Automated Scripts Overrun eBay Holiday Contest 182
turnkeylinux writes "TechCrunch is reporting that eBay is under fire from users because of a holiday giveaway contest gone awry. On Tuesday Nov. 25, eBay announced its $1 Holiday Doorbusters deals promotion, giving away 100 gifts on a daily basis, all for a $1 fixed price. The gifts ranged from jewelry, clothing, digital cameras, and GPS devices to a brand-new Chevrolet Corvette. The only catch is that there's no announcement on when these items are released or in which category they will be. But cheaters came up with a clever way of winning deals on an automated basis by continuously running scripts to bid on items for $1."
eBay (Score:5, Insightful)
eBay needs help. They have alienated there sellers, gone to supporting "stores" more than hobby/small-time sellers, and they take almost 10% of sells.
Now they show they can't think through the obvious implications of a badly designed promotion (scam).
Really ebay would do much better to cut their fees and support the mom and pops in this economic environment. I think the time is ripe for competition in the on-line auction market. http://poorbenjamin.blogspot.com/2008/08/for-jerry-yang-to-ponder.html [blogspot.com]
Cheaters? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:eBay (Score:4, Insightful)
Too bad. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Time to offload some crap (Score:5, Insightful)
You read my mind. I have a few items left-over from last Christmas that didn't sell even when marked down to 0.01 so maybe they'll sell now this year to one of these script-kiddies.
DRAWBACK: A lot of these script-kiddies are probably deadbeat non-payers as well. Surely they are not going to buy 10,000 items that they won last week for a dollar each. Instead they'll just refuse to pay and leave sellers to eat the losses in Ebay fees.
Re:The internet is full of assholes... (Score:5, Insightful)
World is full of Assholes ... And Assholes use the law to continue to be assholes.
Everyone knows an asshole. You know, the guy/gal who sits on the fence of the law, skirting around the edges, being an asshole and taking every advantage to be one.
We all know we want to punch the asshole in the face, because they definitely deserve it, but we also know that the Asshole will sue and so we don't.
We're in the age of the "legal asshole", the asshole that never breaks any law, but abuses the gray areas simply because they can.
Re:Cheaters? (Score:3, Insightful)
eBay is not news (Score:2, Insightful)
The first year it was in business, it was fun and useful.
Now it is so-called "power sellers". Just a bunch of merchants
without a brick and mortar presence.
Let it die the death it deserves and stop posting eBay related
CRAP.
Re:eBay (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that eBay quit being an auction site a long time ago, and now has become the world's biggest flea market. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that; I often will buy some inexpensive item from a "Buy It Now" power seller, but I gave up on actually bidding for items a long time ago. Between the scammers and the snipers, it's not worth the hassle. The power sellers are now eBay's true customer base, and that's who they cater to.
Nowadays I find that Craigslist typically provides a better selection of high-end merchandise, plus you deal with local sellers and buyers without the overhead. The real problem, I think, is that the online auction business model is slowly becoming obsolete - otherwise, you'd see legitimate competitors taking over the market segment that eBay has turned its back on.
Re:The internet is full of assholes... (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this ripping off eBay? They were going to sell this item at $1 anyway. If anyone's being ripped off, it's the other eBay users who now realistically have zero chance (as opposed to a miniscule chance) of getting lucky and scoring a nice holiday bonus.
Re:Cheaters? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:eBay (Score:3, Insightful)
And then there is Google itself. It dominates and has for years.
The iPod and iPhone are two prime examples of taking over markets. If I read the article correctly a week or so ago, the iPhone either has or is about to pass up Blackberry for sales.
What would it take to become larger than eBay? I dunno. Amazon used to have auctions, and maybe they still do, but the couple of times I visited years ago the place was dead. The hot action was on eBay. If a behemoth like Amazon can't pull it off... then again, eBay has continued to piss people off. But so has PayPal, for a lot longer and they are still going strong. Maybe you can treat your customers like shite and get away with it because you are just so large.
Cheat? (Score:1, Insightful)
I agree with brian0918, unless its stated in the user agreement, there is no "cheating" occuring. They are just smart...
Re:Time to offload some crap (Score:2, Insightful)
The perfect compromise would be that sellers CAN leave feedback, but they must leave feedback BEFORE the buyer can. Once I give a seller my money, they have everything they need to give me feedback, and they know everything that they and other sellers need to know about me, that I pay on time. I should feel free to leave any feedback I feel appropriate for a seller without worrying that they will leave me negative retaliatory feedback.
Re:The internet is full of assholes... (Score:4, Insightful)
In many places that is still against the law, even if you could get the Asshole to agree to such an invasion. Not getting permission first is definitely a bad idea, and illegal in most jurisdictions.
ON an asside note, most bad laws are written because some Asshole did something that wasn't against the law. So they write a law to make it illegal so we can "legally" punch them in the face (ie jail or fine).
You'll see this everytime someone says ... "There ought to be a law". No, there shouldn't be a law, we should be allowed to punch assholes for being assholes.
Re:Time to offload some crap (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The internet is full of assholes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Buyers have no incentive to pay anymore, but you always pay to list the item.
Feedback has been removed so shill bidding is easy.
Re:Time to offload some crap (Score:4, Insightful)
Why waste any more of your time? Donate anything reasonably nice to the Salvation Army or Goodwill or Freecycle and throw the rest away.
Free yourself from your "stuff"
Give up on those "penny here, dollar there" items and go spend the time you save doing something fun.
Re:Time to offload some crap (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not to say that there aren't dishonest sellers out there. Those sellers deserve negative feedback. Regardless, without any accountability for the buyer, sellers can easily get screwed over.
Re:The internet is full of assholes... (Score:3, Insightful)
"The reality is that advertising ... saves customers money."
Amazing, that must be why pharmaceuticals are so inexpensive.
Increased market share reduces cost to the consumer? Where is the maximum on the curve, because clearly a perfect monopoly does not result in the lowest cost to the consumer, since it can charge whatever it wants. Your comment got modded funny, but maybe for the wrong reason.
Re:Craigslist (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless you live in a fucking ghetto, I don't think this concern is justified. It wouldn't be very smart to rob someone right outside your own house, particularly when the victim has your address. As far as burglars: unless you are selling drugs on Craigslist, I really doubt anything you put on there will interest them. Burglars are opportunistic, and will pick a house that looks like an easy target. They won't spend months researching Craigslist.
You need to be a little less paranoid. Not sure what it is with gun nuts, but you guys are very much out of touch with reality.
Re:The internet is full of assholes... (Score:2, Insightful)