posted on July 7, 2007 01:45:40 PM new
ok...i started a new selling id with a friend selling an item we are having manufactured with our own name and logo and listing these items in the UK. we have received 3 negs in the last month all from users with a 0 feedback rating and all with names that were created in May 2005. also the users have only bid on one thing and they were our products. we suspect the negs are coming from a competitor selling almost the same thing. all 3 bidders have a location near the our competitor (all in the same UK region) but not exactly. we go through the unpaid item process but they are smart enough to respond to it and say they mailed a check. problem is our auctions are Pay Pal only and we do not send our mailing address. we noticed that one of he ebay ids has left one feedback back in 2005 and it was a neg also and the item was also an item our competitor sells. it appears they are using names they created for shill bidding and going after us hard. we are going to try and verify their contact info tomorrow and call the phone #s they have on file. any other tips on how we should handle this? do you think ebay will help or just laugh at us? if i can prove this is our competitor i will not hesitate to get a lawyer and go after them. thanks! tom
posted on July 7, 2007 02:02:36 PM new
If your auctions state PP only, you can cancel the sale because the buyer didn't follow terms of the auction. You might have to add immediate payment clause.
posted on July 7, 2007 02:04:51 PM new
are the bidders in UK?
You can report them and if they ever get suspended,the other IDS could be suspended too for being related to these IDs.
posted on July 7, 2007 02:12:40 PM new
When I first open my shop,a buyer came and bought an item worth over 100 dollars and quickly gave me a bad rating for slow shipping which is not true.
I figure he must be from a competitor,but spending that kind of money ??
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Lets all stop whining !
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posted on July 8, 2007 02:58:51 AM new
Hi Tom, sorry to hear you are having trouble. Unfortunately there are devious small-minded peopled such as this everywhere, not just the UK.
I have dealt with similar instances by contacting ebay. They did take my issues seriously and several IDs were NRU'd after my complaints.
The key is to keep your ebay communications factual and document everything as much as possible. If the IDs involved are actually using this tactic just to ruin your seller reputation, it should be easy enough for eBay to verify but it has been my experience that you will have to tell ebay how to research the issue. Also, fill separate complaints on each ID. Do not group them. Each contact with ebay will be seen as 1 complaint. By filing for each of your concerns, you make sure that multiple eyes at ebay are addressing the problem. If one of your complaints does get handled by a jerk, the odds are the others won't.
Some options you might want to explore:
Check bidding activity of the suspect IDs and see if they have traded or bid on each others listings. Use Advanced Search to review current and completed bidding activity on each ID. Also check their feedback for suspicious buying activity between the IDs. Any evidence such as closed auctions where one ID bid on another's listing will help substantiate your claim. If you see such activity, write to ebay and tell them that you suspect the accounts are being used for shilling.
Do report them for invalid contact info. Ebay will look into it.
Listen to Max. If you have PayPal only listings, in the future you should file for your fees immediately by using this link
Report a buyer who participated in a listing without meeting the listing terms. (If link does not work, you can find this link at eBay help-> Unwelcome and Malicious Buying -> examples)
You can get the feedback removed if the listings meet any of these criteria:
1.Feedback left by a member who provided eBay with false contact information and could not be contacted. In general, the transaction period is considered to be 90 days from the end of the listing or 30 days from the date the feedback was left, whichever was longer.
Feedback left by a member who bid on or purchased an item solely to have the opportunity to leave negative feedback for the seller, with no intention of completing the transaction.
posted on July 8, 2007 08:51:06 AM new
thanks for your help so far. i have reported the names involved using the Unwelcome Buying link and told them my theory that the names belonged to our competitor and to check if there was any shill bidding done with the names in the past. i checked all the email addresses (all used yahoo..go figure) and tried to send each .01 cent using Pay Pal and none of the addresses had a Pay Pal account.
max40: our listings clearly states Pay Pal Only. we reported this once before but ebay UK did nothing...basically said we were SOL...but we didn't use Unwelcome Buying page....maybe someone on from ebay USA will read our complaint and help us.
LtRay: all 3 users have been ebay members since 2005...2 of the id were created on May 5th 2005 (whats the odds of that!) and the other name was created late April 2005. in last 30 days the users have not bid on anything except using Buy It Now to purchase one of our items. 2 of the users have only left one feedback...a negative to us. The other has left 2 feedbacks...a negative to us and a negative to someone back on May 12, 2005 (7 days after they created the name). In their feedback they mention the item name and say it is a cheap fake.....this is the same items our competitor sells and it has to be names they created.
hwahwa: yes, all the bidders leaving us negs are from the UK...but 99% of all of our buyers for this item are in the UK. we list this item on ebay UK exclusively.
posted on July 12, 2007 01:25:14 PM new
update: ebay agreed with me and kicked off the 3 users that left us negative feedback.
all had invalid contact info and none had a pay pal account. we are back to 100%. thanks again for your help. - tom
