06-30-2021 03:20 PM
I've dealt with a very good customer for over 30 years. First through flea markets and antique malls and now eBay. We grew up in the same town and both collect local history and advertising items. Even though he now lives 100 miles away he still buy's a lot of hometown items. He's a buyer who's not afraid to pay good money for items and he's bought dozens of my eBay items over the year's.
I just got an message from him that he's being blocked from bidding on my items. I thought it was because of un-paid strikes but he doesn't have any. I disabled the "Block Bidders With Un-paid Strikes" option on my Sellers Page just to be sure. He still can't bid on my items. I contacted eBay and they said he was being blocked due to the large number of bids he's placed on my items.
Their reasoning is that a friend or family member is working to run up bids or it could be a phony account used for the same reason. This reasoning ignores the dozens of paid and completed items adding up to big bucks. Now the only way he can remove the block is to call eBay and prove too them he's a legit buyer. He's VERY upset and I can't blame him. I could very well lose one of my best customers.
Is anybody else having problems due to eBay's paranoid policies and rules?
Solved! Go to Best Answer
06-30-2021 04:06 PM
06-30-2021 03:22 PM
Have you tried adding him to your exception rules and see if that works?
This is the opposite of a block list
06-30-2021 03:34 PM
Yeah. Tried it before I contacted eBay. Just like disabling the un-paid strike option it didn't work. It's a block eBay put in place till he proves he's a legit account.
06-30-2021 03:36 PM
Is he being Blocked on all of your listings or only on the Auctions?
Since you know his name and address after dealing with him for years, you should add him to the pre-eBay sales list you circulate to your best customers before listing.
06-30-2021 03:45 PM
The pre-sales list doesn't help when eBay is blocking his bids on all active listings and BIN items.
06-30-2021 04:00 PM
Ebay is obviously afraid he is acting as your shill.......just tell him to call.....only way it's going to change.....
06-30-2021 04:02 PM
06-30-2021 04:06 PM
06-30-2021 04:15 PM
None of that is checked. Even disabled the Un-paid strike option. The guy I talked to at eBay said there's nothing I can do on my end to unblock the bidder. He has to call them and prove he's legit. My buyer said he's willing to jump through all the hoops to continue buying but he's VERY upset he has to go through all this time and trouble do so. But he said he's having trouble getting through to a live person. You can't just click on the Contact link on the Help page and get them to call you anymore. I had to search for the link and found it in the Automated Chat box. Here's a link to the Automated box if anyone else needs to talk to a live person. My guy could barely speak English and I had to keep asking him to repeat himself. eBay Customer Service
06-30-2021 04:29 PM
Sorry your friend is having trouble........but this does answer some questions about what ebay may/may not do to curb shill bidding...........
06-30-2021 04:42 PM
@dhbookds wrote:Sorry your friend is having trouble........but this does answer some questions about what ebay may/may not do to curb shill bidding...........
People (mainly other bidders) post so many complaints about shill bidding and so many other board participants jump in with "eBay doesn't do anything about it" and "eBay doesn't care." Nice to see that's not the case . . .
06-30-2021 05:04 PM
@eleanor*rigby wrote:
@dhbookds wrote:Sorry your friend is having trouble........but this does answer some questions about what ebay may/may not do to curb shill bidding...........
People (mainly other bidders) post so many complaints about shill bidding and so many other board participants jump in with "eBay doesn't do anything about it" and "eBay doesn't care." Nice to see that's not the case . . .
It's just too bad this guy isn't an actual shill bidder.
I wonder if this guy was brought to Ebay's attention by another bidder. I mean I know IDs are scrambled, but if a disgruntled auction loser contacted support and showed the the bid activity...
06-30-2021 05:23 PM - edited 06-30-2021 05:28 PM
I understand that we need to protect buyers from shill bidding. As usual it boils down to a few bad apples spoiling it for everyone else. My complaint is all the lack of information and the hoops a person has to jump through to prove they're not a dishonest crook.
A lot of the people we deal with don't live on eBay and can't always find the proper link to solve the problem or get answers. I'm on here most of the day since I retired and even I had to search for some time to find the new link to get an agent to call me. For some reason eBay has removed the old link you clicked on to get a call back.
If eBay is going to block bidders for ANY reason they should make them aware of the reason and provide a simple link or phone number so they can resolve the problem. They blocked this buyer without any explanation or any link to find out why. He had to contact me and we spent most of the afternoon getting answers and a solution out of eBay.
06-30-2021 05:49 PM
Hadn't thought of that. I do have a small group of the same bidders on my local items. Maybe one of them decided to eliminate some competition. If so it only worked for a short time. It took several hours and a lot of frustration to resolve the problem but he's good to go again. My complaint as stated before is the way eBay takes action against someone without explaining why or giving them the information to fix the problem. It likes being charged with a crime but not being told what the charge is or how to defend yourself.
Why is eBay making it so hard to buy and sell on their site? Now that some health restrictions are being lifted and my wife and I are both retired, I think we're going back to selling at shows and bypass eBay completely.
06-30-2021 08:15 PM
Have you tried to contact eBay via Face Book or Twitter? I have heard they do great work. I have yet to try them out. I have not had the need to. I don't have the links to send them a personal message but I am Sure one of our Great Sellers will be able to post this link on here for you.