Shill Bidding

Dear Members,
Have any of you guys ever had strong reason to believe you have been shill bidded in a major auction house (not Ebay)?
If so how did you guys proceed?

I feel like I have been a victim recently where my bid was raised from $3300 to my exact ceiling winning bid of over $6000 with 3 consecutive bids over a span of 3 minutes in the final minutes of auction close. There were no bids for 2.5 hours prior to closing. I find it hard to believe I got bidded up exactly to my ceiling bid with 3 bids when there were many increments between $3300 and my ceiling bid.

I don't necessarily mind the closing price since it's the most I would have paid for it but I'm not going to just roll over and pay without at least speaking with one of the owners. I know for a fact I was a victim of shilling bidding at Mastro and other auctions, which I won't name, in the past.

To this date Goldin, Hunts, Heritage are the only auction houses where I continue to win items below my ceiling bid.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Goh Nishiyama

This has happened to me a couple times. The auction house thankfully is no longer in business. The auction house told me they reserved the right to bid it up. I ended up never paying and thankfully i didn't because it would bug the crap out of me every time i looked at the items.

the auction house actually said that?? That has to be illegal.