topic Re: Price jacking before sales in Buying

Price jacking before sales

asymmetry0 — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 01:07:04 GMT

Does Ebay monitor sellers before sales are annouced for price jacking which is illegal?

Its common practice on Ebay for sellers to jack up their prices before a sale. recent "PUPGRADE" sale is just an example. Can we be given tool to see price histroy of an item so we can catch these illegal sales practices?

Just makes Ebay sales rather pointless

Re: Price jacking before sales

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 22:37:17 GMT

You would need to ask eBay, but be aware they will only tell you what you want to hear from pre-loaded scripts based on common or key questions

Anything 'too hard' and your call will be 'disconnected'

Otherwise, as this same thing as been discussed at length before, have a read of those threads and see if you find anything of use there

Re: Price jacking before sales

lyndal1838 — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 22:40:41 GMT

Ebay does not monitor seller's prices at all but you can see on a listing whether there has been a change in price or any other change to the listing.....read the Revisions on the Listing.

I have bought from several of the sellers in that promotion in the past when there has been a similar promotion on and never seen any evidence of price jacking.

Re: Price jacking before sales

asymmetry0 — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:14:59 GMT

Thanks for this, found the evidence of price jacking but there is no option to report to ebay. Only set options but no "other" tab to report this.

Re: Price jacking before sales

eol-products — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 01:45:30 GMT

Ebay is not a government body so I would say complaints need to be made to the ACCC if it regards an illegal practice. If there is an ebay policy that has been broken then yes ebay would be your first point of complaint but I would go the ACCC for this matter.

Re: Price jacking before sales

imastawka — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 02:27:37 GMT

I think you would have to prove prior knowledge of a sale to prove price jacking.

As far as I know ebay just rolls them out randomly.

Re: Price jacking before sales

lustrekate — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 03:03:34 GMT

I don't understand what is "price jacking" ? as a seller you are able to list any item for what ever you like. you cant change a price after a sale before payment or if an offer has been made. otherwise it is the sellers discretion to charge whatever they want.

Re: Price jacking before sales

asymmetry0 — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 03:24:20 GMT

Yep, there is annocemnt day before and vendors jack up the prices same % as as or slightly less than the sale price.

^No its illegal

Re: Price jacking before sales

maranock — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 03:56:04 GMT

I may be reading your complaint wrong, but from what I have read, when Ebay announces a sale the seller still gets their asking price. Ebay takes the loss. There is no need for the seller to increase their price before the sale as they are losing nothing. So I find it difficult to beleive that this is a problem for buyers.

Since I sell so rarely that I have never had one of my items sold in a sale to my knowledge I could be wrong. Someone correct me if this is the case please.

Re: Price jacking before sales

imastawka — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 04:19:38 GMT

@asymmetry0 wrote:
Yep, there is annocemnt day before and vendors jack up the prices same % as as or slightly less than the sale price.

^No its illegal

If you believe what you're saying, then by all means, report them to ACCC and see what they say about it.

https://www.accc.gov.au/

But I still say you must have proof that they had knowledge of the ebay sale about to happen.

I believe the law states it's illegal to do this for their own sales.

edit unable to find anything relevant just yet. Still looking. Maybe you can too.

https://www.accc.gov.au/business/pricing-surcharging/setting-prices

Re: Price jacking before sales

lyndal1838 — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 04:24:17 GMT

@asymmetry0 wrote:
Yep, there is annocemnt day before and vendors jack up the prices same % as as or slightly less than the sale price.

^No its illegal

Are you saying that ebay announces the sale in advance to give sellers time to up their prices?

Please let us know where ebay announces the sales in advance....I usually find out well after they have started.

Re: Price jacking before sales

imastawka — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 04:27:01 GMT

The only way the OP can know prior to a sale starting is if they are a seller ,and have been alerted to the sale themselves.

Otherwise, like I said.....ebay sales/coupons are random, as far as I know.

Re: Price jacking before sales

lyndal1838 — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 04:29:20 GMT

That is what I thought too Stawks.....but the OP seems so sure that there is a conspiracy that I would like to be in on it.

Also, not everyone gets the same offer/voucher so how do sellers know to up their prices?

Re: Price jacking before sales

imastawka — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 05:31:22 GMT

Unless the 'large B & M stores' - who get their negs removed regularly - are informed

a sale is due.

We'll never know...................nor can we prove it

Re: Price jacking before sales

countessalmirena — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 10:16:56 GMT

(Not replying just to imastawka...)

I recall a thread last year in which a poster said that something of this nature was happening.

At the time I didn't think that sellers were made aware of upcoming discount vouchers, but the statement was made that there were discount vouchers on eBay which were essentially a collaboration between the seller and eBay, whereby the seller paid half of the discount voucher amount and eBay paid the other half. It was in connection with a ... Lego seller...?

I've no direct information about whether these sorts of discount arrangements are actually made. However, if they are, and if the seller/s concerned are increasing their prices to coincide with the timing and amount of the portion of the discount they would pay, that opens a can of worms.

Re: Price jacking before sales

eol-products — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 10:37:50 GMT

Kogan got hit with $30000 of fines years ago on ebay for doing this.

Re: Price jacking before sales

digital*ghost — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 00:39:21 GMT

@countessalmirena wrote:

At the time I didn't think that sellers were made aware of upcoming discount vouchers, but the statement was made that there were discount vouchers on eBay which were essentially a collaboration between the seller and eBay, whereby the seller paid half of the discount voucher amount and eBay paid the other half. It was in connection with a ... Lego seller...?

That was me - I've mentioned it numerous times on similar threads, but I'll say it again - site wide discounts, that can be applied to any purchase, are not the same as discount codes that only apply to selected sellers.

The sellers are not selected at random - of course they participate willingly and know the discount is about to be provided.

Re: Price jacking before sales

chameleon54 — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 12:33:45 GMT

@asymmetry0 wrote:
Does Ebay monitor sellers before sales are annouced for price jacking which is illegal?

Its common practice on Ebay for sellers to jack up their prices before a sale. recent "PUPGRADE" sale is just an example. Can we be given tool to see price histroy of an item so we can catch these illegal sales practices?

Just makes Ebay sales rather pointless

<Removed>

A couple of fairly accurate tools are already available. Both show in the menu on the LH side of the page when you view " sellers items for sale " or " see other items ".

. The first tool is " completed listings ". This is probably the best as it will show the last finishing price of items that are listed for auction or a fixed period ( but not Good till cancelled ) as well as all sold items. Fixed period listings are now being phased out by ebay, so this wont be so useful in fututre.

The other tool in the menu is " sold listings " which shows every item sold by the ID within the last 90 days I think it is. If the item has sold it will show up and you can see the price it sold for in green. If the item sold with acceptance of a " best offer ", you will only see the asking price, not what offer was accepted.

These are probably not perfect, but they may be a big help in addressing your concern.

Re: Price jacking before sales

digital*ghost — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 22:57:08 GMT

@chameleon54 wrote:

. The first tool is " completed listings ". This is probably the best as it will show the last finishing price of items that are listed for auction or a fixed period ( but not Good till cancelled ) as well as all sold items. Fixed period listings are now being phased out by ebay, so this wont be so useful in fututre.

You can still view sold listings when they are GTC and haven't ended.

The sales histoy of an item will display not only the prices (unless the item was sold as an offer), but also the exact date and time the item was sold. If an ebay-supplied code was used, it will show the full sale price, but if a seller offered discount was applied (eg buy one, get one at 10% off), it will show the discounted price.

The screenshot below is from the sales history of an item I recently bought - my purchase was the $33.11 one, because a seller-offer promotion applied - I also used a 10% discount voucher, but that's not reflected in the price.

Re: Price jacking before sales

letscleanupmycupboards — Sun, 03 Mar 2019 02:13:58 GMT

I’m not sure there’s a law saying a private seller can’t increase their price either before or during a sale.