posted on February 15, 2001 02:48:48 PM
Had a high bidder email this morning. Auction isn't over yet, and the high bidder received an email from another bidder, asking her to drop out of the bidding. This is a rather expensive item, with 6 days left. The underbidder (one of 3) told her his girlfriend is very ill and has wanted this item forever, yadda yadda...so would she please stop bidding against him so he could win. This kind of attempt to manipulate the outcome just pisses me off to no end. For all I know, this person emailed *all* the bidders on the auction.
I asked her to forward the email to me, which she did, but the email addy isn't attached to an ebay account, so I don't know which one of the three underbidders sent it.
Any suggestions? I really want to find out who this is so I can ask them to stay the heck away from my auctions.
posted on February 15, 2001 03:15:26 PM
She doesn't know. That's probably the funniest part about this. Maybe this slimeball just expects her to retract her bid, and emailed her anonymously to avoid being reported? Here is the actual email, with pertinent info removed:
"hi,
i am currently bidding against you for the XXXXX watch. this was to be a valentine present for my girlfriend, who is very ill and who's dying wish is to receive a nice watch. since i'm a poor young man, i
cannot afford the rolex watch that she requested but i found another watch
that would suit her perfectly - the one you are bidding for. please find it
in your heart to stop bidding against me as i would really love to buy this
watch for her.
thank you in advance,"
Can you believe the gall of this maroon? Makes you wonder, though, how often bidder collusion/attempted collusion goes on...
posted on February 15, 2001 03:26:32 PM
If you are using Outlook Express you can get the header information by highlighting the e-mail in the Inbox and then clicking on File and then click on properties. The header will give the e-mail address of the sender. From there is shouldn't be too hard to figure out which underbidder to report. Just a thought.
posted on February 15, 2001 03:36:04 PM
Hi gk -- The forward came without extensive header info.
Hi Reddeer -- The high bidder, who emailed me, has 300+ excellent feedbacks. She's a repeat bidder. The first underbidder is also a repeat bidder with just under 20 feedbacks, and the other two have feedback between 5-10.
If I had to guess as to who it is, I would go with #3 or #4...
posted on February 15, 2001 03:36:27 PM
Oh, please!!
First of all, Valentine's Day was yesterday, jerk, your present is LATE.....and secondly, if she's dying, she not only doesn't need a watch, it is in extremely poor taste to give her something to remind her that time is ticking away. Dying wish, my eye.....I've been near death and the last thing you think about is another Ebay purchase, least of all a watch. Save your money for the funeral.
I hate liars with so little imagination.
Of course, it might not be one of your other bidders at all, but a competitor who just wants to mess up your business....or a jerk from the past who is getting revenge for some unspeakable crime he thinks you committed against him.
But, no matter who it is, it is auction interference, so see if you can trace who it is through his ISP or see if anyone at Safe Harbor is awake and able to help you.
I hope your current high bidder stays in the game and wins.
posted on February 15, 2001 04:06:09 PM
She's dying and wants a Rolex?
But then, when my husband's first wife was dying in a hospice hospital, he had to have her teeth capped - and she wanted to be cremated, no funeral. Go figure.
posted on February 15, 2001 04:14:11 PM
I won an auction once and got an email from another bidder asking me to contact the seller and tell her to give the item to her instead. She said she missed the end of the auction but she would have won if she had been bidding, so it was only fair for her to have it. I told her if it was that important to her she should have been paying attention to when the auction ended. I also told her I wanted the item, that's why I bid on it. I asked her how she could rack up so much feedback and not know about Proxy bidding.
posted on February 15, 2001 04:39:28 PM
If this happened to me I would send a copy of the forwarded email (without any headers) to the rest of the bidders and say 'It has been brought to my attention that someone has been trying to manipulate this auction by emailing the bidders. EBay considers this to be "auction interference", a serious offense. If you have or should you receive any communication of this sort, please forward the email with full headers to [email protected] and please disregard the email. It is obvious that whoever sent it is trying to keep anyone from bidding against him/her.' This would at least let the person that sent it know that you are onto them & keep everyone else in the bidding.
posted on February 15, 2001 04:43:47 PM
OH MY GOD BREAK OUT THE VIOLINS!
If I were dying the last thing I would be worried about is a watch!!!!! How about a cure for whatever is killing me????? See if you can find that on Ebay insteaf of a stinky watch!
That is a big bunch of hogwash! Dont fall for that one! If its something you really want then go for it!
posted on February 15, 2001 05:15:35 PM
being the harsh jerk that I am I would cancel all the bids and end the auction early. Any of the underbidders except the one who contacted you I would list to safe harbour as not being allowed to bid on your auctions again. It is rough and a shotgun approuch but it will exclude the interfering bidder from bothering you again.
posted on February 15, 2001 05:29:53 PM
(tounge in cheek)
Too bad the gentleman with the dying girlfriend cannot be trusted. If he could be trusted a compasionate solution would be to offer to rent the watch to him at say $100 a day until his girlfriend dies, then he could simply send it back to you and you could refund him the remainder of the $10,000 deposit he has sent you.
In the mean time, since the high-bidder has contacted you about the e-mail, I am certain they have no intention of backing down from thier bid. Either that or stop the auction make the high-bidder the winner.
posted on February 15, 2001 09:12:32 PM
Hiya Julesy
Ok, seems like it's at least down to 2 bidders. I have to agree with the suggestion debbielennon gave ya, seems like it might solve the problem? At least the scurvy dog would know you're onto them.
posted on February 15, 2001 09:37:23 PM
Yep, I think I'm going to go with debbielennon's suggestion (thank you!). I also might direct the email at bidders #3 and #4 only as I don't care about offending either one of them. Well, I care, but not that much.
I exchanged another email with my high bidder, who initmated that she was going to win this item at any cost...my fingers are crossed!
posted on February 16, 2001 02:28:57 AM
Perhaps one of those countdown clocks like we saw in the post office counting down the time to the end of 1999? Then everyone could be of good cheer and applaud if she makes it past the doctor's estimate!
