I bid on two items on ebay each for Transcend 500GB and 320GB hard drive. I was the first bidder and no one single bid was in place at that time. I quoted 500 and 2 Rs resas the bidding amount. Within a minute the no. of bids reached 7 !!! which was astonishing.
I smelled the rat feeling, as if somene was waiting for me or anyone to bid and contacted live chat. Below is the real chat excerpt which shows that ebay is trying to hide proxy bidding. They directed me to a link which explains their bidding system. They talk about a system to eliminate the thing like seller can’t be a bidder on the other side..I ended the chat in frustation..
1:59:52 PM System
Initial Question/Comment: Other
1:59:59 PM System
Thank you for contacting eBay.in Live Help. Please hold for the next available Live Help agent.
1:59:59 PM System
Payal P has joined this session!
1:59:59 PM System
Connected with Payal P
2:00:04 PM Payal P
Hi, Welcome to eBay Live Help.This is Payal
2:00:11 PM akash
Hi Payal
2:00:24 PM Payal P
Hello!good afternoon.
2:00:28 PM Payal P
How may I help you today?
2:01:05 PM akash
I have placed two bids each for a separate Hard drive
2:01:55 PM Payal P
okay
2:02:57 PM akash
One question that came up in my mind.. is it possible that the seller may be acting as a buyer on the other side and tempting me to increase the bid?
2:04:07 PM Payal P
No, he will not be able to do , the system will not allow him
2:07:18 PM akash
you know why this came upto me is because no one placed the bid for that item and I was the first bidder. I wonder if someone was waiting for anyone like me to bid and then quoting an amount just 75 bucks more.
2:08:17 PM Payal P
Are you with me?
2:08:23 PM akash
yes
2:09:38 PM akash
you need to comment on my above statement
2:11:07 PM Payal P
Allow me a moment to chcek this for you!
2:13:02 PM Payal P
Thankyou for waiting patiently
2:13:24 PM Payal P
On checking I see taht bidding is increased as per the bid increment system on ebay
2:13:45 PM akash
Is it automated?
2:14:07 PM Payal P
Yes
2:14:36 PM akash
then this is ridiculous it is like cheating..isn’t it?
2:16:37 PM Payal P
No, you can refer thsi link and this will give you the details information as how bid increment works on eaby.in
2:16:45 PM Payal P
https://pages.ebay.in/help/buy/bid-increments.html
2:21:52 PM Payal P
Just checking are you still connected?
2:22:04 PM akash
yup reading that article
2:22:40 PM Payal P
Is there anything else in which I can help you with?
2:22:51 PM akash
no Thanks