Feedback extortion?

[karensvariety]

Is it extortion to leave a negative saying the product doesn't work and then say they will have it removed if I refund cost plus shipping? If there is a problem, I always refund in full without question, but this one bothers me because I know the product worked and because of the way it was handled. I can see with feedback removal, this will become common practice. Anyone else had this problem?

[deltone]

I've never had that problem but I've had several say they'd leave me a negative if I don't do this, that or the other thing. I've reported these people but ebay doesn't do a darn thing. I didn't take kindly to teh threats and I'm now sporting a few negs for my refusal to do so. Oh well, I'm glad I stood my ground. If someone tells me something doesn't work, and is honest and pleasant, I'll gladly send another, but when you start with the threats, I get my back up.

[mevans_dot_net]

Ebay does have a policy on feedback extortion, ie. give me $50 or I will neg you ... But they already left the feedback so what they're giving you is their terms for resolving the situation as it stands. Same as if you went through ST mediation. Is there any way it was damaged enroute and they are telling the truth?

I'm not saying they're right, or that the product was even defective, but just how eBay may see it. They *claim* they received faulty, untested product and so leaving negative feedback can be considered reasonable. Being willing to remove the feedback if restitution is made is also reasonable. Note: I don't think it is reasonable to leave feedback before at least working with the seller on a resolution, but that's my opinion not necessarily eBay's. I'm just giving the other side of the coin here.

Problem is, it comes down to your word against theirs despite the huge difference in reputation (feedback history). At the end of the day though, *if* the claim was true, they would be not be making an unreasonable demand.

Sorry to hear this happened to you, and I know its frustrating but as far as feedback extortion goes, I don't really see it holding up with eBay.

[deltone]

The thing is that even if you prove feedback extortion, it is NOT grounds for removing that feedback. Ebay will suspend the person if found guilty of feedback extortion but will not remove the negative. GO FIGURE.

[karensvariety]

To me, the issue is not the item. If he had mailed me with a problem, I would have refunded no questions asked. If I think it's suspicious I simply block them and move on. My issue is with receiving a negative and being told what to do in order to have it removed. If he had said, send me different item higher quality more valuable, or said send me a refund plus $10 for my trouble, where is the line drawn? To me, it is just nitpicking over how much he can demand. This is a gift to every person out there who wants someting for nothing.

[deltone]

Karen, I went through something this past month where some buyer accused me of removing cream from a jar and replacing it with inferior cream. I, of course did no such thing but she sent me a very nasty email saying you did blah blah blah, and if you don't refund my money, I will leave you a negative and I will get ebay on your *ss.

I reported her and nothing was done. We exchanged negatives and I did NOT refund or replace because her attitude was very confrontational and nasty. If she had been pleasant and had said that there was a problem with the cream I'd have taken a whole different attitude but I think it's not good for a seller to be intimidated by these threats. My guess is that these people go from seller to seller making the same accusations and threats and they get away with it. Stick to your guns!!! GOOD LUCK

[momosworld]

Hi Karen,

Same situation as deltone, We receive emails all the time like this, do this or we'll leave a negative blah blah blah, eBay will not do anything about this guaranteed, all we do is write to the customer and say... What you are doing is considered feedback extortion and eBay will not tolerate this, if a negative is left for this reason, we will report you to our account manager and in most cases of feedback extortion, you will be suspended....

so a little white lie 🙂

Most cases after, we dont get the neg.

good luck!
Moez

[donemu4045]

I was just reading feedback problems. I have mailed eBay so many times I figured I would get suspended for the accusations I made. I have had 3 or 4 neg's removed. It wasn't arbitration it was robbery. I have one neg now even after I paid $10.00 to square trade. They dropped the ball. It was a blatant retaliatory neg from a non-paying bidder. Who has three non-paying reports against him and he is not suspended.

I'm still at 99.8% so it hasn't hurt that much. I am still trying to get a fairer feedback system.

[deltone]

It'll probably never happen deonemu. It's ridiculous really because when someone leaves an untrue accusation, it can do you so much harm. I've got several negs that are downright libelous and so untrue but ebay won't do a darn thing about it. Doesn't seem right to me because if someone wrote libelous garbage on your front door, you can remove it. Imagine if your landlord refused to allow you to remove it? To me it's the same thing.

I've been called a liar, and a thief, both untrue, but there they are, for all to see. Sickening really.

I keep fighting them but nothing happens.

Latest one I'm fighting is a person bought a dvd from me. I emailed her many times, and she didn't get any of my emails. Her ISP was blocking all of my mail. She then left me a negative saying I never sent her parcel. Total fabrication. She did a chargeback with Paypal as well. Last week I received the dvd back......she had refused it. An obvious case of buyer's remorse. I have been trying to get it removed due to invalid contact information because as far as I'm concerned, if she or her ISP is blocking all of my emails, and she is refusing my parcel, then she has invalid contact information. Ebay says NO WAY. Pathetic.

[mhha]

Afternoon All!

eBay does indeed remove extorted negatives. It is a tad painful and takes about a week but they do.

Mary Helen
eBay mhha

[mevans_dot_net]

I thought they did but when I went back to the policy page yesterday I could find nothing about it. I was sure there used to be something in there about feedback extortion.

[deltone]

I used to think they will remove negs for feedback extortion but they won't. There must have been more to it Mary Helen. Their rules are very specific about what they'll remove. They say they may suspend a person for feedback extortion but won't remove the negative.

Would you let us know the story about how you were able to have one removed.

I found out today that the feedback I wanted removed for invalid contact information won't be removed. Doesn't matter that ALL emails I sent to her provided email address bounced back to me as undeliverable......or the fact that the parcel was returned to me as well. As far as ebay is concerned her address is valid so end of story. Disgusting really.

[fitzheueninternational]

Thank you to all who have left their comments on this subject. You are not the only ones who have gone through this problem. I have had a few such problems of extortion in the last 2 weeks.

Since I, like the rest of you have not been able to correct this problem with eBay, I now know how to make this problem known to others..... and I think other sellers should follow this lead. Any buyers should be left a feedback from the seller...BEWARE OF BUYER, EXTORTIONIST.

I think this might get the hint through to the right ebay departments, and would also notify other sellers of what the buyer has done. Good luck to all sellers, we have no leg to stand on with ebay, their policies are all in favour of the buyer.

PS... my new policy is "No feedback will be left for buyers until they leave feedback".

[recped]

Who cares about negative feedback, if you have lots of happy customers they get buried on page whatever on your profile and it would be a rare buyer who looks any farther than your total number. If your percentage rating is over 99% it's unlikely to set off any warning bells with the average buyer.

Ebay's policies are NOT "all in favour of the buyer" ask any buyer and they will tell you "Ebay's policies are all in favour of the seller" truth is Ebay's policies are ALL in favour of you guessed it.....EBAY

The only way to avoid negatives is to provide excessive customer service and even then there's always someone you just can't make happy. Don't sweat it and get on with things.

fitzheueninternational - one suggestion for you, your shipping charges seem to be excessive this not only discourages bidders but raises service expectations to an unreasonable level. As an example, as a buyer if I receive a poorly packaged item where I was charged $3.00 shipping (with $2.50 actual postage) I might grumble slightly but not much else. If I receive the same package except charged $10.00 shipping (with $2.50 actual postage) I get quite cranky, transaction is completed ok so I might leave positive feedback but it won't be very glowing.

Many buyers hardly read the descriptions very closely, I think the whole issue of feedback ratings is highly overrated.

Ben

[shooger]

Some people are saying that eBay won't remove negative feedback due to extortion, but they'll NARU the member who extorted. That's great - because when someone is NARU, you get the feedback removed automatically. Just file for feedback removal under either the "invalid contact info / cannot reach buyer" or "suspended member" categories.

A buyer just negged me saying "never heard from seller and never got the item!!!!" two days after he bought it. Unfortunately I had shipped his stuff the day before, or I might have held it until he explained himself. He'll probably be getting it in a couple days. Anyhow, I see he had a pattern of doing that to other seller(s) so I emailed eBay. They said "forget it, we can't do anything, have you tried SquareTrade or emailing the guy directly, all misunderstandings are easily corrected if you just communicate don't you know, idiot". My emails to the guy were bouncing. Same with another seller who I was talking to about this guy (the guy had also negged that seller). We both complained that he had invalid contact info, and we both filed NPB warnings (a bit of a white lie, but don't worry I don't plan to file the FVF) and then the guy went NARU. Now we're both filing to have the negatives removed on the basis that he is NARU (invalid contact info).

The only other neg I have in the last 8 months is a hothead seller. Her book never arrived, so I emailed her after 29 days and asked if I have a refund ($3), and she negged me. So I negged her back saying "item never arrived" etc, and now I'm waiting to see if she'll agree to the mutual feedback removal. How stupid - negging someone because they emailed to inform you that your item never got to them. Sheesh! Her profile is full of the same thing. Her auctions contain Bible versus, and her "feedback left by member" reads like the wall in a public toilet. :-x

[shoplineca]

I think that we all agree that it would be impossible for eBay to police every complaint between a seller and a buyer raised. That to investigate each situation to determine who was right and who was wrong would be an exercise in futility given the high volume of complaints and require a staff of tens of thousands.

However, wouldnt it be nice if eBay did take the ocassional one or two (thousand) and follow them through to determine the actual situation. They may find that they could catch some habitual bad eBayers (buyers and sellers) through the exercise and ulimately eliminate hundreds or thousands of future unpleasant future situations.

That is not to say that the present situation of NPB alerts and NARU havent been effective, however I am certain that some potentially larger scams could be circumvented much earlier by eBay if they did some infrequent investigations on their own into eBay member complaints.

Malcolm