So sick of incredibly obvious and abundant Seller Fraud and nothing being done about it

[blakilox]

So sick of option Listings that include a Cheap useless item as clickbait when the actual item is much higher price just so they go to the top of search results, this makes renders ebay search nearly useless, frustrating, and wastes all our time, why is this not discouraged and what will Ebay or the community do about it?

THIS IS EVERYWHERE

Why is this getting no attention? and surely you are all OVER IT ??????????

The simple solution to discorage this is to always list Multi Items by Highest price

[enigmabear]

As you are questioning what the community have done about it, we could also ask what have you done about it?

What response did eBay give you when you contacted them and complained?

Given the dozens of posts by different people here on the boards why is it you seem to believe we are'nt over it etc etc etc?

[eol-products]

I had a thought of setting the minimum price for the search but makes no difference. All you can do is skip the listings that show a price well below normal.

[digital*ghost]

Eventually, all items will be grouped into a single listing by product identifiers (you will need to click through to see other sellers for a specific item). All items in a variation listing have separate identifiers. This should (theoretically) mean that one day, a cheap cable or phone case in a variation listing will have no effect whatsoever. 

Couldn't give you an ETA on that coming to fruition, though.

[countessalmirena · Accepted solution]

It is frustrating, I agree.

Unfortunately the community can't do anything about it. The people who post here only represent a very small proportion of eBay users in total, although there are other eBay users who read and don't post.

But even if every single poster here, and every single person who reads without posting, were to animadvert about the practice of misusing the "listing with variations" option, what would it achieve? eBay - that is to say, eBay management/decision-makers - are not interested in what a small albeit vocal proportion of eBay users in Australia say. They have sufficient users in Australia who will continue to buy... and who will continue to purchase from sellers who use the variations listing format as click-bait.

For that matter, I have seen posters on these boards say that they will continue to buy from Chinese sellers even when it comes to electronic goods, knowing the risks, purely because the price is the cheapest. That is because it's human nature to go for the lowest price (except for those who have so much money that spending like a drunken socialite won't even make a dent in it). Not every individual will look at lowest price as the Holy Grail of purchasing persuaders, but by far the majority of the human race does.

(Some will look at warranty, quality, genuineness of item, etc. in addition to price. But surprisingly many won't, for whatever reason it may be. Optimism? (It will be genuine; nothing will go wrong.) Consumer risk-perception? (It's only a cheap item so if there's a problem it's not going to break me.) God only knows why one would take a risk with electronic/electrical goods when the possible outcome is horrendous and DEFINITELY not worth risking...)

The lure of lowest price gets a lot of people, every single time. And once someone's clicked onto the item listing, only to see that the actual item for which they were searching is NOT $1.00, but rather $xx.xx, they have already gone part of the way. It's the eBay equivalent of the seller getting a foot in the door.

It works in producing sales; that's why sellers (and Chinese sellers are among the very worst with this practice) continue to do it.

So... we as buyers will continue to find searching and buying on eBay may be frustrating and annoying.

The only way to stop it is for you personally to refrain absolutely from buying anything, ever, from a seller who misuses listings with variations, and stop anyone that you know from buyhing anything, ever, from a seller who misuses listings with variations, and for everyone you know to stop anyone that they know from buying anything, ever, from a seller who misues listings with variations, etc....

[blakilox]

Thankyou I like that reply a lot

[shoppingbag*]

Don't sweat the small stuff, there are more important issues to worry about.

[phorum_junkie*]

Depending what the likely price will be for the item I want I use the minimum cost option  in search at price just below that.

[souraji]

I am so sick of this as well. These players get to the top of the search results and when you actually chose your options they are far more expensive than sellers far down the list. I've stopped buying from multi variation price listings that have a clickbait item, but find that that wastes so much time. Last purchase I actually went to Amazon because of this problem. Repeated emails to ebay have achieved nothing. Reporting the listing, there is no option under listing practices anymore. Search does not make it easy filter these listings out, although I find typing in "to Au$" in the chrome searchbox highlights these listings and on the scroll bar you can see the empty spaces where such listings are not there. This actually skips all ranged listings of which many are honest sellers. The last item I bought (reflective tape) I actually went to Amazon because of this specific problem. While most listed it around $12 mark this seller listed it for $5 but when you went in and chose the options it shot up to $15.

[kh-jean]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.