[MichaelFranks]

An audiogon user (with perfect feedback) just posted this ad for sale:

"Audiogon'S Ethics are up for sale to any bidder

If you want to shill products on Audiogon, even in their forums, just pay them some money and they'll let you do / say / get away with anything you want. If someone questions the ethics of those shilling their products or the ethics of Audiogon for allowing them to shill with their full approval, they'll ban / censor that person from posting. By keeping those that want to expose corruption and promote honest business practices quiet, they maintain their leverage and income from those doing the shilling. Don't doubt that it could happen as it happened to me. "

Just curious as to what you guys think he is getting at with this? I use audiogon, but can't begin to fathom how this guy's comments apply (unless he just means shill bidding in auctions?)

Thoughts? Opinions? Audiogon quickly deleted the post....

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Sounds like someone a little bitter. I do know that the companies who are closely associated with Audiogon have pretty access to getting bad feedbacks removed. Shill bidding could be done, but I personally haven't seen any. Auctions are weird, but well thought out, in that any bids within five minutes or so of the end causes an overtime ov 15 more to be tacked on. No sniping there, thank God.

There is a bit of into on the things that go on over at Audiogon, so a little searching will yield some good info.

 

[Edwood]

Happens on eBay all the time. I'm not surprised that Audiogon has this problem. But having to pay to remove negative feedback? That's unethical. eBay is totally the opposite. It's nearly impossible to get even improper negative feedback removed.

Well, eBay runs rampant with improper bid retractions as well. Adds more to the fun.

-Ed

 

[ServinginEcuador]

How many here have been contacted by a third party selling the exact item you just bid on. Usually in the form of an email in really bad English and a price too good to be true?

 

[gpalmer]

Not only are negative feedbacks removed for those who bring money in, they will moderate your post out of existance before it appears if you criticize any of the companies that have a business relationship with them. I'm betting he tried posting about it and they killed his posts so he found a novel way to make his displeasure known. It's sort of scary that they pay more attention to the posts on the board than they do to (possibly fraudelent) sales.

 

[gort]

With all this complains how are they still in business when alternative (eBay) is available? Only redeeming feature over eBay I can think of is search geared toward audio equipment.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ServinginEcuador How many here have been contacted by a third party selling the exact item you just bid on. Usually in the form of an email in really bad English and a price too good to be true?

Many times.

Even some saying they only accept Western Union.

-Ed

 

[emelius]

i do know of an instance reported on Audio Asylum 'bout a guy who won an Aural Thrills auction on Audiogon...the guy was later told that there was a misprint in the ad & that Aural Thrills couldn't offer him the advertised product at that price...then they gave him some other options (at different prices)...

some might refer to this as bait & switch...& Audiogon's terms seemed to be in the auction winner's favor, but i believe what ended up happenin' was that Aural Thrills refunded the man's money & then Audiogon deleted the negative feedback given by both parties...

Aural Thrills even created a page documentin' the incident which can be found here...

& the Audio Asylum thread is here...

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood Many times. Even some saying they only accept Western Union. -Ed

I forgot that part of it. Remember when the guy here got an offer for some Grado HP-1000s with a warranty? That was classic Head-Fi then.

 

[darkclouds]

Well that sucks!!! A'gon is one of my favourite place to pick up gear. I can't stand ebay.

 

[DarkAngel]

This is a long standing "feud" at Agon and not shilling like in an auction, but is referring to people from small audio companies participating in discussion threads without indentifing thier connections and recommending audio products of that company to other people.

Some members thought this to be underhanded, now most people who work for an audio company identify themselves as such when participating in discussion threads there.

To me it is all a "tempest in a teapot" but some people get very worked up over it.

 

[smokey]

I was bidding on a pair of HP-1s on e-bay. I encountered what turned out to be shill bidding which exposed my top price. I thought I had lost the auction until the last day when the person that "outbid" me withdrew his bid, leaving me hanging out there with the top bid. I learned my lesson about making an early commitment to anything on that site.

I then was outbid (really outbid, by more than $1,500) on a pair of R-10s. I immediately received two offers of brand new pair for exactly what I had bid. Needless to say I didn't take either of them up on their kind offers.

Did I mention that I truly dislike bidding and auctions now? Unless an item has a "buy it now" price I'm willing to pay, I'll pass thank you very much.