My items keep getting bought by fake accounts

[pixel8ed.online]

I have a type of item that selling pretty well and I tend to sell one each week. For the last 4 times the winning bidder was a fake account. There was little attempt to hide this with shipping addresses. This is casuing these items not to sell as these fake accounts end up winning all auctions (what is not buy it now and probably requires tighter security). I've emailed ebay about it and got a canned response which made by really angry. Basically they told me I can block these buyers from future auctions and also not to ship to the country where they are registered. I think this adds insult to injury as the problem is not managing the buyers that don't pay but rather how ebay stops these fake accounts from being created so easily? And why the hell would I ban a country where the fake account is registered to? The account is fake so the buyer can enter a different country next time - narrowing down my target makes no sense whatsoever. Together with some other incidents I had with ebay I really can't help it but feel that ebay does not care at all of any problems you have as a seller. They simply let people hijack your income by not doing enough to stop fake accounts and give you useless tips to manage those "buyers". That is so stupid I can't believe I am actually writing this. ebay customer support emails are being read either by some computer or a guy who does not understand english or does not care about what is being written. How can I get someone to look into this? Is it time to simply look for an alternative that won't rob a huge part of my income and perhaps try to protect me as a seller?

[castlemagicmemories]

List as fixed price, immediate payment required.  Problem solved.

[ed8108]

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@pixel8ed.online wrote:

ebay customer support emails are being read either by some computer or a guy who does not understand english or does not care about what is being written.

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Unfortunately you need to Accept a situation where you do not possess the ability to change it.

[annasunicorns]

Wow that is really frusterating. Do you have blocks for buyers with 2 unpaid item strikes, because thats the only thing I can think of, mark it unpaid, file, block. Id change that particular thing to buy it now only, immeadiate payment only, and I wish I had something better as a solution. Its like winter sets in and every bum is on ebay causing trouble this year.

[gew6463]

Is there any chance this is a competitor doing this? I would not usually jump to that conclusion, but since you are from China (assuming this from the Gameboy listings) I would guess you have some stiff competition, as there are so many other sellers in that category, with similar price range. I've had that kind of sabotage myself, and sadly, there is nothing you can do. Even if you block these people, they can create a new account and buy again.

I would do as already suggested and just stick with BIN auctions. Unless you have enough inventory to deal with items being held up each time because of no-pays. Even if they wanted to, Ebay cannot police the world, or buyers around the world. They don't have the manpower for that, and are already overwhelmed (or so it appears) with enough issues/glitches to deal with just keeping the site going.

I sympathise with you, and know it is frustrating, but it's the reality of it. There are a lot of good buyers out there, and a lot of people prefer BIN auctions these days anyways. And you will save yourself the headache of no-pays. 

[penguins_dont_fly]

@pixel8ed.online wrote:

I have a type of item that selling pretty well and I tend to sell one each week. For the last 4 times the winning bidder was a fake account. There was little attempt to hide this with shipping addresses. This is casuing these items not to sell as these fake accounts end up winning all auctions (what is not buy it now and probably requires tighter security). I've emailed ebay about it and got a canned response which made by really angry. Basically they told me I can block these buyers from future auctions and also not to ship to the country where they are registered. I think this adds insult to injury as the problem is not managing the buyers that don't pay but rather how ebay stops these fake accounts from being created so easily? And why the hell would I ban a country where the fake account is registered to? The account is fake so the buyer can enter a different country next time - narrowing down my target makes no sense whatsoever. Together with some other incidents I had with ebay I really can't help it but feel that ebay does not care at all of any problems you have as a seller. They simply let people hijack your income by not doing enough to stop fake accounts and give you useless tips to manage those "buyers". That is so stupid I can't believe I am actually writing this. ebay customer support emails are being read either by some computer or a guy who does not understand english or does not care about what is being written. How can I get someone to look into this? Is it time to simply look for an alternative that won't rob a huge part of my income and perhaps try to protect me as a seller?

If you want to continue using Auctions, non-payers are a fact of auction life ... but there are ways to mitigate the damage done by "sport bidders".

Go to your site preferences and set your buyer requirements:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/setting-buyer-requirements?id=...

Block buyers without a PayPal account ... gets rid of those "created on the fly" accounts with immature-sounding addresses ... BUT will also block legit buyers who don't link their PP to eBay and buyers that pay with Credit Cards and Guest purchases. This is really cutting off your nose to spite your face, but it might get whatever pre-teen cabal that is targeting you to move on ... so maybe just set it temporarily.

Block buyers that have 2 or more unpaid items in 12 months

Using Fixed Price with Immediate Payment Required is really the best option.

### note ### 

While I've got your attention ... You may want to rethink the sapphire and ruby listings that you have up right now.

You are selling 1 item ... but your picture shows multiples.

Change your main photo to show only one item.

[scrappy-6818]

"Basically they told me I can block these buyers from future auctions"

So, block a "buyer" eh, what... all 8 of em...minimum??, MONTHLY (well...every 30 days anyway)

As we can legitimately have 8 accounts Hells Bells and can change an ID once EVERY 30 DAYS and, to top it all off, have to contend with an (at best) spineless useless excuse for eBay CS, and/or Trust n Safety, is it any wonder we have so many problems (mostly as sellers) on this site.