posted on April 30, 2001 01:12:53 PM new
Ok, I need help on this buyer. Please give me some idea on what to do with him.
I have a buyer won my auction. I send him 3 to 4 e-mails (AOL account, of course) with no answer. After one month with no payment, I file FVF trying to get my fee back from Ebay. And I didn't leave him any negative feedback.
Apparently he got the e-mail from Ebay, and got mad about the warning. He retaliated by giving me the negative feedback. Of course, by then I was forced to give him one too.
Now, he is using different AOL account on Ebay. He also e-mail all my customers, including all my current bidders. He told them, my auctions items are fake, that I am a terrible seller and so on.
This is so freaky. What can you do about mad buyer? Reporting him to safe harbor is not going to do any good.
posted on April 30, 2001 09:36:02 PM new
I'm assuming that your TOS stated that
Payment is expected within XXX days.
So in that case you had every right,
On the other hand he is making your life pretty miserable,
I would include in my item description
Something like this:
Dear Bidders and lookers,
In near past I had problems with this XXX
Bidder, that was winner of one of my auctions but he didnt do......And he ...
And now he might try to email you sayin that
My auctions are fake,
I personaly guarantee that they are authentic, and that you will receive your item.
Something like that, so they will have to read more stuff, but atleast they will
Feel better and bid after knowing the facts,
In the worst part, atleast he will know that you are not giving in to his acusations
(sorry, I cannt spell, I'm from europe)
And he might stop ruinning your bussiness,
posted on May 1, 2001 04:56:16 PM new
chenillec: Copy your angry buyer on the e-mail you send to SafeHarbor. They DO investigate these things, though it may take some time. If you have a copy of an e-mail your angry buyer sent to a bidder, attach that.
When I get a report that an angry buyer has tried to poison my bidding pool, I send the AB a note with the subject line:
"eBay auction interference is a suspendable offense."
I include the URL for the SafeHarbor page that explains auction interference.
Gets their attention. Usually that's enough to stop them.
Here's one thing I want to stress, though: You have to play by the rules. In other words, childish forms of retaliation are right out (mailbombing, pulling contact info to harass AB by hangup phone calls, etc.) Anything done with the express intent of *escalating* the situation rather than *resolving* it is not good. These things sometimes happen when a seller takes the AB's actions personally and turns the situation into a war.
posted on May 1, 2001 05:04:17 PM new
I, thank God, have not experienced this. But I wonder, nobody ever mentions it, isn't this 'defamation of character'. Can't someone be sued for trying to destroy your business with false information.
Now, I know for most of us it wouldn't be worth the expense but perhaps just bringing what they're doing to their attention, or getting an attorney to draft a cease and desist letter might show them that what they're doing is not worth the possible consequences, and that they're not as anonymous on the internet as they think!
Jay
posted on May 1, 2001 06:28:14 PM new
If you have copies of the defamatory e-mails be sure the headers are turned on before you send them anywhere. If they are really bad...obscene or threatening... you might want to pass them along to AOL. They take a dim view on this.
Kathy
posted on May 1, 2001 06:49:27 PM new
Run private auction and explain
in the description of item (short, factual description without emotion is best). That way, the person can't get your bidders' userids. I have seen several dealers do this. You can also require that bidders be prequalified to bid on your auctions (maybe just do this to those with feedback lower than 25 or that became members after a certain date. However, you run the risk of losing impulse bids. Good luck!
