Okay, I smell a rat!

[Zerub]

So, I have only sold one other thing on ebay, but we moved to a different phone provider and I put my iPhone 4s 16GB phone with an Otterbox up for autcion.

I watch bids. It gets up to $355 and I am thinking,, wow! That is good. Most I see like mine had gone for around $300 without an Otterbox.

So, I watch as the auction goes off and then suddenly...BAM....sold for $232.

I look back and the last bid cancels within 1 seconds of end of auction. So I get to looking. Bidder1 bids $232 at 16:29:30. Bidder2 bids $355 at 16:29:56. Bidder2 retracts bid at 17:28:44. Auction ends at 17:28:45.

So since that high bidder retracted at last second, the next bidder wins. Very fishy to me. The $355 bid was basically high enough that no one else would really bid for the last hour, which is when a lot of people do their bidding. Also, why would you bid $123 higher than the top bid?

Sorry, I am not buying it. Have contacted ebay. To tell you the truth, I would have been fine with $232, but I am not fine with being cheated. People that lie, steal and or cheat are very low list.

Scott

[Zerub]

So, according to ebay, this was a valid transaction. I would not have been upset if the phone had bid out up to the end and brought the amount that it did. Just the way that it happened sure does make it look odd.

Maybe I am just paranoid, but that just does not make sense to me. Guess it is just me.

Oh well, I'll quite my grumbling now. I just had to get that off my chest.

Scott

[dashdot]

It does seem like "bot" behaviour.

My suggestion to you: Refute it with EBay. You probably just got an automated copy/paste standard text response.

Have a real person look into the issue for you before you accept the loss. It does indeed seem quite out of order.

[GunnJ]

Didn't know a person could retract a bid, when did they add that feature? Yeah, I second dashdot's advice, even if at worse, it helps them track this sort of behavior. Very annoying.

[badjabadjabadja]

If it looks like a rat, smells like a rat.. yeah it's a f@@kin' rat!

Here's instructions online for exactly the scam you've been hit with:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/can-you-re ... y-sniping/

A dirtier method of sniping would be to find a partner or an alternate account and throw out an outrageously high amount after your (or your personal account’s) highest bid within the last hour of the auction. As the auction draws to a close, the faux bidder would then withdraw his bid, leaving your amount to be the next runner-up

Note the high bid was withdrawn just inside the 1 hour allowed for retracting a bid. To me it is blindingly obvious that the winning bidder has scammed you exactly as described above. Technically tho, it's within Ebay's letter of the law, tho totally sh#@ing all over the spirit of it!

I'm not sure what you can do about it, but yeah refute the thing! Good luck!

[Vichan Lyonsen]

tho totally sh#@ing all over the spirit of it!

E-bay has been specializing in that very thing for years now. I know (Ex) powersellers who wont give E-bay the time of day anymore.

[Gorgon]

The SATF does not approve!

Seriously though, do refute it. That is way too obvious.

[Grunt]

The solution to this (from a buyer's perspective) would be if they allow bids without going over the top bidder, so you can put in a bid "just in case". They'd easily catch on to scammers if suddenly there were a flood of +1 dollar increment bids that then cancelled.

On the other hand, to hell with eBay, it's full of scammers.

[Zerub]

The solution to this (from a buyer's perspective) would be if they allow bids without going over the top bidder, so you can put in a bid "just in case". They'd easily catch on to scammers if suddenly there were a flood of +1 dollar increment bids that then cancelled.

On the other hand, to hell with eBay, it's full of scammers.

I am with you Grunt. I have talked with a couple of ebay reps now and the last suggested to cancel my transaction which I will do. I need to get the buyer's consent also to avoid the ebay fee, which will be interesting. I have messaged him.

Even if he does not consent, I took it that the rep would get my money refunded probably. If nothing else, I am out basically $23 and will probably just go to Amazon where others that I know have suggested and from the looks of it could make my money all back plus some if all goes well.

You know, life would just be a lot better if everyone was honest!

Scott