posted on December 31, 2002 07:40:33 AM new
This is no way to end a good year. After more than 3000 positives I received my first negative today, and it's from a buyer who decided after the fact that I am using a proxy to run up my own bids! Obviously I have never done this, and would never. I didn't get a 100% perfect feedback record and so many rave positives by playing that kind of game. I'm really annoyed and although I sent a feedback removal request to Ebay I doubt they'll act on it, even though this guy put his false accusation right in his feedback. And what gets me is that this buyer already paid for and received his item, and I gave him a positive. What happened is that he bid $10 on an item with an opening bid price of $2.99. There was only one other bidder, who also bid $10, so the first guy won. After the auction ended he emailed me and said he didn't think it was possible for two people to tie each other so he was going to email the other bidder and see if he was legit. I don't know what happened after that but he paid me via Paypal and I sent his item. Now this. This guy has 27 positives and 0 negs, but he obviously has a lot to learn about how things are done on Ebay. Does anyone here think Ebay will side with me on this? Obviously 1 neg after 3000 positives isn't going to hurt my business any, but it just really ticks me off that I got it for such a lame reason. It's not like the guy even tried to reason or negotiate--he complained, then paid for the item, and then decided to accuse me. Amazing the morons that are out there.
posted on December 31, 2002 08:02:25 AM new
Wear it proudly, leave a reasonable response and move on. It comes with the territory.
I have nine negatives that i've accumulated in over four years on eBay. I have 4670 positives so I calculate that i'll receive a negative about every 500 feedback.
I no longer let it bother me. My sales are brisk so I just block the bidder, leave a factual response and move on.
Check this one out. I'm still trying to get eBay to remove this one without success.
Complaint : Nice piece, but very slow in shipping it out.
Response by xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx - ????? Purchased and paid for 10/22/02, Shipped 10/23/02 How fast can I be???????
Follow-up by xxxxxxxxx.xxx - I made a mistake, This seller was great and shipped the next day.
AAAAAAA+++++++
I've even sent eBay the letter of apology email from the customer with headers but it's still there.
posted on December 31, 2002 08:36:26 AM newThis guy has 27 positives and 0 negs, but he obviously has a lot to learn
Lesson #1 Give him his first neg, now he will learn! If this was your first neg you where just plain lucky.
Just respond to his in a calm fashion and move on.
posted on December 31, 2002 08:57:29 AM new
I have been searching through eBays help and I cannot not find where it says about bid amounts the same. Someone with a little more knowledge will be able to help you. I think it is when the first bidder places a bid, lets say the items next bid is $5.00 and the first bidder places a $10.00 bid. He is the high bidder at $5.00 but there is now $5.00 in reserve in case someone tries to outbid him. If someone comes in at the end of the auction and sees that bid and wants to buy that item so he puts in $10.00. That raises the 1st bidder to $10.00. Since the second bidder didn't meet the bid requirements to bid over that $10.00 the second bidders $10.00 sit there but the 1st bidder will win the auction. That is how two bidders have the same amount. Remember bidder #2 has to bid at least 50 cents over so his bid should have been $10.50 but he doesn't know that because only the $5.00 of the first bidder shows. You as a bidder never know what others have bid that is why you have two bidders with the same amount and bidder #1 is the winner. I think I have tried to explain it right..
posted on December 31, 2002 09:17:15 AM new
Libra and Jack, you're both correct. I did give him a positive first. He kept his part of the deal by paying for the item, so he got his positive. Having never been negged before after giving someone a positive, I had no reason to think this loser would do that to me. Live and learn, I guess.
As for the bidding increments, that's exactly how it works. The moron probably bid $10 as his ceiling but since he had an easy ride till the end as the only bidder, his bid remained at the $2.99 starting price. Then at the last minute someone else came in and bid $10, matching the moron's top bid, so there was a tie. Moron won because his was first but he thinks I'm boosting his bid by bidding under a proxy name. He's just ticked off because he wanted it for $3 and never thought he'd actually end up paying the $10. I was annoyed with him when he emailed me after the auction and accused me of this, but I never expected him to actually go through with a neg, especially after he paid the full $10.
What's also ludicrous about this is that moron could easily have looked at my other auction results and seen how many of my auctions end with just one bidder. That should have told him that I don't go around bidding on my own items to boost the price. But then, he's a...you guessed it, a moron.
posted on December 31, 2002 09:18:25 AM new
I noticed a bidding oddity during the recent Christmas Contest thingie at ebay. These types of oddities may give an ebay bidder a feeling that some shilling is going on when it really isn't.
We have all seen an auction where the start bid amount is still at the start amount yet the number of bids reads two instead of one. This almost-common situation occurs when the lone bidder decides to up his bid or to place a proxy after his first bid. During the Christmas contest at ebay, bidders would get a shot at prizes with each bid and even bids against themselves. I bid on a few high value items that started at only a penny to get in my four daily contest enteries. I was sort of amazed to discover that I was able to constantly bid on a single item over and over when I was the only bidder and I even had one item at the one cent minimum bid with a big 8 in the # of bids 8 Bid history area of the auction. That looked really weird and I'm sure that not many ebayers could easily figure how that happened.
Ebay glitches or oddities such as the one that I just described should be fixed as to not give the appearance of crooked bidding and fuel the paranoia of certain bidders.
posted on December 31, 2002 10:03:05 AM new
Bid amount protected until close of auction. Remember that earlier bids of the same amount take precedence.
The above is copied and pasted from the bid history of one of my auctions. If you will go to any auction that has a bid on it and click on "bid history" right under the bidder(s) names and time of bid you will find the above. So email your guy and tell him to "it's in writting from ebay" thems the rules!
posted on December 31, 2002 10:12:23 AM new
Thanks Paws. I did that and he still thought I was pulling a fast one on him. If you look at the bid history it even lists the other bidder's zip code and all that, so this guy must think I run to another town to place proxy bids so I can collect another $7 from him. Not much I can do except wonder in amazement.
posted on December 31, 2002 10:33:18 AM new
Oh my, Need more coffee. You can leave a response under your positive.. Warning leaves negs, yet no problem with item. This is just for a example. Make it good.
posted on December 31, 2002 10:36:22 AM new
Thanks Trai. I did leave a response. I said, "1st negative after 3000 positives--guess who's lying. I never did what he says I did." I think that about says all I need to say!
posted on December 31, 2002 12:53:46 PM new
Ultimato: We ALL live and learn, don't we? I still post positive FB after receiving payment. However, you said he e-mailed you at auction's end to complain. That would have been a red flag for me, and I would have done what I almost never do, which is to hold off on feedback until he's left his.
I'm doing that right now on one completed transaction. Buyer sent $2 less than the specified shipping amount. I shipped the item to him anyway (small dollar sale) and e-mailed asking for the other $2 and forwarding my original EOA message with the totals due. He has e-mailed saying he's very busy and he will eventually send the other $2, but I"m holding off on FB just in case he posts a neutral or negative calling me greedy or such.
I've only held off 3 times in 3 years, though, and only got burned once.
posted on December 31, 2002 02:33:26 PM new
Roadsmith
Good idea if you only sell a few items or have some sort of fileing system to keep track of this but as Jack and others in other threads have said over and over "return feed back, don't issue it". A blanket polisy of such will save you a lot of grief. I am here to sell stuff and feedback is only a pimple of the bigger sales problem nowdays.
Happy New Year.
posted on December 31, 2002 04:40:19 PM new
ultimato-I have an idea, invite him here to read this thread. There is a lot to learn and obvious this person needs help. To explain how eBay works is hard, you have to be around awhile to learn all the inns and out, but I do agree before anyone bids or sells eBay could have a short quiz to make them familiar with the more important parts of buying and selling. I stayed away from selling quite a while, buying I did first but very cautiously until I learned what I could. Selling is easy now because I have to remember to be honest in my description, keep my TOS short and sweet and leave feedback when a seller has done their part or not done their part. Unlike alot of sellers I leave feedback after I receive payment and package is in the mailbox.
posted on December 31, 2002 09:28:56 PM new
Every Negative I've received has been a lie.
Develop thick skin and it won't hurt so much.
The reason you probably only have one is that
you don't leave it for everyone who deserves
it, right? I do. You should always let
other know about deadbeats and loons so they
can avoid them.
---
"Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not
know, so cannot say". -- Zathras (Babylon 5)
posted on January 1, 2003 07:42:10 AM new
Roadsmith--Right, he did complain at the end of the auction but then he sent his payment so I assumed he got over it. My mistake.
Libra--Not a bad idea to invite him here but now that I've called him a moron several times, I think he might not be too agreeable to listening to reason.
Zathras--Actually, that's not true. I estimate I've probably left somewhere between 50 and 100 negatives (out of maybe 10,000 auctions or more) and it's always amazed me that no one has returned the neg. I think I've just been very lucky in that regard. A lot of times I've left the neg fully expecting to get one back and it just never happened. That's why I'm so p.o.'d about getting my first one from someone I gave a positive to! And especially when it's an outright fabrication.
Ebay has already predictably told me they won't remove the neg so I'm just chalking it up and getting on with the show...
By the way I checked this guy's feedback record and he accused someone else of shilling (and left them a neg) on the same day he accused me. In that case he was the ONLY BIDDER and won the auction for his opening bid price! He's only ever left 4 feedbacks and all are negatives. This guy is a loon.
Happy new year to all who responded here. It eased the pain a bit.
posted on January 1, 2003 08:35:59 AM new
Ultimo-you can edit your responses and then invite him, it is obvious that he needs a eBay lesson and where better to get that is in this community.
Everyone thinks that they can sell or buy on eBay. Ebays ads say it is easy so instead of reading the rules they just go in and bid. I wonder how he got the idea of shill bidding? I didn't know anything about that for quite some time and not until I read it in here. It will only take a matter of time and that buyer will probably be gone. He may accuse to many people of that and if sellers report him and ebay has to investigate it, they might just pull his plug. Does anyone know if eBay keeps a record of investigations?
posted on January 1, 2003 09:00:40 AM new
This guy is also a seller, amazingly enough, and so far he has all positives. Sooner or later someone is going to turn the tables on him and he'll see how it feels to get an unwarranted (or maybe warranted in his case) negative. You would think someone who sells as well as buys would have a little bit of an understanding of the feedback dynamics, but I don't think I'm dealing with a rocket scientist here (just for the record, both I and the other person he accused of shilling sold him press photos of Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne).
posted on January 2, 2003 04:40:57 AM new
If anyone is still following this saga, I emailed this person who negged me and got the following reply. Now I'm convinced he's just a flake who was bothered because he bid more than he wanted to pay and then got revenge when I didn't lower the price for him after the fact. Ebay has already told me their decision on this is final but I wonder how they'd take to this sort of lunacy. It borders on extortion and apparently this guy makes a habit of it.
>>Actually tried to work it out and you didn't want to know about anything
else other than the money so I paid and complained. In the mean time I
tried to track down the guy who somehow "matched" my bid and no luck.
You would think that if somebody else truly wanted the item they would
have at least responded. It isn't a new idea to proxy bid an item up so
don't act so surprised. All you had to do was offer me the item for its
true bid value and we would have been fine. Second, the other guy I left
feedback for was a mistake, one for which I apologized, it was meant for
you. Third, who really reads these stupid things? People see something
that they want and they bid on it, end of story. This elaborate web of
e-mails that you e-dweebs send back and forth is just pathetic. The next time this kind of thing happens rather than fretting a meaningless post just check out the
situation and give up the merchandise for the price bid. Anyway, you got your money which is the point right? <<
posted on January 3, 2003 02:48:47 PM new
I didn't really see that as a threat. I think he's just plain stupid. But I do have to say that after doing 10,000 auctions or more, I can't remember any winning bidder ever trying to get me to reduce the winning bid price after the auction was over. I've had my share of deadbeats and people claiming lost packages and everything else sellers get, but this was a first. In more ways than one. This guy is my new poster boy for the Ebay Cretin Buyer.
