Hi Gothicina,
Thanks for adding your ideas as for two years now I have tried to understand and I am at a complete loss. I DO TRULY ENJOY eBid and I think the ones at the top certainly care about the eBid site and those that use it. I HAVE NEVER CONTACTED eBid ABOUT SOMETHING THAT I WAS NOT HUMANLY ANSWERED even if there were techincal difficulties preventing it for a time. I just have not been able to understand what is going on but I can understand that over zealousness and false accusations can be very damaging.
1) I feel like if there is problem with Buddy points just for sign ups --- it would probably be worth having. Anytime you have a reward system, unfortunately, some are going to try to abuse it. I also feel like more could be lost fighting the Buddy Point sign up abuse before the Buddy Points are attempted to be used than can be gained if let to run its course. If they are gaining Buddy Points by getting new members for eBid, SOME of the new members that (JUST SIGN UP TO HELP SOMEONE ELSE GET THE POINTS) might happen to find out they like eBid and the merchandise on it.
I wonder if there wouldn't end up being enough advertising to make any loss worth it. I have noticed that eBid is considering paying members to get others to sign up and upgrade to seller+ status which, I assume, can be covered by the membership fee. If someone gets 10 new members to sign up (even if it is a relative or a friend) eBid is being talked and promoted and 30 Buddy Points is the most I can see someone could possibly attain without any of the new members paying something in eBid fees. That seems like the advertising would be worth the chance. I do realize there are exceptions but I think they would be well documented if the offender was allowed to hang themself, so to speak.
2) If there is a restricted account ----- I think it should be for someone that has REAL EVIDENCE OF A PROBLEM.
My two situations for example -A.
Would there be a need for restriction because someone used P.O. Box instead of POST OFFICE Box? I tend to feel if the only explaination from eBid is WE MADE AN ERROR that the sign up problem is probably eBids and there should be no need for a restriction. A simple letter stating some of the information was not transmitted and we need your address (or whatever) again.
B.
In the flea market one, they had been a member for 6 months and I had been a member for 7 months. In my inquiry about the bid being pulled eBid did actually give me a reason --- BUT ONLY AFTER I ASK WHY AND NOT WHEN I RECEIVED THE NOTICE THAT THEY WERE CONCERNED ABOUT THE BIDDERS INTENTIONS --- the reason they gave was that I was bidding on my own auctions and that was not allowed. They WOULD NOT TELL ME WHY THEY THOUGHT I WAS BIDDING ON MY OWN AUCTIONS but the only thing the bidder and I had in common WAS THE SAME ZIP CODE.
THAT REALLY HURT and ALMOST CAUSED ME TO CLOSE MY eBid LISTINGS AND LOOK ELSEWHERE.
I had been a member for 7 months listing items and working bringing people to eBid from feebay to buy from me here instead of listing them on feebay for them (some would not come across so I did as they desired and feebay got the business BUT I WAS TRYING TO BRING THEM TO eBid. The bidder had been a member for 6 months and had never made a transaction AND THEY THOUGHT IT WAS ME *** AFTER 6 MONTHS of bidding on nothing bidding on my own item.
This was a bid of $8.00 (about £4.00) including shipping. Why would I want to make what would probably be the first and only bid of $8.00 on my own item knowing that I spent the time listing it and the chance of a bidding war would be pretty much less than 0%?
In shill bidding (which I do not approve of), is only one bid on a item actually worth putting them on a restricted account and humiliating them when THERE IS PROBABLY NO PROOF, especially if it is the first bid?
It is a fact of life that all is not perfect. I ask God to guide me daily and desire to do what is right. I feel like it is EASIER to run off those with good intentions than it is those with less than good intentions. Personally, I would rather have NPBs in the mix (even if I had to take the hit with eBid's small fees for making the sale) and take a chance on someone's bidding actions not being quite right than to not have any buyers around or losing the ones that truly could be an asset to the eBid sellers.
I would like to see it where the seller needs to ask eBid to assist with a bidding problem than to have eBid assume there is a bidding problem.
WE DO NEED BIDDERS AND BUYERS OR I SEE NO NEED FOR SELLERS.