Seriously?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

A non-running B200? £800??

Well Dave, it looks like that non-running 740 with no MoT that hadn't been used since 2018 didn't find a buyer at £800. I wonder why the seller thought that ton and a half of scrap that has been sitting on his/her garden for 4 years was worth any more than £500 (at the outside). Now he/she has wasted £20 on an eBay ad and it won't be worth listing it again until the new year.

Ho hum.

[360beast]

There are also a lot of A holes on eBay that make accounts and buy a few things to get a few feedback then bid on cars to win them just so they can waste people's time. This happened to my dad twice when trying to sell his Saab 9000 on eBay and both purchasers made excuses as to why they hadn't shown up etc, clearly just wanting to mess people around.

The 1st buyer had actually bought another car as I think the cancelled sale showed up on their feedback with a link to the original advert. The seller of the other car he "bought" must have seen this cancellation on their feedback and found my dad's mobile number on his advert. He phoned my dad and asked if the "buyer" went through with it because he was playing silly buggers with this guy too.

Unfortunately this is a common story with eBay, why people have to be such A holes I'll never know.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by 360beast

There are also a lot of A holes on eBay that make accounts and buy a few things to get a few feedback then bid on cars to win them just so they can waste people's time. This happened to my dad twice when trying to sell his Saab 9000 on eBay and both purchasers made excuses as to why they hadn't shown up etc, clearly just wanting to mess people around.

The 1st buyer had actually bought another car as I think the cancelled sale showed up on their feedback with a link to the original advert. The seller of the other car he "bought" must have seen this cancellation on their feedback and found my dad's mobile number on his advert. He phoned my dad and asked if the "buyer" went through with it because he was playing silly buggers with this guy too.

Unfortunately this is a common story with eBay, why people have to be such A holes I'll never know.

Thank you for that Luke. It would not have occurred to me that sort of thing actually happened. Why on earth would people do things like that?

Alan

[Wagon Sailor]

It's only a theory, but could it be that they're looking for a car but haven't yet decided which one? They bid on three or four to make sure they don't miss out.

It's wholly unnecessary, of course. The sorts of cars we're talking about aren't exactly rare and there won't be too long to wait before the next one comes along.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

It's only a theory, but could it be that they're looking for a car but haven't yet decided which one? They bid on three or four to make sure they don't miss out.

It's wholly unnecessary, of course. The sorts of cars we're talking about aren't exactly rare and there won't be too long to wait before the next one comes along.

I suppose there might be a number of reasons why people might bid insincerely, that is a risk with an unsecured auction like eBay compared with one like Anglia Car Auctions where bidders pay a deposit. The only loss with eBay would be to one's reputation via the feedback.

Luke's dad did the right thing in reporting negatively against the bidder that didn't show, that way another seller was warned off about him/her. Sometimes I've noticed that sellers claim a winning bidder has been insincere, but on investigation have not reported negatively against that bidder. This happened with the 145 that Steve was interested in during its first auction: the vendor claimed the highest bidder was insincere, and even publicly shamed him/her in the next advert, but when I checked there was no negative feedback recorded against the bidder. That made no sense and the vendor (an occasional member of this forum if I recall) was probably involved in shill bidding to drive up the price.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265991356...Bk9SR4Kb0pGlYQ

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-145...p2047675.l2557

I can't help thinking that if vendors followed through with negative feedback against insincere bidders then the majority would be rooted out. I rather suspect when that doesn't happen the insincere bidder may well be part of a shill bidding scam and well known to the vendor.

Just my thoughts on the subject - I'm a bit cynical when it comes to people and money.

Bobwalkin' time.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I suppose there might be a number of reasons why people might bid insincerely, that is a risk with an unsecured auction like eBay compared with one like Anglia Car Auctions where bidders pay a deposit. The only loss with eBay would be to one's reputation via the feedback.

Luke's dad did the right thing in reporting negatively against the bidder that didn't show, that way another seller was warned off about him/her. Sometimes I've noticed that sellers claim a winning bidder has been insincere, but on investigation have not reported negatively against that bidder. This happened with the 145 that Steve was interested in during its first auction: the vendor claimed the highest bidder was insincere, and even publicly shamed him/her in the next advert, but when I checked there was no negative feedback recorded against the bidder. That made no sense and the vendor (an occasional member of this forum if I recall) was probably involved in shill bidding to drive up the price.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265991356...Bk9SR4Kb0pGlYQ

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-145...p2047675.l2557

I can't help thinking that if vendors followed through with negative feedback against insincere bidders then the majority would be rooted out. I rather suspect when that doesn't happen the insincere bidder may well be part of a shill bidding scam and well known to the vendor.

Just my thoughts on the subject - I'm a bit cynical when it comes to people and money.

Bobwalkin' time.

Alan

While i wholeheartedy agree with all the above Alan, i feel it only fair to point out that ebay has in fact made it difficult for sellers to report non-paying bidders/no-shows etc.

A friend not far from me has had it happen to him twice in recent times, the first one was in the USA according to his ebay profile and after successfully hitting the "Buy it Now" refrained from contact for several days. Eventually he decided to query whether the part would fit a Range Rover (it was not listed as fitting a Range Rover by any stretch of the imagination! ) then just seemed to disappear up his own central orifice as was never heard from again.

Second one was on an amplified bass box, similar screen name from what i understand but different location apparently, again hit the "BIN" button and then no further contact except to deny any knowledge of having won the previous part. I should point out my friend is dyslexic and therefore can't be sure it was the same screen name but is more certain than not that it is.

In both cases, when he tried to open a dispute with ebay, he was effectively blocked because they wanted to see a history of messages between him and the buyer - with the buyer refusing all contact that was an impossibility. Without that dispute having been resolved, they would not let him leave adverse feedback for the buyers.

I suspect this is endemic in ebay and dissuades many sellers from leaving negative feedback for the charlatans that practice this kind of "fun". Many moons ago i was selling on ebay and even then, had several non-paying buyers. In only a few cases was i able to leave negative feedback for them and i understand the situation has become worse.

In short, it's now a buyers platform, even those transactions that are completed successfully are subject to unfair negative feedback with buyers citing long delivery times etc as the reason for the adverse comments. Given we have had postal strikes for what seems like an eternity and in many areas of the country, a poor postal service for well over a decade, this is hardly the sellers fault yet it damages their reputation.

With little to no recourse available to the seller, oiks like these will proliferate sadly.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

While i wholeheartedy agree with all the above Alan, i feel it only fair to point out that ebay has in fact made it difficult for sellers to report non-paying bidders/no-shows etc.

A friend not far from me has had it happen to him twice in recent times, the first one was in the USA according to his ebay profile and after successfully hitting the "Buy it Now" refrained from contact for several days. Eventually he decided to query whether the part would fit a Range Rover (it was not listed as fitting a Range Rover by any stretch of the imagination! ) then just seemed to disappear up his own central orifice as was never heard from again.

Second one was on an amplified bass box, similar screen name from what i understand but different location apparently, again hit the "BIN" button and then no further contact except to deny any knowledge of having won the previous part. I should point out my friend is dyslexic and therefore can't be sure it was the same screen name but is more certain than not that it is.

In both cases, when he tried to open a dispute with ebay, he was effectively blocked because they wanted to see a history of messages between him and the buyer - with the buyer refusing all contact that was an impossibility. Without that dispute having been resolved, they would not let him leave adverse feedback for the buyers.

I suspect this is endemic in ebay and dissuades many sellers from leaving negative feedback for the charlatans that practice this kind of "fun". Many moons ago i was selling on ebay and even then, had several non-paying buyers. In only a few cases was i able to leave negative feedback for them and i understand the situation has become worse.

In short, it's now a buyers platform, even those transactions that are completed successfully are subject to unfair negative feedback with buyers citing long delivery times etc as the reason for the adverse comments. Given we have had postal strikes for what seems like an eternity and in many areas of the country, a poor postal service for well over a decade, this is hardly the sellers fault yet it damages their reputation.

With little to no recourse available to the seller, oiks like these will proliferate sadly.

That is genuinely interesting Dave. I've only sold a few things on eBay in the past (a few motorcycles and a couple of cars) and never had a bad buyer (a few daft ones that have clearly just turned up to view for a day out).

I did take the time to check up on the insincere buyer the vendor of the 145 in the links above publicly 'outed' (is that a proper verb these days?). The vendor seemed very cross with the highest bidder in the first auction (BBFOXBRENDAN) and wrote this in the second auction ad:

it finished this evening at 6.03 pm and was won by bidder BBFOXBRENDAN...who immediately sent a message saying he over bid for the car and had no intention of paying, what a complete time waster.

Clearly this was in the public domain, so I had no qualms about looking up BBFOXBRENDAN's eBay profile, here it is:

https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_p...e=BBFOXBRENDAN

... as you may see, there is no record of any negative feedback. Now, either the seller didn't bother to report BBFOXBRENDAN (which would seem odd as he was moved sufficiently to publicly shame him), or eBay went out of its way to prevent that happening, or otherwise BBFOXBRENDAN was complicit in a shill bidding scam.

As I said above Dave, I can't comment on whether eBay makes it difficult to report on buyers negatively as I've never tried it. The third possibility that it was a shill auction seems most likely to me.

These are just my thoughts Dave, I could be wrong, but it seems to me that shill bidding is rife.

Regarding the postal services bit: it is such a pity that a once quite good service (with the Royal Mail) has deteriorated to such a level that it isn't all that much worse when the posties are on strike. My observation is that the posties (union) just didn't like the privatisation a decade ago and has dragged their feet ever since. Unfortunately the only outcome from the strikes will be a loss of confidence, a loss of business (for the Royal Mail), eventually a loss of the monopoly and then less posties. Ho hum.

Alan

[Chris1Roll]

It's not possible to leave negative feedback as a seller for a buyer.
Ebay made it like this what must be getting on for 12 years ago, since then you can only leave positive feedback, which just makes a mockery of the whole thing. If you leave positive feedback but with a negative comment it will be removed and you will get your knuckles rapped. (My experience).
That combined with Ebay hiding all the bidders usernames for some reason means there is pretty much nothing you can do to help other sellers.

When my brother was selling his Fabia on Ebay, it 'sold' three times before the the winning bidder actually went through with it. It happens _all_ the time, apparently that's what people do for fun these days!

I was quite tempted by that Gold 760 turbo, but it is 5 to 6 hours drive from me. That's a long way to go to find out if it's just a shiny rotbox...

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Chris1Roll

It's not possible to leave negative feedback as a seller for a buyer.
Ebay made it like this what must be getting on for 12 years ago, since then you can only leave positive feedback, which just makes a mockery of the whole thing. If you leave positive feedback but with a negative comment it will be removed and you will get your knuckles rapped. (My experience).
That combined with Ebay hiding all the bidders usernames for some reason means there is pretty much nothing you can do to help other sellers.

When my brother was selling his Fabia on Ebay, it 'sold' three times before the the winning bidder actually went through with it. It happens _all_ the time, apparently that's what people do for fun these days!

I was quite tempted by that Gold 760 turbo, but it is 5 to 6 hours drive from me. That's a long way to go to find out if it's just a shiny rotbox...

That is a really useful comment also - thank you.

I'm not sure you can be right about the inability for a seller to leave negative feedback on a buyer - otherwise how would buyers ever receive negative feedback (and I have certainly seen it on bidders' profiles)? In addition I'm pretty sure I have seen the 'negative' and 'neutral' feedback buttons when asked to report as a seller.

The gold 760 turbo has been on sale for a long time now. I'm intrigued as to what happens now that it is a 'no reserve' auction if bids don't reach an acceptable price. I'll keep an eye on it and report back on Xmas eve.

[Paulk]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/...buyers?id=4078

This link on Ebay only mentions leaving positive feedback for buyers