Manipulating prices on ebay grrr.

[sherbetpips]

Sat chatting with a bunch of mums at swimming when one of there phones starts binging away. Oooh goody, she says, I told him it would sell. Where you worried? I said. Oh yes I get all the family to bid on the items to get the price up and make it look interesting and my other half didn't think we would get away with it this time. Just sold a crappy chipboard TV stand for £42! I was seething. I have missed out on a lot of items on ebay recently through fake bidding only to see the product relisted moments later. So does anyone else do this - isnt it fraud or am I just being stupid playing fair?

I hate it but see no way of policing it.

No, you're not stupid - it's against eBay regulations but I don't know if it's illegal. Sounds highly dodgy though.

well its very against the rules (obviously) and it pisses me off too... YANBU and its one of the (many) reasons I no longer use Ebay to buy or sell.

I think eBay keep tabs on how often people bid on stuff without winning. I'm not sure though - but I have had an employer who lost his eBay account for doing exactly that. He woke up to a nasty message from them one day.

Shill bidding is common on eBay. Some guy got prison time for it recently somewhere up north.

Against eBay rules but is common. Disgraceful if you ask me. eBay do try and look at accounts frequently having activity with each other and also if a person is continually bidding but never winning. She will be in for a shock soon!

It's called shilling and its against ebay rules. Report it to ebay, if she's done it loads using the same people they can probably track it.

Shill bidding is illegal as it is fraud. Report them to ebay if you know usernames, there's not much else you can do though. Really pisses me off this.

Infuriating and illegal.
A good few times each time I've increased a bit, another bidder increased also. There must have been 30 bids between the two of us. I stopped when the price was already higher than I would have paid.
Then I get a 'second chance' offer within an hour of the auction ending.
Made me suspicious.

I can;t understand why lots of bids would make someone go for a crappy chipboard tv stand!? A fool and his money?

People are a bit crap. I once bought a Boden girls coat - described as 'new'. It was one of the velevet ones. Beautiful and I would have bought it as ised as well. I got it for 9.99 which was very cheap. Right after the auction ended the seller messaged to say 'ooops my dh listed it and put it down as new when it's 'as new'. Totally understand that you'll want to cancel and get a refund etc etc'. I replied saying no, that's fine. When it arrived it was new. Had plainly never been worn. the buttons still had tissue paper on them. I think she was unhappy about the price and trying to get out of the sale.

Could have been worse, Northern. I bid on a yahoo auction when dd1 was little for a nice pair of dungarees. When I went to see if I was winning with about 5 minutes to go, I found seller had already listed the item again at a higher price.
Unsurprisingly they didn't respond to my emails asking for an explanation.

northern if she had really wanted to she could have not sent it and suffered no penalties...you can simply say the item became damaged between packaging and posting and is no longer available.

I've had that too Neo - Boden denim leggings mysteriously got lost in the 6 days between listing and sale . Did I want to pay an extra 50p and she'd send me some monsoon ones instead? x 1000. I was very nice and told her no way. The transaction was cancelled.

I bought one of my bridesmaids dresses on eBay - added a fifth bm quite late on and was thrilled to find a matching dress (other four bought from Debs and no longer available) so i could ask my friend - wanted to be sure i had a dress, plan was to give it to her and watch the penny drop. I was even more pleased when I won it for 1.99 plus postage as I was the only bidder. I mailed before winning explaining it was a bridesmaid dress and offered to pay quite a bit extra to cover speedy postage. When I won, they mailed saying it had been listed as the wrong size and did I want a refund? No thanks, I said, I'll make it work. No more communication, dress never arrived, account closed and the bastards never refunded my money! I was livid. eBay tried to help me resolve it but I was told the seller had moved 'to Mozambique' at short notice

Managed to get another, but I was [shocked] that someone would do that. There are lots of ways to ensure an item reaches a certain price, legitimately. I only buy buy it now items now, really. Feels safer. Still, buyer beware I suppose...

I only buy the buy it now items and only from online stores, rather than individual buyers. To date, I've never had an issue with ebay, but I think you need to pick and choose who you buy from.