay and PayPal both have their problems, but generally it works well for most folks.

As long as you accept that nothing's perfect, and you keep your eyes open, then it is not a bad service at all.

There is nothing else like it....

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web: