posted on February 21, 2004 04:28:32 PM
I'm so aggravated about this! It is on a $100 item I sold for a friend who really needs the money. This is a draft of an email I propose to send to my buyer but I can't see straight at the moment:
"The first email I received from you was about your friend and how she and I had conversed about this item (not true) and I supposedly said I would let her take two months to pay (not true). You wanted to bid on the item for her for her birthday and asked me not to “get her hopes up”. I politely let you know you had the wrong person and wrong auction. I looked at your feedback and frankly less than 10 remarks with one negative for non payment is not a good record. My auctions state I reserve the right to cancel bids from parties with poor feedback records. Taking all these factors into consideration, I blocked you from bidding. And by the way it is the seller's prerogative to block anyone they choose for any reason. Then you began to email me every day requesting that I take you off my blocked list. I simply could not understand why you would want to bid on my auction when your friend already was bidding on another and the seller was willing to wait so long for her to pay for it. I was afraid she would win, you would win, and then you wouldn't have any use for mine and wouldn't pay for it.
Then you decided since you couldn't bid under your old user name, you would just get a new one and bid under that one. You won the auction and sent me a check, probably just so I would know it was you since you signed all your emails with your full name.
Now you are claiming there is a crack in the item and you want to send it back for a refund. It was checked over by two people before shipping and it could not have been cracked during shipping without being damaged more extensively. I think you just don't have a use for it now and since you already paid for it, you want your money back.
You went through all the trouble of creating a new user id so you could bid on the item and get it. Well you have it, end of story. I am not giving you a refund. I'm tired of playing your games. Goodbye."
What do you think? I have over 1100 feedback with only one neg and that was a retalitory for a non payer. I am sure this will be my second neg but I'm not sure I really care at this point. It surprised me she had the nerve to ask but she is using her first and last name on the first id and her middle and last name on the second id and I guess she thinks I'm not smart enough to figure out it is her, even after she sent me her check!
Would you send it, would you edit it, would you just get the neg, leave one and move on?
Or maybe you think I should let her send it back for a refund (who knows what condition it will be in)? I just feel like I've been played like a fiddle.
posted on February 21, 2004 04:39:49 PM
Edited to ....
You apparently made the decision that my existing policies were not to your liking when you did an end run around my decision to have block you. Since you opted for an alternate identity I have decided on an alternate policy. All sales are final. Any further contact on your part will be considered harassment and will be reported to ebay in addition to your suspendable offense of creating a new identity in order to violate their blocked bidder policies.
Have a nice day.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by Fenix03 on Feb 21, 2004 04:40 PM ]
posted on February 21, 2004 06:41:26 PM
If this person was blocked under one id, and bid under another ID for your auction and then negged you, this would be a good argument to get eBay to delete the feedback due to harassment.
Remember the Drunken Sailor, Beanie Baby Auction.
Practically the same thing happened, where someone was put on a blocked list and then bid with a different ID. The seller was negged due to item condition, and manufacturer.
The neg was removed by eBay fairly quickly, I believe under the harassment clause.
Tell them no returns. After they give you negative feedback, try to get eBay to remove the neg due to blocked buyer (bidding anyway) harassment.
You can be sure if they sent you the item back for a refund it would be cracked.
It is a lot of hassle to go through, especially when you did not make anything on this item, but is one of the joys of selling on eBay.
I would recommend a short and to the point response.
You were blocked from bidding on my auction, and bid without my permission under a different ID.
You did this after being told I would not remove you from my blocked list.
Sorry, I can not give a refund on this item.
ebay seller
(This was my 2 cents and certainly not the only way to handle this situation.)
posted on February 21, 2004 07:14:33 PM
You might now want to let eBay know you refused to let this user bid and you refused requests to take them off your blocked buyers list.
posted on February 22, 2004 05:26:09 AM
I think that sending that email just invites this person to engage you further. Clearly they have established themselves as persistent and argumentative.
Report the bidding violation to eBay.
I know how annoying some people can be, but you have the power in this situation. You have the money, and you can get them booted from eBay. Don't let 'em get under your skin.
posted on February 22, 2004 05:35:14 AM
Would have to agree with Fluffy on this one, report them to eBay and just ignore anymore emails from them and definately don't even bother replying.
posted on February 22, 2004 06:07:39 AM
Never mind, I just found it. Thanks to everyone for their input. I will try reporting first. I have a feeling she will email and email but I will do my best to ignore it.
posted on February 22, 2004 06:18:52 AM
It's hard not to send a reply... but just use your email filters and place her email directly to trash, you won't have to see it.
posted on February 22, 2004 06:52:49 AM
Yes, I wouldn't even glance at the body of the message, just put it in a junk folder.
People like this, once they sense you're pulling back, will ramp up their efforts to keep you engaged. You may be accused of not replying to their email, as though that were a sin. (It actually does induce guilt in many people. I'm not sure why. Where is it written all email must be responded to?) You may get emails with SECOND REQUEST! RESPOND NOW OR I'LL GO TO THE POLICE! or some such blather.
Keep in mind that if the person threatens negative feedback if you don't refund, that is feedback extortion. So if they don't get their account yanked for the first infraction, there's the second.
I have a real whackjob on the line now. Experienced sellers probably know the type. Started bugging me from day one...it's not here yet...it's not here yet...did you ship it?...it's not here yet... And has graduated to mailbombing and looking for alternate email addresses so she can mailbomb those, too. Oh yeah, the obligatory PayPal fraud report. The funniest and latest email was where she discovered I had a domain but there wasn't a web page up yet at http://www.fluffythewondercat.com. That means I am a crook. Really. That's what she said.
If from this you gather that she (and your problem child) has no life, you are correct.
posted on February 23, 2004 05:34:19 AM
Well I am very pleased with my results thanks to all your expert advice. Ebay very quickly kicked off her second id, so now it drops out of the feedback picture. Also, every time she contacted me before, she used the ask a question feature so I don't think she really knows how to determine my email address (she might figure it out but I am hoping this is the end of this). Yipee!
posted on February 23, 2004 07:06:27 AM
I'm glad it turned out well.
Your original email was very long. In communicating with buyers, especially difficult ones, less is best. The more you say, the more there is to argue about.
Sometimes it makes us feel better to vent to a buyer, but in the long run it just prolongs the aggravation.
