Topic: Some asshole

[Pugnate]

As you guys may know, I have a few eBay stores where I sell my leather goods aside from my store here.

So 6 weeks ago someone bought an item from me. For 5 weeks they kept sending e-mails about how they were about to make payment etc etc.

They finally made payment 8 days ago, yes a month after the auction. In the sale details it clearly says it takes 2 days to dispatch, and 10 days for their item to arrive.

So six days later on Sunday he e-mails me asking about his item. I inform them that royal mail is having a postal strike and it has lead to slight delays.

Unfortunately when this person made payment 1 month late, I wasn't able to ship on time either as I was out of the country. Obviously I can't be expected to wait 5 weeks or whatever.

But all I informed this person very politely was that their item would arrive soon.

Then I received an e-mail full of ANGRY verbal abuse.

And then he left me the following feedback:

"No product, dishonest or incompetent. Avoid. Chasing via Paypal"

Then he sent me an e-mail saying, "WHOOPS! THERE GOES YOUR 100% POSITIVE FEEDBACK"

Yea a real asshole.

So I went to his feedback page.

I noticed that he left about the same comments he left for me, for a gazillion other people:

He left like 50 people negatives, most of whom had fantastic reputations otherwise.

He also sells stuff.

Notice what feedback someone left for him... in this case he was the seller. His user name is "Cexall" and ebay removed his comments that were full of profanity.

Wrong size, refund refused, overuled by PayPal, but £8+ return postage refused. s1sro ( 512)  Jan-16-09 03:00
 Follow-up by s1sro (Jan-16-09 03:09):
Seller emailed me to 'now sod off', an angry man, evidence abounds, be carefull.
Reply by cexall (Jan-17-09 08:42):
This comment has been removed by eBay. Learn more.

[gpw11]

What a dick.  Doesn't he realize you have his fucking address?

[idolminds]

Ugh, people are idiots.

[Pugnate]

I need some revenge suggestions that don't compromise my business.

[gpw11]

Sometimes you have to be a dick back.  Something like this happened to one of the posters at Somethingawful.   The result? A whole lot of Internet detectives on the case. Apart from that, a whole bunch of fake bids and false feedback.  Sometimes they get theirs.

As for your personal revenge, I wouldn't bother.  You don't want to put any more effort into it, just see if he'll change it.  If not, we'll revisit this in 6 months. But...make sure you take his address and save it.

[Pugnate]

Yea I tell myself it isn't worth it. Let's see if he will change it, but I doubt it, considering he hasn't for about 20 other people.

I plan to give him a phone call at least, though.

edit:

My only worry is the stupid new eBay policy. If you get two negatives a month, you will be banned for the next month.

[Ghandi]

So what can you do? Aside from calling?

[gpw11]

I wouldn't bother calling.  SAVE the address.  You have address, you have phone number.  You have unlimited fun in 6 months.  Just wait...you have the ability to annoy the fuck out of the guy with free deliveries and getting him blacklisted from every cab and food place in town.

[idolminds]

yeah, doing anything direct and NOW isnt going to accomplish anything. Its the Internet Fuckwad theory only taken to the real world. He still thinks its all online and anonymous so he can be an asshole.

In 6 months (hell, 2 months) he'll have pissed off a bunch more people and wont expect someone from months ago to be doing anything to him now. I'm sure he'd love to be signed up for any and all kinds of porn to be sent to his email AND home address. If they ask for a phone number make sure they get it so they can call and leave messages for such a valued potential customer.

[Pugnate]

I really don't know. I can call the guy and try and convince him to remove the feedback. I already refunded him in full. Unfortunately, as a seller, I have no way of leaving him any feedback other than positive.

I wouldn't bother calling.  SAVE the address.  You have address, you have phone number.  You have unlimited fun in 6 months.  Just wait...you have the ability to annoy the fuck out of the guy with free deliveries and getting him blacklisted from every cab and food place in town.

The only thing is that I rely on my online business. I have 80+ leather rugs and jackets listed at times which I need to keep moving.

The two negs and 1 month suspension policy is terrible, especially when sellers can't leave fb.

Honestly my grandfather was sick as well. He passed away at the time I received payment which was another reason for the delay.

It is obvious this guy has real issues though. E-mails full of profanity.

[idolminds]

Well, you can try talking to him. But still...keep his info around for later fun.

[gpw11]

Instant revenge:

post shit on 4chan.

But I strongly urge you to wait it out.

[Pugnate]

Oh I am going to still let him have it after he removes the negative. The instant he removes it, he really is powerless do anything else, like change it back. I have already blocked him from future transactions.

[Ghandi]

There's no way to contact Ebay about prior history?

[Cobra951]

There's no way to contact Ebay about prior history?

That's what I was thinking as I read through this.  There has to be some way to inform eBay about unwarranted abuse by anyone, including buyers.  If 2 negatives in a month ban you for another, there must be some appeal process.  Otherwise, you need to look into other ways of selling online.  That's just too fucked up.  Anyone can get a seller shut down this way for a month, then another and another.  There has to be a way for you to defend yourself and your unfairly tarnished rep.

[idolminds]

Ebay seems to have become very harsh towards sellers. You used to be able to leave feedback both ways, but now sellers have their hands tied and buyers have all the power. Its a terrible arrangement.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, it really sucks.  I'm always very, very nice to sellers when I buy on ebay, and I make sure to give them the benefit of the doubt at every opportunity.

[Pugnate]

There a lot of buyers like Que, without doubt. I run into incredibly nice and understanding ones. There are some real assholes as well.

This one lady bought a really fantastic cowhide rug from me which was 28SQF and clearly stated as such in the auction title as well as the description.

So she received her rug and then left me negative feedback stating that it was nice but it too small.

Initially I thought I had made a mistake with the listing, so I called her up in London. Turns out she had bid on the wrong auction and it was her fault -- which she admitted to and was apologetic.

So she changed her feedback to positive, but now is asking me for a 45SQF cowhide for free.

Yes, I am describing the situation exactly as it happened, not leaving anything out. She bought the rug by mistake (she seemed kinda old), admitted it but now wants a free XXL size one that costs about $400 to manufacture.

They cost that much because most hairon animal leather skins have natural flaws like tiny holes and missing hair. When you are talking XXL sizes then you can expect a higher probability of defect. So say 1 out 10 XXL sized rugs are good enough to sell. The other 9/10 end up being used for other stuff like patch rugs, shoes, jackets. Many end up being scrapped.

So anyway she wants to keep the rug she bought by mistake, and she wants a free XXL one. Thank goodness she changed her feedback first.

It is just unreasonable.

I guess part of the problem is that people are used to buying on retail from stores that can afford to meet their whims.

Then again, you get a huge price benefit from buying directly off of manufacturers. An XXL sized cowhide rug which pottery barn sells for $700+ can be found for 60% less online.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, people are ridiculous.  I honestly don't know where they get their expectations from.  People like that lady make no sense to me at all.  I've only twice run into people who were selling me bullshit, and both were via Amazon.  Amazon took care of the first no problem, and the second one I dropped the ball on because I didn't get my printer fixed in time to print the return shipping label.  Oh well.  Never had any problems with any ebay sellers in my years of doing business there.  Couple times somebody maybe made a slight mistake or took a little longer to ship something, but that's as far as any offense has ever gone.  Nothing worth complaining about.

[Pugnate]

That guy still hasn't amended the feedback. I have filed a complaint with eBay. Let's see what happens.

[Ghandi]

Let me know if you need me to bust some skulls. You know the number. Don't hesitate to call.