Tell me your WORST buyer horror story

[nonyme]

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.

[tackygoods]

My worst story was when I sold a Silkstone Barbie and the buyer sent it back saying the neck was broken and the head was loose.  I had a big snit and reluctantly refunded her everything.  I decided to box and store all my silkstones because every time I looked at them I got steamed over the "scammer".  After a while, I wanted to take an outfit off of one of them and when I opened the storage box, there was a headless silkstone!  Head was rolling around the bottom of the box!  I just closed the box and walked away.  I found out later that the heads snapping off silkstones is relatively common.  The horror of the story was I was so angry at the "buyer" and I was wrong all along!  #humbling experience #had to apologize......terri

[bethy56]

I just wanted to follow up on my buyer horror story.  Today the negative feedback was removed.  Apparently she failed to pay for some other auctions because she is no longer a registered user.  I am so relieved and grateful that eBay did as they told me they would - they followed her activity to see if she was failing to pay others - I don't mind taking a hit if I screw up and fail to make it right - but hated taking a negative from a lying newbie who got in over her head.  I really go out of my way to help new buyers because I want their experience to be a positive one - and most of the buyers, by far most of them, are really wonderful.  I am just so relieved to have that mark off my record!  Thank you eBay for getting it right!

[fairiedoll]

I don't post much here, but am always reading the posts and learning. I have to share my horror story that just happened to me this last week. I sold some dolls and related  items on consignment for a friend of mine. One of the dolls was a vintage Betsy McCall doll. I left her great feedback as soon as she paid. I packed the doll well in bubble wrap and peanuts in a priority box. When she received the doll, she messaged me through ebay thanking me for the great packing, she liked the doll and wanted to keep her but she was unhappy about a couple things I didn't mention in the description. She said their was glue in her hair and a dent in her head. All of which I did not notice when I listed her. I handled the doll several times and honestly did not see this .Then she said she overpaid for the doll. I apologized to her and said she could return the doll for a full refund. She emailed me back and asked for 20.00 and said she hoped I wouldn't regret not sending it to her with my feedback being at risk. I just messaged her again to kindly return the doll for a refund. Next thing I knew she left me bad feedback. I contacted Ebay trust and safety and they removed it right away and sent her a message saying it was feedback extortion and she got in trouble. Right after that she filed a not as described claim against me and decided to send the doll back for a refund. And oh my goodness, the things she said in her comments in the claim were horrible. She called me a liar, and said i gave Ebay a bad name and she was afraid I was going to lie about the condition of the doll when I got it back. She also described the doll in horrible condition, and said she would send it back wrapped in a paper towel. I can only imagine what the doll will be like when I get it back. And this person is a seller with lots of feedback. I've never had any problems before this and have been on Ebay since 1998. Wow! I'm still in shock at the things she said about me.I guess she got mad when she got in trouble from Ebay.

[tree*fern]

Bethy, that's fantastic news! 

Fairie, what a nightmare buyer!

It's sickening that those types of buyers aren't really unusual. 

[care--a--seller]

So, have you all read the new March newsletter with the new rating system? Ebay is once again opening sellers up to nasty buyers. Sellers can now get "deficits" or whatever they call them, when an item arrives in poor condition, even if the item was packed propperly and it's the Post office's fault. I wish ebay understood two things: Half the sellers here are buyers also, and some people will do anything to make a buck. Lots of people are going to have fun with this one, knowing that many sellers would rather give a full or partial refund rather than risk a hit to their visibility in the search results. 

[ljcygnet]

Eh, I figure eBay will swing the other way in the next update, once they realize they're ticking off too many sellers and/or sellers are leaving. I don't like the fact they're using *opened* cases against sellers -- it should only be cases found in the buyer's favor. I think we've all had buyers who opened a case before talking to you.

Knock on wood, I won't have a problem meeting the standards based on past history, but for smaller sellers, 1 neg or 1 opened case could really hurt. I don't think it'll be a huge problem for doll sellers, but it's going to really hurt some other categories where negs are more common, or certain dolly subcategories with really picky buyers. We're lucky, though, that our buyer are MOSTLY sane, crazies aside.

(If you want to see some pathetic feedback, check out the negs that hatching egg sellers get. Yeeow. I used to sell rare-breed fertile chicken eggs on an off-eBay egg auction site, and those were the WORST buyers I ever dealt with.)

[rosegoldwitch]

wow and horrible is all I can say to what I've read and major kudos to the sellers who were able to do something to jerk buyers and sympathy to all that have had bad eperiences. I am really fortunate. I won't ship internationally on ebay, let my bonanza go [though they are great funny guys don't like the set up] and have been tempted to remove that option from anything on etsy. I have been really really lucky here with buyers. The closest I came to getting nervous was with 2 seperate AMerican Chinese buyers that bought Chinese vintage/antique cloisonne pieces from me and I saw what they had done to other sellers. One left me good feedback and the other none, so I was happy. My worse experience with selling was on etsy. I had finally after allot of back and forth with a woman put together an order of expensive necklaces that I sold her for about 1500.00 she had got a 300. discount in such and package was insured etc. I tracked it and got concerned it was never delivered and contacted the post office and they said she'd been left notes and never came down. After close to 2 weeks she picked up the package and all was well, that freaked me out though. Here I can write mini novels on my items so I don't have to deal with the kinda stuff people come up with. Lots of pics and offer of more trey to keep the pertenant info on top then the added under. I use to smoke but not around my dolls so I always added that. I do burn herbs like cedar and tobacco in my living room and have friends come over and animals so I add that. I'd rather have people running away from my listings screaming rather than buy something and then cause trouble or be upset. I was wondering about the new change thing they sent out about but still don't really understand what they are going to do.

[good.golly.dolly]

Nonyme....your buyer sounds exactly like a buyer I had a couple of years ago, also from Germany!  She was a nightmare and unfairly negged me, which eBay removed.  She was also the reason I quit selling to Germany.  I've had a few bad experiences as a seller.  Most recently by the most haughty, self-important person I've ever met.  I bent over backwards to make this lady happy.  One mistake was clearly my fault (said some shoes were Japan when they were, in fact, Korea).  I'm still not sure how I messed that up, but I did.  I gave her a refund and let her keep the shoes.  She responded to FB she left (after I had responded saying I had given a refund) saying I didn't refund the money, which was either a lie or she didn't bother checking the transaction in her Paypal account.  I most certinaly did refund her.  Then another shoe (vintage Barbie) she purchased she said was a little faded.  That one I did not notice at all and I'm stil not sure if it was faded.  But once again, I offer a refund and tell her she can keep the shoe.  This time she says no to the refund.  She didn't neg me, but dinged the **bleep** out of my stars (a way for faint-hearted cowards to neg you).  She was also a competing seller. 

I'm so sorry to hear you went through that, nonyme.  It's no fun.  Luckily, the good customers far outweigh the bad.  Well....so far anyway.

[good.golly.dolly]

Correction, I got the refund info backwards.  I offered the refund and offer to keep the shoes on the Korea shoes, which was refused.  The full refund was offered and accepted on the "faded" pink shoe.  It's been a while and I forgot she was correct about which shoe was refunded.  But, in her response it sounds as though I never offered a refund, which I absolutely did.  Sorry for the mistake!  

[Anonymous]

O.K.  I'm only a buyer here so I don't know if you want to hear one from a buyer, but here goes.  

Back when I was new, I bought a My Size Barbie from a seller.  He shipped it UPS. After a week or two, she arrived in a hugh vacuum cleaner box.  That wasn't the problem. Opened her up, and take a guess what was used for packing.  The dirty vacuum cleaner bags, and they never even wrapped her in plastic or nothing.  Seller didn't understand what I was complaining about.  All he kept saying in emails that I was even lucky that he shipped her. 

I think that was the first time I left horrible feedback for a seller. I believe he left the retaliation feedback for me also.  And it was before paypal or before Ebay would intervene for a buyer.  

Needless to say, she went right in the trash the same way I received her.  

To this day, I sloooowly open my purchases.  And sometimes outside, LOL!!

[bigjunkbuyer]

Germans are the worst buyers  block them   only horror stories with Germany eBay

[tree*fern]

Wow - I've had the opposite experience, as I've had no problems with German buyers.  

It's your choice which countries you block, but characterizing an entire country of people as "the worst buyers" based on some problem individuals doesn't make sense to me. 

I don't block countries based on individual people.  I won't sell to entire countries when there's a consistent and known systemic postal, governmental, or political problem - like unreasonable customs delays or thefts, consistent non-delivery problems, or when shipping insurance companies won't insure packages to that country.   For example, when Canada Post was on strike I temporarily stopped selling to Canada, to avoid having unhappy buyers possibly holding me responsible for Canada Post's shipping delays.   

I've had more problems with American buyers than international buyers, but it'd be unreasonable if I characterized all my fellow Americans as "the worst" buyers just based on some individuals.

[nonyme]

I agree with Tree*Fern -- there are very few countries I block. No country has a monopoly on jerks. If I blocked countries based on a few bad buyers I'd have to block the USA! The ONLY issue I run into that is somewhat exclusive to international sales is a language barrier, and that's rarely a major issue.

I blocked Germany -- temporarily -- because this dimwit (DummKopf?) of a buyer was using multiple German-based accounts to get around my BBL and was blatantly, via eBay's messaging, threatening to have her friends buy from me and leave negs to ruin me as a seller. I don't sell a lot to Germany, so it wasn't a big financial loss, and anyway, most of my German sales are to a handful regulars. I knew who they were and put exceptions in for them. I have nothing against Germans -- if I did, I'd be bigoted towards myself, thank you very much. I'll unblock Germany eventually.

As far as my nightmare buyer goes, she's not NARU'd yet -- which astounds me -- but she also hasn't left me any negs. I suspect eBay did sanction her in some way or another, based on the email she sent me accusing me of being the devil, among other things.

[daforlife1997]

I was going to start a topic about this and you beat me!

Here's my story. 

I sold an item to a buyer. About a week later, I contacted the buyer and asked if she received the item and if she had any questions. 

She replied cheerfully and said that she didn't. I provided the FedEx tracking info., which showed the item was delivered the next business day. She still said she didn't and open a case. I told her that I don't mind sending her another package but this time required signature. She said that sounds great. Again, I provided her the tracking info. On the day of the delivery, she sent me an email stating that FedEx informed her the package arrived and she's on the way to pick it up. Right after that email, she escalated the case! Ebay closed the case in a few hours and refunded her from ebay's budget and said that didn't count against me. However, in Paypal refund note, it said it was my fault. After that day, all my listing just went to the bottom of the bottom. 

I've called ebay several times and they said there's nothing wrong with my account. 

[dj_and_the_50s]

Fairie doll, don't leave us hanging.  Did you get your doll back and what kind of condition was she in?