big problems with buyer...

[audiblefrequency]

hello,

i am experiencing some big problems with a buyer at the moment...allow me to explain...

buyer claims a video game i shipped is not functional. i have offered the buyer a full refund providing he returns the game to me and i can authenticate the game as being sold from my store(little tactic i use to scare away switcheraoo artists) the buyer refuses to return the game and says he demands a full refund immediately.
seems somewhat odd to me that he would not return the item to me despite my credible feedback??...

he has already filed a complaint with paypal and left a negative comment and contacted square trade...he also threathens to not quit until his money is refunded or my account is suspended. im pretty sure ebay would not suspend my account but is there any remote possibility it could happen?

whatelse can i do but offer a refund when items are returned??seems to me like thats a prime rule of 99.9% of sellers on ebay and pretty much any other business.

would square trade side with me on this situation?

also, doesnt the paypal protection only offer protection on whether items were shipped or not?

any help would be appreciated with this...

[zarzuella]

Sorry to hear you're going through this.

You're right of course - without the return of the item the buyer has no leg to stand on. Try wandering into Walmart (who accept anything for return without question) and demanding a refund without the item!! He's trying to rattle you into refunding.

I'm no expert, but I believe that Paypal requires proof of return shipping from the buyer before proceeding with a chargeback.

First thing I'd do is neg him right back - he's sitting at 90% right now, he'll look even less credible with another negative.
Then you could try Powerseller support - often an exercise in frustration, but you may be lucky and get a decent rep.

Good Luck, and keep us informed!

Ann

[audiblefrequency]

nice flawless feedback zarzuella ...hehe...i used to have that sort of feedback until i started dealing with buyers like im dealing with now...its only a matter of time before some buyer like the one im dealing with now ruins it all...:(

i have already contacted ebay support...im actually concrened this guy is going start emailing potential buyers to scare them away from my auctions..."he

id prefer not to leave a negative comment until any complaints with ebay/paypal/square trade are settled. i dont want to give the impression that im unjustly handing out retalitory negatives... here is what the buyer said...

"I am on a mission now to make sure you do not do this to anyone else. I assure you, I will pursue this until it is resolved. I will not send you anything until my money is refunded. If it is not refunded, I will continue to pursue this matter, should it cost me $20 dollars or $50 dollars, I intend to see this matter resolved and to make sure you NEVER pull this stunt again. There is no further need for contact between us until A: you do the proper thing and refund my money immediately or B: when you have a suspended account"

its funny though becuase the paypal complaint he filed gave me the option of refunding his money when the item is shipped back. i choose the option and it says that paypal will refund the buyer once the shipping company can cofirm delivery however the item must be retuned in its original condition.

was there any revisions to paypal's UA? i remember a time before when the buyer could of shipped a rock and you would of got a email from paypal saying they do not control the quality of the items shipped and they cant help and must refund the buyer. at least i can argue with paypal if he sends me a empty box..

[shoplineca]

I must admit that one time when shipped something different than what a seller had advertised, I was very skeptical about sending the item back and then hoping for a refund from him.

The fact that he advretised something as brand new but sent something made from old parts didnt leave much room for me to believe that he would be prepared to give me a full refund if I returned the goods.

If you looked at your customer in that light (and not assuming that it is a scam), you may be able to appreciate where he is coming from, if he is in fact not a scam artist.

I would send an email agreeing with him and appreciating his concern and understand his position to have a third party assist in the resolve of his getting a refund and you receiving your merchandise back.

Ackowledge that by contacting ST, he has begun taking the appropriate steps and once he pays them their $20 fee, ST will assign a mediator to find the solution for both parties which will bring him closer to receiving his refund.

This goes back to the old saying "the customer is always right".

I am not in any way siding with your customer as he sounds like some of the scam artists that I have had the unfortunate opportunity to entertain as customers causing me to get a negative (however I kept their money).

But if you take advantage of his taking this to ST and his further stating he doesnt care if he has to pay $20 or $50 to resolve, then let ST deal with him and make certain that one of the conditions in settlement is that no negative FB can be left for you.

Malcolm

[audiblefrequency]

understandable...

consider this...customer claims the item is unuseable. would it not make more sense to at least take a chance and send the item back and see if i send him a refund. from what i can see they have nothing to lose except a couple bucks in postage. instead he demands a refund and refuses to return item, leaves a negative comment, contacts paypal, contacts ebay, contacts square trade.

i have pretty credible feedback...i have no problem refunding him if the item is as he states.

the way i see it he has very little to lose by sending it back...

[shoplineca]

My personal experience with customers like you have with this one is that they are scam artists so I understand 100% your dilema.

He is the type that will get his refund and not return the item, so what he has to gain, in his eyes is his money and the game if you conceed to his demands.

Since he has left you a neg already, and contacted everyone and his uncle, you can get on with selling to your good customers and let him rant and rave.

Neg him, if you havent already left FB, block him from bidding on your auctions and block him from emailing you and forget about him.

I find one can spend so much time on a few bad customers that it distracts us from all our good ones.

Malcolm

[zarzuella]

I'm with Malcolm here- I don't think he CAN do much more (with this ID at least - now there's another story ...) and the whole thing smells a little off to me too.
Have you heard from ST or Paypal?
Block him, neg professionally and move on.

Know what you mean about feedback - I consider myself just plain lucky so far - 'doggie' people are usually pretty nice to deal with but I've had a couple of dingbats, and I know it's just a matter of time before some sad buyer with no life makes it their mission to get me! Hopefully your jerk is all bluster and will go away if ignored.

[shooger]

He has no foot to stand up. You win!

1) Immediately leave a negative. You said you want to wait, but trust me, you're going to get him NARU one way or another, and then you won't be able to leave the feedback! Also, leaving it now helps you get him NARUd.
2) Close the SquareTrade investigation. It can't help you, only him. Keeping it open only makes it looks like you're at fault and possibly willing to compensate with this guy. Forget it!
3) Pull his contact info. His account looks really old (and possibly abandoned). If it seems like the info is old or false, report it, and he'll be NARU.
4) File to have the negative feedback removed. You might wait until he gets NARU to do this, because then there's no question - it will be removed.
5) Agree to a refund if he ships back first. He won't, and the PayPal investigation will close in your favour.
6) Don't communicate with him again.

I bet the guy is a competing seller, using an old abandoned account to not only discredit you, but waste your fees and generally harass you. Even if you don't get him NARU for invalid contact info, you could file to have the feedback removed under the grounds that he purchased from you solely to harass you. Yes, that's one of the options. Since he did a Buy It Now, and has no feedback in the last... long time, I'm pretty sure that's the case anyhow.

Here's the link.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-removal.html

[vesivus]

In any case, follow the 80/20 rule (as Malcolm suggests). 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your customers, so focus on that 20% to get the biggest amount of money from your time. Forget about the .0005% that harass you trying to get a little money out of you.

My 2 cents.

John

[audiblefrequency]

here is the latest mail from the buyer...



After some outside advice, I plan to contact Electronic Arts Redwood Vity and inquire about tbe buying and reselling of copyrighted material in misrepresented form.  It may be a long shot, but its worth that longshot.
Via EA Notice: This manual and the product described are copyrighted.  All rights reserved.  No part of this manual, box art or product may be copied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or MACHINE readable form without prior written consent of Electronic Arts, P.O. Box 9025, Redwood City, California 94063
  Upon research with a law student, some copyright Laws may be broken in the reselling of this merchandise.  The reselling of this merchandise MAY not be covered under the Fair Use Copyright Law, since the reseller of this Copyrighted material made a profit and part of that profit isnt returned to Electronic Arts.  I am sending you this letter as a last effort to get my refund.  Should you not respond, I wil contact both EBAY and PAYPAL with this new information and forward them the Copyright Fair Use Laws and Regulations which you appear to be in breach of.
Thanks!

is this not a breach of some ebay regulation?...

[audiblefrequency]

emails again and mentions...

"distributing copyrighted software will rarely be fair use because people will use those copies instead of buying the software from the legitimate vendor. Courts place an emphasis on whether the reseller is making a profit. If so, then the fair use act cannot be claimed in court as a defense"


i should also point out that has paypal has ruled on the buyer complaint against me that basically guaranteed him a refund considering he ships the item back to me. paypal stated that if delivery confirmation can be made by the carrier that he returned the game then paypal will refund him the money...this bascially guarantess him a refund if he ships it back...he still has not agreed to paypal's terms and has not shipped it back...???

[recped]

Let it go! Buyer is obviously in serious need of a life.

Put him on your blocked bidder list and mark his emails as spam. Think about all the nice customers you will deal with next week and move on.

So you've got one more neg all good sellers should have a few negs as it indicates that they are not afraid to neg a deadbeat bidder. You do have 6 mutually withdrawn? either you're a little itchy with your trigger figure or you've spent way to much time getting feedback removed.

Ben



Ben

[shooger]

Not that you took my advice when I gave it before, but...

Continue ignoring his emails. Make him wonder if you're even getting them.
Hurry up with that neg! Discredit the idiot as he deserves. He'll be banned faster.
Then get your neg removed.

And recped, that was a low blow! Mututal feedback removal is a great tool and very worth your 20 seconds it takes to file for it.

[shoplineca]

There are many loonies out there and some have more time to waste than others. If you block his emails, he "goes away". It is no different from having the ability to block someone from calling you and harrassing you.

Your choice is to take the calls and let them bother you or block the idiot.

There is nothing he can do, legally or otherwise except return the product and get a refund in accordance with PayPal's suggestion.

The one thing to consider however is if he used a credit card to pay PayPal he can reverse his credit card charge and PayPal will likely not fight the credit card company but debit your account with them.

Go out and sell to some great customers but please do everyone else a favour and leave Negative feedback for this bum.

Malcolm

[recped]

Shooger wrote:

And recpe

It wasn't meant to be, I've never done the mutual feedback removal thing, I assume it means there was a disagreement between the parties that was eventually settled (after feedback was posted). Isn't it better to settle these problems before any feedback is left?

I have some negs, one or two I deserved because I provided poor service all the other are retaliatory and in this situation I would not agree to having the deserving parties neg removed and am quite willing to live with the one I have. If there are buyers put off by the my 15 negs versus my 7000+ positives so be it. Sure I was momentarily upset when I received my first neg but once it scrolls off the page who really cares.

If I'm wrong please explain I'm always willing to learn and better understand the other side of the story.

Ben