[CMacDaddy]

I'm going to the spurs rockets game on wendsday, and its a rip. Not so good seats are 26.50 + conveiniance fee = $31 a ticket.

I found some on ebay, and as its the only way I can get tickets that cheap. I put my max bid in. 2 different 1 feedback wonders come in and bid it up past my max, to the next smallest max. I NEED these tickets at this point, or else I will have to miss the game, so I outbid him with 3-4 seconds left and win.

I checked a few of the sellers history items and one of the same accounts is in use bidding up all of the items. The only feedback he has on one of the accounts is from himself, so basically this guy forced my bid against me on his own damn auction, and cost me alot more than i hoped to spend.

I sent him an email telling him what I thought about this before the auction ended...


Quote:

Dear rockyriles, Its against EBAY policy to bid on your own item. You could at least be a little less obvious about it. If no one else outbids you, I'll still be here.

In the auction it expressly says I can pick up the items to save on overnight shipping ($15) and no guarantee to get the tickets in time. He emails me saying that picking up the tickets is fine, and gives me a total. I Paid the given total on paypal.

Last night he sends me this email.


Quote:

Quote: second attempt at phone text response. increditable accusation!! response: have Total plus 15for overnight shipping paidby time i return to san antonio tomorrow/today now, through paypal. if not, i will give tickets to my 15 year old son who tried to b

who knows that thats about. I had already paid, and I am not about to pay another $15 for shipping after he agreed both in auction and in email that I could pick them up for free.

I sent him an email saying if he did not tell me when and where I could pick up the tickets by tommorrow at 5 then I would take drastic measures against him. (paypal complaint, ebay former complaint about the bidding, and negative feedback)

Can a more experienced EBayer let me know what my options are at this point or give me any help as to how to solve this problem???



*note I know i shouldnt have sent the accusing email if I planned on buying his tickets, but I got a little hot headed*

 

[mbriant]

Personally, I'd pass on the tickets and report the guy to e-bay as well as leave negative feedback. Why deal with a crook? Your only other option is to pay for shipping, hope he doesn't rip you off somehow, take the tickets, then report him and leave negative feedback.

The story about his son bidding on the tickets is lame.

 

[EyeAmEye]

Report him, forget the damn tickets.

 

[CMacDaddy]

Situation seems to be resolved. He is giving me a 15 minute window between 12 and 3:30 (of my choosing) to pick up the tickets, and I'm having a friend of mine pick them up.

The seller admitted the account used to bid up mine was his 15 year old son's account. And insists that ebay will side with him. I read some of ebay's user agreements, and you must be 18 to participate, or participate only with the help of a parent, so he is still in the wrong, but I'm going to wait until after I get the tickets file a complaint.

This is really turning me away from ebay, and towards sticking to forums as much as possible.

Head-fi for sale forums rock

 

[bg4533]

Report him to Ebay even if you get the tickets. He deserves it.

 

[Wodgy]

If you take the time to wade through feedback histories, it's pretty clear that many (perhaps even the majority) of eBay sellers engage in shill bidding at least occasionally, especially for items that have some value but look like they're going to sell too cheaply.

Not that it prevents me from using eBay, but I don't bid from sellers where this behavior is too obvious. Unfortunately it's far too common.

 

[Stephonovich]

Only problem I've (parent's account) had with eBay was Christmas '04, where a complete moron tried scamming us out of an Xbox we sold to her. Not only did she pay via money order (traceable already), we had put insurance and delivery confirmation on the package. Week or so goes by after shipping, she complains that she never received it. We give it another week or so, and then agree to refund her money. After all, USPS will cover our loss. So, go down to file the claim, and are denied. Do a bit of checking, and lo and behold, it arrived about two weeks prior, with her signature clearly visible. I run a few WHOIS searches on her email, find out her ISP, and compile all this information (ISP, her address, phone number, money order serial number, tracking information for the package...) into a nice document, and then send a nastygram informing her of the current fines for mail fraud. We had the money back within the hour

Anyway, other than that, never had a problem. Check the seller's feedback prior to buying anything, and you should be fine. You can also usually get a good feel from the auction page itself. I tend to avoid ones with massive misspellings and/or giant fonts. Figure it's representative of the seller's intelligence.

 

[Xanadu777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CMacDaddy The seller admitted the account used to bid up mine was his 15 year old son's account. And insists that ebay will side with him.

He may think that but he's terribly wrong. Turning over the details to ebay here will land them a 30 day suspension, more than likely.

 

[warubozu]

That excuse that Ebay will side with the seller on that it's perfectly ok for the seller's son to bid on his item just to bump up the price is BS. This is clearly a form of shill bidding is not taken kindly by Ebay. In worse case scenarios people have been prosecuted for shill bidding where hudreds of dollars were scammed from winning bidders. Keep all of your emails between you and the seller and report him to Ebay, who knows who he will try to shill bid next.

 

[Edwood]

Report him to eBay, and list as much evidence as possible. List the account(s) that were used in the Shill bidding. It is clearly against eBay policy, no ifs, ands, or buts.

It doesn't matter if he didn't do it himself. If he is stupid enough to let anyone use his account to bid on his other auction, then he deserves the ban, and a freeze of his PayPal funds.

Oh, yeah, file a complaint with PayPal too. I'm sure he will notice the 8 month freeze on his PayPal funds.

-Ed