18 Jan
2007
18 Jan
'07
2:30 a.m.
They could not get a second account and do exactly the
same thing
before this change?
Yes, they can - but now shills are not as obvious to the outside
world, just Ebay. Sure, Ebay can probably weed out the shills and
bogus accounts for the big sellers, but not for the casual and small
networks of little guys. What is to stop me from asking my buddies
with good, established feedback to shill up my auctions for a cut? To
Ebay and the rest of the world, everything looks fine.
Ever bid on a big ticket item and get bogus second
chance offers?
Its a real problem. I may not like their response, but it makes more
sense than claiming this is a tool for dishonest sellers.
Yes, it happens. I buy a lot of certain identical items, put them on
Ebay with second chance offers, and every so often someone calls me on
it to see if the second chance is genuine. It is a simple fix - a
personalized message, and perhaps a new digital image of the item. It
works well - I have not yet had a questioned second chance offer get
refused.
It would be nice if Ebay tied their Verified User program (something I
ought to join) to a waiving of this cloaking system. If verified, it
seems to me that Ebay and the rest of the world would know the second
chance offers are real.
--
Will