y account is being held for ransom by one of my buyers-NEED ASSITANCE

[whatsss_up]

Good evening

I am writing this letter to you in regards to a recent transaction I had with one of my buyers.
A buyer recently bought some items from me.
After buying the items she contacted me regarding them and said that she wants me to lower the price on some of those items to match some of my other listings which carried a lower price or she would give me a negative feedback.
Upon trying to explain to her that the reason the higher priced items she bought was because it included free shipping which was explicitly written in the title, she would not hear it. She just said that I have to lower my price of the items to the same lower price even though it did not include free shipping which was the reason for the lower price.
She also wanted me to include the free shipping to her on the lower priced items
She just kept insisting that I lower my price or and I quote her “I would report you to eBay and give you a negative. You be sorry.”
Knowing I did not do anything wrong but wanting to avoid negative feedback since she bought a few items from me and her knowing it as well, she pressed me until I gave in and had to bite the bullet.
There must be a system to protect sellers with such behavior from buyers.
Upon reading her feedback, she was rude and nasty to other sellers as well.
I take my customer service very seriously but there are limits to how much and what buyers can do to affect our rating and our business as sellers on eBay. It seems that she targeted me because she knew my high feedback and Powersellers rating were important to my business on eBay.
This is no different then a person walking to a store with a gun to the clerks head and saying give me the Robert Mondavi wine at $5.00 even though it retails for $75.00 or you'll be sorry.
While it may not be viewed the same since one deals with a person’s life, her comments threatened my lively hood since I do eBay as a business.
My lively hood as well as other seller’s lively hood also effects eBay long term profits as well since we are the once who pay fees to eBay’s and PayPal which is a subsidiary of eBay.
All I am asking is can a system be put in place to report such behavior of buyers by sellers. There is a procedure to protect buyers from fraud, why cant there be a procedure to protect sellers such as myself who are in your Powersellers group from fraud, harassment and ransom behavior from buyers such as this lady ?
Presuming there are enough complaints against one particular buyer’s behavior from sellers, then that person’s account would be shut down to prevent harassment and such ransom holding behavior against other eBay sellers.
Is that to much to ask of eBay ?
In the meantime I ask you what should I do with this customer since I am being help ransom by her to reduce my prices or face negative feedback which can also effect my Powersellers status ?
I also have a copy of the email she sent me requesting me to lower her prices but it was on the phone that she made the threats for the negative feedback.
If you can assist me with this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Let me know what you think eBay can do to assist other sellers in this situation as well.
Thanks in advance for all your help.

[shoplineca]

Her threat is a clear case of Feedback Extortion and any neg that she gives you would be removed from eBay and she will be given the boot as an eBay member, if you can prove that she made the threat.

Many times PSers report what they believe FB extortion is however your case is exactly what it is. Your buyer is threatening to leave negative FB in order to force you to change your selling price.

I would suggest that you email her and ask her to be clear about what she meant in the telephone conversation she had with you. Ask her to put in her email exactly what she expects from you so that you have a clear understanding and ask her to tell you, in the email, why you should lower your prices to her. You need to get her extortion in writing.

If you do get it in writing then you should forward it to PS support at eBay or Trust and Safety and tell them that you are being harrassed by a buyer to lower your price or they will leave you negative FB.

If you dont get it in writing, tell eBay that she called you and made the threat verbally and ask them how you should proceed. There is an excellent chance that if, after advising eBay, that if the person leaves you a neg, eBay will remove it and still kick the buyer off eBay.

Malcolm

[discountlabelsupplies]

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/feedback-extortion.html

[llee2]

You should also try to get the extortion somehow sent through eBay's "contact member" email system. I've had a somewhat similiar situation where I forwarded a threat to eBay (including the email headers they asked for). Their response was that since the email was "outside" the eBay contact system, they could do nothing about it.

[gustavus1]

Here is a good example below. Seems there is a new breed of buyer lurking on eBay. We sent a copy of the tracking number via PP, never heard back from him.

Question about your item

Dear gustavus1,

You have an enviable feedback profie to allay any fear with buyers. But my experience since I purchased this item is in contrast visa vis your feedback profile. How did you earn it? I have not received this item, and I am getting very impatient with it all. Why are you still delaying it. I will be foreced to file a claim with Ebay if I did not hear from you. Time is runing out! User Name for item 3838488893 omitted for privacey reasons.

Best Regards
Gill

[zarzuella]

Gustavus:

Wow. Did you check your buyers bidding record?

Over the last 30 days he/she has won almost 140 auctions for cameras & camera related equipment totalling thousands of dollars.
Either this is a big nasty scam in progress or he is buying for resale of some type and is just not able to keep track very well.

Slimy tone to the email would tickle my antennae ]:)

Ann