Always Double Check before you bid

WizZard

This is a perfect example of how people get excited on online auction sites and bid for things because the look like great value.

Several people bid over €100 for an item that comes free with an AMD processor, or on it's own would sell for under €20.

Just thought I'd show people.
BTW, it's in German but Google translate (gTranslate extension for FF is great) will help you get the gist of the ad.

Gone West

heh.
Silly people mustn't have bothered to translate it and actually thought it was a 3700

art

People obviously think its the cpu they are getting. Have to say, its a small bit misleading the way the thing is being sold but not that misleading. It does say "Cooler" a few times and there's even a clarification note. The leading bidder is Italian so maybe he never bothered translating? I'd say the seller is even a bit worried about this price.

jor el

I'd say the seller is rubbing his hands together, in about 5 hours he's going to get €170 for a heatsink.

And in fairness to him, it does say Kühler in bold, underline and red writing in a couple of places. He has also written in

ums nochmal klar zu stellen, wie aus der Auktion zu erkennen bietet Ihr hier nur auf denn Kühler nicht auf denn Prozessor.

and although my German is pretty poor, I reckon this means you are bidding on a cooler and not a processor.

But always do read the entire auction text, even if you have ordered from a particular seller before. I bought an mp3 player from a guy in Hong Kong, it all went well and the player arrived. I went to buy another one for my sister from the same guy so I just clicked bid and entered the maximum I was willing to spend. After a few hours I was checking on the status and I noticed that he had changed his postal and insurances charges to £40 post and £20 insurance, on top of the top bid of £30 that I was willing to go. Now, luckily I was able to withdraw the bid, but had I not noticed this I'd have been out of pocket by £90, when I was only willing to spend about €90.

His previous charges were £15 post and £10 insurance (all a scam of course but I didn't mind) plus about £30 for the player itself makes around €85-90, which is what I paid for the first one. I was pretty sure I had checked the postal costs before I bid but maybe not. Unless he changed these during the auction, but I don't think that is possible.

Gone West

nope. Once you put the listing up IIRC thats it. You cant change anything. And definetly not after a bid is made.

Dingatron

There was a PS2 cardboard box recently that went for around €200. We're in the wrong business I think.

BrianD

To me this look like that seller has deliberately gone out of his way to deceive the bidder. The wording looks like it is the processor [boxed] plus the cooler. Why isn't the boxed at the end of the title? Secondly, the illustration seems to indicate that there is an empty processor box and the cooler. An illustration can not be used to form the contract.

Somebody should report this guy to the eBay police! I know that it is buyer beware but this guy is pushing it!

parsi

FuzzyLogic wrote:

nope. Once you put the listing up IIRC thats it. You cant change anything. And definetly not after a bid is made.

You can change anything up to the time you get a bid and then what can be changed is much reduced.

We should all report the guys with fee-avoiding P&P. I was looking for an extra battery for my psp and one guy was doing a buy-it-now for 1p with £29 postage - pure fee avoidance. Then again another guy was getting greedy and wanted to charge £17 for shipping to Ireland and only £10 to mainland Europe from England, and had a normal price for the item.

Really ebay has us brainwashed that everything isdirt cheap but you really have to check and check again before bidding...

WizZard

An update

This sold for €200!!! :eek:

How do you report fee-avoiding sellers. I was bored on enight and found at least 3 hacked accounts (eg. guys selling little trinkets for years, and now a bundle of 55 Nokia 8800's for $600-$900)
I couldn't find anywhere to report these auctions to!

parsi

Go to "Help" then on the left of that page select "contact us" - this gives a batch of drop down menus which you use to select what you want to contact them about - select problems with sellers / prohibited items and eventually you will populate the three menu boxes. Click "continue" and they'll give back some generic junk but at the bottom will be an "email" link which you can click to get another box into which you can enter the offending items.

Afetr a day or two you'll get back some sort of innocuous reply and that will be that. Sometimes the auctions get pulled but sure unless its a hacked account they come right back again...

It's really simple and intuitive....NOT.

BrianD

WizZard wrote:

An update

This sold for €200!!! :eek:

Can't wait to read the feedback when the winner gets his fan!

This guy should be reported as a scam merchant.

WizZard

parsi wrote:

It's really simple and intuitive....NOT.

Ebay really need to work on that.

This auction id is one example: 6804634789

Gone West

BrianD wrote:

This guy should be reported as a scam merchant.

Its been said allready that he did say that it was a cooler only, not the actual chip several times. In red. and bold. and underlined.

It aint his fault. Its the fault of the idiots who bid on it.

BrianD

True, it's buyer beware but he has deliberatetly gone out of his way to mislead the buyer - the way the headline is written, the photograph of the empty box for the processor and the fan. The bidder would think he/she is bidding for the processor + fan. This just above the "you are buying a link" scammers.

A Dub in Glasgo

Classic scam on ebay. Mislead the naive buyers into thinking they are bidding on a whole package when they are only going to get a small part.

There is a reason why companies are brought to task for false/misleading/vague advertising and this is a classic example of something which is easy to do on ebay. Of course, ebay are not interested in the complaints of buyers in this as they always claim 'they are just a venue'!!

Gone West

Nope.
Ebay will point them in the direction of the *multiple* warnings that this is a Cooler only. Like I said: In red. In bold. and Underlined. Repeated a few times. IMO Its the buyers fault for being too lazy to read/translate the description of an expensive item.

Its like If I went into argos and bought a remote control for a tv for €10. Then asking the clerk why wasnt the television included because it was in the picture behind the remote? And the answer I would be given is "Television not included" was clearly printed beside it!

BrianD

Your example does not illustrate the point. Do you think that Argos would print:

Sony 42" Plasma widescreen, stereo sound [Boxed} remote control


I don't think so. The fact that something is in red or underlined is irrelevant. The entire posting was written to deceive the bidder. In fact, I reckon if eBay was alerted I would say it would be gone in minutes. A relative of mine works for eBay security - they are constantly trying to weed out these items. Obviously its impossible to get to them all.

However, it is buyer beware at the end of the day.

Laguna

LOL! Scam of the century or what!

The winning bid was €200 for a heatsink, I'd love to see the guys face who won the bid when he opens the package, I reckon it'll be along these lines

:eek: :mad:

art

BrianD wrote:

Your example does not illustrate the point. Do you think that Argos would print:

Sony 42" Plasma widescreen, stereo sound [Boxed} remote control

Well, if they were selling the exact remote that came out of the box of a Sony 42" plasma, as opposed to any remote that would do, they might indeed write "a Sony 42" Plasma widescreen, stereo sound [Boxed] Remote Control for sale.... "

And then write underneath, "to clarify, this is just the remote control we are sellling".

I think having "Cooler" written in bold and in red is fairly relevant, afterall it gives the impression that there is something significant to the word "Cooler" there

Gone West

BrianD wrote:

In fact, I reckon if eBay was alerted I would say it would be gone in minutes.

And that, my friend is where you are wrong.
I reported the item(just to be on the safe side) as soon as I spotted it, back at the begining of this thread. Nothing happened to it. In my (dare I say considerable) experience, when you report an item to ebay and it is a scam, they will have it removed within 10 minutes.

BrianD wrote:

The fact that something is in red or underlined is irrelevant. The entire posting was written to deceive the bidder.

Of course its relevant! Its there just in case the person actually thinks that the item includes a chip as well.
Its formatted like that in accordance with standard ebay formatting for highlighting something important about the product. Red, bold, large font, and underlined text stand out, you see.