topic Re: email with false low price in Technical Issues

email with false low price

newinst_96 — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:42:31 GMT

I recieved an email regarding items I had been viewing, not unusual, however the first item claimed the price had been reduced to £5 (from £149.99 !). This seemed too good to be true; I cliked the link and the price was exactly the same as previes; no reduction let alone down to £5. This could be a technical glitch, it could also be seen as false advertising trying to drive clicks to a seller's item. Does this kind of thing happen often? I haven't seen it before. I looked at reporting the seller, but a) none of the options were appropriate and b) it could be a technical glitch so don't, necessarily want to report a seller for false advertising if it was a glitch. I can't see anywhere else to report it. I did try the automated assistant; completely useless, just give standard response that have nothing to do with my query.

Re: email with false low price

jonatjonatjonat — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 21:03:39 GMT

I doubt the seller would have any control over the pricing that is presented in the emails so is probably not even aware of it.

is it a multi item variation listing?

Re: email with false low price

newinst_96 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 14:53:23 GMT

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sute what a "is it a multi item variation listing" is; it was a multi item-listing, as in there were choices at different prices. The lowest was £149.99 iirc. The email statated price was reduced by £144.99 making the item £5.

I was wanting to just bring the matter to ebay's attention, but couldn't see a clear way to do that. You stating "I doubt the seller would have any control..." is why I did not want to go down the route of reporting the seller.

Item listing I was emailed about

Re: email with false low price

jonatjonatjonat — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 14:57:21 GMT

Odd one. Could be they did do that discount and trigger an email but then realised the error…or could be a glitch.

do you have a screenshot of the email?

Re: email with false low price

str11p — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 19:50:12 GMT

The revision history shows the price was changed 3 times in about 90 minutes on 9 Jan. It doesn't give the prices.

"I was wanting to just bring the matter to ebay's attention" - this forum is not for that purpose, probably nobody at ebay will look at this post.

Maybe they were "playing games", maybe they made a mistake. At the end of the day - a buyer pays the price shown at checkout.

Re: email with false low price

str11p — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 20:15:45 GMT

Also maybe they didn't change it to £5 at all; but somehow £5 ended up on the email.

Re: email with false low price

newinst_96 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 15:37:32 GMT

This scenrio is a technical glitch/bug that I would report (if I could) to ebay. Their tech team can deal with that however they see fit.

Re: email with false low price

newinst_96 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 15:38:40 GMT

If the seller was "playing games" then that is bad faith behaviour that should be flagged to ebay.

"this forum is not for that purpose, probably nobody at ebay will look at this post." Then I may as well end the thread as it is just a waste of everybody's time.

Re: email with false low price

newinst_96 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 15:40:38 GMT

I was going to look at getting a screen shot, but then another reply suggests that ebay doesn't look at these posts anyway. If that's the case then this thread is just wasting everybody's time. I appreciate those who have replied, but if there is now way to communicate the issue to ebay from here then no point pursuing.

Re: email with false low price

newinst_96 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 15:53:47 GMT

FWIW email screen shot: -

Re: email with false low price

str11p — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 16:10:41 GMT

You could bring it up on the Wednesday call with the ebay reps, you could talk to ebay customer services. You could try and report the item - but I don't know whether the options available on the latter will allow you to explain what has happened. (Actually rereading your OP, you appear to have looked at that anyway.)

This is a member to member forum, was my point. Ebay reps do look at some posts, they might respond after the weekend. There are lots of posts on here from members wanting ebay to look into/take some action about various things - including technical glitches, I don't know how they choose which posts to reply to.