Hi all,
I'm an experienced pro seller, and buy and sell a lot on ebay. I rarely have issues with buyers or sellers, but when it happens, I do anything reasonable to avoid a neg (either received or given!). My last neg given was 7mths ago, to a US seller that refused to fulfill my order since it didn't sell high enough, and wasn't even apologizing.
Anyway, here's the story. Purchased an item from a CA seller with a 98.8% fb, description stated "NEW IN THE SEALED PLASTIC PACKAGE." with even pics posted of the seals. $25 shipping seems a bit high for a small $16 item shipped in the same country, but let's see what I get. Also, he had a huge block of "shipping rules" that basically stated it's forbidden to leave him neg feedback. Funny 🙂
Got the item. Postage was around $11 and item was received unsealed (both seals clearly broken). Contents seem new though. Alright, contacted the seller and asked him politely why the item is new open box while it was sold as new, and how he justifies $14 of handling (as a pro seller, if I ever happen to charge more than $2-3 over actual postage+packaging cost, I refund the buyer of that amount). Oh, he didn't like it! 🙂 His answer started by stating I was trying to blackmail him over getting positive fb (which I did not mention) and I was an idiot not understanding he unsealed the package to ensure the contents were in good shape. Well OK, some people have anger management issues... answered him politely that his answer was very rude and condescending and that were making a not-that-good buying experience to a bad buying experience and it was his role to change this (I would have accepted an apology for rudeness and either a very good reason for such high handling costs, or a partial refund if it was a mistake). Well, he answered angrily again 🙂 He basically stated that part of the item cost are in the shipping/handling and ebay didn't care if it was there or in the actual price (hum...wrong...that's a way to avoid paying ebay fees) and that he needed me to tell him what were my positive fb worth (yeah right, I'm the bad guy blackmailing you).
Gave him a week to give a proper, polite, answer, which didn't come. Well fine, I won't open a paypal case for that since it's not worth my time, just leave him a neg with approrioate DSRs (bad comm, item desc, shipping charges, and good shipping time), and move on. Well again, he didn't like that 🙂 He answered my fb and emailed me as well accusing me again of blackmailing him, and used an alternate account (same name and physical address) to purchase an item from my store. Alright, he wants to play... I answered his email telling him I understood his game and that was a risky one (using a 7000+ fbs account to get revenge over a neg given on a 1000+ fbs account) and it was his to correct his attitude, or deal with consequences. He answered that he had no idea what I was talking about, and again, that I was an idiot not following the rules (forbidden to leave him neg, ah ah) and how I wanted him to have the terms of this blackmailing situation be solved.
So, sorry for the super long message, but that siatuation was worth a full explanation. to understand it better. Of course, I used the "report buyer" button to alert ebay. What would you do next? Expect ebay to do the right thing (not sure if I can count on that)? Open a paypal case which would lead to further escalation? Approve him terms (yeah man, I'm an blackmailing ya, gimme da money)? Go dirty and use his methods and let the war begin (nah, can't do that)?
Thanks for your opinions in advance, and hope you enjoyed that story 🙂
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