Historically, our process for identifying bidders with a high number of bid retractions has been to 1) investigate bidders who retract a bid on our auctions, and 2) spot check bidders on a range of items we have for sale. We have a database of almost 4000 instances of a bid retraction, a bidder with a high number of retractions, string bidding, and unpaid items. We have over 2000 user IDs blocked.
It is true that there is significant opportunity to improve our practices, and we have taken the necessary steps to take our monitoring to the next level.
First, we hired a full-time customer service and bid monitoring representative. Her job is to promptly answer email, phone calls, and review bid activity on our auctions. She takes action on all notifications of bid retractions that we receive from eBay real time as well as spot checks our listings for bidders with a high number of bid retractions, zero-feedback bidders, and low-feedback bidders. I am also assisting in this process. She started working with PWCC in the second week of January and is now fully engaged in her role in monitoring auctions.
Second, we hired a full-time web developer. He is responsible for managing and optimizing our website, which has a significant role in our operations. Some of you may have noticed recent updates to our Client Portal. He is currently exploring the information provided through eBay's API and has the task of identifying a way to automate our bid monitoring procedures. We are hopeful that he can take the human component out of bid monitoring - or at least help us do our job better.
As always, thank you for the feedback!
Betsy Huigens
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