New eBay secrecy policy

[G B.]

Read it and weep:

"As the internet evolves, eBay continues to strike a balance between preserving transparency and protecting our Community of members. eBay has decided to change how bid history information is displayed so bad guys cannot target bidders with fake offers using this information. In certain cases, some bidders will no longer be able to view Bidder User IDs on the Bid History page. Your User ID will be shown only to you and the seller of the item you're bidding on. Other members will see an anonymous name, such as Bidder 1, applied consistently to the Bid History page."

Strike a balance, my ass. Now every auction will be like a "Private Auction". You can't tell if you're bidding against a close friend, the seller himself, or some 14 year-old on his Mommy's computer.

I'm fed up with internet paranoia. If you're not doing something you're ashamed of, and you're not hiding from the booger man, is this much privacy really necessary? Yeah, I know, the government is actually spying on each of us. Boogity BOO!

What a bunch of crap. I think eBay ought to post every bidder's real name and COLOR PHOTO in the auction history.

[Clem Z.]

Re: New eBay secrecy policy

i do not under stand why when you bid you do not bid the max you are willing to pay because now days you are not going to steal anything on e bay that has to do with a corvette. JMHO

[george culolias]

Just a note how paypal STOLE from me

Won an auction for a new ipod. Paid and then seller tells me paypal froze his account and he never got my money so he's not sending anything. Paypal took MY money for this guys other misdeeds. They LET him sell to me and then STEAL MY money when I pay! They won't let you pay by credit card if you have a balance...gee I wonder why. Maybe it's so they can STEAL your money and get away with it. The credit card would just charge them back but as it is I'm at their mercy. You think I'm a little ticked! I will open another account and never get screwed again but just a warning to everyone else. Paypal WILL STEAL FROM YOU!

[G B.]

My message to eBay Customer Support

"To Anyone Who Might Be Concerned at eBay:

I absolutely despise your new policy of hiding bidder names in auction histories. I ALWAYS want to know who I'm bidding against. YES, IT DOES MATTER TO ME. I don't participate in "Private Auctions", and advise others to avoid them too. I also don't bid against flakes with a bunch of "no-pay" feedback.

So now what? Are you going to REQUIRE me to bid using a Secret Fairy Princess eBay Name instead of my real name in the future? Grow the Hell up!

Jerry Bramlett (I'm not hiding from anybody.)"

[Dennis C.]

Jerry: Breath of fresh air... Thank you... *NM*

[Larry S.]

Re: My message to eBay Customer Support

I also will not bid on private auctions. But I think this is good as if your roll your mouse over the view details,You can see the bidders history.Just looking at a car and one of the bidders had something like 380 bids member for 2to3 years 3 good feed backs and 90% of his bids were to one seller.

I think this information alone would say the guy is a shill bidder as a check the feed back of the seller and he sells all different types of cars.

I think this may help us avoid or better identify the shill bidders and sellers

[Harmon C.]

Re: My message to eBay Customer Support

I have deals cut with some of my friends and we put a initial bid at the opening of a part. We do not bid aganist our group it's first to find but we tell each other if we need it bad or it passes our limit before the end of the auction. This deal came up thru sniper bidding and costing the other person a few hundered bucks. We will need to email now if they make all auctions private. I like to watch who is on the list of bidders it's like playing poker after some time you can read them.

Lyle

[Wayne P.]

Re: My message to eBay Customer Support

They(eBay) needs to do something. I'm not sure this is it. I too don't like private auctions. In defense of eBay's effort to do something, I recently had high bid on a Corvette that didn't meet reserve. To date, I have received six offers to sell me this car. None from the owner and none from the real eBay.

[G B.]

eBay Response

From: "eBay Customer Support"
To:
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 8:10 AM
Subject: TB38232 Thank you for writing to eBays Customer Support Team(KMM63421958V54162L0KM)

Dear Jerry,

Thanks for writing to eBay in regard to the new bid history format.

In order to protect our community members from threats such as fake
Second Chance Offers, we have changed how Bidder IDs are displayed on
the Bid History and Item Listing pages on eBay. In certain listings, the
User IDs of bidders will no longer be displayed. We believe that this
change will help to balance the need for openness and transparency in
the marketplace with the need to protect our community.

As part of this initiative, we also added additional bidder-specific
statistics to provide the community with enough information about the
bidders involved in an a listing for them to feel confident in placing a
bid. You'll see this additional information on listings where the User
IDs of the bidders are anonymous.

While specific User IDs will not be visible, individual bidders will be
identified on by an alias (such as Bidder 1, Bidder 2, etc.). For each
bidder involved in a listing, we'll display:

1. The number of bids that the bidder has placed in unique categories.
2. The range that the bidder's feedback score falls within.
3. The bidder's positive feedback percentage.
4. The bidder's length of time as an eBay member; and,
5. The number of bids the bidder has placed on the item.

Future enhancements are being designed that will provide even more
transaction data about the bidders and seller involved in a transaction.
We'll continue to update the Community on these changes as these plans
become finalized.

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.

Sincerely,

John V.
eBay Customer Support

[Jay G.]

Re: New eBay secrecy policy

Agreed, also anything muscle car related re: parts etc. these days. I also feel it's important to have a phone no. to contact. Why would anyone send 20K lets say for a car when your unable to talk with someone? I'll always leave a phone someone can talk with us about parts etc.

[mike cobine]

Ever hear of the Delete button?

When you get second chance offers, just delete them.

A real one will show up in your eBay messages on eBay. The fakes won't.

This is almost as hard as changing the TV channel if you don't like something.

eBay does need to do something, but it isn't on our end, it the the bad guys' end. Go after them, prosecute them. With most going to DSL and Cable broadband, it isn't that hard. A lot of providers have found it easier to leave you on a static IP address rather than worry about IP conflicts on their network. I pay for dynamic IP address (cheaper) but I have had the same IP address for the last 4 months.

I'm with Jerry; you need to see who you are bidding against.

[mike cobine]

I just sent my note to eBay

I told them I should have the right to know who I was bidding against. It is fundamental to the bidding process.

[Bill Stephenson]

Re: New eBay secrecy policy

Clem,,,,I think it is human nature to only pay as little over the next bidder as is humanly possible. Not saying its right, but I know I always feel this way. Its as if we dont trust our own knowledge about the value of an item and figure that if we pay barely more than the next guy we wont pay too much for anything......Bill S

[Clem Z.]

Re: New eBay secrecy policy

i was under the impression if you are the highest bidder you only pay what is a fixed amount over the next lower bidder,am i wrong?

[Harmon C.]

Re: eBay Response

I like the way Ebay replys to any question with a form letter. You can't talk to anyone only on line and then they are from some far away country. If their ways a company in the US using US workers offering the same service I would drop them like a rock.

Lyle