Buyer from Hell

[the-casemaker]

I've been an Ebay seller and user for 6 years. I have 100% feedback, numerous return customers, and operate in the higher echelon area of my chosen field - collectible books and custom slipcases.

   I am authoring this post - my first ever - due to the nightmare I have just been through in the last 24 hours. A nightmare  perpetrated by a 'customer' who seemed to literally circumvent or break every rule in the Ebay user agreement during that period.

  Yesterday this person started sending me 'offers' on an item that had already been heavily discounted. Not wishing to have any more of my time wasted after the second low-ball offer, and also informing them that the item has already been discounted 50%, I simply placed them on my block list . As we all do with disrespectful or time wasting buyers.

   Later that evening, I get an order for the item concerned from a different user ID. Upon examining the order, its is clear that its the same person I had placed on my block list less then 2 hours previously. I contacted Ebay to see if there had been a mistake. How could a buyer on my Block List purchase an item? And if they had, what could I do? Ebay rep Brittany (great job by the way) advised me to cancel the order, place the second user Id on my block list, report the buyer for circumventing my block list by using multiple User IDs, and get back in touch if there were any other issues. So that's what I did.

 I wake up this morning to find that during the night, the buyer has gone and done the same thing again, this time with ANOTHER user ID. He has also added a threatening and abusive message with the order just for good measure, warning me that if I don't process the order he will report me to Ebay. No joke. This now is two fraudulent orders, two circumvention of my buyer requirement and management page, and some abuse just for good measure.

   Not surprisingly, I cancelled the second order and let him know that this is not acceptable behavior, that I do not do business with abusive buyers who break Ebay's terms of service, and that he has also been reported to Ebay for the continued infractions. I even gave him Brittany's name and the call log number. I was thinking at this point that he would have got the message and gone away. Not likely.

   Next I get TWO more messages, full of more threats and more abuse, closely followed by a full paragraph  negative  feedback, questioning my sanity and calling me yet more abusive names. Lovely.

  So in summary - so far we have two fraudulent transactions, both made by circumventing Ebay's own buyer management page, three abuse and threat filled messages sent via the Ebay message system, and one malicious negative feedback specifically designed to harm my business. In six years, I have never encountered anything even remotely like it.

   Now the good news. After calling Ebay to report this person for the third time, the feedback was removed within the hour and his account is currently under investigation by Ebay Trust & Safety. What I would like to know please from my fellow long suffering sellers, is there anywhere else that this buyer's user ID's - all three of them - can be posted or shared with other sellers to ensure they do not suffer the same treatment?

Thanks for your time

Joshua

The Casemaker

[lamber9347]

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@the-casemaker wrote:

<snip> What I would like to know please from my fellow long suffering sellers, is there anywhere else that this buyer's user ID's - all three of them - can be posted or shared with other sellers to ensure they do not suffer the same treatment?

Thanks for your time

Joshua

The Casemaker

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Not  in this forum, you are not allowed to name and shame. Sorry for your bad experience, the good news is that you never actually lost any money or your product. Just a short term hassle that is now over with. Stop giving this terrible person anymore of your time and move along. Concentrate on selling to others. Best of luck to you....

[vintagecraze50]

These people need to be permanently blocked and watched by ebay so that when they start up another account ebay automatically blocks them. It is one of the most aggravating aspects of selling on the website.

[vintagecraze50]

The price is the price. I disdain the low ball offers as well and the audacity of some of these people and their entitlement issues.

[krazzykats]

I would take the item down, for now.

[the-casemaker]

I was thinking of doing that, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. So I just changed the price to $100,000.00 so he can't buy it again.

[the-casemaker]

Maybe to you it was short term hassle. To me it was 3 hours of my time and work wasted and this person's behavior is clearly repetitive. If he's doing this to me, I'll wager a large sum he's doing it to others. Move along and forget it? That's precisely how these type of abiusive people keep getting away with it

I really hope you are never the victim of a crime or abuse and someone gives you this 'advice".

[lamber9347]

Oh for goodness sake, you honestly think I have never suffered in life. Please!! You are now also not behaving correctly, just as this person did. Two wrongs don't make a right. These are simple harassing messages that you can delete without reading. You seem to want to live in the drama, so go for it. You weren't out anything financial, you can't even file in a court of law as you had no actual damages.

Also- when someone posts advice you don't like, just move along....

[luckythewinner]

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@the-casemaker wrote:

What I would like to know please from my fellow long suffering sellers, is there anywhere else that this buyer's user ID's - all three of them - can be posted or shared with other sellers to ensure they do not suffer the same treatment?

Not really. eBay has 20 million active sellers and 165 million active buyers, and the chances that wherever you posted this information would happen to be read by a seller dealing with the same buyer would be pretty remote. 

And if these lowball offers game through the Make An Offer function, you could set up your account to auto-decline offers below a certain threshold. 

As for suffering the same treatment - some might argue that just politely declining a few offers instead of blocking the buyer might have been the most prudent route. 

[momdadsstash]

On your listings with Best Offers, do you not have a minimum set  that has to be reached before an offer can be made?

This way you'll never even get those low ball offers.

My personal suggestion also, is not to "explain" to an offer you refuse. Just decline it.

[12345jamesstamps]

We all at one point had buyers like that. Imagine a buyer returning something that was not the item they bought. I got a girlie postcard instead of my expensive stamps returned with tracking. I also got a sealed dark bag with some sort of liquid or maybe doo-doo instead of returned stamps with tracking which I refused at the post office. I can deal with the nasty emails more than the funny returns with tracking which the buyer gets the last laugh.

[inhawaii]

You did what you needed to do.

Forget about it and move on.

Oh ... and have a great weekend!  😃

[farmalljr]

"Karen" can be a seller, just as easy as a buyer. 

I prefer to live on an island. Many people prefer to swim in an ocean of drama. 

[beautifulbeauty2012]

Good thing this nightmare was before you sent your item. At least you didn`t lose your item and the money he`d be asking you to refund. You did a good job preventing the loss. 

[beautifulbeauty2012]

Also, if you don`t want to deal with low ballers on your Best offer, just set a comfortable minimum you accept. Those offers don`t meet the minimum, would be declined automatically without you even seeing them. You can set a maximum discount in either percentage or amount.