Has ebay sunk to new lows?

[apochronaut]

Is it possible? In general ebay works. For both buyers and sellers of microscopes and parts, it offers a unique market connection, that would be hard to replace. Ebay works for ebay too, by charging a percentage on sales, as well as a listing fee. The more something sells for, the more they make.
Ebay knows the ceiling that a high bidder puts on an item. Sometimes, towards the end of an auction, a competing bidder will put in several bids in an effort to find that ceiling. This happens all the time. Some of those feeler bids end up being late, so should not qualify. It turns out that sometimes ebay includes them, even if they are late.
Twice now, I have been presented with a page from ebay that says I have won a certain auction at a certain price, only to revisit the auction and see the price 3 times what I had been told I won it for. In the most recent case, 81.00 instead of the 26.50 that the original winning page stated. A look at the bidding shows 3 incremental bids, put in at the very end of the auction.
I don't know what is happening here. I have not received a call from an ebay supervisor regarding this issue but on the surface it looks like they are playing with the clock, in order to maximize profit.

[zzffnn]

Maybe take a photo of that "26.50" winning bid next time and challenge the "81.00" quote from eBay?

[apochronaut]

I intend to take a picture of all "congratulations" pages from now on. Ebay has also reversed wins. In other words, put up a final winning page, only to show the auction as lost to a higher bid, subsequently. I challenged one such decision, only to be told that the winning bid was put in .1 seconds before the end and their system isn't precise enough to accomodate such close timing. That's why I got a winning notification, when in fact, I had not won. I'm pretty sure the system is set to generate a winning notification, when and only after the auction is over, otherwise it would be fraudulent. So, that begs the question of whether ebay is setting the reception time of late bids back, in order to generate more profit, which it seems would also be fraud.

[NicoVB]

Got something else strange.
I auctioned an old objective, but i lost the auction.
While i was browsing for another one, i suddenly got a notification that the object was available again and i could be the winner if I wanted.
That happened within 5 minutes.
Huh?
But already found another one at that time, a bit cheaper and in a better state, so i declined.
Strange things.

With more and more sellers you can place a "proposition".
I noticed this often leads to a direct sell, behind the back off eBay.
So prices drop quickly 15-20%, and that is a good thing.
But you have no guaranty of a fair sell off-course, foul play could be in place...

[billbillt]

The seller was bidding against you to get the price as high as possible without "bidding" a value you will not top... He failed, and then offered it to you at your highest bid as if the other bidder had "backed out".. Happens a lot.. Crooks..

[apochronaut]

I have subsequently talked to an ebay "supervisor" about this and the other similar situations I witnessed, after placing another call to them. The answer I got was this: if I had a screen shot of the winning page, then their technical team ( it's always a team now; I wonder how teamlike the team actually is?), could verify my claim and have something to work with. This is just plain B.S. A screen shot could be completely bogus. It's just a visual record and could be fabricated. I told him the screen shot in my head, is just as valid and pointed out that they already have a digital record of that page that they generated to my computer. I guess, so do I but I wouldn't know how to access it . Eventually, he tried to divert the conversation to the reason I was not called back earlier, because he was getting into a nonsensical challenge of my claim, such as ebay not having any way to intervene in an auction. Anyway, they are supposed to investigate this incident and let me know what they found out, no later than 4 days from now.
I suspect this is more common, if it has already happened to me 3 times, that I know of. I'm not usually present to monitor an auctions end, nor would it be that common for buyers to be generally. Ebay, may be on to a big unwarranted profit boost here.

[zzffnn]

If you have not erased the web browser history, that page may still be in your computer or smartphone. Assuming the page content was stable for sometime and did not change over time.

[CaptainKirk]

Is it possible? In general ebay works. For both buyers and sellers of microscopes and parts, it offers a unique market connection, that would be hard to replace. Ebay works for ebay too, by charging a percentage on sales, as well as a listing fee. The more something sells for, the more they make.
Ebay knows the ceiling that a high bidder puts on an item. Sometimes, towards the end of an auction, a competing bidder will put in several bids in an effort to find that ceiling. This happens all the time. Some of those feeler bids end up being late, so should not qualify. It turns out that sometimes ebay includes them, even if they are late.
Twice now, I have been presented with a page from ebay that says I have won a certain auction at a certain price, only to revisit the auction and see the price 3 times what I had been told I won it for. In the most recent case, 81.00 instead of the 26.50 that the original winning page stated. A look at the bidding shows 3 incremental bids, put in at the very end of the auction.
I don't know what is happening here. I have not received a call from an ebay supervisor regarding this issue but on the surface it looks like they are playing with the clock, in order to maximize profit.

I downloaded a program that automatically bids at last second, given a plugged in set of variables (like bid ceiling) you can set prior. It's NEVER lost an auction- oh very very high sought after items (15 watchers or more) God I love technology.

[zzffnn]

I apologize for being so blunt. But those apps only help with timing and absence. If you always win on competitive items, that only means you have higher bid ceiling than others.

apo knows those programs by the way. I have used a similar program and lost a few times. Usually I am only willing to pay bargain price, so chances of me losing is much higher than winning.

[apochronaut]

Is it possible? In general ebay works. For both buyers and sellers of microscopes and parts, it offers a unique market connection, that would be hard to replace. Ebay works for ebay too, by charging a percentage on sales, as well as a listing fee. The more something sells for, the more they make.
Ebay knows the ceiling that a high bidder puts on an item. Sometimes, towards the end of an auction, a competing bidder will put in several bids in an effort to find that ceiling. This happens all the time. Some of those feeler bids end up being late, so should not qualify. It turns out that sometimes ebay includes them, even if they are late.
Twice now, I have been presented with a page from ebay that says I have won a certain auction at a certain price, only to revisit the auction and see the price 3 times what I had been told I won it for. In the most recent case, 81.00 instead of the 26.50 that the original winning page stated. A look at the bidding shows 3 incremental bids, put in at the very end of the auction.
I don't know what is happening here. I have not received a call from an ebay supervisor regarding this issue but on the surface it looks like they are playing with the clock, in order to maximize profit.

I downloaded a program that automatically bids at last second, given a plugged in set of variables (like bid ceiling) you can set prior. It's NEVER lost an auction- oh very very high sought after items (15 watchers or more) God I love technology.

I think you missed the point. I am very familiar with ebay auctions, sniping programs etc. I did not lose the auction, I won the auction but the price I won it at, was presented briefly on the screen at the auctions conclusion, as a won auction at a certain price, only to change upon a later viewing of
the auctions results, to a price 3 times higher than the original winning price. Using a sniping program would have had no effect in this case, because the end result of the auction would have been the same and the price elevation would still have taken place, because it resulted due to an independent action, after the auction had finished . It appears to be the result of ebay accepting bids that were received at or slightly after the auctions close. They have confirmed to me, that the page indicating that an auction has been won, is not generated until the auction has been closed, yet they deny that it is at all possible that the final price could change after the auction has closed. They also denied that they have the ability to replicate the original page that was generated at the auctions close. When I asked if they would be able to replicate it , if I supplied them with a screen shot of the page, they( their rep., that is) said yes. These two mutually exclusive scenarios, seem unlikely to be factual to me, since a screen shot could be fabricated to have the wrong price on it and be absolutely valueless in helping them find the "lost" page. I have been promised that they will get to the bottom of it. HA!

[charlie g]

I hope we get to hear of a happy ending in your favor, apochronaut...not that you 'need favors'...fair and square your were announced auction winner at a specific price. Hold eBay to this price! And let's not have eBay put a'ding'on your buyer rating!

So far, eBay has always found in favor of me as a buyer...I'm squeemish to sell on eBay as 'the buyer is always right', I've too often heard.

My beef is in eBay auctions where I'm bidding hundreds of dollars...and I am told ( I call it: in writing, as the typed replies from eBay are in print and not verbal)...I'm told :"you have been outbid"...I'm never told:" you have been outbid...but you are stuck and held in contract for the bid money you offered..until auction ends.".

When my highest bid is not accepted...I'm out of that auction free and clear...some forum folk (? frequent sellers on eBay platform?)...some folk opine one may be 'the fall back bid winner'...what's this?! Pursue the high bidding clown who then backed out of auction..not the sincere earlier bidders.
I saw a tiny notice once or twice in drawn out auctions informing me: you may be the winning bidder if the higher bidder ...blaghh, blaaghh..can't finalize their purchase. I immediately contact both seller and EBay and state I am free and clear once my bid is/ was declined...entry rules for the said auction did not state...'once you make a bid...you are stuck in that auction until it's over.'.

I really hope they come to your point of sensible purchase, apochronaunt..it's helpful when one vents spleen on some of these auction highjinks. charlie guevara

[CaptainKirk]

Is it possible? In general ebay works. For both buyers and sellers of microscopes and parts, it offers a unique market connection, that would be hard to replace. Ebay works for ebay too, by charging a percentage on sales, as well as a listing fee. The more something sells for, the more they make.
Ebay knows the ceiling that a high bidder puts on an item. Sometimes, towards the end of an auction, a competing bidder will put in several bids in an effort to find that ceiling. This happens all the time. Some of those feeler bids end up being late, so should not qualify. It turns out that sometimes ebay includes them, even if they are late.
Twice now, I have been presented with a page from ebay that says I have won a certain auction at a certain price, only to revisit the auction and see the price 3 times what I had been told I won it for. In the most recent case, 81.00 instead of the 26.50 that the original winning page stated. A look at the bidding shows 3 incremental bids, put in at the very end of the auction.
I don't know what is happening here. I have not received a call from an ebay supervisor regarding this issue but on the surface it looks like they are playing with the clock, in order to maximize profit.

Nothing you said matters. If that happens to you the ONLY thing that will change E-BAYs practices is a lawsuit. Plain and simple. Not you on the phone for hours, not complaining on forums, but a lawyer and E-bay. That's it.

Think about it, a few months ago we found on B of A was opening lines of credit under peoples names, without their knowledge, to meet quotas. You think E-bay isn't going to write some algorithm to allow the highest bid to win an auction. I'm not computer programming wiz but a basic IF THEN statement, if that higher bid allows for a higher overhead to be paid to daddy E-bay, that bet is going to count. On that note, I'd try experimenting with auction sniper torrent. It's never failed me once. This is even on auctions with 20+ watchers.

[Charles]

Think about it, a few months ago we found on B of A was opening lines of credit under peoples names, without their knowledge, to meet quotas. You think E-bay isn't going to write some algorithm to allow the highest bid to win an auction. I'm not computer programming wiz but a basic IF THEN statement, if that higher bid allows for a higher overhead to be paid to daddy E-bay, that bet is going to count. On that note, I'd try experimenting with auction sniper torrent. It's never failed me once. This is even on auctions with 20+ watchers.

It was Wells Fargo and not B of A.

My feeling is, if you bid your max and win, then it's a win. I don't believe there is any conspiracy going on. Most bidders do bid at the last moment and can drive your max bid higher.