Seller Doxxing Buyers Who Give Negative Feedback... Is this Cool? How to Report?

[bpr103]

So, I'm engaged in a lively debate with a seller and decided to have a look at his feedback, some 1,400 over the last year with 11 negatives.

I looked at the negatives, and he posts replies, using the actual names of the buyers. Things like:

"...please dont blame me on your ignorance Mr. Firstname Middlename Lastname"

"...Self-inflicted laziness, we feel sorry for you and hope you may wake-up one day Mr. Lastname/ username."

"No Mr. Lastname, you will not get an [expensive item] for 10 €"

"Username / Mr. Lastname is sadly a proof of nowadays ignorance about how shipping works"

These are all private sales, as the username is hidden.

Isn't this a great seller tactic to discourage negative feedback? I mean sellers ship us stuff and have our names and addresses and here is where they can post for all to see exactly who is behind the username if we are unhappy with their services or merchandise.

Is eBay ok with this? If not, how can it be reported?

[bpr103]

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@kathiec wrote:

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If eBay were cool with it they wouldn't have a rule against it. Anyone who had their name used in a remark can report it and eBay will remove it. Perhaps the others aren't bothered by it. I wouldn't be. 

What eBay doesn't want is feedback vigilantes scouring feedback to find violations. There's too much room for abuse. So they only take reports from those for whom the feedback is left.

I find it interesting that you weren't bothered enough by 11 negs to avoid the seller in the first place.

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Admittedly, I don't look at the negative feedback left on every eBayer I purchase from. With a feedback score over 7,000 with over 99% positive, I let my guard down. 

If eBay really cared, they would have a bot that automatically removes last names from feedback/responses left (not hard to cross-reference fields). So, maybe I'm being glib in saying they're cool with it, but they obviously don't think it's a problem worth coding.

[femmefan1946]

If he can't prove delivery (not shipping, delivery) close the case as soon as possible.

Then when you see his ID in an email or a Message, delete without reading.

Delete. Delete. Delete.

And as others have said, you can have any false positives removed. But if he loses the case, he should not be able to leave any feedback at all.

[femmefan1946]

a bot that automatically removes last names from feedback/responses left

Because I am a writer, I keep a list of names that I might use in future. Because not everyone is names Smith.

Here's page one in my current notebook:

Jiang

Heribert

Yo-Jong

Des Nieges

Pihon

Akis

Nicknosway

Ploysongsang

Catabian

Farkas

Cvjeticanin

Galitzine

Maalin

Locsin

Parvaneh

Bilikiss

Honcharuk

Johnny

Miklos

I get these from my daily newspaper.

[bpr103]

The case is closed and he won't be able to leave feedback. My concern was that he could respond to negative feedback I leave for him, using my name.

The effect was chilling: If I left negative feedback for him, he could retaliate by posting my personal details.

My concerns are allayed somewhat by the fact that I can have them removed after the fact...

BUT, as a user with 15+ years of experience I had to come here to find that out. Most eBayers wouldn't even know to come here. 

[dryophelia]

@bpr103 

Yes, he can respond to your feedback. But he might just report it and have it removed. Buyers get away with a lot, but they aren’t allowed to mention an eBay investigation or outcome.  

[bpr103]

The list of names is helpful for fiction, but buyers and sellers here have each other's actual identities. The bot I'm suggesting would cross-reference the eBay database for personal details about the person engaged in the exchange, so if a user ever left a name or location about another user it would automatically be ****ed.

[na_833338]

Thanks for the post! 

It's a helpful reminder to the rest of us to remember to always look at a sellers FB to see what is left for the seller and how he/she responds.  It can be easy to make an assumption and then hit the 'buy' button.

[mudshark61369]

@bpr103,

Why would you even get into a discussion with a seller over what they post in their feedback?  Over the years I've seen some nasty feedback replies from some sellers and that alone is enough to prevent me from buying from them, much less getting into a discussion with them.

  "Admittedly, I don't look at the negative feedback left on every eBayer I purchase from. With a feedback score over 7,000 with over 99% positive, I let my guard down".

That is a mistake, since high volume sellers are able to get many negatives removed, or they refund quickly not allowing a negative to be left. Often reading the neutral comments is as telling as the negatives they received as well.  Just the other day I was checking a very high volume seller's feedback profile page who had a 98.9% rating, and saw that they had received 980 negs and 1,263 neutrals in the last 12 months. That alone was enough to hit the back button, I didn't bother reading any of the comments.

As I have had to post many times, you could find something for sale from a seller who has a fair number of feedback and a 100% rating, but they could all be for buying in the last 12 months.  They may not have any for selling at all or in over a year.  There are often issues with new and returning sellers because of their inexperience.

[maxine*j]

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@bpr103 wrote:

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...  If eBay really cared, they would have a bot that automatically removes last names from feedback/responses left ...

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That would be impossible. 

Think of all the last names that are common words otherwise:    Bell, Carpenter, Rule, Cook, Fish, Wall, Green, Black, White, Lock, Hull, Spear, Weeks, Stone, Wolf, Post, and on and on. 

Think of all the ones that are rare but real, such as these from the most recent U.S. Census:  Afify, Bidelspach, Feyrer, Usoro, Naese, Goscicki, Snearl, Protich, Hoig, Reat, et al.

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[monster-deals]

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@bpr103 wrote:

Isn't this a great seller tactic to discourage negative feedback?

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Do you honestly think it is working out for them?

[jameshen1]

BUT, as a user with 15+ years of experience I had to come here to find that out. Most eBayers wouldn't even know to come here. 

If you have 15 years experience and didn't know this, you better start reading eBay polices.  You have a lot of other things to catch up on as well.  The policies are there, it is your job to read and understand them.  EBay can't read them to you after all.

[downunder-61]

@bpr103 It looks like he got your comment removed so you maybe broke the feedback policy as well.

Those buyers would have got the FB follow up removed had they reported it and the seller would have received defects - buyers need to make themselves aware of their rights, eBay is not going to hold their hand.

[bpr103]

It would be easy, because eBay has the actual names of its users. That's how shipping labels are created through its system.

It's not a matter of blanket rejecting all names (that would be impossible), but cross-referencing eBay's own database record on a user, and rejecting certain strings ("firsname lastname", and "Ms. Lastname", and "City, State") that match the user's information in eBay's dataset.

A student coder could do that.

[nocoolnamejane]

That would be so easy to get around with on purpose mispelling, random spaces or, if the seller felt nostalgic, even 1337 sp34k.

[mistyislesdesigns]

I have nothing original to add to the thread (just another iteration of "yeah, that's not cool"); but Femmefan, I had to duck in and tell you that "drooling anger monkey" is now my new* favorite descriptive. Possibly also  my new band name. 😁

*(My previous favorite was "pop-collared Jersey Shore reject", which was getting kind of stale. But then, so is the show.)