Buyer upset with me so she bought my cheapest item to leave bad feedback!

[needleandthreadlastchance]

I'm a reseller and I won a beautiful dress in an auction that I planned to resell. It was a bargain and I know how much they go for.

After I listed it I had a message from the bidder who lost out to me in the auction pressuring me to sell it to her cheaply. I politely declined and pointed out that her offer was less than my maximum bid had been on the original listing. She kept coming back with lowball offers so I politely asked her to please stop and gave her a tip about sniping websites for future auctions to help her.  I went out of my way to be kind, but am not going to be manipulated into a sale.

She didn't reply to that message, but it turns out that 90mins after I sent it, she bought the cheapest item I was selling.

I shipped it not putting 2 and 2 together as I hadn't paid too much attention to the username.

Then today I get a bad feedback on that item. My first bad feedback in maybe 5 years.

I spoke to ebay before I had realised it was the same girl, but they declined my removal request.

An hour later I just had a thought to check the username on that dress.....and realised it was her.

She literally bought an item to harm my account!!!

What would your next move be?

I'm thinking call ebay first thing tomorrow (fraud team?)

and then snail mail her a notification on intention to prosecute to put the wind up her.

(Both she and myself are in the UK)

I'm shocked. How low can people get? Buying an item just to leave bad feedback is evil. 

This is nuts!!!

[needleandthreadlastchance]

I helped her see sense and luckily she removed it. I gave her a full refund without requiring her toreturn the item so she can sense a victory and I could get it removed quicker. I learnt several lessons so it is a small price to pay. She seemed very happy. Goodness knows why she would want to keep bikini bottoms that looked "worn" with new tags attached. They must have had a rough journey with the Royal Mail as they left here in perfect condition. Either that or she is telling untruths about the condition....which I believe most people with a brain would be inclined to believe. At least I learnt how to block users now. She is allegedly on the naughty list now and Santa won't be delivering for her this year.

[stuff4divas]

@needleandthreadlastchance  i see only one neutral feedback that says OK

[needleandthreadlastchance]

You describe the script very accurately 😂 If I hear certain accents I know the most sensible thing to do is actually hang up. I won't say which accents for fear of being called racist even though it is true 99% of the time because they don't get the nuances of what you're explaining. I seem to get some success with Philippinos and they always sound so cheerful I can cope even when they don't help, it goes 50/50 either way with the American or British call centres, but at least you feel understood.

[needleandthreadlastchance]

That I have now learnt and she has made the list with flying colours.

[needleandthreadlastchance]

Sorry I have been out all day and just come home to all these messages. I very much appreciate the replies and it has been both helpful and informative. Luckily I managed to help the buyer see sense. I do have good comprehension of the UK legal system having studied law at university, so I decided to lay down the facts in a calm way, but let her know that I am trying to mitigate my losses and want to find a solution that works for both of us. She made some bizarre demands that I conceded to without prejudice so that litigation would have remained an option. I doubt I would go that route because I'm just not vindictive and I feel sorry for someone who is so messed up they even entertained that this would be a good idea or satisfying in any way. I learnt several lessons. I no longer sell very cheap items as of today, I know how to block buyers and will be proactive at the first signs of entitled behaviour, I now know that the first page that comes up when I search for ebay community in the UK is the US page and finally it has made me proactive to contact happy customers asking for feedback. Thank you all for tolerating me from the wrong side of the pond. I hope you have fun reading my message in a British accent while you picture me drinking a cup of tea surrounded by corgis 😂 Have a good day and much love to all of you.

[sin-n-dex]

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@needleandthreadlastchance wrote:

You describe the script very accurately 😂 If I hear certain accents I know the most sensible thing to do is actually hang up. I won't say which accents for fear of being called racist even though it is true 99% of the time because they don't get the nuances of what you're explaining. I seem to get some success with Philippinos and they always sound so cheerful I can cope even when they don't help, it goes 50/50 either way with the American or British call centres, but at least you feel understood.

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I'm from Canada, I live in Southern Ontario, and everyone here has an accent. It's not common you'll get someone who speaks English without an accent (and even if you do, they're born here and their parents are from somewhere else).

When I was on phone queue I did Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick (which all have bilingual callers). It's hard for them to get Quebec agents that speak English, or Ontario agents that speak French, so I was the one picked from my team to cover phones.

C.

[chapeau-noir]

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@needleandthreadlastchance wrote:

Yes, but on the other hand every lady on here knows that literally no-one buys half a bikini ever. I sell the matching tops. Maybe she was planning to do some topless sunbathing which is well looked upon in her her Islamic home country (Egypt) 😂

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Women who wear different sizes top and bottom do. I see quite a few sold in places where I list.

[adamcartwright]

@chapeau-noir 

Yes, absolutely.  And also for the reasons of wanting to replace something you've lost/ruined or wanting to mix/match different tops and bottoms.

Same with pajama tops and pants.

[mr_lincoln]

@sin-n-dex 

@gator08041971 

The OP only mentions "bad feedback" so I believe they are referring to the Neutral that they received ... the OP is also from the UK ... 

[needleandthreadlastchance]

I got the buyer to remove the negative feedback successfully. Neutrals are annoying, but I'm not really worried about them provided they remain a small enough percentage of my total reviews. I don't think they harm your page so much.