A general eBay question for people that sell.

[groundhog7s]

I know that eBay can dictate behavior of sellers, but can it ban buyers for their behavior? I sold something this week and am dealing with a nasty buyer who has made the transaction a personal attack on me and I'm wondering if eBay will do anything about it. I won't post details until it's resolved, but has anyone had experience with this before?

[Modefan]

I've actually had a similar situation this week - Very frustrating

I'd call ebay's customer service and basically state all the issues you are having - Just tell them you are being harrased by a buyer and hopefully you went through ebays messaging system

[jason4444]

I know that eBay can dictate behavior of sellers, but can it ban buyers for their behavior? I sold something this week and am dealing with a nasty buyer who has made the transaction a personal attack on me and I'm wondering if eBay will do anything about it. I won't post details until it's resolved, but has anyone had experience with this before?

Sellers can`t leave neg feedback for buyers. This is the reason I hate eBay now. This rule makes no sense. eBay needs to protect the sellers but they choose not too.

[buttheadsmate]

I sold a vintage tractor....it was a wreck . I described it as a wreck ,a non-runner,rusty....you name it & I described as bad. The tractor sold & I waited & waited for the buyer to make the deal....paying/picking it up. He eventually contacted me to say he would pick it up the following weekend.....it wasn't convenient but I cancelled all my plans to accomodate him & he never showed. I emailed him & expressed my disgust & told him the deal was off. He then pleaded with me to complete the deal & I capitulated but stipulated that he give me feedback before he came to pick the tractor up or not to bother coming at all. The following morning a contractor (not the buyer) came to pick the tractor up after giving me the cash, I insisted that this guy started the tractor up ....he did so & then departed with the tractor on the back of a low-loader truck ....never to be seen again.

All seemed well.

A week later I received a threatening letter from this guy's solicitor (ooohh scary) & a personal threat from him. He was incensed that the tractor was in an 'unsatisfactory & dangerous state & I had misrepresented its condition' .I responded by telling him to read the auction details & by giving him negative feedback for threatening me (physically). I also offered to meet him & resolve our problems the 'old way' . He declined.

All seemed well again.

I still had a similar tractor of my own...I still do....& whilst looking on ebay for parts for it I noticed this guys username on some of the auctions I was watching. In each of his auctions he ranted about ol' buttheadsmate being a bit of a scoundrel.....each time he did this I contacted ebay & they lifted his items. He again emailed me & I again suggested the 'old way'. He declined.

All seemed well.

A few weeks later I saw this . My old tractor according to the auction details had had a new gearbox,a new fuel tank & reconditioned engine ...all in the space of 5 or 6 weeks ....yet his picture showed my tractor in the paddock outside my house

I subsequently offered for sale on ebay 'A picture of a Fordson N' & in the details mentioned how similar it was to the Fordson N for sale in auction number 12238 blah blah blah (his auction) . My auction was lifted three days later but I reckon I made my point because 'his' tractor never sold & was never seen again.

All seemed well.

I received another letter from this guy's solicitor (yawn) warning me that my actions were 'upsetting his client'. I replied to the solicitor that this had definitely been my intention & thanked him for letting me know. The solicitor also stated that he had evidence (snore) that I had demanded good feedback which was against ebay policy. I replied that I had asked for 'feedback' not ........'good feedback' . I never heard any more from him or his upset client.

The day ebay stopped sellers giving Negative feedback was a very sad day.........I rarely sell anything on ebay now although my feedback is 100% & just shy of 2000.

Sorry to hear about the hassle your having Groundhog , I know that your a 100% guy in the dealings I & many of us here have had with you.

Edited May 29, 2010 by buttheadsmate

[groundhog7s]

Wow, nothing as strange as that Rob, but frustrating enough. I agree that eBay taking away the right for sellers to leave negative feedback is just bad for the whole ebay community and am hoping they'll do something about buyer/seller mph3436. They've left around 30 negative feedbacks for sellers in less than two years time, including seven in the last two months. I'm pretty positive I'll be receiving some from them next week.

I had an auction end late Monday night/early Tuesday morning and they paid in the middle of the night (one Minimate for $14-nothing huge or life changing for them or me). I didn't receive any e-mail from Paypal saying they had paid, which isn't the first time this has happened and I'm not sure why. On Thursday, two whole days later, they asked if it had shipped. That evening I got their message, I checked, saw that they had paid, printed the label and responded and explained the situation and apologized for any inconvenience. The package went out on Friday, three days after payment, the package shipped. On Saturday (today) I woke up to a Paypal e-mail for an item not received dispute which put a hold on my account for the amount of the transaction and this e-mail from them:

sorry for inconvenience?? i have a 6 year old and now i have to tell him becuse some person didnt know i paid him he will have to wait till next week to get the item he has been waiting for!!! so when i leave you feedback i hope i do inconvenience you!!!

I won't add my personal thoughts as to how that started my day off to this post. I escalated the claim to a dispute with Paypal because the tracking I have clearly shows it was shipped and is in transit. I responded to them also in what I thought was the most honest and polite way I could think of, even taking blame for not seeing that I had received the payment from Paypal (i wasn't going to argue with them about not receiving any notification):

I want to first respond to what you posted through Paypal. I checked the tracking number this morning and it registers. It must not have been updated at the time that you had viewed it (there is usually some lag time in how USPSs system tracks things sent around here from what I have noticed). I only wanted to mention this first to assure you that the package was shipped out yesterday as I stated to you. I at least wanted you to know that from the start. Other than that, I'm not sure how you want me to respond to your message. You paid on the 25th and the item was shipped on the 29th, which is well within what ebay or paypal would consider acceptable. It's not as quick a turn around as I would have liked or normally do, but it is what hapened. I'm not a business, I'm just a dad trying to supplement a single income family of 6 and I made a mistake. I have had to deal with my kids waiting for something to come in the mail that didn't show up when I had told them it should have and I can understand what kind of situation you are in and I apologize again for not getting this out sooner in the week. I have been honest with you and I hope you realize when I said I was sorry for the inconvenience I was being polite and not insincere. And if you're looking to inconvenience me, you already have by placing the claim with Paypal, since the money from the transaction is being held until the dispute is resolved (even though there is tracking information in usps's system). Let me assure you, even though it might seem like a small amount of money, it is a big inconvenience to us this weekend. All I can say to you and your son again is that I am sorry the figure will not be there sooner.

I got this response:

well in the ebay rules everyone usese that same excuse!!1 i paid and you waited 4 days to ship before a long holiday weekend, now my son will not have this until next tuesday or wensday!!!when i sell somrething and get paid it goes in the mail the same or next day i dont sit on it for 4 days and then makes excuses and apoligies, and all your apoligies mean nothing!!! lioke i said the fact is you waited too long to ship and now i have to listen to my son bug me everytime the mail man comes?? you must not have children do you? if not get some then let me know how it feels when it is done to you, and as far as the paypal claim it will stand until i get my item!!!!and i am glad i inconvenienced you!!! cuz now you now half of how i feel!!! there is no need to write me anymore with your lame excuses or apolagies we will wait like we have been doing and let paypal take care of it!!!

Maybe I'm missing something, but I feel as if they're mad at the situation and are abusing Paypal's dispute process to punish me for not meeting their unreasonable expectaions. Even had I gotten the payment notification, I don't think receiving payment on a Tuesday and printing a label on a Thursday is considered unacceptable eBay practices. When I checked the feedback she's left for others, there's several negative for this same crap (her most recently left feedback was negative for paying on 4/26 and shipping on 4/29-so?).

I only give the details because I really want to know if I have any kind of leg to stand on with eBay to get someone like this banned. I've sold 1000's of items over the years, but it's the small handful of buyers like this that make me stop selling for long periods of time. But I have to say she is probably the worst.

Has anyone been able to get eBay to do something in a situation like this before?

[karamazov80]

Ugh, that sucks GH. Not your specific situation, but the fact that that guy procreated

I don't know anything about how to handle a situation like that, GH. Guess I've been relatively lucky that most of my bad experiences are from folks who don't pay. I would definitely e-mail eBay customer support. No need for people to be using insults and bad grammar like that.

On a lighter note, his response reminds me of this, which I recently saw. It is the description of a bootleg Batman figure in China or some such place:

Seriously though, I blocked the bum from bidding on my auctions. If anyone wants the list of no-good Ebay bidding bums on my list, shoot me a PM.

[Dio]

Wow, what a total

bitch

. I'm pretty sure you have to wait seven days to file an item not received claim. Anyway, right before you leave feedback for a buyer, there's a link below it asking you if you had problems with that buyer.

This person is ridiculous:

7 days for priorty?????? waited 4 days to ship???? will never buy from again!!! Seller:

Member idstevej5470 ( Feedback Score Of 2412Red star icon for feedback score in between 1,000 to 4,999)

Jan-19-10 14:26

*

Reply by stevej5470 (Jan-20-10 15:47):

SHIPPED PRIORITY WHICH WAS PROMISED, HAD A BLIZZARD & HOLIDAY WITHIN THAT WEEK!

o

Follow-up by mph3436 (Jan-27-10 16:53):

I paid ASAP Said shipped the 12th, post marked the 15th got on the 19th??

[youbastards]

Thanks for the head's up, added to blocked bidders list.

[buttheadsmate]

'Tracking' is yet another area where the more devious seller can blind Paypal. I buy 99% of my stuff either from HK/Japan & the good ol' US & I have very little hassle BUT there was one incident.........

I can't remember what the item was now but I'd bought it from this guy from the States & after some weeks no show! I emailed him politely & he eventually supplied me with ....'tracking'. Nothing happened for another couple of weeks & checked the 'tracking' which showed that it had been delivered . The trouble was that it had not been delivered to ME. I contacted the seller & he basically wasn't interested so I contacted Paypal who finalised their enquiries & closed the case by saying that the seller had evidence that the item had been delivered.......end of story in their opinion

As you have probably gathered by now I just don't give in & I 'pulled some strings' with the Post Office to find out where the package had actually been sent & who signed for it. The result was that the recipient was some guy in a town 250 miles away. I furnished paypal with this info & they finally got their asses into gear & I got my money back. I don't know how & why the recipient was able to receive my goods but I have a fairly good idea. The seller got a warning from Paypal ....& one from me

The trouble with all this shit is that it takes so much time to sort out & if you think I've got the time to keep chasing w%nkers ,paypal & evilbay help lines then you'd be wrong . I do however hate being turned over by anonymous assholes on the end of a keyboard.....& I take the time to destroy them at birth if I can.

Edited May 30, 2010 by buttheadsmate

[Danny]

I have read most of this thread with the most incredulous look on my face.

Groundhog, no-one in their right mind would expect, nay, demand, that something is shipped out immediately after payment. They are being totally unreasonable, and kicking up a fuss without a leg to stand on. Your email was polite and explained the circumstances, which is actually more than they deserved.

[TBT!]

When you look at the feedback left for others it makes absolutely no sense they have zero bad feedback. he has made dozens of obnoxious comments to sellers about shipping etc and yet because of the way the rules work he looks like a squeeky clean customer.

They just sound like a total nutcase if you ask me and I think the lesson we learn here is that some folks are just going to be that way no matter what you do

T.

[jason4444]

No way GH. Man, I'm sorry to here all this. I'm blocking this tool right now.

Bad karma man. I hope he gets his.

[battlecat]

Yeah, that's just crazy. I didn't even think it was possible to file a 'not received' thing that quickly after the auction end. Many of the listings I see on eBay specifically say at the bottom "item will be shipped within a week of payment" or somesuch thing, or "within ten days" on some. And I've definitely gotten one or two apologetic emails in the past from sellers saying they'd just noticed my purchase because there was no email sent to them by PayPal. My response was "no worries." Possibly because I'm not an angry lunatic.

Anyway, hope it gets resolved quickly GH.

[dj87]

how does one block members from bidding on their auctions?

sorry to hear it groundhog... sounds like a mental old bitch who shouldn't have had kids, or let them bully her over ebay purchases... or something, some people are dreadful

[Zombieboyfiend]

Did they even read your email? You said you were a dad lol. I think i've lucked out with eBay but every day I heard these stories I rethink what about even having an account. I've received 297 positive feedback (222 of those are unique) and i've left 317 positive feedback (2 more that were negative). eBay used to be a better place but now it's just a sad reminder of what it was.

[jason4444]

how does one block members from bidding on their auctions?

http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/...management.html

Click on the above link and type in the buyers id. In this case type in mph3436

Hope this helps.

Edited May 31, 2010 by jason4444

[TM2 Dinobot]

GH, honestly? Let it go. It's not that big a deal. If you're able, leave negative feedback. If not, just chalk it up as one of those things and move on. Yeah it sucks, but "Do unto others" and all that. Someone has to be the one to start the process.

[groundhog7s]

Maybe no one else will say it, but I appreciate your words on the subject TM2 (I know you must hear that all the time...)

I thought I'd give an update on this since so many of you offered some advice (or sympathy-maybe I need the latter more than the former). I, of course, received negative feedback from the buyer (which can be seen from the original link to their feedback). They had their item a week to the day from when they paid (with a holiday involved too), but it would seem I deserved their wrath. It is what it is.

As to eBay, after waiting several days for an e-mail response, I spent about 45 minutes on the phone to resolve two issues. The first was as a buyer where I was left 6 unpaid item strikes because I couldn't work out reasonable combined shipping with a seller who replied sparingly to my e-mails (I was charged $20 to ship 6 loose Palz-that should teach me to not buy those things). I had actually spent 45 minutes in live chat with eBay about this before until they finally told me I'd have to call. I only mention this to say they were more than willing to make me happy as a buyer and removed the strikes and are investigating the seller for violating the trust practices for poor communication and overcharging shipping. I then brought up the issue with this seller and the customer service rep spoke with someone in feedback support and finally resolved that they the buyer hadn't violated any eBay rules and therefore no action could be taken. They did offer to pass the matter on to their supervisor to be reveiwed from the standpoint that since I didn't receive payment notification that they might remove the feedback as a courtesy to me. This hasn't happened, but what i took from the way he offered was that they agreed the buyer was unreasonable, but that they couldn't do anything within their job to change what they think, but offered a way around it (which I appreciated, even if nothing changes). I will continue to contact them to have this removed because they've now told me it can be and as a seller most people look at a number and don't see the situation when they make a judgment and I don't want their comments reflecting on me. It's not that I wish harm to them, I just want the damage done to me undone.

Thanks again for the support and if anything maybe the fact that some of you have blocked this bidder may have saved some of you from the same situation.

Edited June 4, 2010 by groundhog7s

[hulk197]

GH, honestly? Let it go. It's not that big a deal. If you're able, leave negative feedback. If not, just chalk it up as one of those things and move on. Yeah it sucks, but "Do unto others" and all that. Someone has to be the one to start the process.

On one hand, yeah, let it go. On the other... this wacko needs to be taught how ebay works. She has no idea about the general rules and "etiquette" of buying online. She obviously doesn't read auction descriptions before bidding and she probably can't read very well based on her comments, grammar and spelling!

Sellers have a section to put in the auction how long it could take to ship from the time payment clears. I use 4 days and usually ship things out before that time is up. She's not even giving these sellers a chance and ruining feedback scores by being an idiot.

Thanks for the heads up about her. She's blocked for me too.

[karamazov80]

But the way eBay seems to work is--buyers can do nearly anything they want with impunity, and sellers have to understand 1,000 different rules in order not to violate some eBay policy or another. So, I would say that he/she understands the rules pretty well. And my guess is more that this person clearly doesn't give a crap about etiquette or decent behavior, rather than not knowing what this behavior entails. But, maybe she/he is just an ignorant S or DOB.

Edited June 4, 2010 by karamazov80

[dj87]

how does one block members from bidding on their auctions?

http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/...management.html

Click on the above link and type in the buyers id. In this case type in mph3436

Hope this helps.

cheers jason, nice one

[MinnesotaIceman]

I avoid eBay like the plague. I've been ripped off too many times.

[homestar17]

Thanks again for the support and if anything maybe the fact that some of you have blocked this bidder may have saved some of you from the same situation.

I feel you, Bro. eBay is just not what it's cracked up to be anymore. Like others have said, I now avoid selling on it & only buy on it if it's my last resort. I hope everything works out satisfactorily for you in the end.