deniece200909,
Reading your thread again, and posts and threads by other legitimate buyers who have had the misfortune of being shilled, I have an acute awareness of your frustration with eBay and how eBay deals or rather fails to deal with shilling sellers.
In your screen shot of the Bid History page of the auction you won way back in May, I can see a shill bidding ID was suspended. From experience having reported shilled auctions to eBay (pre-2006), this is how eBay “appears” to show that it is dealing with shill bidding. Suspending shill bidding IDs does NOT do ANYTHING for the aggrieved buyers when the shilling sellers selling ID is intact to continue shilling on eBay. eBay can suspend shill bidding IDs and the shilling seller can easily register new shill bidding IDs. The process is repeated over and over again.
I know that you have stated that the seller is using shill bidding IDs to post shill feedback, and to me, that shill feedback is evident. Shill feedback is not that uncommon either among these shilling sellers in India.
What is more disheartening to me, is that there are legitimate eBay buyers who have had their bids shilled and they don’t even KNOW IT when they’ve posted positive feedback for the same shilling seller that you’ve dealt with. I’ve seen this happen many times with other shilling sellers in India. Many legitimate buyers simply don’t know when they’ve been robbed by thieving sellers through shilling which is ILLEGAL and eBay is facilitating it.
On October 10, 2017, eBay had an Executive Chat. In message #77, I had asked Sarah Brubacher, “Why is it that when I do report listings to eBay, NOTHING is done to the shilling IDs?”
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/eBay-Executive-Chat-Oct-10th-1pm-PT-Sarah-...
Sarah’s response is in message #84.
In part, Sarah wrote:
Re: Shill Bidding. By nature of the issue and to protect the security and privacy of our members, investigations need to be conducted in private and we cannot provide the outcome of any investigation. If you are looking to report suspected shill bidding, please contact us via social media:
Twitter: Https://twitter.com/AskeBay
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eBay
CS: https://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/cuhome
We will ensure it is routed to the appropriate team. I agree with you that shill bidding is something we need to take very seriously. Thank you for raising the question. Sarah
===========
Now, I am going to make this abundantly clear: I do NOT hold Sarah Brubacher responsible for the way that eBay is taking the matter of shill bidding “very seriously” because this is NOT her area of responsibility. I DON’T KNOW who IS responsible for eBay Trust & Safety on eBay because I would hold THAT person accountable.
As far as I am concerned, I have no intention of registering and I am not about to register social media accounts on Twitter or Facebook in order to contact eBay about eBay shill bidding matters. I have already reported several hundred blatantly shilled auctions since February, 2017 to eBay via the eBay listings’ report link and NOTHING has happened to the shilling IDs.
You, deniece200909, are an ACTUAL eBay shill bidding victim and if you were to call eBay Customer service, and depending on who you talk to, I surmise they may be more considerate about your legitimate concerns. Personally, I don’t waste MY valuable time with eBay Customer Service since they don’t understand the mechanics of shill bidding to even know what the HELL I’m talking about.
When other legitimate bidders posted their concerns on this discussion board, I knew by what they were posting about bid retraction notices they received, that something was not above board. Looking into the bid history pages of those auctions in which there were these bid cancellations (and not retractions) proved that their bids were being manipulated by shilling sellers.
On or about March 18, 2018, eBay changed its policy about reporting shill bidding to this:
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/shill-bidding-policy?id...
How do I report shill bidding?
If you think that another member is shill bidding, you don't need to report it to us. eBay has a number of systems in place to detect and monitor bidding patterns and practices. If we identify any malicious behavior, we'll take steps to prevent it.
============
Your shilled bids happened in May, 2018 after eBay posted its current policy page with eBay’s OWN WORDS: eBay has a number of systems in place to detect and monitor bidding patterns and practices. If we identify any malicious behavior, we'll take steps to prevent it.
Well, it appears to me that eBay’s “systems in place” aren’t able to detect the shill bidding nor is eBay able to “monitor bidding patterns and practices”, therefore, eBay can’t identify malicious behaviour, so eBay can’t take steps to prevent it.
As an eBay shill bidding victim, deniece200909, you can’t possibly trust eBay to look out for your (financial) interests since eBay’s interests are in conflict with yours. eBay makes more money on higher final value fees on shilled auctions and the shilled buyers are paying for it. eBay assesses the seller fees, but the MONEY comes from the buyers through the sellers.
Caveat Emptor on eBay.
Enough said. I am done.
