Examples of eBay Retailers Trying to Grab The CLICK15 Dollars?

jdr on 01/10/2015 - 21:57

I'm sure some of you noticed price games played by some of the eBay stores during the recent eBay 15% offer. We all see the games that Dick Smith and others play with their prices and discounts such that they are often worth nothing.

Some eBay offers contribute to the problem such as when the discount or voucher offered by eBay is partly charged to the selling Store. At least those arrangements would be voluntary for the Store. I understand that they would put up prices during the offer.

However, with the Click15 15% off, that was funded by eBay wholly. I decided on the Sunday to buy a NAS from Wireless1 but I first messaged them to ask about something related to the offered warranty. The price at that stage was $430. On Monday, they replied to me and then I noticed that the price had leapt to $469. I used the "Make an Offer" to offer $430 that was the price the day before. The countered with $465 and I countered with $430 again asking that they accept the price offered at the time I sent the message. Their rep insisted that they change prices often and there was no way they could do it for $430 any more.

I checked the other Store (sydneytech) that was offering the same price of $430 on Sunday. Their price also went up to $469 on Sunday afternoon. In fact the change to both wireless1 and sydneytech was made within a minute of each other so they are clearly related businesses. I declined the wireless1 crappy counter-offer. I also noticed that before the Sunday that they hadn't changed the price of the NAS for months and that sales were very slow.

On Tuesday morning, I noticed that Shopping Express Clearance was now offering the same unit at $430 so I bought it.

Late on Wednesday afternoon, after neither wireless1 or sydneytech made any sales of this item during the eBay offer period, they both reduced their prices back to $430 (again within a few seconds of each other). It's very clear that they tried to grab most of the offered 15% for themselves. I won't ever consider either of them again after that scam.

I'm interested whether others noticed anything similar by these or other eBay Stores during this offer?

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Comments

  • msmhw on 01/10/2015 - 22:13
    +1

    Nothing new :)
    Each deal the sellers will keep doing the same sh*t unless eBay does something about it. Which I doubt they will care!

    • jdr on 02/10/2015 - 06:54

      Not sure that there is anything that eBay can do about it is this sort of case. Where eBay is more responsible is those promotions where they have things like $50 vouchers for purchases from select eBay stores. They present it as an eBay funded promotion but force the store to contribute part of the voucher. It makes sense that prices will artifically increase during that promotion. But there was no excuse for what wireless1 did and the lies they told me :)

  • [Deactivated] on 02/10/2015 - 00:03

    If you were a seller with razor thin margins and you had the opportunity to raise your price a little to claw a little bit of profit and still be the cheapest available, wouldn't you do it? They lost out in the end as someone offered it cheaper.

    It doesn't look like they try to hide the fact that Wireless1 and SydneyTech are related - two reps here, Andrea-579 and SilverXP are reps for both.

    • eqv on 02/10/2015 - 01:26

      Weell.. Andrea-579 is more of a sockpuppet than a rep judging from his/her deal posting. It just goes to show what kind of ethics these companies are running on..

      • [Deactivated] on 02/10/2015 - 01:39

        Sockpuppet or not, it's a clear link both are related. I reckon those annoyed would still buy from them if there was a bargain - people still lap up DSE's actual bargains.

        • jdr on 02/10/2015 - 06:44

          I believe that you are generally correct, but I'm certain I won't ever buy from this particular company after this.

      • jdr on 02/10/2015 - 07:02

        "Weell.. Andrea-579 is more of a sockpuppet than a rep judging from his/her deal posting."

        Hadn't seen that before …. really obvious sock-puppeting :)

    • jdr on 02/10/2015 - 06:57

      "If you were a seller with razor thin margins and you had the opportunity to raise your price a little………"

      I understand that and agree with you. I think I'm more annoyed how they explained it by lying to me.

      • [Deactivated] on 02/10/2015 - 12:03

        Yeah, but you'd be just annoyed with the truth, "we wanted to grab the 15% for ourselves" :) It was a dick move by them for sure.

    • Clear on 02/10/2015 - 08:45

      Thrift is right. SydneyTech and Wireless1 are related. A lookup on www.sydneytechstore.com.au reveals that its IP address is http://vps.wireless1.com.au/

      Edit: They're both operating in the same street and their invoices are exactly the same except for the company name and address. They're definitely the same company. Just like ShoppingExpress and FutuOnline are.

    • Mr BoMBAStiG on 02/10/2015 - 08:59

      The whole point of thin margins is high volume sales. The example we have here is simply bad business decisions due to greed.

  • chill on 02/10/2015 - 02:42
    +1

    I used the "Make an Offer" to offer $430 that was the price the day before. The countered with $465 and I countered with $430

    Great negotiation tactics…but should have gone $425 the second time to show how serious you were.

    • jdr on 02/10/2015 - 06:42

      I think that offering $430 again showed that anyway. I was just trying to get the pre-scam price but they insisted that the price had to rise because of the exchange rate and that they could not supply at the $430 price. I knew what they were doing so there was no way I was going to believe that garbage.

  • Talonparty on 02/10/2015 - 14:11

    I bought a kogan portable air conditioner after seeing someone discussing the price fluctuations on kogans main store. The price on ebay was $297 before discount and I bought one that night. When I bought it it said that there were 61 sold, over 10 available and 83% of stock was sold. When I checked the next morning all of a sudden it was out of stock with only 64 sold and the price was increased to 340. I noticed kogan removed their free shipping from the aircon on their website (but still had it for the more powerful model).

    Now when I look at it again after the sale has finished, all of a sudden the stock reflects what I was told before, a total available amount of 75 and not 64 after all (and 61/75 = 83% sold).

    So, for some reason after some interest from myself and a few other buyers they decided to artificially drop the stock level, increase the price and then wait out the duration of the sale. No idea why, I mean I'm happy, I got my air con already on the way but still, makes you wonder what exactly is going on here.

    • jdr on 02/10/2015 - 19:40

      I guess manipulating the stock level maybe is an attempt to increase urgency in potential buyers minds. Glad you got yours though.

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