Fleabay - Possible scam?

[Damaged]

I'm awaiting Fleabay's response and may well be wrong but I'd like all users to share this information.

If I am proved wrong I will post a full apolgy and update

Text is copied from my complaint (spelling mistakes included)

Home > Help > Rules and Policies > Rules for Sellers > Shill Bidding >
Shill Bidding


Reported Seller: felzen_group_europe
Reported Buyers: Bidder
1



Item number(s):
170272487949


Customer concern: I placed a maximum bid of £250 on this item that had a
starting price of £1.00 and zero bids, as soon as I placed my offer my bid was
automaticaly increased to £211 because of a "previous" bid by "Bidder 1".

If you click on the bid history and then click on "Bidder 1"
you can see that "Bidder 1" only buys from "Seller 1,2,3,4,5,6", on top of this
you can not view any feedback or contact information.

Whilst I do not mind being outbit on an auction this seems very much like fraud
to me, if I do not recieve a satifactory response and a cancelation of my bid
within 24 hours I will not hesitate to contact trading standards and all other
interested bodies.

 

[Jackel]

Since Ebay changed the policy you can no longer see the bidders name so everyone is 1,2,3,4,5,6 so buyer 1 on one item may be the buyer 3 on another


Ps you can retract a bid in the first hour do a search on ebay for it enter the item number and click ok and your bid is discounted

 

[jugs]

Interesting - we did think some of the bids looked funny while we were 'watching to learn' (being new at E-bay), but ignored it because we thought the prices things were going at were fair, and they didn't just take your maximim bid.

We've bought the plasma cutter, as you know, and also the AC/DC 200 pulse Tig, both seem good value for the money.

We don't like to think of customers being fleeced, but can see they can't sell for a few quid - but of course, they could put in a minimum price.

Look forward to hearing the response from E-bay.

 

[Damaged]

Malcolm (or others)

Just had a thought that this may put some kind of legal issue your way.

If it does please just delete the whole thing, sorry.

 

[rtbcomp]

It does sound a bit iffy, but it could be a genuine coincidence, after all sometimes different people answer the same query on the forum with the same answer because they posted at the same time.

 

[jugs]

Malcolm (or others)

Just had a thought that this may put some kind of legal issue your way.

If it does please just delete the whole thing, sorry.

Cant see why mick, freedom of speech etc. We ALL want to know if we are being scam'd.
Let' hear what E-bay have to say, then we can make our own minds up.

 

[JimM]

Well according to the stats, bidder 1 placed their bid 1min 9 secs before you submitted yours. Also this is the only bid they've placed with this seller.

I'd say this was a genuine case of someone looking at the item at roughly the same time as you - rather than a scam (I'm sure that;s the way Ebay will see it at least)

 

[fingers99]

I'd be surprised if the shill wasn't pretty commonplace on eBay -- just as it is at all auctions. Very difficult to establish if it is happening in a particular case unless the shill has been done time after time on items from the same seller from the same IP address.

On this case, I've no opinion, really.

What were you bidding on, out of interest?

 

[zardoz]

They are well known for shill bidding. (and their last trade name Felzen_group_germany) I was going to mention it as soon as i saw someone say they were buying from them, wish i had done right away now. Its obvious to anyone who watches their auctions and looks at their "auction" prices. Not a single one goes for below a certain amount (or didn't do last time i looked) It used to be a lot easier to catch them out at this when the bidder names and place of resicence could be seen to all. ebay have made it a lot easier for
shill bidders to hide now. There was some sort of fuss over this company a while back maybe thats why they changed ebay names.

 

[wallopadonkey]

i dont know much about shill bidding but i was watching a plasma cutter and a tig machine on their account cpl weeks ago
both at 11 pounds with 10 hours to go then all went mental with 2 bids up to 400 on cutter and 223 on the tig ie there was literally 2 bids of the full amount and that was it no more normally i would expect people to make small bids trying to get it for 100 say not straight up to the reserve price
dunno seemed strange to me
dave

 

[TurboShed]

Ebay is becoming totally pants these days. I've "sold" the same laptop 3 times in the last month. The first 2 times it was a 0 feedback bidder who won, then didn't pay. The result is that it looks like I'm involved in Schill bidding! Because I then send a 2nd chance offer to the next highest bidder!

 

[Drains]

According to their ebay page, an innocent shopper might infer that the Felzen Group's HQ looks like this

How could we not trust them?





Oh, and meet the boys...

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

I thought a similar thing was happening with Berlan...all of their kit went for around the same price. Ebay didn't do much when I complained about it.

Repeat sellers, repeat fees, Ebay are unlikely to do anything as it hits their income.

Regards
Peter

 

[Damaged]

Haven't heard from the bay, auction ends in 4 hours.

There have been no further bidders as yet, not sure what to do, assuming I win it's still £100 cheaper than the buy it now, I've never backed out of an ebay (or any other) deal.

Just dont like the thought that somebody is taking the ****.

 

[Archie]

I had something like this the other day. I was bidding on something when the price suddenly rocketed. Had a look at the buyers and noticed that the high bidder had also been bidding on a couple of items also being sold by the same seller. Since they were competely unrelated items I smelt a haddock and dropped the seller an email asking whether he was bidding. Never got a response but the bid was magically cancelled! Thing is, it's so easy to do I'm sure it happens the whole time.

 

[scarecrow]

EBay made it easy for them by allowing automatic bidding you just the maximum amount you are going to pay then went somebody bids they are automatically outbid up to your maximum

 

[scarecrow]

http://pages.ebay.ie/help/buy/bid-retract.html
http://pages.ebay.ie/help/buy/questions/retract-bid.html
try here for cancelling your bid

 

[Justme]

The thing is if eBay charged a reasonable fee for the reserve & not the huge one they currently do then this problem would go away all on its own.

Justme

 

[Damaged]

Still don't know what to do

I guess the question is, is this diy plasma worth £211 + 10.50 p&p?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&item=170272487949


Only 30 mins to go so I guess I'll pay and put it down to experince.

 

[jugs]

Haven't heard from the bay, auction ends in 4 hours.

There have been no further bidders as yet, not sure what to do, assuming I win it's still £100 cheaper than the buy it now, I've never backed out of an ebay (or any other) deal.

Just dont like the thought that somebody is taking the ****.

Dont know what to say, having seen what goes on both sides of the auction hammer I'm always suspicious.
I'm happy with the one we got & think it's worth £200 ish with the 2yr warranty, when I got it I had a look inside & the build quality looks good. Woz has a TIG 200 from them & seems happy, try a PM see what he thinks.
Let us know how you get on.
john