Getting sick of sellers advertising items for a false price.

[petesean2316]

sellers advertising items at a shown price, then as soon as you choose a colour or size the price shoots up. And theres nothing in the drop down for price advertised. This is false info, good to attract buyers but a waste of buyers time. if they are lying about price are they lying about other things described ?

[mirfieldsteve]

You stop this by "report the item" which is shown on the righthand side under the other related/sponsored items. choose "listing practices/search and brower manipulation/misleading Title". It takes ebay a while to rectify it but it does eventually.

[sstcq]

You would have to report tens or hundreds of thousands of buyers for this. The fact eBay allows this price manipulation so openly and doesn't do anything about it says they don't intend to.

They reduced the report an item categories as well - can't even report someone for stealing your images any more, you have to ring them. Also, not entirely related but reporting abusive direct messages is nearly impossible now too. So no idea what their intent is because it's certainly not 'best buyer experience'... 

[ukhaberdashery]

ebay is openly abused by sellers and buyers. I've reported obviouse fraudulent campervan sales. What happens? Nothing. Ebay does not mind if buyers get defraded out of thousands of pounds so if you think they cant be botherd with the 99p scam your fooling yourself. Save your time and look on other platforms that don't allow this abuse and buy there.

[mody.binary-2]

But they do it, how they do shown price without having anything for this price.

[hazegiftproducts]

In my line of work they get to the top by advertising a small sample unprinted ribbon.

I just find with the number of options I have colour wise (combinations) you need a degree

to set up a listing so I can't be xxxx to change anything!

[date80211]

mirfieldsteve: that's very helpful and d'you know how long that choice has been there?

Nothing so useful seemed to be available last time I looked but that could easily have been 10 or 12 weeks ago, and I might have missed something.

[sstcq]

They do have something for that price, it's usually a very outdated item or something cheap that no-one would ever want to buy and if it's got multiple variants then it's usually hidden behind a number of them, eg for a phone case, it might be for a discontinued phone in a weird colour.

[vicki19532009]

I agree I just saw what I thought was a good price for a bed sheet but on trying to purchase it found out he listed price was just a pillow case 😠

[date80211]

While enough people maintain that hopeless attitude, it will be self-fulfilling.

If fact it will take far fewer people than you think, provided only that they get off their thgumbs and do some reporting. (Sorry, SSTCQ, to spoke your depressive wheel!)

[richardblaker]

I see this thread started in 2019, it is now 2024. this problem is ten times worse now, Ebay are certainly on to this blatent lying! (Just kidding).

Just looked at a washing up brush advertised at 99p, it lists three colours which pop up at £4 each and at the bottom of the list... always at the bottom is the 99p product, in this case a roll of red ribbon at 99p.

[vicki19532009]

Yes I just looked for a mattress protector but found the price stated was
for a pillow protector,the mattress cover was more than triple the price
stated.😡

[richardblaker]

I know, I feel your exasperation! I think maybe this form of lying/misleading/scamming needs a specific name.

Ebay could then have this new name in the dropdown menu under 'report this item'.

Of course Ebay would then have to deal with an extra seven hundred and fifty million complaints...

[potters_uk]

This is what consumer laws say about this

Thirty-one practices are deemed to be unfair in all circumstances. A trader carrying out any one of these will have breached the CPRs, whether or not it had any effect on the average consumer.

• "Bait advertising" - advertising products at a specified price without disclosing that the trader has reasonable grounds to believe he may not be able to supply them or their equivalent at that price for a reasonable period or in reasonable quantities.
• "Bait and switch" – inviting consumers to buy one product but then trying to persuade them to buy a different one – e.g. by refusing to show them the original item, or to take orders or make delivery arrangements, or by showing a defective sample.
•  

[date80211]

That looks very helpful and can you which part of 'consumer law' that is?

I'd love to be able include tht detail in any future reports…

[potters_uk]

It's from a website of Pinsent Masons where you will find the above along with other definitions.

[returns_andexdisplay]

Little bit different. 

Bait advertising would be if you put an item on sale for say Black Friday. Advertised the sale lasts for 1 week but then sold out of stock on the first day. 

Bait and switch is baiscly advertisting something you don't have for sale to draw people in and then hope they buy something else. 

What a lot of people have issue with is the £100 item sold alongside a 99p item that has no relervance to the product. 

If it was a £100 pair of curtains and 99p sample of fabric where the buyer can buy a sample to check the colour and texture. Think most people would see this as reasonable sale practice

[potters_uk]

Totally agree with you on the last bit

The bait is publishing a photo of something where the title matches the photo and then putting a price as one to which the seller has no intention of applying to the photographed and titled product. The switch is then hitting the buyer with the price they are going to charge.  By this stage, the buyer has responded to the initial information. so they believed what they read and saw to be true.

I believe that if someone reported this to trading standards and they prosecuted, it would be very difficult or almost impossible to defend it.  All a complainant would need is a couple of screeenshots of the item pages and it would be evidence for a prosecution, provided by a defendant.

My own opinion is that this is designed to deceive and is therefore dishonest 

[date80211]

I've had a new thought.

What if everyone Reporting these scams to e-Bay, also Posted the details here, in the hope that some of us might file further Reports?

[potters_uk]

Their is one way of dealing with it.  All business sellers have to display their address. Simply check it and then email along with screenshots the issue to their local trading standards and let them deal with it.  You are also more likely to get a response from them.

[reilge4]

This type of report has been going on for years it's obvious that eBay is taking absolutely no notice at all.

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