Ebay seller abusing me by phone for a neutral feedback for $0.99 item!
CuriousOne
Posts: 931
I don't know, laugh, cry, or to call police? situation is quite funny.
A not a long time ago, I bought something on ebay, $0.99 + free shipping. When it arrived, it was total junk (same item, same price, other seller - not junk). So not to bother much, I've left message in feedback that this seller sells low quality items, beware!
Couple a days after, he mailed me, that he would offer a refund, just I should remove my feedback because "It is ruining his ebay business, which is his only source of income" (and he already has 98.8% feedback level). Since he was quite polite, I've mailed back that maybe, latter, when he won't be selling this junk again, I might leave positive feedback, if I ever decided to buy anything from him.
Today, he called me (dunno how he got my phone number? it is one associated with ebay account, but does ebay discloses phone numbers to sellers?) stating that we have to "work out the problem". I said that I'm not going to waste my time for him, sorry sir, bye bye. He called again, I've not answered several times, then he called from another number
I just can't understand, he already spent at least 10X more money on phone calls, then the item cost was, one neutral feedback counts that much? He already has more than 8000 positive feedbacks and only 28 - neutral ones
So, what should I do if he calls again? tell him that I'll call police? The feedback I left is my opinion and I do have a right to have personal opinion, right?
A not a long time ago, I bought something on ebay, $0.99 + free shipping. When it arrived, it was total junk (same item, same price, other seller - not junk). So not to bother much, I've left message in feedback that this seller sells low quality items, beware!
Couple a days after, he mailed me, that he would offer a refund, just I should remove my feedback because "It is ruining his ebay business, which is his only source of income" (and he already has 98.8% feedback level). Since he was quite polite, I've mailed back that maybe, latter, when he won't be selling this junk again, I might leave positive feedback, if I ever decided to buy anything from him.
Today, he called me (dunno how he got my phone number? it is one associated with ebay account, but does ebay discloses phone numbers to sellers?) stating that we have to "work out the problem". I said that I'm not going to waste my time for him, sorry sir, bye bye. He called again, I've not answered several times, then he called from another number
I just can't understand, he already spent at least 10X more money on phone calls, then the item cost was, one neutral feedback counts that much? He already has more than 8000 positive feedbacks and only 28 - neutral ones
So, what should I do if he calls again? tell him that I'll call police? The feedback I left is my opinion and I do have a right to have personal opinion, right?
Comments
(Unless you're 110% certain that he's deliberately scamming people, but even then you should doublecheck first)
A lot of buyers will stay away from sellers with less than 99.x% positive feedback, so yeah, a neutral or negative can really hurt his business.
Are you certain that your phone number isn't sent along with the rest of your PayPal info?
Or that the number isn't available through some sort of online search?
(I doubt that eBay gives it away)
If the seller is in your country, you may be able to call it harassment and have the police do something, but frankly, I doubt it.
Keep in mind, you can only get another member's contact info if you have a transaction with them. You'll need to provide the other person's user ID and an item number from a recent transaction. When we send you their contact info, we'll send them your contact info at the same time. If their phone number is wrong or not working, contact us to let us know.
Very bad for ebay...
(PayPal has a separate form for phone numbers, but that's for fraud warnings, mostly.)
I would nearly be tempted to suggest that you get eBay to remove the neutral, but... His behavior really shows that he doesn't deserve it.
Best would be to ignore him until he stops. Keep a note of any future calls and what gets said.
If it does not stop explain that your lawyer will be in contact with him.
money back and keep it or in one instance of a over 200.00 power supply they simply let me keep it and refunded the total amount with shipping.
Dunno if that's the best plan, but it works for me.
Amanda
Looks like you have a winner on your hands, It's amazing what fun you can have with the right phone plan and answering machine...
I have a confirmed personal record of one hour and twenty seven minutes of hold time.
With an average of around 20 minutes before they hang up...
-Tommy
True to an extent, but that can be blamed on lawyers more than any desire on the part of the forum or ebay owners to censor opinions.
Re: On hold. Google the Uberconference "On Hold" song. It's great. (Brutal man, just brutal!) Personally, I will either start asking extremely painful questions, or tell them a loooong story.
18 times?
First, I would work with EBay. The Vendor has gone off the deep end due to an unsuccessful and mediocre business plan.
Second, I would point out to EBay that they have enabled a potential stalking/harrassment behavior by providing your phone number instead of acting as an intermediate arbitator.
Third, I would take a serious look at what your local laws are about harassing phone calls, and if there is any way to register that you are being harrasssed.
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Frankly, I did not realize a neutral or negative feedback could be so devesating to an eBay vendor.
Recently I purchased 60 Feather double edge razor blades out of Thailand. Feather is an excellent Japanese stainless steel blade. I was quite happy and it was all a rather unimportant transaction.
But Ebay annoyed me with demanding I provide feedback and rating for the transaction. So I gave the vendor a "neutral" and simply stated that I loved the product, there was nothing wrong with delivery, but I hate having the internet running me down for opinions about all and everything.
Now I wonder if EBay downgraded the seller? This all just gets too serious for nickle and dime transactions.
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BTW... with Skype long distance calls into the USA can be quite cheap on an annual fee. I've used Skype for many years and haven't paid for a long distance call in some time.
Un-contactable.....
This has been the trend in modern business for some 30 to 40 years. Big business just doesn't want to have a Customer Service department that has phones ringing off the hook asking to right one wrong after another ... real or perceived.
And yet, I just don't see how businesses can succeed without being available and listening to the negative feedback of their customers.
In other words, something has got to give.
In my own case, though EBay seems like a great place to buy a lot of odd stuff, I rarely do. And really don't want to participate in the feedback system as the idea of 99% ratings has always seemed a bit suspect to me. In general, people will just give you 5 stars because they really have nothing to say and don't care. The ratings system can be very superficial in that sense.
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It seems it is time to contact your telephone company about blocking a harassing telephone caller. They may work with local police concerning this as well
Then to have them advise the caller that he has been reported.
I don't see much reason to capitulate and change to a good rating when all this has happened. It just makes the setup more flawed. The vendor is NOT a mature person and potentially not emotionally stable.
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If you do take measures to block the caller...... You might they revise your rating to Negative AND explain that the product that arrive was junk, the vendor offered a refund contingent on you removing a less than glowing rating, that you have have since been harassed by the vendor to change the rating, AND that EBay has yet to take any action to stop the harassment.
The guy has flunked out as an EBay Vendor, and maybe EBay has flunked as an online service as well. If you feel physically safe, I'd just tell them both to live with the consequence.
I would hate to see this get into the place where you need to hire a lawyer to go up against EBay. It just would end up costing you time and money. But contacting EBay's legal department and threatening Small Claims Court action may get them to start talking. Why so?
Well, if you were to file a local Small Claims Court action and EBay fails to show up, the hearing will go against them and suddenly they have to pay lawyers to represent the issues or you will simply take the next step and collect a judgement against them.
You can't run a vast internet enterprise such as EBay at a profit when you have to pay legal council to show up in local Small Claims Hearings or when you have thousands of Small Claims Court judgements to pay for never showing up.. Small Claims Court is very effectively pesky to big business. Just showing up is likely to require a thousand dollars in lawyer fees.
BUT, I would mention that while 'threatening to go to Small Claims Court' might finally get them to talk because they don't want the expense of such... actually going to Small Claims Court is ultimately doomed. The first thing their lawyer would do is to ask for the issue to go to a regular court of law and then it would just be you paying for lawyers and them paying for lawyers... all over some originally trivial purchase.
I don't know how long they keep your history. I know feedback ratings only go back 12 months, but I have one negative feedback comment from nearly 10 years ago that can still be seen. (Not sure how that happened <shrug>)
Amanda