Sometimes, Ebay tactics just don’t cut it.

Here is a short excerpt from an msn conversation I had with a friend very recently:

Many of us know the feeling of being one-upped on an auction. We’re familiar with the frustration and anger associated with losing something we thought was for sure going to be ours. But when it comes to large-scale bids, sometimes bumping up a bid is more controversial than it seems

So here’s the deal. If you were trying to sell something and someone bumped their bid up by about a million dollars to match the highest undisclosed bid, would you be suspicious at all? Apparently BC Rail wouldn’t. Or, should I saw, wasn’t.

A recent article described how BC Rail accepted an offer fr one of it’s assets that was just bumped up by over a million dollars to match the highest undisclosed bid. Even though this action implies that the bidder may have had access to confidential information, BC rail took this in stride. A mistake that has landed BC Rail in a bunch of trouble.

Bidding, especially when bids are undisclosed, is a business deal that is closely tied to ethical issues. For example, if a competitor bidder had access to the list of bids, they could easily top the highest bid by a minuscule amount and still win the bid. For this reason, the bidder and seller are bound to a certain degree of secrecy.  The reason why BC Rail is in a spot of trouble right now is because they are held suspect of breaking this secrecy by failing to suspect the suspicious bid as being tipped off. Now BC Rail has to deal with the allegations that they may possibly be accepting bribes or leaking confidential information-allegations that could have been avoided had BC Rail been more alert.

Remember, kids: If it seems like a bad thing, don’t ignore it! I think BC Rail is going to remember this lesson for some time.

You can find the article here