How to report a seller with a shill bidder

[+batari]

I have been trying to figure out how to report a seller with an obvious shill bidder. By chance I clicked on the bid history of one account that seemed fishy and found this:

 

30-Day Summary Total bids: 2285 Items bid on: 347 Bid activity (%) with this seller: 95% Bid retractions: 348

 

95% of the bids are for the ONE seller in question and there are almost exactly as many bid retractions as items bid on. So, I clicked through eBay and got to an ebay page that said:

How do I report shill bidding?

If you think that another member is shill bidding, you don't need to report it to us. eBay has a number of systems in place to detect and monitor bidding patterns and practices. If we identify any malicious behavior, we'll take steps to prevent it.

 

Clearly that is total BS, as if the bidder above got through, they have fucked up standards and this thief is sneaking just under the radar.

So I went through the steps to try to report the seller anyway. On the way I saw a page about there being serious consequences for filing a false report, as if to scare you. But I seemed to get somewhere, and after a few pages I got to a page that said:

 

 

You should only report a seller if you think they're violating our policies, for example:

• They offer to sell you a listed item outside of eBay
• They don't intend to complete the sale
• They sent threatening messages or used abusive or vulgar language
• They published another member's contact information
• The seller has provided you with false contact information
• You suspect the seller is under the age of 18

This isn't an exhaustive list – you'll find all of our policies here.

We take all reports seriously, and if we find that a member has been violating our policies, we will take appropriate action. For privacy reasons, we're unable to discuss any actions we take against other eBay members.

Done

 

Clicking "Done" DOES NOT take you to a page where you can actually report someone. It brings you to a generic help page with no way to report a bad seller except on an item you didn't receive, and there's a generic "chat with ebay" link that I bet wouldn't do anything.

 

Any advice on how to actually report shilling?

[+cvga]

Sucks that you even have to report it. They should be able to monitor and discover this type of behavior without the users even getting involved.

[+stupus]

Why would ebay want to stop shill bidders, it makes them a killing. But make a deal outside ebay and they will be all over your ass.

Ebay has become a total joke. The new 10% taxes added to EVERY purchase is the icing on the cake. Who got the $50 in tax for my purchase from the uk. I dont think thats even legal to do.

Edited February 12, 2020 by stupus

[+batari]

30 minutes ago, stupus said:

Why would ebay want to stop shill bidders, it makes them a killing. But make a deal outside ebay and they will be all over your ass.

Ebay has become a total joke. The new 10% taxes added to EVERY purchase is the icing on the cake. Who got the $50 in tax for my purchase from the uk. I dont think thats even legal to do.

So much for eBay wanting to do the right thing. Somehow none of this is surprising.

[Shawn]

1 hour ago, batari said:

So much for eBay wanting to do the right thing. Somehow none of this is surprising.

 

I've found that reporting shill bidding doesn't do a thing, sadly. 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

On 2/11/2020 at 6:31 PM, stupus said:

Why would ebay want to stop shill bidders, it makes them a killing. But make a deal outside ebay and they will be all over your ass.

Ebay has become a total joke. The new 10% taxes added to EVERY purchase is the icing on the cake. Who got the $50 in tax for my purchase from the uk. I dont think thats even legal to do.

While I'm not familiar with the specific taxes where you are from. Here in Oklahoma we have just Sales tax and that applies to all food and retail items. And that percentage varies from county to county and city to city. Because the actual sales tax you pay is a combination of the percentage from the city and the county you live in to get your State sales tax you are responsible for when purchasing items. In my case where I live that is currently 8.517%. As a result the tax I'm paying on ebay purchases is based on that percent due to my address in my account I believe and the state of Oklahoma gets that from Ebay as I don't have to file anything additional for that on my end. 

 

So to answer your question about whom got the $50 in taxes, I would assume your local state and government is claiming that...

[+stupus]

Yes, we have local sales tax here. But only on items purchased within the district. And its not as high as 10%. More like 6-7.5% depending on the goods.

For online purchases we previously based it off an estimation chart in the federal tax handbook and claimed a very small charge on our taxes.

Now ebay just adds about 10% to every purchase, looks like its on the shipping too regardless of where i purchase something from. I dont see how they can charge local sales tax on an item from europe. Seems more like a way to get import duties that we have never paid for in the past in the usa.

I would hope my local government gets it.....but something tells me they dont get all this new worldwide taxing ebay is doing.

And does paypal get 4% of that too...and ebay some too? Its ridiculous imo.

Not to mention most ebay stuff is used and already had tax collected when it was sold new.

 

[+Lathe26]

When someone retracts a bid on one of my eBay items, I block that buyer (unless they type in a really good reason).  Any eBay buyer who does this twice to me, regardless of reason, is blocked.

 

Here's the article on how to block a buyer:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/working-buyers/buyer-blacklist?id=4082

 

In case anyone want to get started blocking eBay buyers, here he's my list.  Most, but not all, are blocked are because of bid retractions.

gfee5939, ghost-tek, ma_elal, sammer317, vgsale2012, yamatoku-classic

[+Lathe26]

Note: the above only protects yourself as a seller.  This doesn't report or protect the rest of eBay from these folks.

[Rik1138]

17 hours ago, stupus said:

Yes, we have local sales tax here. But only on items purchased within the district. And its not as high as 10%. More like 6-7.5% depending on the goods.

For online purchases we previously based it off an estimation chart in the federal tax handbook and claimed a very small charge on our taxes.

Now ebay just adds about 10% to every purchase, looks like its on the shipping too regardless of where i purchase something from. I dont see how they can charge local sales tax on an item from europe. Seems more like a way to get import duties that we have never paid for in the past in the usa.

I would hope my local government gets it.....but something tells me they dont get all this new worldwide taxing ebay is doing.

And does paypal get 4% of that too...and ebay some too? Its ridiculous imo.

Not to mention most ebay stuff is used and already had tax collected when it was sold new.

 

That's the new federal laws that went into effect I think at the beginning of this year.  Online purchases are taxed based on the BUYER's location, not the seller.  So it doesn't matter where the seller is located, you will be taxed on ALL purchases made on eBay.

The percentage should be comparable to what sales tax would be for anything you buy locally I believe, if you think it's too high, you might try asking eBay about it, if they will respond...  There's a whole page of legal-eze on the Illinois' government website about the new tax changes, but it was more reading than I really cared for... 

 

Illinois is a state where shipping is also taxable, so you will be taxed on that as well.

 

When eBay started doing this, there would always be two payments taken from PayPal- the auction price + shipping, and a separate transaction for tax.  Now they do it all in one, but I believe the tax is itemized out if you look at the details.  I'm pretty sure neither eBay nor PayPal is taking a percentage of the tax for themselves...

 

As for 'tax collected only when it was sold new', I don't think that's a thing...  At least not in any state I've lived in... Pawn shops, thrift stores, etc (places that all sell 'used merchandise') always charge sales tax when they 'resell' items...

 

And, for what it's worth, this should apply to ANY online purchases (Amazon, etc).  The days of tax-free online purchasing are, unfortunately, over...