Buyer cursed me after she provided a wrong address and I offered to reship or refund

[maggiehucat]

I am an over 10-year ebay buyer, but just decided to start decluttering about 20 days ago and started selling  my unwanted items on ebay. 

Everything has been going well. I have sold over 10 items so far. Nobody has ever complained. Until yesterday, I received a returned package, which I shipped about 10 days ago, to a buyer who bought a $3 lot of four pairs of earrings. 

As I said, my goal is to declutter. So everything I am selling is at the lowest price on eBay. 

I contacted the buyer, and gave her three options:

1. I refund her the item price (at that time, I didn't know if buyers make mistake on their address, sellers need to refund both the item and shipping. I thought I also spent the shipping, and it was the buyer's mistake to provide me the wrong address);

2. I list the new shipping as an item -> she pays -> I ship the package to the correct address;

3. She buys another item from me, and I ship both items to her in one shipping fee. 

She agreed, and I created a new listing with a shipping fee that is lower than the actual shipping cost. Then I told her, that I made the shipping fee lower, to cover the tax she has to pay, and I also need to pay 15% for this transaction.

Then she responded with F words and other cursings, asking me to refund her the full price (Capitalized). 

I know, I should not have told her that I made the shipping lower and eBay was going to charge me for the shipping cost. So I refunded her at full price and told her that was rude for her to say that. 

Then I received her long message with lots of cursings accusing me of intentionally screwing up the shipping (???? she gave me the wrong address!!!) and she also told me not to respond to her anymore, otherwise, she would report harassment. 

I was in the middle of working and saw this message. I was shocked for receiving something like this. Is this person crazy for getting angry even after getting a full refund? Her life must have been very hard to her. Or her health needs to be taken care of. 

I called ebay, and opened a case, also asked how to block a buyer. The ebay customer service taught me how to do this, and I blocked her. But I learned that this buyer can still leave a bad review to me, and I will have to call ebay to remove the bad review. 

Oh well, I guess since I am a new seller, I really haven't met many unexpected behavior yet. 

[ebooksdiva]

Stop communications with this buyer. If you've already blocked them move on, people like that are not worth the energy. Ignore futher messages and delete.

[maggiehucat]

Thank you for your advice!

I will have to learn how to ignore these negative communications. It ruined my morning...

[teltuooutlet]

Unfortunately, when you are doing it for long enough you will teach yourself to just block that buyer and not respond any further. Some people are only happy when they are ruining someone elses day... don't allow them to do that over some earrings. 

[maggiehucat]

Thanks! The lesson is learned. 🙂

[soh.maryl]

There is never any need to engage in back-and-forth dialogue.

For that amount of money, I would simply refund and block. 

[maggiehucat]

I just found she is still sending me messages... I thought I had blocked her. I guess that only blocked from buying from my list. 

Is there a way to block a person messaging me? 

This person is crazy...

[glorybells]

Go back to where you blocked her, there’s a box to click to not allow blocked users to message you.

[ms.rodriguez*]

Please don't let one lowlife buyer ruin your day.  Block them. If they keep emailing, let them know that you will ask ebay to read ALL of her emails to you.  In fact, you will ask ebay to read what she says to other sellers too. Ignore them. Block them.  Continue listing and goodluck decluttering. I am doing that too and I will be here for years!

[ms.rodriguez*]

Oh yes, you need to learn to ignore.  Today, there are so many nasty people out there.  Just ignore them. Say to yourself that you are better than them.  Remember the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt."  

[albertabrightalberta]

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@glorybells wrote:

Go back to where you blocked her, there’s a box to click to not allow blocked users to message you.

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Unfortunately, that won't work because she's contacting you through the transaction she had with you.

@maggiehucat 

If this were ever to happen again in the future, I have advice. This is what I think I'd have done: 

1. Block the buyer

2. You have seller protection when the item is returned because the buyer supplied a bad address. If the buyer opened INR, just respond with tracking showing that the item was RTS because of the wrong/bad/invalid address

3. You could have issued a refund for the item price and retained the original shipping. You paid that money and won't get it back so not refunding it would have been allowed.

4. STOP responding. She's looking for responses and baiting you. It'll tick her off even more if you just ignore and don't let her know she's upsetting you.

[evry1nositswindy]

Unfortunately, since you already opened the lines of communication by responding, she can continue to communicate even though the box is now checked.

Next time, don't offer choices.  There is only one way to correct an address.  Say something like "I am required by eBay to ship to the address provided by you.  If it is incorrect, I have to cancel the order.  You are free to then repurchase the item, providing the correct address.  Sorry, but this is the proper procedure I have to follow.  I have cancelled the order and refunded your money."     

[albertabrightalberta]

One more thing: If she leaves negative feedback, report the buyer, request that it be removed and include the tracking number in the request showing that the buyer is the one who had the wrong address on record.

Ebay should remove any neg feedback and if not, come back and we'll advise on how to contact ebay in a better way to get results.

[maggiehucat]

Thanks. I just checked and see the box was already checked and she still could message me. I wonder if it is because the blocking message option only works for the contact seller page. Since she has been messaging me,  she could find the message history and just respond there? 

[albertabrightalberta]

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@maggiehucat wrote:

Thanks. I just checked and see the box was already checked and she still could message me. I wonder if it is because the blocking message option only works for the contact seller page. Since she has been messaging me,  she could find the message history and just respond there? 

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That's correct.