In need of auction advice...

[wyndsong12.livejournal.com]

Hello A_B!

I've joined the growing trend of running auctions within my journal on Furaffinity. I do realize that hosting auctions in this manner is far more 'dangerous' than running it on, oh lets say, ebay or it's furry equivalents. Up until today its run very smoothly. Last night I had an auction end with the highest bidder being an anon account. There was activity and the account had been open since March of 2011. I didn't think too much of it, I've had anon bidders before. In the past I've received a reply from the highest bidder with in 24 hours. This time nothing.They haven't even read the note yet. Now, this auction wasn't exactly very active. I had two bids, the first bid and the winning bid.  At this point the anon account is starting to raise red flags. I do a little digging and find out that the winning bidder's account is the first bidders old account. Again, it took a lot of digging but I found this out through their 'mates' submission posts. I screenshot everything just in case.

My question to you guys is what should I do. First and foremost I allow one week for payment to be sent for the commission, but given the circumstances I don't know if I should bother waiting that long before I post a beware. And given the 'rough' nature of hosting makeshift auctions on FA is that something I should even bother posting here? What should I do now?

Comments

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

If I'm reading your post correctly, the first person to bid on your auction was about to win but used a second account to outbid themselves on, seemingly because they no longer wanted it?

I personally would note their main account, telling them that you know what they did and give them a chance to make it right before making a beware post.

[wyndsong12.livejournal.com]

Yes, thats exactly what it seems like.

I wasn't sure, and I'm not the best at confronting people. I honestly thought me confronting the person is more of a 'moral policing' thing. I don't think I should have to go to them and say "I caught you, now what". After thinking on it a few days I wrote up the beware thinking if they did it to me, they may do it again. Its not hard to make a new anon account. I waited the week and received no answer. I actually posted a beware on this person yesterday, but its in the que to be approved or not by an admin.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

Yes I saw your post in the queue but generally we like for people to try and resolve their issues with someone first before accepting a beware. As the deletion of posts is not allowed, it is generally a last resort.

[timelapsedecay.livejournal.com]

This may just be my kneejerk reaction here but I'd never take an anon bid... you just don't know who they are. It's common for users to have blank side-accounts but until they pay you, you don't have any reliable way of holding them accountable, and as we've seen before, not everyone (anonymous or not) will be serious about bidding. I would personally encourage my clients to post from their original accounts

Eta: I reread it and now see you found the owner. However now it sounds like someone might be trying to scam you... however I'm having trouble figuring out a rewarding motive for that :/

[chronidu.livejournal.com]

From how I'm reading it, it looks like they did it to appear to have been outbid, so that they wouldn't win the auction and there-by not have to pay for it.

Aka, sounds like an impulse bid with buyers remorse.

[wyndsong12.livejournal.com]

Correct.

[timelapsedecay.livejournal.com]

I see now :0
Shame :\

[growly.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh... wow, what a low trick.

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

I don't get why they wouldn't just delete their first bid/comment, if they no longer wanted it? @ _@???? That "logic" just doesn't make sense to me at all.

[chronidu.livejournal.com]

If you have definite evidence that this account belongs to the first bidder then I would honestly run it by an Admin so they can do an IP check on the accounts, and let the bidder know you are doing this.

If it turns out it is them, then personally I would make a short and to the point beware on them so other artists know not to accept bids from them.

Practice like that is nothing less than shady and just scummy to do in the first place. If they didn't want the auction after bidding on it they should have just come to you and talked about it.

[wyndsong12.livejournal.com]

I do have evidence, and I have just now reported them to FA admins. I did also, in as professional a manner as I could, let the bidder know that I knew, and that I've reported him.

Honestly, if they had come to me I'm such an easy going person. Whatever the excuse was I probably wouldn't have minded. I'd have just restarted the auction. But lying just rubs me the wrong way. I don't want to see this happen to someone else.

Thank you for the advice.

[funkicarus.livejournal.com]

some FA admins also peruse A_B so perhaps they'll be able to weigh in and take care of your trouble ticket personally?

this sounds like a super skeezy way for someone to back out of paying money, bleh. :< stinks it had to happen to you.

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

Please note the ticket number to Bazeel with a message that an A_B admin asked you to! He doesn't always see all the comments here c:

[zaulankris.livejournal.com]

IIRC if the leading bidder fails it's technically supposed to default to the next person in line, assuming the reserve price has been met. I can't comment on if you're supposed to sell it at #2's bid or if it's kosher to ask for the same amount #1 ducked out of paying, though.

[wyndsong12.livejournal.com]

Bidder #1 and bidder #2 are the same person.

[zaulankris.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. My point is that this person still isn't off the hook! I don't understand their logic, if they flaked out on a side account they're still the winner.

[wyndsong12.livejournal.com]

Oh right, I got you. I'm thinking they didn't realize they still had things that tied their old/anon account to their new one, there for thought I wouldn't figure it out.

[uriiko.livejournal.com]

When I first read this I didn't think it was a big deal at all, just some empty account out-bidding someone else, however the comments really clear things up. I think you should approach the user about it, and if they respond any negative way, try for a beware. It seems pretty low that they'd do that. While it's generally looked down upon, what's so hard about saying you can't go through with the auction anymore for whatever reason? :/

[growly.livejournal.com]

A week is a very generous amount of time to send payment, which to me means easier to procrastinate/forget about paying the artist. My own policy is usually 1-3 days. If it's low-priced items, 24 hours should suffice, especially if it's an auction where they know exactly what day the auction will end.

[wyndsong12.livejournal.com]

I got in contact with the user, and he explained why he did it. He was very forthcoming and admitted to his mistake. He did offer to pay for his spot later down the road when he had the money to pay for it after he'd been found out I linked both accounts, but I did decline as I filled it on my own. He also knows that he's been reported and fully accepts whats coming.

[puritikoneko.livejournal.com]

Kind of a shame that it had to come down to what it did, really. If they had just been honest and up-front in the first place, they wouldn't have gotten themselves in the trouble they did. Jeez.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Based on this info, I'm going to go ahead and reject your beware post since it's a bit dated. If you'd still like to make a beware on this person, feel free to resubmit with 'caps of this additional dialogue.

And just to back you up on this, we did confirm with Bazeel that the two accounts are the same person.

[wyndsong12.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Thats much appreciated!