Bidder puts in some pretty high bids on some hard to find items.
Day before auction ends, all his bids are canceled due to "administrative cancellation" and he is now NARU. Lots of recent negs for non-pay but does have some positives for quick payments in the middle of the negs.
Auction ends, discover winning bidder is brand new w/an ID that looks familiar. I check & discover this ID is virtually identical to the NARU bidder ID & was created several hours after the other one was NARU. Therefore I suspect he's just gotten a new ID (an AOL account, btw).
Responds in timely fashion to EOA & asks about paying w/PayPal. Given info. Never hear from him again. Sent notice payment overdue & ask him to contact me. No further response.
I pull his bid history & contact every seller where the auction has ended and ask if they've received payment (I don't include ANY of my suspicions about his "new ID", just mention I'm a fellow seller who's having trouble reaching this buyer).
Out of the other sellers, only 1 has received payment, most have either gotten only an initial response to their EOA or no response at all.
I pull his contact info on the "new" ID. Run reverse lookup on the phone number, it doesn't come back as a valid number. Run a check on the address he gave, doesn't give any match of this name and this address.
This evening I check his bidding & he's bidding on some very high ticket items & running the prices up pretty high on some others.
I know ebay forbids me to contact the sellers on these open auctions but I sure wish there were some way to warn them to be very careful because they could end up in the same situation as the rest of us...filing for NPB on what appears to be a thrill bidder.
posted on July 25, 2001 06:31:03 PM
I've gotten a few sports bidders, sometimes on expensive items. (It took me 3 times to sell one item that went for over $300).
Only eBay legal way to even try to warn the other sellers is to NEG right now. Some will tell to think of your bottom line, and not care about the other sellers (after all, we aren't a community).
A plain old Deadbeat, I might let slide, and I might not, depending. But a Sports Bidder who screws up hundreds of auctions just for the fun of it?
posted on July 25, 2001 07:06:54 PM
If you know or suspect the contact info on the "new" ID is wrong, can't you notify timesensitive@ebay? That is in violation of their TOS and can earn them a suspension.
If you suspect it is a new ID created in place of one recently NARU and can make a pretty good case, you could let ebay know that too. I'd be sure and note the similarities and how the suspect "new" one was created just hours after the other one was NARU! That is in violation of their TOS and can earn them a suspension too.
It might earn them an "administrative NARU" and although that could be harmful to the sellers' current prices, they do have the option of ending the auction early in that event. Also, if this guy is playing games, the sellers' aren't going to come out ahead anyway are they?
I'd already sent the information I gathered on to ebay in hopes they'll check it out & NARU the new ID if it's the same person as the old ID.
It's been a couple of days & I still haven't heard anything from them and he's still bidding on new items, some of them being bid up pretty high by him.
IF it's the same person, I just hope ebay will bounce him out soon. Of course, he'll probably just create another new one just as soon as the next one is NARU.
I sure wish ebay would put some better procedures in place to find these people BEFORE they start all over again.
I just checked my email & ebay has informed me the new ID is now NARU. Though they won't come out & say it, it appears the information I gave them about his earlier ID was on the mark & they bounced him.
Looks like the other sellers and I will be heading over to get our FVF as soon as possible.
Now...a final moral question to answer. Though this ID is now NARU, his history is to create a new one & bid back in the same auctions.
Will I be violating ebay's rules if I contact the sellers in the auctions still running & tell them what I know about the 2 earlier IDs and give them a heads up?
This was a $125+ lost sale for me but he had a four figure bid in on one person's auction that still has a couple of days to run.
posted on July 25, 2001 10:02:56 PMWill I be violating ebay's rules if I contact the sellers in the auctions still running & tell them what I know about the 2 earlier IDs and give them a heads up?
No, as neither of those users/losers are registered users.
