Inconsistent and unfair bid increments on the same item
I understand that eBay has recently been experimenting with changing the bid increments for some auctions. My recent experiences suggest that this is resulting in different bidders experiencing different increments for the same auctions. For example, I just lost an auction (in the $1-$5 range) where my bids had a minimum increment of a dollar - the bid was $2, I bid $3, and the current bid became $3 instead of $2.25. But, the final selling price was only $0.25 over my high bid. I lost another auction ($5-$25) where again my bids had a minimum increment of $1 but, when I placed a bid that was not below the true maximum bid, the new current bid became only $0.50 more than my maximum bid. As a third example, in an auction ($1-$5) I won the the later and higher of the two previous bids was $0.25 cents more than the earlier and lower bid. So, another bidder was allowed to bid only $0.25 more than the current bid. Yet, when I went to bid, I was required to bid $1 more than the current bid. In all three cases cases other buyers got the benefit of lower increments than I got.
It should go without saying that this is extremely unfair. And, I cannot imagine that this is the intended behavior for recent changes. So, I hoped this can be fixed ASAP. At the bare minimum, eBay should ensure that all bidders on the same auction are subject to the same terms.
jntu
·1 year agoNo change. Still discriminatory bid increments. I'm getting close to closing our account. Don't need ebay's unfair treatment of a 25 year old account.
jntu
·1 year agoI'm bidding a lot less since this garbage started.
danscha_8714
OP1 year agoI understand that as this behavior is being tested different auctions may have different behaviors. But, it does not make sense to be that it is considered OK or intended for different bidders to have different experiences on the same auction, conferring an advantage to some bidders over others?
wastingtime101
·1 year agoTests are always applied to accounts, not to listings, so yes it does make sense that different bidders on the same auction will have different experiences.
That does not make it fair, but it does make sense. I'm assuming they want to see how this will impact buyer behavior. For example, buyers subject to higher bid increments may leave without bidding while bidders with lower bid increments may bid and keep bidding.
danscha_8714
OP1 year agoThat's unfortunate, but I suppose your explanation is at least logical. Hopefully, the test is ended soon and behavior returns to being consistent.
In the meantime, I guess the solution would be to make a new account...
jntu
·1 year agoDiscriminatory
My lowest increment has increased to $.25 and others still get the $.05 increment.
I simply quit bidding.
wastingtime101
·1 year agoThis is an intentional change and you are correct that different bidders may see different bid increments while eBay runs this test. eBay published this information on the bidding help page .