eBay

dubsteesllc · ‎01-17-2023

I'm just not sure how much longer I can tolerate the incompetency of this once-great platform; especially if they take a sizeable cut of my profit. Today I received a message that my account was restricted for 10 days due to "another" shill bidding policy violation. Nope. Haven't even touched my "back-up" account. I used the "chat" feature for Customer Service. It was extremely slow. I understand if a translator was being used, but come on. I requested a phone call from a representative in the United States.

The young lady the called was able to successfully "appeal" my suspension. That's great. The issue I had is that 1) there was no evidence presented when I requested such, and 2) when I used the "chat" feature to address my first suspension, I was not advised there was an "appeal" option.

I asked the Customer Service representative over the phone to PLEASE relay that information to the powers that be. I'm not cool with Ebay tossing out random suspensions without the possiblity of an appeal, ESPECIALLY since the second one was not warranted.

In closing...what the **bleep** Ebay?

heckofagame · ‎01-18-2023

Who is bidding on your items that would trigger a shill bidding violation? It doesn't have to be you.

Also, the customer service that is available to speak too is a contract group with no power to do anything and appears to be designed to get you off of the phone. Based on other postings in these forums, they will say anything to appease the caller.

If you are certain that you have not violated the policy, try contacting eBay for Business via Facebook.

lakefor94 · ‎01-18-2023

Next suspension might be 30 days or a permanent one. I see you have only buy it now with best offer listings, at this time. Probably an excellent path to travel.

Posting ID

luckythewinner · ‎01-18-2023

@dubsteesllc wrote:
1) there was no evidence presented when I requested such

Companies like eBay do not disclose their fraud detection algorithms.

lacemaker3 · ‎01-18-2023

@dubsteesllc,

Go through your recent auction listings, look at the bidders, and check the buyer's bidding details by clicking on their user ID in the bid history list. Look for anyone who has bid on a lot of your items but hasn't won any of them (based on their percentage of bids in the last 30 days, which is shown on the buyer's bidding details page).

I saw one bidder like that ... 40% of the items they bid on in the last 30 days were yours, but they hadn't won any of the items. They did increase the selling price though. They also had 4 bid retractions in the last 30 days.

I would advise you to put that bidder (and any others you find like that) on your blocked bidder list. And look through your other sold auctions, as far back as you can, and try to find any other user IDs that have a suspicious bid history like that. They may not have actually been shill bidding, but their bid pattern was enough to trigger eBay's algorithm. So you need to stop them from bidding on your items in the future.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎01-18-2023

@lacemaker3 wrote:
@dubsteesllc,

Go through your recent auction listings, look at the bidders, and check the buyer's bidding details by clicking on their user ID in the bid history list. Look for anyone who has bid on a lot of your items but hasn't won any of them (based on their percentage of bids in the last 30 days, which is shown on the buyer's bidding details page).

I saw one bidder like that ... 40% of the items they bid on in the last 30 days were yours, but they hadn't won any of the items. They did increase the selling price though.

I would advise you to put that bidder (and any others you find like that) on your blocked bidder list. And look through your other sold auctions, as far back as you can, and try to find any other user IDs that have a suspicious bid history like that. They may not have actually been shill bidding, but their bid pattern was enough to trigger eBay's algorithm. So you need to stop them from bidding on your items in the future.

@lacemaker3

I thought all names were 'blocked' so you would not have a name to put them on a block list? (except a winner only)

@dubsteesllc

Just an FTI- nothing was really done; there is no 'report', no successful 'appeal' and no 'supervisors'. As stated, they just said whatever to get you off the phone.

lacemaker3 · ‎01-18-2023

@dubsteesllc.

You and I can only see the blocked IDs, but @dubsteesllc is the seller, and as I understand it, he can see the full IDs of all the bidders.

I do wonder if he can see the bidder details page, like we can though. I don't know that for sure.

a_c_green · ‎01-18-2023

@lacemaker3 wrote:
@dubsteesllc.

You and I can only see the blocked IDs, but @dubsteesllc is the seller, and as I understand it, he can see the full IDs of all the bidders.

I do wonder if he can see the bidder details page, like we can though. I don't know that for sure.

That's the weird thing about the Bid History page: you have to log out of your selling account so that you can see the bidders' IDs in disguised form, and only then can you click on them to see their 30-day history.

kensgiftshop · ‎01-18-2023

Is it the same household member that got you suspended earlier this month for the same thing?

Have a great day.

lacemaker3 · ‎01-18-2023

@dubsteesllc,

Apparently, based on what @a_c_green posted, you won't be able to see the bidder details page. So I will share what I can see about that.

We can only see the bidder's masked IDs, but when you look at the bid histories for this auction, you will be able to see the bidder's full IDs, I believe. The bidder details page shows that this bidder bid on 2 of your listings in the last 30 days, 4 bids in total, which is 40% of their bid activity, but they didn't win either one. They also have 4 bid retractions in the last 12 months, which is sometimes (not always) an indication of bidding without intending to win.

a_c_green · ‎01-18-2023

@lacemaker3 wrote:
@dubsteesllc,

Apparently, based on what @a_c_green posted, you won't be able to see the bidder details page.

Um, sure you can. Just log out of your account, then go back to the Bid History page for that item, and the (now disguised) bidder IDs can now be used to show you their 30-day activity.

The IDs will remain in the same order as before (when you were logged in), and you can still see their feedback counts, so you can doublecheck who's who.

coolections · ‎01-18-2023

@kensgiftshop wrote:
Is it the same household member that got you suspended earlier this month for the same thing?

@kensgiftshop Good catch. The OP even admitted it happened.

maxine*j · ‎01-18-2023

You were suspended before for shill bidding because a member of your household was bidding on your items. Is that person doing it again? It sounds like it. If so, s/he is shilling for you, or s/he is dumber than a potato, or s/he is deliberately trying to hurt you.

Your previous thread:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Suspended-for-shill-bidding/td-p/33472230

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dubsteesllc · ‎01-18-2023

Oh my goodness. I didn't think of that. Thank you so much! I did have one user that totally flaked out on me; I know for a fact he was interested in several items but kept trying to get me to lower the cost. I did notice yesterday that when I printed out a shipping label, there was a little box on the screen that said "repeat buyer".

dubsteesllc · ‎01-18-2023

Thanks, everyone. I was mostly venting at first because I thought that Ebay was treating me unfairly, then I realized that maybe it is just one of those things that I hadn't thought of.

I appreciate all of the good advice 🙂