eBay

sylviebee · ‎11-10-2015

Several months ago I bought an item from a seller and had problems with it.

She actually called me on the phone swearing. No polite hellos, just the craziest eBayer I have ever encountered.

About a week ago I sold an item and today the buyer contacted me and told that it had arrived broken.

I refunded immediately and wouldn't have thought more about it but I just noticed that it's the same crazy seller.

She must have been lurking looking for something to buy and make trouble.

I should have blocked her but I didn't. All of this took place on a different id.

She hasn't left FB yet, but I'm pretty sure it's coming.

I wonder if I'll be able to get removed when she trashes my FB?

(Maybe a reason not to buy and sell with the same id. However, when someone is this crazy even if I hadn't blocked her she could have used a different id to buy and maybe it's better to see who she is.)

femmefan1946 · ‎11-10-2015

I'd certainly be on guard.

If she does trash your FB and DSRs, do you have the original transaction noted? Your own FB to her even would be helpful.

Then call Customer Support.

And remember that you can leave a Response to any feedback, your own or the buyer's indefinitely. Including for the original transaction.

I don't need to tell you that the most effective Responses are calm and factual. And that they do NOT have to be positive.

One point of the different buying and selling IDs is to guard against crazed members pulling this sort of stunt. How would she find your selling ID if it is different from your buyingID.

The other of course is to keep your buying private, especially if you buy for resale.

sylviebee · ‎11-10-2015

I bought from her and sold to her on the same id but not this one.

I'm pretty sure the NFB is coming.

When she called me a few months ago I picked up the phone and she immediately starting screaming at me.

She also sent a rash of absolutely insane angry messages. They'll be on file.

She must have been waiting and watching closely all this time.

How crazy is that?

gemaddict · ‎11-11-2015

@sylviebee wrote:
I bought from her and sold to her on the same id but not this one.

I'm pretty sure the NFB is coming.

When she called me a few months ago I picked up the phone and she immediately starting screaming at me.

She also sent a rash of absolutely insane angry messages. They'll be on file.

She must have been waiting and watching closely all this time.

How crazy is that?

Wow..sorry this is happening to you. She sounds downright scary!! I wish you the best of luck.

ladybug2785 · ‎11-11-2015

Don't expect any help from ebay. We had a similar thing happen with a buyer who is also a direct competitor that sells diabetic test strips as well. He did the neutral feedback thing to us as well as bad dsr ratings so we blocked him. A few months later he bought from us again with a different id (same name and address) and messe4d up our dsr again so we blocked him and called ebay more than once about it. Ebay seemed to not to even be able to grasp the concept of where Canada is never mind the concept of what happened.

So a few months later he tries it again with a third id. We caught it this time and cancelled the bid and blocked. We documented it quite well and called ebay two more times with the same response of "duh".

His obvious goal is to get stock to sell and take out competitors at the same time. Ebay does not care period.

momcqueen · ‎11-11-2015

I wish you the best of luck. ebay says they can tell who is sending what from different IDs if they all come from the same person but your greater challenge may be finding a CSR with enough experience to understand what you are saying to them. And I don't mean language barrier. I mean actual, real-world, living-on-ebay experience. The other thing is that ebay doesn't keep record of any messages. They can only see one year at a time. It might be less, depending on the volume.

sylviebee · ‎11-11-2015

I bought an antique purse from her and prior to buying asked if the fringe was intact with no missing beads.

She replied that it was but when it arrived it was badly damaged.

These old threads can be fragile and are often just on the verge of breaking. While I'm pretty sure that there was some damage prior to shipping which wasn't disclosed, the stress of shipping likely pushed many over the edge.

When I got the bag it was beyond repair and so I asked to return it.

She accused me of damaging the piece and went absolutely ballistic.

I've run across a handful of these psychopaths in m life time, and so of course there will be some on eBay as well.

I've learned to take this type of person very seriously because the damage someone driven by revenge can do is huge.

However, even is she leaves NFB it won't kill me.

I'm not sure it it would be worth the stress of calling eBay because the posts here are absolutely right.

A call to eBay usually requires that one explain the same situation over and over and over and over and over while getting nonsense rote replies.

A process that usually ends in a headache.

momcqueen · ‎11-11-2015

I have to agree with you there but, to my own misfortune, I tend to fight for good until I've exhausted myself. I have to think that a person capable of behaving this way would be a menace to more people than you alone.

On the other hand, it's possible she didn't look at who the seller was, only at the pictures of the item itself, and may similarly be as dismayed as you to find the connection. Perhaps?

I once, by complete accident, bought items from a seller after I had a terrible first experience with them and, regrettably, the second was as awful as the first. It too was a packing issues, or Item Not as Described. I'll never understand the members here who have a feedback number in the thousands, both from transactions as buyers and sellers, who just don't understand that you cannot fold something in half to stuff it into a too-small Kleenex box for shipment.

sylviebee · ‎11-11-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:

On the other hand, it's possible she didn't look at who the seller was, only at the pictures of the item itself, and may similarly be as dismayed as you to find the connection. Perhaps?

She knows exactly who I am.

The item she bought from me is common. There are 1,860,163 similar istings to choose from and she chose mine.

sylviebee · ‎11-11-2015

She did leave HORRiBLE NFB as expected.

I called eBy and they won't touch it...... as expected.

In the end they said that it's perfectly OK for me to buy from her and leave retaliatory NFB.

I can't be bothered. I'll just shut that id down for a while and let it roll off. No harm done.

However, I did email her to tell her that eBay said they would have no problem if I buy from her and leave NFB. (She'd never catch me if i chose to do that.)

I also left replies to the FB which will hurt her more than her NFB will ever hurt me.

Now she can carefully watch all her sales to check the addresses to see if I bought from her before shipping just in case I'm the buyer.

Someone as crazy as she it might go a little over the edge with that hanging over her head. (little devil icon here)

momcqueen · ‎11-11-2015

Good gravy.

I think one of these Board Hours we need to band together as sellers (and buyers) to talk about how poor the quality of service is from the Call Centre(s). It is the Number One turn-off to people who use ebay. Firstly, it's always disappointing to have a sale not turn out the way one had hoped (from both the buyer and seller perspective) but worse is when you go to the mothership for help and instead get slapped in the face for your efforts. That stings worse than anything else, in my opinion.

For the record, my comment about the quality of service has nothing to do with the location of the Call Centre; it's the utter lack of experience using ebay by the people fielding those calls. They don't know and they don't care, period. They just want to get rid of you as fast as is possible. You can hear it in the panic in their voices. It's extremely off-putting.

sylviebee · ‎11-11-2015

I was surprised when eBay told me they have no problem with us buying from each other just to leave retaliatory FB.

They've told me that before so I trust it's true.

So, I was feeling a little devilish and emailed to tell her that I've forwarded her id to my brother, aunt, friends etc. as they might want to buy from her.

I can't be bothered, but at the same time I don't want her to live with the illusion that I can be blocked either.

If I were her I'd be very worried right around now.

momcqueen · ‎11-11-2015

I don't understand how Customer Service could consider telling you it's cool to leave retaliatory feedback, as in make sure you buy something from the seller just to leave poor feedback for it. Is it possible they misunderstood the term 'retaliatory' instead for 'reply' as in' follow-up to feedback left'?

Sending a message to sellers that it's totally okay to go stab at each other seems to fly in the face of everything I've ever read as far as the guidelines for how we are all supposed to behave here on ebay. It defies logic as to why Customer Servive would give you such questionable advice. I reiterate my concerns about the Call Centre!

sylviebee · ‎11-11-2015

Yes, the person I spoke to was very clear about it and it's not the first time I was told this by CS.

I spoke with a FB specialist.

What's at the heart of it is that there is no way to prove it so they won't touch it.

Just as they won't remove the NFB left for me.

It's very clear what happened, but I do understand why they won't touch it.

There is simply no way to prove it.

What she did is probably very rare because it's not very smart.

It would be so easy to cause her huge problems if one were so inclined.

momcqueen · ‎11-11-2015

This is a sad state of affairs.

sylviebee · ‎11-11-2015

I called again thinking that a different rep might help.

This time ti went right to the top.

She told me that it's clearly retaliatory FB and she has no doubt about that.

However, the only way to remove it is if the buyer actually says t's retaliatory FB.

How stupid is that?

She also again told me that I could buy from the seller and leave NFB but that the seller might me report me. (In other words, there would be no negative repercussions for doing so.)

momcqueen · ‎11-11-2015

This post has drawn the attention of the Board Hour. I'm very glad to hear you received somewhat better advice the next time you called.

pierrelebel · ‎11-11-2015

"She also again told me that I could buy from the seller and leave NFB..."

That is 100% against eBay policies.

rose-dee · ‎11-11-2015

@sylviebee wrote:
Several months ago I bought an item from a seller and had problems with it.
She actually called me on the phone swearing. No polite hellos, just the craziest eBayer I have ever encountered.

About a week ago I sold an item and today the buyer contacted me and told that it had arrived broken.
I refunded immediately and wouldn't have thought more about it but I just noticed that it's the same crazy seller.

There is something I don't quite understand in this. I think if I'd had a seller treat me so abysmally I'd remember her ID, if not her name and address, for a very long time. I'm wondering why you didn't immediately refund/cancel this sale to her. Did you not recognize the ID at the time? If she was using a different ID, did you not recognize her name and address? I think I'd rather take a defect for cancelling using the out-of-stock reason than be obliged to ship to someone who had been so abusive before. Then I'd block her.

Even once you had shipped the item, rather than leaving a nasty comment to her negative FB (as you mentioned you did), you could have reported her to eBay for making a purchase from you for the purpose of retaliatory feedback. Unfortunately that comment will now be seen by anyone else who looks at the "Feedback left for others" tab on your profile, and it will be visible for quite some time.

Personally I look at sellers' complete FB profile before buying (as I imagine many buyers must do), and will avoid any seller who I see has made angry, rude or vengeful comments to others' FB, regardless of what the circumstances may have been. As sellers, we have to remember how many others will see how we've reacted to difficult situations, and I think it's always best to leave calm, factual, and professional-looking remarks (or indeed no remarks at all in some cases).

I realize this doesn't change things in your situation now, but it's something to consider in the future. I don't know whether it's too late, but you may possibly be able to (preferably) delete, or at worst, revise those comments, and it would be a good idea to do so if you can.

Also, messaging your nasty buyer and intimating that you'll involve your relatives and friends in trashing her FB through sales from her is not a wise idea. You may have just given her a reason to report you.

Pierre is correct, such behaviour (retaliatory FB), by either yourself or third parties on your behalf, is completely against eBay policy. EBay takes this sort of thing extremely seriously, despite what the badly misinformed CS reps told you. Whatever you do, don't compound the situation and cause yourself even more grief by following their erroneous advice.

Encountering a nasty customer the second time around is not pleasant, but I think the best course is to distance yourself from direct involvement, report the behaviour to eBay if you can, and just move forward.

sylviebee · ‎11-11-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
This post has drawn the attention of the Board Hour. I'm very glad to hear you received somewhat better advice the next time you called.

Actually, the new CS rep told me the same thing.

She told me that I'm free to buy from the seller and leave any FB I see fit.

In other words, I can search out her items specifically, and buy something from her and leave any FB I wish.

Just like she did to me.

The rest of the story: I don't regularly sell on that id.

Four months ago I bought an item from a seller and had to open a case to get a refund.

I rarely list on that id but a few weeks ago I threw a few items up there.

She had clearly been lurking waiting for me to do so and bought a pair of $10 earrings. There are well over a million earrings on eBay and they were listed via an id I rarely list on.

She bought the earrings solely to leave NFB.

Yet, eBay will not remove the FB unless the seller openly states that it's retaliatory FB.