bidder canceled multiple bids made during the course of a day,and claiming "wrong amount bid"

[tkobo]

This has apparently changed from when i oringinally signed up,almost 2O years ago...And now i wonder if its used as a way to scam sellers and other bidders alike....

How was he able to remove multiple bids,made at different times,with one retraction and claim "wrong amount" ? That he could do so,really makes ebay look inept....AND isnt he required to then enter a "correct" bid ? How is it he was able to not do so...

[takikawa4]

What I would do is block that buyer. Apparently, it no longer matters to eBay whether or not a buyer has numerous retractions. Even if you reported the buyer to eBay, they won't do anything about it.

[chris.booth]

i had that happen to me a few years ago this is how the scam workes , you list someting expecting it to sell for £200 ,,   mid week someone offers a max bid of £300 when the listing is at £20 and nothing happens as the other person only bit up to £20 ,,, later another max bid off £400  so your price jumps up to £300 you are pleased thinking it will sell and no one else bids as way to high now  ,,, no one is now even wacthing it  ...  just before the close one of the high bits is retracted leaveing the bid now back at £20 with no one wacthing or bidding so someone gets a bargin

[pinkrose442savings2018]

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@chris.booth wrote:

i had that happen to me a few years ago this is how the scam workes , you list someting expecting it to sell for £200 ,,   mid week someone offers a max bid of £300 when the listing is at £20 and nothing happens as the other person only bit up to £20 ,,, later another max bid off £400  so your price jumps up to £300 you are pleased thinking it will sell and no one else bids as way to high now  ,,, no one is now even wacthing it  ...  just before the close one of the high bits is retracted leaveing the bid now back at £20 with no one wacthing or bidding so someone gets a bargin

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Thank you for sharing this...tricky...business wish they had a ATTENTION BLOCK and suppended for 90 days to the buyer... like using a trade mark...not tolerated on eBay...that's aweful unacceptable behavior...a BLOCK for sure not tolerated at all...

[keat-suss]

I don't do many auctions, but I had a similar situation maybe 6 months ago. This person was high bidder on two separate auctions. One day I got a retraction on one auction, and a few hours later she retracted her bid on a second. Both times gave the excuse that she had made a mistake in the bidding.  They weren't high price items, but still  . . . after the second one, I sent her a message through ebay noting it was the second bid she had retracted that day and that it appeared she was trying to manipulate the bid price, which is in violation of ebay rules. I said please don't do this again or I'll notify ebay. She sent me a note back saying how offended she was by my email and gave some excuse like how she was trying to win two auctions of mine so she could combine shipping but then when she saw it wasn't going to work she went in and just retracted the bid that topped the other bid so my price would still be just about as high . . . first of all, she was high bidder so that doesn't make sense, and second of all, doesn't that sound to you like she was manipulating the bidding? Anyway, I blocked her so she couldn't bid on my other auctions and haven't had any more trouble.  Since the dollar amount was relatively low I didn't think it was worth the trouble of reporting her, but you might think otherwise on your auction.  Meanwhile, yes, add the bidder to your blocked list so they can't do it again.

It surprises me, too, that someone can retract a bid and sy it was the wrong amount without having to offer an alternate bid that was the correct amount!

Sorry that happened to you!

Susan

[iart]

Auctions aren't what they used to be in here. Another reason to price your item at or near the lowest you would be willing to accept. At least then if someone robs you it isn't too bad.

[thatsliferm536]

Block the person. 

[mrflintstones]

There is a few bidding tools out there, That bid penny auctions up in mass . They could have put 6.00 instead of .60 cents and did one thousand bids in a few hours.

[megadestroyers]

20 years ago, one ID was used for EVERYTHING!  These days seasoned buyers have multiple accounts that are used to serve many a purpose beyond simply placing a bid in hopes of winning.  And it's not just buyers.  Sellers can create a buyer ID for several, let's just say, less than savory purposes.

It's a "new" ebay.  

[luckythewinner]

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@tkobo wrote:
How was he able to remove multiple bids,made at different times,with one retraction and claim "wrong amount" ? That he could do so,really makes ebay look inept....AND isnt he required to then enter a "correct" bid ? How is it he was able to not do so...

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First, the bids made at different times were likely incremental proxy bids based on his initial bid amount.

Second, eBay was doing you a favor.

The last thing a seller needs is for eBay to force buyers to pay for items they clearly do not want.

If they did, the buyer would simply file a false "Not As Described" complaint and get a refund - costing you time, effort, and the cost of shipping the item both ways.

[itsjustasprain]

If you look at the record of that deadbeat bidder you will see that he has 88 BID RETRACTIONS showing in his history. Clearly he does not take bidding seriously. Block that clown and forget about thim.

[godzilla_goose]

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@chris.booth wrote:

i had that happen to me a few years ago this is how the scam workes , you list someting expecting it to sell for £200 ,,   mid week someone offers a max bid of £300 when the listing is at £20 and nothing happens as the other person only bit up to £20 ,,, later another max bid off £400  so your price jumps up to £300 you are pleased thinking it will sell and no one else bids as way to high now  ,,, no one is now even wacthing it  ...  just before the close one of the high bits is retracted leaveing the bid now back at £20 with no one wacthing or bidding so someone gets a bargin

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@chris.booth

The desciption of that suspicious bidding activity is what was referred to as "Bid Shielding" and more likely than not, it was the SAME bidder who used TWO bidding IDs to place the different bids and used ONE of the bidding IDs to retract their higher bid thus screwing the seller.

[partial*eclipse]

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@tkobo wrote:

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 ... How was he able to remove multiple bids,made at different times,with one retraction and claim "wrong amount" ? ...

When an auction has more than 12 hours left, and if a member retracts a bid, eBay will automatically retract all of the bids they have placed.  This is not some strategy or option that the bidder implemented.

When a buyer chooses the reason "bid wrong amount," they are supposed to re-bid, but there is no way for eBay to enforce this policy.

[a_c_green]

In the case of the OP's auction here, the retracting bidder did so two days before the end of the auction, so it does not look like bid shielding. However, he then returned and re-bid at the end of the auction, but failed. If he had bid just 46¢ more, he would have been one penny ahead of the previous leader, and won it.

I suspect it was better for the OP that the guy didn't win it, since he would probably just change his mind again and try to return it later.

[postingid7659]

You can report this activity but it requires a phone call to eBay, and then getting someone far enough up the chain to have a clue about it. There is no online means to report it anymore.