Ebay Guest Bidders With Zero Feedback?

Snow

Snow

Super Member
Has anyone else experienced a large amount of bidders with 0/zero feedback on their auctions lately? I noticed on a few of my auctions lately a large number of new accounts most of them with accounts started the same day as their bid/s bidding on my item, so since I am a bit suspicious of such accounts I tried to cancel their bids but Ebay wont allow me too, a pop up shows in a red banner saying this is not a registered account so I cant cancel their bid/s so I block them from further bids but it is still unfair to the other higher bidders because if I was allowed to cancel these zero feedback non registered account holders bids the amount of the bid should drop but it does not.

I contacted Ebay this morning after I ended an auction early because the first bid was one of these zero feedback bidders that are not registered Ebay users was the first and only bid on my auction, he was based in Guyana with an account started the same day as his/her bid. Ebay charged me $6.44 because I ended the auction early once there was a bid on it, I ended the auction early because I was not allowed to to cancel his/her bid because they were not a registered user.

Ebay informed me that these were called guest accounts and they were not allowed to actually win any auction they were bidding on, if so why are they even allowed to bid to begin with? it is unfair to other bidders with real accounts to have to pay more for items because of these non registered bidder guest accounts driving the bids up.

If these accounts are not registered on Ebay and are not allowed to win an auction why are they allowed to even bid to begin with?

Also be aware of bidders based outside the USA bidding on your items if they win and you ship to a USA address you will still be charged a extra fee because they are based in a different country even though you are not shipping to them there.


Regards
 
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damacman said:
eBay can kiss my ass ... their policies change by the moment and they cater to unethical buyers. Sounds like more of the same.

I began trading there in 1998, yanked all of my listings last year and never looked back.
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Same here.

Keep in mind eBay's Customer (Dis)Service says anything to get you off the phone, most of it not true.
 
Snow said:
If these accounts are not registered on Ebay and are not allowed to win an auction why are they allowed to even bid to begin with?
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Being really kind to Ebay for a moment, maybe this is being allowed to give them 'training' on 'how' to bid, and what happens when you do - perhaps?

But with my cynical/suspicious hat on again, it seems like Ebay sanctioned 'shill bidding' :thumbsdown:
 
MannyE said:
I hadn't known about this. I stopped selling on ebay when they wanted to get their hooks into my bank account. No thank you. But I guess one way to stop this is to not allow bidders from outside the USA.
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I tried that as long as they have an USA address to ship too they are allowed to bid even though you have checked the box no bidders outside the USA, the only way is to cancel their bid/s before the end of the auction, and with these new guest bidders you are not allowed to cancel their bids so a legit buyer has to pay more because once you cancel a bid the price drops to the next highest bidder but it wont allow you to cancel their bids so the price of the item continues to rise for the legit bidders with real registered accounts every time one of these guest accounts bids and you cant cancel their bid.
 
62caddy said:
The only thing that ultimately matters is that the winning bidder actually pays, regardless of whoever it turns out to be.
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Perhaps for you, not to me what matters is the real bidders are getting cheated because of non registered bidders driving up the bid. On one auction that ended a few days ago the final winning bid was $130.00 $51.00 of that ending amount was by these non registered zero feedback bidders, the winning bidder should have only had to pay $79.00 the winning bidder had to pay $51.00 more then they should have had to pay.

I know some will say why are you complaining because you are making more money because these non registered zero feedback bidders are driving the price up? I don't care about the extra money I would much prefer a lesser amount that was won fair and square by a real bidder not getting extra money because of fake non registered bidders.

I would much prefer to get less money and have everything fair for both bidders and sellers then gain a few extra dollars because of non registered zero account bidders that should not be allowed to bid to begin with since they cant win an auction to start with according to the Ebay rep I spoke with.

I have since stated in all my listings.... If you are based in another country outside of the USA or have zero feedback do not bother bidding, I will cancel your bid and block you from further bidding. Ebay has in all their wisdom decided to charging an extra fee for bidders based outside the USA no matter whether or not you have an US address to ship to and I refuse to pay this extra fee. And non registered zero feedback guest accounts will be blocked from bidding so don't bother trying.
 
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MannyE said:
THIS. This right here.
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It was really strange the rep said they were not allowed to win because they had no address to ship to. I then asked why they were allowed to bid? She then got mad at me and started yelling that the bid would automatically drop down to the next highest legit bidder if the highest bid was a guest account, that is all well and good but what about all the other bids by these guest accounts? The winning bidder still has to pay much more because of these non registered guest accounts that I cant cancel their bids on. I finally told her have a good day and hung up because she could not answer me.


Regards Snow
 
Snow said:
Perhaps for you, not to me what matters is the real bidders are getting cheated because of non registered bidders driving up the bid.
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What I'm getting at is if they pay up, how is anyone getting cheated? Does being non-registered give them some advantage?
 
Snow said:
...I would much prefer to get less money and have everything fair for both bidders and sellers then gain a few extra dollars...
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How do you expect to get ahead in life with that kind of attitude? ;)

Hopefully obviously, that was said in jest. Kudos for your kindness and ethics.
 
62caddy said:
What I'm getting at is if they pay up, how is anyone getting cheated? Does being non-registered give them some advantage?
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Therein lies the problem these non registered zero feedback bidders are not allowed to win any auction they bid on, if they are the highest bidder it automatically drops to the next highest legit registered bidder, but if there is 5-6 of these zero feedback non registered guest accounts bidding it can drive the price of the winning bid up greatly since I am not allowed to cancel the non registered zero feedback guest account bids, which drives up the final price the real legit bidder has to pay.

He/She is getting cheated because they have tp pay a much higher winning bid because of these non legit guest accounts bidding the price up with no way of me being able to cancel their bids. since these guest accounts never have to pay they should not be allowed to bid and drive up the price of an item.

I foresee many lawsuits by Ebay winners once they realize that they had to pay more then they should have because of these guest accounts bidding up the item even though they cant win an auction so do not have to pay. I am pretty sure if you won an auction for $150.00 and found out that the other bidders driving the price up from the opening bid of $49.95 were all non registered zero feedback guest accounts that were not allowed to win you would feel cheated because you would have won it for $49.95 if it was not for these guest accounts driving the bids up.


Regards Snow
 
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Snow said:
Therein lies the problem these non registered zero feedback bidders are not allowed to win any auction they bid on, if they are the highest bidder it automatically drops to the next highest legit registered bidder, but if there is 5-6 of these zero feedback non registered guest accounts bidding it can drive the price of the winning bid up greatly since I am not allowed to cancel the non registered zero feedback guest account bids.


Regards Snow
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I gave up on eBay a while ago for reasons already mentioned by others (and only ever sold two things there anyway, just to see what it was like). Still, this is interesting. To see if I have this right, suppose bidding goes something like this, with "GB" standing for guest bidder and "B" for a regular bidder

Scenario 1
B - $1
GB1 - $4
GB2 - $7
auction ends, "B" wins at $1

Scenario 2
B1 - $1
GB1 - $4
GB2 - $7
B1 - $13
GB2 - $15
GB3 - $18
auction ends. B1 wins at $13, or at $1?

Scenario 3
B1 - $1
GB1 - $4
GB2 - $7
B2 - $13
GB2 - $15
GB3 - $18
B1 - $21
GB2 - $23
GB4 - $45
B2 - $56
auction ends. B2 wins at ... next smallest bid increment allowed over B1's $21 bid? $56?

I'd never heard of a "guest bidder," but it sure doesn't make any sense to me.
 
MuseChaser said:
I gave up on eBay a while ago for reasons already mentioned by others (and only ever sold two things there anyway, just to see what it was like). Still, this is interesting. To see if I have this right, suppose bidding goes something like this, with "GB" standing for guest bidder and "B" for a regular bidder

Scenario 1
B - $1
GB1 - $4
GB2 - $7
auction ends, "B" wins at $1

Scenario 2
B1 - $1
GB1 - $4
GB2 - $7
B1 - $13
GB2 - $15
GB3 - $18
auction ends. B1 wins at $13, or at $1?

Scenario 3
B1 - $1
GB1 - $4
GB2 - $7
B2 - $13
GB2 - $15
GB3 - $18
B1 - $21
GB2 - $23
GB4 - $45
B2 - $56
auction ends. B2 wins at ... next smallest bid increment allowed over B1's $21 bid? $56?

I'd never heard of a "guest bidder," but it sure doesn't make any sense to me.
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Scenario 1. B- wins at $1.00 because guest bidders cant win auctions because they have no address to ship to according to Ebay rep.

Scenario 2. B1 wins at $13

Scenario 3. B2 wins at $56

I had never heard of guest bidders either till this morning after I called about the $6.44 fee I was charged after ending the auction early because a zero feedback new guest account bid on my item and I was not allowed to cancel their bid.

The guest bidder thing must have just started recently because a few days ago is when I noticed multiple bids by Zero feedback bidders, never before has that happened, sure every so often I would get a bid by a zero feedback bidder but never this many in one auction and never by bidders that were non registered guest accounts that I was unable to cancel bids on.


Regards Snow
 
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MannyE said:
:Guest Bidder = Robo Shill
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Perhaps they are robot shill bids I don't know. But I do know that legit real registered Ebay members should not have to pay more because of these non registered zero feedback guest accounts bidding the price up. I have to question the judgement of whatever Ebay executive that has allowed such activity to take place in the first place, because certainly there will be lawsuits by winning bidders of auctions once they discover they have been bidding against fake accounts and having to pay far more because of it. I think Ebay will likely have to change their policy and refund any amount due to the real account winners and be levied huge fines because of this nonsense.

I would love to see whoever is responsible for this cheating to lose their job and go to jail but I doubt that will happen, justice is different for the rich and poor.


Regards Snow
 
Snow said:
Therein lies the problem these non registered zero feedback bidders are not allowed to win any auction they bid on...
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If that is indeed the case, allowing parties to participate in an auction who will never be able to win has to be stupidest thing I ever heard of. What's to stop them from bidding $1 million on every item if they can never win the sale? I'd be far more concerned about losing legitimate buyers than the hypothetical few extra bucks they're theoretically squeezing out of the sale. Bids are made by free will after all.
 
62caddy said:
If that is indeed the case, allowing parties to participate in an auction who will never be able to win has to be stupidest thing I ever heard of. What's to stop them from bidding $1 million on every item if they can never win the sale? I'd be far more concerned about losing legitimate buyers than the hypothetical few extra bucks they're theoretically squeezing out of the sale. Bids are made by free will after all.
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They will lose legitimate buyers once those buyers realize they are paying a higher price then they should have too. The $$ involved are not hypothetical they are real dollars that legit buyers are having to pay because of these fake accounts bidding the price up, and it is not a few bucks it is millions, if every auction has even one or two fake bidders driving the final price up even $10.00 it adds up quick. as I stated earlier on an auction that ended at $130.00 the legit bids only amounted to $79.00 but the winner had to pay $130.00, plus I am being charged fees on the $130.00 + taxes so the extra Ebay is getting over millions of sales is enormous. Not to mention I am having to pay taxes on these extra $$ that I should not have too because of fake bidders.


Regards Snow
 
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