02-28-2014 11:38 AM
99.9% of buyers I work with are an absolute joy. I just ran into one after 16 years on eBay who was the absolute WORST I've ever encountered. Yee gads.
Note that all communication was through eBay's messaging system!
Started out with the buyer asking me for a discount on a multi-item purchase. I politely pointed out the items were already on sale, and offered her free shipping.
She took the offer ... then paid immediately, before I could invoice her for the free shipping ... and then sent me a message that she was "sad" about having to pay shipping when I'd promised her free.
*head desk* I immediately refunded her the shipping.
THEN she demanded that I falsify the customs infomation. (International buyer.)
Ummm ... no.
I sent her a polite note explaining I could not do this, referring her the appropriate page on eBay, and cringed, because I had a feeling this was going to go south.
Yup. Entitled buyer felt entitled. She demanded I either falsify the customs info or ship in two package so the $$ amts would be less so she wouldn't have to pay customs fees. Or, she wanted me to cancel the order and refund her money. She also complained about the GAS and time needed to pick the items up at her post office, as if this was my fault and something I should refund her for. (Basically, she stated that if she was paying "X" amount for shoes, she shouldn't have to pay for the gas to go get them, too.)
Yeaaaaah. I refunded her order and sent her a cancel transaction request.
Cue immediate threats to leave me negative feedback if I didn't ship her the order RIGHT NOW and ranting that I just didn't understand. (Note: I've refunded her at this point!.)
2 1/2 hours of hold time later, I managed to get somebody at eBay who spoke passable English, and filed a report with Trust and Safety. While I was on hold, the buyer sent me a message indicating she'd reported me to eBay and they said I had to ship to her and demanding again I ship in two packages. (Though this time she offered to pay for shipping, implying that she'd planned on that from the beginning. We'd initially agreed to free shipping. In any case, I've been told by Trust and Safety as a friendly warning in the past that splitting an order into multiple packages is still considered customs fraud if the purpose is to avoid fees.)
I had already blocked the buyer, but informed her she was blocked, and told her to never buy from me again, and reminded her that her money was refunded. I suggested she find another seller(s) with the same items, and buy at different times or buy from two different sellers, if she wanted to keep the cost below the point at which she would be assessed a customs fee.
Buyer's response was so profanity laden I couldn't post it here without getting banned from the boards myself, and it wouldn't make much sense if I redacted the profanity. Suffice to say she wants me to go somewhere hot, and also feels I'm a deveil, whatever that is. She also threatened to have all her friends buy from me and leave me negs. I reported her for the abusive language and threats. I resisted the temptation to respond with something along the lines of, "Do you mean devil, dummKopf?" (Really, if you're going to curse at someone, at least learn to spell the words correctly.)
I blocked all of Germany.
Then she purchased two of the SAME items from me, using a different ID ... with the same last name, mailing address, and paypal account. (Dunno how that happened as I had her entire country blocked, unless a block takes a few minutes to take effect.) What, she thought I was going to ship them to her AFTER she threatened to have all her friends neg me into oblivion, threatened me with a neg for refusing to falsify customs info, and also told me she'd reported me to eBay? Entitled dummKopf is a dummKopf.
I then called eBay and reported her for being an unwanted bidder and using a second account to circumvent my block.
I refunded her money, and sent a cancel transaction request, which I figured she wouldn't accept, but at least I could close it after seven days.
Buyer denied the cancel transaction request.
I called eBay AGAIN and, to eBay's credit, the rep was able to credit me my fees and assured me she was bumping this issue up to her supervisor for immediate review. I expect the buyer will be NARU'd very quickly.
I'm just ... boggled, however. She's not a newbie (2006 account), she's a competing seller, she's not a child based on her profile photo, and ... what, I caught her on a bad hair day? My first thought was that I was dealing with somebody's self-entitled 13 year old brat, but the account's been around since 2006 and she didn't buy things I would expect a kid to buy. She bought vintage Barbie shoes.
O've been on eBay since 1998. For sheer irrationality, she was my Worst. Buyer. Ever.
05-07-2014 04:32 PM
05-07-2014 04:37 PM
p.s if I am takin over a day I will contact seller
05-07-2014 05:18 PM
Hi Rose, that's the eBay standard for paying now - that a buyer is expected to pay within 2 days, and then a seller can file Unpaid Item.
So the seller was following the current standard practice, not doing anything wrong or unusual. See the info here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unpaid-item.html
Many years ago it used to be 7 days, then was changed to 4 days, and now it's 2 days before filing Unpaid Item (I can't remember exactly when they changed to 2 days, it was sometime within the last 2 to 3 years).
05-07-2014 05:47 PM
well, that shows how dated I am! If it weren't for you and various emails from them or trying to figure out all the boxes after an update I would remain clueless! I still give people a week and more if they are know customers and need it. Get the same from a few sellers that I've dealt with for years [when they have a sale or dolls that are limited that I want but can't pay for right away]
05-07-2014 06:01 PM - edited 05-07-2014 06:03 PM
They change things so often, it's hard to keep up with it all. I do the same as you generally. In listings I ask that buyers pay in 2 days, but in reality I usually contact them in 2 days and let them slide up to a week before filing Unpaid Item. But I wouldn't want buyers to just expect that from everyone without asking first, and I can't fault anyone for following the eBay standard.
05-07-2014 06:15 PM
05-07-2014 07:12 PM
They're only removing Fixed Price from the monthly free listings allowance, and only in 14 categories.
They're adding another 50 free monthly (and are supposed to add the extra 50 more right after May 15). So each month you can list 100 auction or auction-with-Buy-It-Now free. Just not Fixed Price free any more unless you have a store. And yep, you're right, the fee change is part of the constant pushing to commit to a store.
05-07-2014 08:20 PM
05-07-2014 08:37 PM - edited 05-07-2014 08:41 PM
06-24-2015 03:09 PM
06-24-2015 03:39 PM
Zombie Thread. Over a year old.
06-24-2015 03:50 PM
07-19-2015 09:41 AM
07-22-2015 01:59 PM
07-22-2015 02:02 PM
Dead threads don't usually get much attention. Better to start a new one.