posted on December 23, 2000 11:06:28 AM
I host dutch auctions for products that many other sellers sell (grandfather clocks, cds, leather jackets etc.) Now, the problem is that an auction can close with tons of bids (say over 50) for the dutch auction.
Then someone who is suspended from eBay, not on eBay, or on using another id and email address NOT registered on eBay and emails the winners offering the product at a lower price, or sometimes impersonating the seller.
Yes, I know ebay recently took a step in teh right direction to combat this by making it harder to find email addresses, but it seems that many or even perhaps most people use thier email address AS thier id and this makes it easy for email gathering tools to gather addresses.
Why cant ebay offer the option of privacy in dutch auctions as well? Ok, I can see the potential here for abuse if someone is offering a few identical products. But if someone is selling something for, say, 5.99 or 19.99 and they are selling 1000 units then it is obviously a fixed price type auction. IN that case, there is not really an oppertunity for the seller to commit fraud with the format, but plenty of room for competotirs to steal business.
The worst part is eBay wont do a damned thing if the email address isn't registered with ebay. Even if the eBay sees the email with a full address for payment that is the same as a REGISTERED ebay account, they wont do anything.
posted on December 26, 2000 10:18:01 AM
Has anyone else had this problem of bottomfeeders using unregistered ebay addresses on them? How do you deal with it?
posted on December 26, 2000 10:45:52 AM
Well I think the new abuses with shill bidding would be less than the abuses on eBay sellers by other people using unregistered accounts. Afterall, eBay sellers *ARE* ebay's customers!!
posted on December 26, 2000 10:55:26 AM
Reddeer, I like bhearsch's suggestions. But while we're at it (and maybe I'll make a new thread for this), I wanna address soemthign else.
The obtainh other persons contact info is totaly unfair and unwarranted. I am a college student and if I entered my real phone # in there I'd have to put up with people calling me instead of emailing me with problems. I dont have time to answer calls, if I did I'd put the phone # in my auctions. Thus I have to use a fake #, and some people will go and report that to ebay and that in and of itself is an infraction..well so friggin what. Noone should have to know my personal phone # if I dont want them to..besides ebay maybe...if at all
posted on December 26, 2000 11:08:04 AM
Ed, I use my work phone number, which is legal with eBay, so having your "personal" number is not an issue.
Ain't Life Grand...
posted on December 26, 2000 11:39:10 AM
yeah well....I am a college student who runs a small business in my spare time to make money to cover tuition and other fees. I cant really afford to setup many phone #s. All I can say is I never sell more than I have time to manage and don't appreciate bottom feeders stealing my customers while eBay does nothing abuot it.
If you list a fake number on ebay you deserve to get suspended !
The contact number is there for a reason !
If you have time to sell on ebay and you have time to post ALL these threads on AW, then you should have time to answer a phone call and discuss any problems you might have with your customers.
posted on December 26, 2000 08:42:23 PM
Nope. Nor do I have to. I dont need people calling me at 3am to discuss problems. Sorry, I just don't buy that argument Cix.
