eBay advice

MartynC · January 2012

Hi WoS

I know a few of you guys buy and sell on eBay a bit, so I wondered if you had any advice regards this complete tool who gave me my first negative feeback since I joined the site in 2001 (my feedback score is around 800 - not huge, but still :cry:).

In short, this bloke contacts me about a game I'm selling for ?20, as a buy it now. He asks me if I'm prepared to knock a quid off. I agree, and he buys the game. He then asks if I can wait for payment for a few days as he is short of funds. Fair enough.

Anyway, he never pays despite repeated emails to him. I then open an unpaid item case and he still doesn't pay. It happens I guess.

But then, being nosy, I check his profile and I see he's bought the same game, a week later, off someone else for a fiver cheaper. Probably why he didn't want to pay for my copy.

So, being pi$$ed off, I leave him positive feedback with a negative comment (basically telling people that he's a non-payer - nothing nasty). Now apparently leaving a neg comment for a buyer is against eBay policy, so the feedback was removed. I didn't know this. My mistake.

But then, the guy retaliates by leaving me a proper neg, saying (all in caps, naturally), "awful comms, awful condition of items, avoid avoid!" etc. Obviously this is dishonest, as I never sent the item as he never paid. :mad:

I opened one of those feedback removal requests with him, but that doesn't look too promising seeing as he's followed up his original neg with more BS!

Even though his feedback is done purely out of spite, it doesn't actually break any eBay rules as far as I can tell. He has 100% feedback too, mostly from buying.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can get it removed?

Fuming, I am.

Cheers!

Bermondsey Bob · January 2012

I've never sold on eBay, but from time to time, I see sellers who have recieved negative feedback and they sometimes respond with thing like "seller never asked" etc. Couldn't you post one of those on the feedback he left you saying that he never paid for it in the first place?

MartynC · January 2012

Yeah I did that Bob, but eBay then allows the buyer to respond to your response, which he has and countered what I've said.

He's definitely out to get me.

Wookiee · January 2012

I don't use Ebay and would never ever suggest anything against the law but if my understanding of how it works is correct.....you now have his address.

Well.....surely knowing where the guy lives should open a world of potential solutions to the problem no?

fog · January 2012

speak to ebay again. his feedback is a lie, remember they haven't paid for the item.. so therefore it makes such statements untrue..

the smart thing to do would have been to say sod all and they would have got a none payment strike.. 3 and your out IRC... someone at work did that, found it funny.. I said yer it's d!cks like you who make ebay a pain..

I've had someone recently accuse me of harassment.. which was well funny, I was tempted to tell em to go ebay.. and ebay no doubt would have sided with me.. as not 1 thing I said was "harassing" in any way. needless to say , they don't get my business ever again.

if it's speccy or 8 bit stuff, PM me their username.. I can't be doing with mardy people.. so I block em first.. I have a rather big block list now.

you do get the odd bit of neg or neatural feedback...

1 sl*gged me off even before letting me attempt to fix the "issue".. so it's a mixed bag.. as %... I'd say 80-90 of folk are fine, but it's the minority who make it hard work.

it's annoying , but well remember the stuff left feedback wise has to be factual...

I've had a slaunder or liable ? on my feedback and ebay did sod all about it.. so it's swings / roundabouts with em.

also I have my account setup so it excludes certain people like none payers from my account.

psj3809 · January 2012

We've had similar idiots, total pain.

Speak to ebay, even worth trying to talk to someone on the phone, again we had a similar situation and ebay were on our side and retracted their feedback.

I mean its your first neg, you can prove the guy simply bought it elsewhere, it may take a little while with ebay but i'm positive you will win the case and that feedback will get retracted.

Obviously file the non paying bidder thing as eventually this muppet will get kicked off. But whatever you do take this all the way with ebay and you'll win, dont do what some people do and think 'cant be bothered' as this then will happen to another decent seller.

Rebelstar without a cause · January 2012

*cough* turd in the post *cough*

Morkin · January 2012

All I'll say is in the meantime try not to get overly annoyed - I'm only an ad hoc eBay buyer and I always look at feedback before I buy now; it's usually blindingly obvious if a good seller has had the odd unreasonable buyer, you can tell quite easily just by reading the comments & responses, I think you need to accept that it's going to happen at some point through no fault of your own.

I've only been caught out (sort of!) once, when I bought an item off someone who had a small amount of terrible selling feedback but 000's of positive buying feedback and I forgot to filter it.. There was a payment problem his end, he ultimately contacted me by phone and turned out to be a complete nutcase! To be fair he did resolve it but I defo wouldn't use him again...

mile · January 2012

yeah as morkin says id never not buy anything if someone had the odd bit of bad feedback.

fog · January 2012

mile wrote: »

yeah as morkin says id never not buy anything if someone had the odd bit of bad feedback.

but if that was the case at one point you'd not have bought off me, if you were looking :) .

some french git trashed my feedback BIGTIME 14 items.. it's funny people commented on it for AGES after, when buying or selling to me.. saying were they on drugs :lol: (needless to say I don't ship to france now... as well as italy)

but getting annoyed over it, don't worry about it.. try ebay again.. but as they state themselves the feedback has to be true... you didn't get paid.. next time just don't react and get em a strike.

although up your personal preferences in my account to block none payers etc :)

sadly that doesn't stop all fake bidders.. one actually admitted they were doing it for fun and asked me to cancel the bid.. I said... well I'll give you a strike just for fun also.

mile · January 2012

fog wrote: »

but if that was the case at one point you'd not have bought off me, if you were looking :) .

i only wanted to find out where you lived, its a bit of a mystery on the forums you see. :p

like boozy's christian name, or who rubberkeys is posing as these days.

fog · January 2012

you better buy off me again to find out where I am currently then :)
(not the same address)

your still at the same place ? I should randomly just send you a "quality" game..

murtceps · January 2012

Always go through the Resolution process, not perfect, but it saves getting neg feedback. Neg feedback, although a pain, and a bump to the pride, does not affect selling unless registered as a business.

fog · January 2012

but the neg feedback I've got without ANY resolution or well one "neutral" shouldn't be there.. as the buyer asked me for another game.. then changed his mind then accused me of upping the postage on the 1 game..

so murco when ya selling me that mire mare ya got stashed in the attic ? :)

thx1138 · January 2012

hang on a minute, did you mean that you sent him an item on promise of payment, and that you were never paid?

fog · January 2012

thx1138 wrote: »

hang on a minute, did you mean that you sent him an item on promise of payment, and that you were never paid?

he never got paid.. no item got sent, states that in the first post

but feedback states otherwise.. so factually untrue = grounds for removal..

zx1 · January 2012

remember about 5 years ago i won a bid for a dvd called 'Horror Hospital'. I paid for it the minute i won the bid and waited for the package to arrive, after 10 days nothing had arrived so i sent a message to the person asking when it would be sent out - there was no reply so i sent another message and the guy eventually replied saying that the person who sold the item had to leave town as there had been a death in the family and had left his brother in charge of sending items out, which was fair enough. The guy asked if i wanted a refund and i said i'd have perferred the dvd so he said he would send it out asap, he also said he'd understand if i left negative feedback. It arrived about 2 weeks later and i gave positve feedback due to his circumstances but then the guy had the cheek to give me negative feedback saying i had 'did not pay for item for 5 days', this was a lie. I contacted him about this and he never replied, so i just left it but made a note not to use that sellar again.
I've bought things from ebay since and had no problems but i don't use it as often anymore.

mile · January 2012

im worried about selling things on ebay, it seems that sellers regulary get serious diseases (usually a week stay in hospital is required!!) or one of their family members croaks just as they make a sale.

its the equivalent of going to a dinner party with miss marple.

thx1138 · January 2012

I gave up with it altogether, I use Amazon a little bit to buy though.

Bermondsey Bob · January 2012

I've got an interesting predicament(?) at the moment. I brought a load of black metal demo tapes off of a seller on eBay a few weeks ago. They all arrived fine, so I brought some more. Those ended and I got a message off the seller offering me the ones I'd been outbid on and saying that he could send me more tapes from his distrubution web site for ?1.99 each. I looked at his site and they were listed at ?2.99 each. So, I had a quick look at his new listings, only to find that they were all listed on eBay at 99p! So, I bid on the ones I wanted and sent him a message letting him know I'd buy them that way.

So, I paid for the ones that had ended as the other listings were 4 or 5 days away from ending. He then sent me a message saying he was going to keep the ones I'd paid for and he'd send them all in one go. I didn't mind as I thought he'd combine the postage etc, but when the new items ended, he added ?4.50 p&p ONTOP of the p&p I'd already paid for the tapes he was holding back (making around ?7 or ?8 in p&p for one cd and about 13 tapes).

But, that all ended last week and there's still no sign of my stuff! He's also one of these sellers who don't seem to say when items have been posted as he didn't do that with the first lot I recieved off him.

I'm thinking of giving neutral feedback if they turn up! What would people do?

fog · January 2012

contact him first.. also check the feedback for recent activity.. I'll always open a case before I do feedback

I remember one bloke I bought off maybe 2 xmas's ago when the snow was really bad ? couldn't be bothered to get to the post office.. four weeks I gave him, he made loads of excuses then vanished.

as a seller, I let people build up larger orders BUT there is a cut of point with that. If I'm giving them longer (than 1 week) to pay I expect prompt payment when the last item is done.

also if it's a courier you might find they are trying to build up enough orders to send on 1 day, why hang about 3 days when you can send it all in 1. OR that they are a weekend poster. hanging around in post office queues to get proof of sending is a pain, so maybe they only go post office 1 or 2 times a week.

as a buyer, I'll buy things and ask the seller to wait until I have more.. BUT I'll offer to pay what I owe -1 product (so I can do the postage on that) , until the auctions are over. Or they don't mind wating till the end.

contact.. no reply , then open a case. I stick to whats advertised that way no "misunderstandings".. I got a neutral from that once , never again.

MartynC · January 2012

Thanks for the info/advice guys. Yes, I did consider sending a **** PIZZA to his door.

I've been in touch with eBay and it looks like I screwed up because I didn't close the Unpaid Item case (by default, you have to manually close these, although you can set it up so that they are automatically closed if no payment is received). It happened over Xmas and I completely forget. If I had closed it, his neg feedback would have been removed.

I can raise a false and defamatory feedback case, but I'm not sure I can be bothered to set aside the time to pull everything together. Have you had any experience with these fog?

I'm still selling stuff, so yeah as people have said, one neg doesn't really bother people. Just annoying more than anything.

doodleatic · January 2012

We've found that the best way to deal with these sort of issues (we've had a few...) is by ringing eBay and speak to them. They will never get back to any messages sent by emails as you'll only get an automated reply.

Can I please ask for this users' ID, so that we can block him. (It's probably already been mentioned but I've not read the rest of this thread.)

Kind regards,
Anna (The Attic Bug)

Scottie_uk · January 2012

I once sold an SCSI zip drive on ebay. In the listing title it was made very clear the item was SCSI. A buyer brought it, and tried to claim it was broken, changing his stance in every email. First the connector was wrong, then it would not read the disks, then that a large white cog came out the front. I know for a fact that that model did not have a large white cog in it. He left negative feedback. I was dammed if I was going to refund him. But if he had said originally, oh I brought the wrong thing can I send it back, I would have been happy to accommodate this. I;ve never since had negative feedback and eventually it dropped of the record.

fog · January 2012

MartynC wrote: »

I can raise a false and defamatory feedback case, but I'm not sure I can be bothered to set aside the time to pull everything together. Have you had any experience with these fog?

not even that.. you should state the item was never shipped as it was never paid for .. so in their comments they said it didn't work or was broken etc? posting that comment "it didn't work etc is a lie and not factual" and worse a lie.

ebay don't budge sometimes. I never ring em, but quote THEIR rules to them, that normally annoys em enough ;)

there is that auto case shutter thing, but what I do is set a memo in my phone to remind me at the time its gonna close.

but if you get it, well.. it'll slowly vanish in time like scottie said.. 1 out of 700 or something does look odd, and it's not like loads have slated you..e.g. like the Italian who tried to buy off me who was scamming brits.. his page was a torrent of abuse , but truthful all from brits.. I got out of that one saying I didn't ship to italy and he never asked if I did as it stated only UK prices on the page :p

eBay advice

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