The Bot Problem On eBay

[jimmyk01]

What in the blue hell is going on with the bots on this site? eBay used to be seller friendly, but the past few months have been hell. I've literally had times where every auction I had up was won by a Bot. eBay has no answers and just allows the scum to run rampant all over the site.

The fact that the site no longer allows you to leave negative feedback (apparently, eBay is a safe space for scammers) and they don't allow you to set parameters on who can and can't bid on your items that are strict enough to end the bot problem is an absolute joke. Where is UBid when you need it????

[pburn]

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to describe. Can you explain what you mean by "every auction I had up was won by a Bot."

[slippinjimmy]

In 2010 the company (ubid) underwent an involuntary bankruptcy petition.

[lightlily_arts]

Not sure how you came to that conclusion.  Bots don't bid,  people do.  Auctions have plenty of non-paying bidders.

[sean_foltz]

From a buyer side the shill bidding is just as bad with bidders with zero or near zero feedback and buying history zipping around inflating bids.

So what sort of problems are the bot bidders causing you as a seller?

Do you think that it is people with competing items driving your stuff up so that their stuff is cheaper?

I take it these bot bidders never pay for stuff they win.

[jimmyk01]

Yes, I know, it was sarcasm

[jimmyk01]

They bid prices that nobody will match, all have zero feedback and win multiple items. For example, I had 6 Transformers up for auction and a fraudulent account or Bot, whatever we want to call them won every single auction and of course didn't send money. One thing I've noticed is that whenever I send one of these accounts an invoice I get copied in spanish as opposed to seeing it in english when the buyer is legit.

eBay has no answer for this as they just say "put an unpaid item claim in", make you wait days to re-list and that's their solution. eBay needs to start either allowing sellers to prevent zero feedback buyers from buying or they need to start covering the price of the item, but they ignore it while continuing to raise seller fees, the beauty of a monopoly I guess.

Anyway, it's insanely frustrating and there are no solutions from eBay, hell, they don't even let sellers leave negative feedback for buyers. It's a joke.

[jimmyk01]

Bot, deadbeat, whatever you want to call them they are a menace. These clowns have literally won by last 9 auctions.

[pburn]

There's a difference between "deadbeats," "fraudulent accounts," and "bots." 

So, I take it your posts are not about "bots," right?

Rather than auctions, I think the vast majority of eBay item listings are fixed price. The percentage of auctions on eBay is something like 10%. Maybe it's time you switched to fixed-price, with immediate payment required to avoid the issue you've described.

[mam98031]

---

@jimmyk01 wrote:

They bid prices that nobody will match, all have zero feedback and win multiple items. For example, I had 6 Transformers up for auction and a fraudulent account or Bot, whatever we want to call them won every single auction and of course didn't send money. One thing I've noticed is that whenever I send one of these accounts an invoice I get copied in spanish as opposed to seeing it in english when the buyer is legit.

eBay has no answer for this as they just say "put an unpaid item claim in", make you wait days to re-list and that's their solution. eBay needs to start either allowing sellers to prevent zero feedback buyers from buying or they need to start covering the price of the item, but they ignore it while continuing to raise seller fees, the beauty of a monopoly I guess.

Anyway, it's insanely frustrating and there are no solutions from eBay, hell, they don't even let sellers leave negative feedback for buyers. It's a joke.

---

You are misusing the word "bot".  What you are wanting to to mean is not what that shortened word means.  

Bot = Robot  It is a word often used when someone creates a program to go around the site to find certain things.  Or a bot is created to resolved certain issues with certain perimeters.  The are not real humans, they care computer programs.

Not everyone speaks English.  This is a site that has a worldwide reach.  

Ebay will NEVER stop zero FB buyers from purchasing on this site.  That would really be the beginning of the end of all of us here if we were to do that.  Very BAD business to be sure.  We WANT, NEED and ENCOURAGE new buyers to come to the site.  It is the ONLY way we can grow our businesses.  You can't get short sighted about this because you had an issue with a new buyer.

Did you try emailing the buyer?

Negative FB is another really bad thing for business.  Not only does it scare aware good buyers because they are concerned that the seller my hit their account for no good reason, the seller isn't always right.  And to publicly humiliate your customers is very bad business.  Are you aware of any other similar site that allows for the public shaming of buyers?

[mam98031]

To completely avoid non paying buyers, move to Fixed Price listings with IPR [immediate payment required].  That will 100% solve the non paying issue.

[jimmyk01]

I'm not recommending not allowing 0 fb buyers on the site, but we should have the ability as sellers to limit buyers based on zero or neg feedback. If I want to limit my audience, that should be up to me.

Of course I have tried emailing the buyers, problem is they aren't real buyers! Like I said in a post, my last 9 auctions have been won by fake buyers and I have no recourse. One in particular did get flagged and I received an email letting me know after the fact.

As far as "shaming buyers", screw the deadbeats and the fake accounts. Why should any of them be protected while buyers and sellers keep getting screwed by them? This isn't a safe space, it is a business.

[dabunk2000]

Been a c##p hole for years now nothing new