eBay

beautifulbeauty2012 · ‎08-09-2019

You`d think that real people interested in your items and they watch it. Just when you go to send an offer, you realize that there is no human watching your item (you can`t send an offer to all or some), but eBay`s bots make an impression that there is interest. And eBay is not hiding that they use bots. Why to mislead this way?

turquoisetulips · ‎08-09-2019

@beautifulbeauty2012 wrote:
You`d think that real people interested in your items and they watch it. Just when you go to send an offer, you realize that there is no human watching your item (you can`t send an offer to all or some), but eBay`s bots make an impression that there is interest. And eBay is not hiding that they use bots. Why to mislead this way?

If that's correct ,, then possibly to keep sellers full of false hope and from moving on ? Don't know ,, but it would explain the numerous watchers for weeks on items that never sell. Tulips

this*old*attic · ‎08-09-2019

People opt out of the notices - I did.

mr_lincoln · ‎08-09-2019

@beautifulbeauty2012 I think I read somewhere that the early Views on items are eBay checking the listing (like maybe 1 & 2) ... for GTC however the Views and Watchers just keep accumulating each time the item Relists ...

Do you know for sure that some "Watchers" are eBay Bots and not other members?

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

beautifulbeauty2012 · ‎08-09-2019

@mr_lincoln wrote:
Do you know for sure that some "Watchers" are eBay Bots and not other members?

@mr_lincoln

Yes. The way to see it is when you go to send offers, and the system cannot do that to all or some (let`s say three watchers, and an offer can be sent to two or one only, or not to any - maybe 1/4 of all times I send offers those I bots). I discussed the bots with CS rep (in the US office), so it is very known thing at eBay. Rep didn`t say the reason for bots, but was fully aware of it.

this*old*attic · ‎08-09-2019

No, he was either making it up as he went along or to agree with you, or you misunderstood.

People opt out of the messages.

Think about it - if EBay were faking interest in your item, why would a low level employee know that and why would they admit it?

luckythewinner · ‎08-09-2019

@beautifulbeauty2012 wrote:
You`d think that real people interested in your items and they watch it. Just when you go to send an offer, you realize that there is no human watching your item (you can`t send an offer to all or some), but eBay`s bots make an impression that there is interest. And eBay is not hiding that they use bots. Why to mislead this way?

Are you saying that eBay has admitted to using "bots" to add watchers to listings? This is the first I have heard of this.

Ansd when you say "when you go to send an offer, you realize that there is no human watching your item", what exactly do you mean? Are you saying that when you send an offer to watchers, it tells you that it an eBay-controlled account? Again, this is the first I have heard of this.

beautifulbeauty2012 · ‎08-09-2019

@turquoisetulips wrote:
If that's correct ,, then possibly to keep sellers full of false hope and from moving on ? Don't know ,, but it would explain the numerous watchers for weeks on items that never sell. Tulips

And I personally relist those items with watchers first, but if those are not people...

mr_lincoln · ‎08-09-2019

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@beautifulbeauty2012 I think I read somewhere that the early Views on items are eBay checking the listing (like maybe 1 & 2) ... for GTC however the Views and Watchers just keep accumulating each time the item Relists ...
Do you know for sure that some "Watchers" are eBay Bots and not other members?

Well, I learned something new today ... or at least had some suspicions confirmed, thank you ... how rude, deceitful, underhanded, misleading, manipulative ... so it sounds like the Views and Watch counters are useless ... I've never sent offers to Watchers ... I wonder if the Bots have any money ...

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

beautifulbeauty2012 · ‎08-09-2019

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
@beautifulbeauty2012 I think I read somewhere that the early Views on items are eBay checking the listing (like maybe 1 & 2) ... for GTC however the Views and Watchers just keep accumulating each time the item Relists ...
Do you know for sure that some "Watchers" are eBay Bots and not other members?
Well, I learned something new today ... or at least had some suspicions confirmed, thank you ... how rude, deceitful, underhanded, misleading, manipulative ... so it sounds like the Views and Watch counters are useless ... I've never sent offers to Watchers ... I wonder if the Bots have any money ...

Try to send some offer, see if you are "lucky" with bots. When I initially was sending offers and the system was giving me an error that an offer could not be sent, I took it as a glitch, and after few attempts gave up. Then I was reading on the board about it, then brought this subject to eBay rep...No surprise, yes, bots are watching.

If there are multiple watchers, you can check how many offers actually was sent. Today sent two with three watchers, and both had only two real people out of three watchers.

eburtonlab · ‎08-09-2019

@beautifulbeauty2012

Not everyone watching an item is a prospective buyer waiting for the price to drop to make an immediate purchase. Some watchers do not want to receive a lot of emails from eBay and some disable the offer feature entirely.

Currently I am watching over 2000 items. A few are items I am actively seeking to purchase soon. I may watch several of the same item before deciding which one is the best deal. I have purchased a couple of items after receiving an offer-to-watcher message from the seller, but I have passed on several other offers.

Many watched listings are possible spares or spare parts for items I may need to repair or replace at some point that are watched just so that I can find them again quickly when needed. Rather than wait for something to break and then frantically search for spare parts, I prepare a search ahead of time and find the best deals in advance, then wait to see if a need arises.

Others are items that I already have but that I am curious about the market value and I want to know how much they eventually sell for.

Still others are parts of a set that I may purchase if I can find the rest of the missing pieces at a reasonable price.

Some are fraudulent listings that I have reported to eBay and I am waiting to see how long it takes for them to be removed.

And I have an entire list of items that are just above $75, so that if I get one of those "$15 off of $75 purchase" coupons, I will be able to put it to good use quickly.

beautifulbeauty2012 · ‎08-09-2019

@eburtonlab wrote:
@beautifulbeauty2012

Not everyone watching an item is a prospective buyer waiting for the price to drop to make an immediate purchase. Some watchers do not want to receive a lot of emails from eBay and some disable the offer feature entirely.

Currently I am watching over 2000 items. A few are items I am actively seeking to purchase soon.

But you are a real person, and real people do watch and might buy - no question about that. The thing is that not all watchers are real people.

eburtonlab · ‎08-09-2019

@beautifulbeauty2012

When I initially was sending offers and the system was giving me an error that an offer could not be sent, I took it as a glitch, and after few attempts gave up.

Some categories do not have offers-to-watchers enabled at all, and some actual watchers have disabled the feature and so cannot receive the offers, so I would not read too much into the fact that you could not send an offer to a particular watcher or for a particular item.

soapsnstuds · ‎08-09-2019

They are indeed bots.

And if you pay close attention, you'll see that they stop watching after 24-36 hours, in most cases.

beautifulbeauty2012 · ‎08-09-2019

@eburtonlab wrote:
@beautifulbeauty2012

When I initially was sending offers and the system was giving me an error that an offer could not be sent, I took it as a glitch, and after few attempts gave up.

Some categories do not have offers-to-watchers enabled at all, and some actual watchers have disabled the feature and so cannot receive the offers, so I would not read too much into the fact that you could not send an offer to a particular watcher or for a particular item.

A few days ago, there was a discussion here with a question how to get on a seller`s watch list to have a chance to get an offer, and the answer was to opt out for offers. So if that is the case, then only those who enable that feature are on a Seller`s watchers list, and those who have that option disabled are not.