Buyer threatens NEG over GST

[hhind_design]

I am a legitimate business, and have been for over 4 years. I am registered and required to collect GST for the federal government which I do.

In all of my listings I state I charge taxes.

My sellers notes clearly state I charge taxes.

When I send an invoice I put my GST number in the notes.

I am as upfront as I can be that I charge taxes.

A buyer just paid and sent me a very nasty email and threatening to NEG me because I charge GST.

Do I have a case to get the negs (and presumably low DSR's) reversed if they go through with it because I do disclose - multiple times - that I charge taxes in advance of purchase? How would I file an appeal in this case.

Thanks!

Heather

[cottonwoodindustries]

Thank you for your order but due to circumstances beyond my control in which I must collect GST and submit it to the Government for every sale, I must sadly cancel this transaction.

If you have a GST #, you can easily submit your purchase and claim the GST back from the Government. But I am sorry I can not do this on your behalf.

Thanks

Hope that works, then I would block the j***

Loré

[dipmicro]

If he does not pay, file unpaid item dispute.

Post an ID, so we can all update the blacklist.

[dipmicro]

Sorry, I did not read whole post. If he negs you over charging taxes, the most practical response is to block him and move on. Ebay is known to have deaf ears.

You also may send a letter to "Parents of XY" and ask them to limit their teen's internet access and report them to Revenue Canada for tax avoidance to flag them up for audit.

[recped]

Does your buyer live in Southern Ontario? Did they buy something worth $3?

One of the few negs I've received over the years and perhaps the most annoying buyer I ever had was a similar type. All sorts of pointless threats (my brother is a police officer etc.) from an idiot who had a problem paying GST on a $5 (shipping included) purchase.

Lots of classic lines such as "only a real company can charge taxes". I have to admit I had a little bit of fun with this particular loser.

It was so long ago I can't remember if she finally paid or not.

Every time I read on the US boards about an American seller having a hassle with a Canadian buyer I always think back to this one and wonder if they have run into the same idiot.

[hhind_design]

Hi There!

Thanks for your responses - and a few laughs, LOL! 🙂

I'm just very frustrated by the whole thing and am waiting to hear if she wants to cancel or not. If not, her package is ready to go and my responses to her NEGS are already composed. My only fear is the low DSR's as my volume isn't high enough to cover a major blow like that right now.

In this instance the buyer is from Nunavut, but I did have a "gentleman" from Ontario once who was just insane with his tax issues. Had to take him to the Federal and Ontario governments websites and walk him through everything step by step before he finally acquiesced.

There really should be an appeal for NEGS given for this reason as it's easily verifiable (through registration numbers) if a seller is required to collect taxes.

[fatdane]

Sadly you will probably get a neg from the buyer. All you can do is reply that the buyer did not want to pay taxes due and put the name on your BBL. Anyone that reads the neg will be able to read your reply. If the buyer is dumb enough to not pay and get a strike maybe he or she will get enough strikes to be booted off Ebay

[gifts_of_elegance]

File a complaint with eBay that they are threatening you with Negative feedback for something that is in your listing.
You should get a response along the lines of "let us know if he does and we will remove it".
Believe it or not, it happened to me and when the purchaser posted the negative, it was REMOVED.

Good Luck!

[dipmicro]

There really should be an appeal for NEGS given for this reason.

I think if there was a process like this, it would get abused by sellers who would want a rightful neg removed.

Btw. with your volume of 4867 a year one neg (or two or three) will make little difference on positive FB ratio. And for monthly DSRs the maximum change will be approx 0.04.

[momoftwingles2]

Well, I have to say futuretech_liquidations your response was hilarious!

Heather, I too am a registered business...have been for 8 years. I had a buyer contact me...from Ontario I believe...has scrapbooks in her attic...perhaps any of you who sell scrapping supplies like I do might be able to figure out who this is and PUT THEM ON YOUR BBL from my little description.

She threatened to walk over to the GST office that is a stones throw from her house and report me for COLLECTING GST on products that I am charging US funds for IF I didn't agree to forget about the GST and to charge her only 75 cents to mail two stickers.

She said that NO CANADIAN SELLER ON EBAY has ever charged her taxes.

I replied with...sorry...75 cents is not my shipping fee. And, I told her that SHE SHOULD go to the GST office near her and REPORT ME as I would enjoy the pat on the back from Revenue Canada when they said..."She's doing it right!"

Anyways...this buyer is blocked by me and if you can't figure out who it is...e-mail me and I'll share the ID off list.

Have a good one!

Susan
momoftwingles2

[momoftwingles2]

futuretech_liquidations,

You are quite innovative!

*LOL*
Susan
momoftwingles2

[moltencore]

Heather, I'm not asking you to not block the idiot. In fact, I think you should, but I just wanted to share this ONE experience I had with a similar buyer.

One of the negs I received quite a few years back now is from a buyer who was "OUTRAGED!" etc etc that I charged GST.

He never paid for the item and I relisted. But, he left a big fat negative saying the item was 'not as described'. nice. I blocked him.

A few months later he profusely apologized and begged me to let him bid on an auction saying it would never ever happen again.

I hesitantly unblocked him, and since then he has been one of my best repeat customers. And... it never did happen again.

Ben,
I too once had a customer use the relative in law enforcement threat. They said their uncle was a high ranking USA military official who would "look into me" for them. It seems to be the excuse of the idiot. After 10+ years selling on ebay I think I've heard them all.

[palms_and_pdas]

Hi FTL

Thought you fell off the planet as have not heard from you for a while.

Be interested on how you are going to do the postcard thing.

Any word on the memory stick ???

Fitz

[hhind_design]

Well, she hasn't answered any of my emails as to whether or not she wants to cancel so I've gone ahead and sent her package....I'll let the chips fall where they may and have some good responses drafted up if she does neg me but I'm hoping she'll come around.

I sent her that government site where people can check out if GST numbers are legit and maybe that will be enough. Who knows.

The hard part will be waiting for the package to arrive and then her decision.

Thank you all for your good advice - I really appreciate it!

Heather

[ricarmic]

Normally I don't bother to fight with the folks that stiff me on the taxes. Generally I can make more by spending the time listing more items instead of crafting and reading numerous back and forth messages for a couple bucks. Fortunately I have good margins. If they're ignorant I just block them.

[lockotronic]

Best course of auction is just ignore them and move on as ricarmic said, I never blacklist anyone as really does not matter much. Save your time, just concentrate on selling. As we all know, times are tough, we need every sales we can get. Just let the idiot rave on their own. No sense getting mad or wasting time over them, you don't really want to spend time educating them, useless anyway.

[wickedwidgets]

Hello Heather, I've found out recently that its next to impossible to revise a negative feedback because your buyer could simply be having an off day and just give you a negative for no reason and you couldn't change it. But in your case I think thats almost blackmail so you might be able to have eBay remove the negative.

I've also discovered recently how you can help improve your DSR ratings simply by selling pennies. I'll post something that I've found on these discussions. I hope he want mind since I think he posted to help people anyway.

"Dsr can be a real pain here are a few ways i work around it myself personally without really lowering S/H costs . (thats the only one i have an issue with avarage 4.7-4.8 with everything else)

Send Notes in with packages (works Killer Brought me from a 4.47 to a 4.67 ....

Free ship worthless items start at 0.01 penny . I do this i sell at least 50-100 free ship items a week (i lose 1.00 per item but that ok)

Opening Disputes with buyers (send more Mutual's) I used to just send npr but now i send about 50% mutuals ... 90% dont leave neggy over getting a strike for not paying but those 10% do and there jerks about it Leave all 1 stars also ."

Good luck,
Stan

[surplusdealdude]

Heather,

I hope you saved that email because threatening a neg over GST is feedback extortion and cause removal of any negative feedback if you go through the right channels.

As far as blocking the....person, I'm in favour of that.

With all due respect to the people that have had luck lifting their blocks, when I block someone, which I don't do very often, they STAY blocked. -------------------------------------------------------------------
Every day, a businessperson has to ask himself 2 questions;

Am I being paranoid? and
Am I being paranoid enough?

[surplusdealdude]

cause removal should be cause for removal. -------------------------------------------------------------------
Every day, a businessperson has to ask himself 2 questions;

Am I being paranoid? and
Am I being paranoid enough?

[recyclemikey]

blacklist? where might I find this useful tool?
I get IDIOTS all the time who complain about taxes, shipping, payment terms and such. I block them but would like a blacklist available.

I tend to post their ID's on my blog in the hope that google will take the link (bad ebayer) and associate it their username.