[Archive] Need help with eBay Feedback Extortion (Aussie buyer issue)

Necrotique:

Apologies for not posting for ages. Got married, moved house and all that jazz :wink:

Anyhow, I need help with a problem I’m having as an eBay seller.

I’ve currently sold lots of old models (FW mammoth, oop chaos models, lucius titan, etc) that I had laying around to help pay the rent-man.

However, this one seller has been nothing but belligerent.

I sold him 10 teutogen guard, 7 OOP chaos ogres, 8 OOP chaos trolls, 2 Lords of slaneesh w/ mount and a lot of metal bitz for $90AU including postage. He lives in the Eastern States.

They are worth much more but hey, it was an auction and he won.

After nagging me throughout the sale for an unregistered satchel to “save cash” I told him politely “no sorry, as with a registered parcel with tracking and signature, we can both be sure it arrives, and paypal will cover our protection”

He said that was okay after I said I would see if there was a 1-3kg satchel with the required postage methods to place the box in (I had already packed the items twice with bubblewrap and sealed them in the box. It weighed 1.2kg)

However, come post day, the Local Post Office had no satchel suitable (small country one run by a family) so I said “that’s fine, I’ll send it in the box as stated and agreed to in the auction.”

I send it, get proof of postage and think all is fine.

Come today, the seller messages me saying I lied and that it wasn’t $20 to post (it was actually $25 all up but nevermind) and that I should have got a regular satchel for $5.45 and that I was wasting “his postage money”

I calmly message him back saying "I’ll keep that in mind for future sales. Thanks for the feedback and enjoy your purchase. I would have sent it in a box in a satchel but my local post office was out of them and I had to get back to work (I’m a shift worker)"

He then replies with the attached message.

Here’s what’s wrong with it.

1.) He “called” the local post office an hour after it was closed and no-one was there to speak to.

2.) This is blatant feedback extortion, saying he’ll neg me if I don’t send him a partial refund. He probably would anyway.

3.) He has WAY too much time on his hands. Every message was an essay.

4.) By bidding on the item, under the eBay T+Cs for buyers, he’s agreeing to "the postage and handling costs as set by the seller. The buyer may not seek reimbursement from the seller after the sale. They may only negotiate postage before the sale."

As such, I’ve reported this to the ebay Trust Safety team but do not know if they’ll sort it out before he negs me.

Looking back through his feedback I can see he’s pulled a lot of SNAD scams on people in the past, as well as feedback extortion (after messaging the other sellers to as for their side, I was told so)

I know I should have checked this, but I listed the items from my phone when I was between house and the app has no "feedback left for others function"

Please can anyone whos’ had a similar situation help me with this. I don’t want one of my first 10 feedbacks to be neg. This will lower my DSR considerably :frowning:

Thanks in advance and sorry for all the above blocks.

ryanamandaanna:

Great to see you back posting again and sorry for the jerk who’s messing with you. If you had more feedback this would be a lot easier, because sometimes you can’t help getting negative feedback from the occasional weirdo. You might not be able to help it. Do what you can through ebay admins, but as long as you’re being reasonable, you shouldn’t have to bend over backwards for this guy, particularly if there was nothing wrong with the models. I never even look at what the actual postage is when stuff gets sent to me. I figure if the post is less than what I was charged, then the rest is “handling”, you know? Hope it works out!

Pyro Stick:

It basically sounds like the buyer is trying to blackmail/bully you into doing what he wants or he will give you negative feedback. Even if he did leave you negative im sure if you sent the emails to ebay they would retract it. The buyer could potentially have his account deleted as well for his behaviour. Heres a few articles i found on this:

http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Feedback-Blackmail?ugid=10000000005281800

Computer Gal's Blog: ebay Feedback Blackmail / Extortion, What to do?!

Necrotique:

@Ryan - cheers, it’s nice to be back :slight_smile:

I’ve contacted the admins through the email forms but will have to wait it out and hope they get to him before he negs me :confused:

Is it fair enough to say this is feedback extortion, though?

It’s defined as "an attempt to use feedback as leverage to gain funds or items not otherwise noted in the relevant listing"

I always put the P+H to cover fuel and packing materials (boxes, bubble wrap, etc) and is usually under-cost.

Also, 1.2kg of OOP models would have broken the bag in any case.

starscream:

dont bow down to it, dont let the bully win mate.

I have traded with you a couple of times in the past and you are a 100% decent bloke. Stuff like this is what spoils eBay.

aka_mythos:

If he’s been messaging you through Ebay, they can see all the messages when they review the case. He paid for a particular shipping option, as agreed upon as a term of the sale. Even though you were willing to look into other options after the fact you are not obliged to. It cost what it cost and you gave him a discount over the actual shipping cost. He should be happy.

Let him give you negative feedback then dispute it with Ebay. Show them your correspondences. Show them what the shipping cost you versus what you charged. Show them it was sent and recieved in a timely manner and Ebay should correct him.

If Ebay doesn’t want to get involved you can still write a response to his negative feedback. If you haven’t given him feedback you can still write something appropriately on his feedback, or you can write a follow up on the feedback you’ve already left.

Nicodemus:

Nice that you’re being accused of lying for something so petty. You should let them know that the few $ difference wouldn’t have been worth your time.  The fact that they’ve gone to such extremes over this suggests that they have some other major personality issues going on.  You should let them know that the accusation of lying is unwarranted and untrue. It’s certainly odd that they would call up the post office to try to try and catch you in a lie. Of course if the post office was out of a certain type of packaging they would have had an order in for more, so if this person is calling days or weeks later and finds the stuff is now in stock why should they be surprised? They should get a life.

let this person know that what they are resorting to is blackmain and extortion on a petty scale.  Let them know that they should feel welcome to leave what ever feedback they like in your profile after this, and that their actions will dictate whether or not you ammend your feedback to their profile.

Be sure to block them as a buyer from any of your future auctions.

Rember this above all else with these people:

Never to wrestle with a pig. You both end up filthy, but the pig actually likes it!

Better than leaving any negative feedback for them, if they do leave negative feedback, wait a week or two (I know waiting can be very hard, and NOT replying to the loser can be even harder)… but don’t do anything after they leave their negative feedback.   After your cooling off period phone eBay support, let them know what happened, tell them you waited a short period to cool off (they are surprising receptive when they think you’re not just spiralling out of control with escalating things), and let them know about the blackmail and extortion. Tell eBay cutomer support that you would like help with the negative feedback in your profile which was related to this extortion. If you haven’t left any negative feedback adn didn’t get into a mud slinging argument with them then you’ll have the support staff on your side.

I had exactly this same situation last year with a $0.99 SNES game that a guy got up in arms over the postage cost and wanted me to ship it to him for $4 less than the actual shipping cost - I’d be paying to get rid of the game in this case. After explaining in detail the situation to the guy they wanted a few weeks and then left negative feedback less than 24h before the time ran out on being able to give feedback on that auction. It ended up meaning that I missed my chance to post anything to their profile, but customer support was very supportive and understanding that I was in a difficult position as a seller.

~N

ryanamandaanna:

lol, Nicodemus, I’d never heard that pig proverb before. :smiley:

Necrotique:

@Starscream - thanks :slight_smile: As a rule, I send items in a condition I’d like to receive them, so I make sure they’re packed and presented well.

@Mythos - that’s what I’ve told him and that’s what I’m standing by. By joining eBay you agree to adhere to the rule that (if reasonable, which it is in this case) the postage stated in the auction is what you are willing to pay to cover P+H. Sold a titan to Germany the other day. Cost $90 postage when I only quoted it at $60. I still posted it though as I was bound to the price I foolishly posted without checking.

In this case though, he wins out, and got a premium service for less than the actual cost. I’ll show scans of the relevant documents to eBay about it.

@Nico - I think I saw your thread a while back on another forum if that was you. Did you end up getting the neg removed? I’ll give them a call. It’s just that I’m bummed that someone would go to so much trouble to cause issues for someone else. He already got $300 plus of models for a fraction of that, and now he’s bickering over this one tiny thing. I think he also has another account called “chaplain” something. He contacted me on it to berate me for changing the starting bid on an item (no-one was watching or had bidded yet and I set it too low ie. titan starting at $20 as opposed to $100)

I think he has some serious issues though. It’s quite amazing that he feels the need to do this to people.

Sad thing is, I now have all his details as the seller and could ruin him online, but I’m above that. It’s food for thought for him though.

Just added him to my blacklist. By doing so, can he no longer leave feedback for this transaction?

Nicodemus:

Just added him to my blacklist. By doing so, can he no longer leave feedback for this transaction?

Necrotique
If I'm not mistaken the person can still leave feedback for previous transactions initiated before the blacklisting... so be warned ;)

Necrotique:

Just added him to my blacklist. By doing so, can he no longer leave feedback for this transaction?

Necrotique
If I'm not mistaken the person can still leave feedback for previous transactions initiated before the blacklisting... so be warned ;)


Nicodemus
Just found that out. Called eBay support and got told that he can still leave negative feedback and it will stick if it's for anything except for postage
So they've basically said that they won't do anything about it unless he leaves negative feedback for the shipping. Nevermind the harassment and blackmailing.

Apparently they've reported him (anyone know what that even does?) but are saying his actions are okay as all he wants is explanation for the postage price.

If you look at his feedback (which I urge all of you who sell on eBay to do, as well as blacklisting him) you can see he scams sellers a lot, even claiming that a well-known dealer skimped him on 20 items he "never received".

He is plain and simple asking for hush money for nothing. Now eBay is asking me to continue communication to explain to him why shipping was as it is.

Hmm, let me see, shipping was $20 as it was actually $25 with the box and packaging. Shipping alone was about $21 so he wins out. I charged this as it was a lot-price auction, and so that it would have registered and tracked shipping.

I don't see why they do not help - I've been nothing but polite to the eBay team AND the buyer.

Trying not to get riled up but it's nigh impossible with people like this...

Taurian:

That’s pretty petty. If I’m concerned about shipping, then I’ll ask beforehand. Even in one of the worst cases, where the seller stated that “he would only combine shipping on auctions won within one week of each other”, and he charged me for separate shipping but still waited to send both the items together, I still didn’t complain. That was mainly because I didn’t want to get negative feedback in return. Over ten years, 1100 feedback and not a single negative or neutral. I don’t want to ruin it, and that can get to be a hindrance.

khedyarl:

: /

If I could, I’d leave you positive ebay feedback for our exchanges on here, Nec. You were one of the most pleasant people I’ve ever dealt with in a trade. Mike loves the Mammoth, btw. heh.

Coopervisor:

I stopped selling on eBay a while back, had way too many bad experiences with idiot buyers. Even though I could use the cash getting rid of some of my unwanted stuff would provide!

My last straw was selling a mobile phone on behalf of a friend, which meant I ended up out of pocket. The problem I found is that eBay is geared towards the buyer now, leaving the seller to jump through hoops to avoid upsetting somebody who seems to enjoy confrontation!

Hope it all gets sorted for you!

Necrotique:

That's pretty petty.  If I'm concerned about shipping, then I'll ask beforehand.  Even in one of the worst cases, where the seller stated that "he would only combine shipping on auctions won within one week of each other", and he charged me for separate shipping but still waited to send both the items together, I still didn't complain.  That was mainly because I didn't want to get negative feedback in return.  Over ten years, 1100 feedback and not a single negative or neutral.  I don't want to ruin it, and that can get to be a hindrance.

Taurian
That's quite an achievement. I don't imagine it'd be easy to please everyone.

@Khedyarl - thanks :) I try to work out any sellers the buyer might have by putting myself in their position. I try to keep it reasonable though.
How is the mammoth doing, btw? Does he have any blog photos I can look at?

@Coopervisor - I hear you on that. When you think about it, eBay makes more money from sales than from the sellers themselves.

UPDATE -
Well, I just received a package today from dark_angel_miniatures and, guess what, it's the exact same person as the toys_gifts_and_other_things account. I strongly recommend that any sellers block both accounts as he buys items cheap, tries to claim they never arrived, and then sells them at (at least) twice the price...

The eBay team sucks. I called them as well as emailed and the woman on the call centre said he wasn't trying to extort me for money and just wanted to know shipping. They weren't much help as I received a few harassing calls and messages.

The eBay team I emailed however, removed his feedback, which is good.

:cheers

Necrotique:

Well, I need help again, urgently.

I got this message from the buyer account I blocked and reported. I also reported his seller account for being a double-account.

Then he saw my listing for 10 OOP Daemonettes with what I’m presuming is another account.

He then sends me this message, acting all friendly but acting like he’s in the right. To clarify, my delivery to him weighed 1.5kg. I posed it in a small box. It cost $21 for the parcel with Confirmation of Delivery, Signature, Tracking and Registered.

I charged him $20 and he’s threatening to report me for shipping overcharges (which, by the way, you can’t do. By purchasing the item you agree to the shipping charges)

What is the point of reporting someone when all they get is a slap on the wrist and the continued ability to use multiple accounts and harass you?

He’s already proved he has nothing better to do than antagonise me; a luxury I do not have.

Can someone please give me some help? I don’t want one of his other accounts winning my daemonettes’ auction, or similar high-price items, and scamming me.

This really bums me as I do everything right and get this in return. So much for the eBay Trust and Safety Teams’ confidential reports…

:mad:mad:(:frowning:

Pyro Stick:

Maybe you should ask on the ebay Community. There must be some help you can get from ebay over this issue

Coopervisor:

If he’s just created another account, isn’t there an option to only accept bids/offers from people with a set feedback?

Again sorry to hear the problems, it’s people like him abusing eBay that gives it the poor reputation it is getting now.

Necrotique:

@Pyro - I usually would, but he monitors literally everything I do on my account :frowning:

@Coopervisor - I’ll try to change my settings for that. I already have 3 of his known accounts on my bidding blacklist.

He obviously has some deep-seated issues to chase me around this much over a subject he’s been proven wrong on.

It’s just getting to the point where it’s scary - he’ll contact my wife and laud about how much he knows about us.

If he does anymore of the extra-eBay harassment would it be justified to call the police? It’s just getting ridiculous.

snowblizz:

@Pyro - I usually would, but he monitors literally *everything* I do on my account :(

@Coopervisor - I'll try to change my settings for that. I already have 3 of his known accounts on my bidding blacklist.
He obviously has some deep-seated issues to chase me around this much over a subject he's been proven wrong on.
It's just getting to the point where it's scary - he'll contact my wife and laud about how much he knows about us.

If he does anymore of the extra-eBay harassment would it be justified to call the police? It's just getting ridiculous.

Necrotique
Actually I think so yes. There's no threshold at which you are justified to od so. That's up to you. Then it's the police's job to investigate if the level exceeds that which is "considered OK" in law. Especially the contacting outside eBay thing should probably be a red flag.
Now they might fob you off course, but you've done something.