Eliminate the Competition using Negative Feedback

[454v]

I sold a pre-owned watch to a Invicta reseller, I too sell these watches, I have been a Ebay member for over 23 years and HAD perfect 100% Feedback.. The buyer pleaded with me to reduce the price of the watch by $200, way too much but I did it anyway, Watch was delivered, buyer receives it and then complains of a loose screw in the wristband, and demands that I credit him $25 to repair it, considering the huge discount I already gave him, I offered him a full refund instead, apparently he didn't like that and left Negative and False FB shortly after;

"WATCH ARRIVED IN POOR CONDITION!!! AVOID!!!

Now the buyer NOT once complained about the "condition", and even if he had, we posted over 10 photos and what he received is no different, he received exactly what he paid for.

Come to find out, this buyer buys from other Watch sellers also, and has left them Negative FB as well on almost ALL of the purchases he made, relative to what he left me, which leads me to believe, he not only wants additional money, his intention is to lower the FB scores of his competitors while he maintains a perfect 100%.

I reported all of this to Ebay and they completely ignored it, I don't believe they looked at any of the evidence in the messaging or his FB history, Ebay sent me what appears to be a auto generated denial.

Ebay has a policy against FB extortion and unfair practices like this, but they did NOTHING about it in my case, NOTHING, quite surprising when you consider that Ebay deducts a 15% from every sale, I would expect A LOT MORE THAN THIS! 

I'm going to have to cancel and block watch resellers from buying my watches, it's the only way I can protect myself from getting burned like this again.

Currently waiting for buyer to ship item back, it will likely be replaced with another watch or vandalized and then I'll have to file a police report in the buyers jurisdiction, and reporting it to Ebay will likely be a waste of time, they'll let him get away with that too.

[hightid7]

As someone who buys and sells in one category, and has bought from "competition" in the past, I gave some of the other sellers more than enough consideration when they sent me items poorly packaged, damaged, missing items, etc. 

Why you gave someone a discount more than you wanted to sell it for is irrelevant. The $25 request sounds like it was 5-10% of the total amount or less. Perhaps the buyer was lying, all you could do was what you did. You got a neg, it is what it is. As someone who buys without concern for negs or bad feedback from others, you may not lose as many buyers as you think. Respond to the comment with your side and that's that. 

I would venture to guess you sent it as the buyer claimed it was sent, and he did what buyers do - asked for a partial refund. It's only extortion when they say, "do X or I'll give a bad feedback". I have been sent millions of dollars of poorly described high-value items in my realm - and I've had to fight tooth and nail for people to own up. Sometimes, I ask for partial refunds. Sometimes, I don't even bother and just ask for a return. To think everyone who asks for a partial refund is a liar or a fraud is silly. I always ask for a very fair refund, giving them leeway on the depreciation caused by their poor selling practices. 

Conversely, I cannot remember the last time someone asked me for a partial refund. My items never arrived damaged and maybe 1/500 arrives with a discrepancy. 

[454v]

Buyer pointed out in one of the pics that a screw was protruding out, and in his claim he writes the item is different than described, and in his Negative FB, he writes 'arrived in poor condition"  the photos show the condition, it's a pre-owned item for Christ sake.. Nothing was hidden or misrepresented from this buyer.

And to make matters worse, when requested a credit, he sends me a photo of a completely different watch, and when I asked him for pics showing a better angle to confirm it was the same watch, he refused.

[454v]

He does have knowledge, and he's selling the screws and barrels for wristbands in his auctions.

[454v]

Resellers usually send a private message asking for a price reduction, I would identify the buyer at that point and block them.

[atlasesattic]

I wish I knew who it was, I'd block him now

[454v]

Buyer had NO negative FB history to view, it was only until after that I learned sellers can't post negative, this is what I found after the sale under the buyers positive reviews;

Judging from this, I strongly doubt he's going to send the watch back, he never intended to send it back, it was all about getting another discount. The following feedback was posted under Positive Feedback

This buyer was by far the most disrespectful person we ever sold to. He asked if we were sure we had a battery put in a watch. We did and he called us a liar our previous feedback tells our future buyers who we are. We sell at low cost. We ship fast and some disrespectful hunk of skin like this acts like a child. We creat nobody. This is a stern warning to this sellers future buyers. #1 if there is any chance he can buy from you block him to avoid his mental issues All be ware a back stabber

bayonetreasuers (4359

This guy or whatever he is said i sent him a bad watch too make a long story short i simply told him to

return it and i pay for shipping so dont sell him anything.

98kenwortht2000

unfortunately my first disappointed customer. i graded a watch when i knew very little about them.i thought it looked amazing, and i sold it very cheap. my customer felt otherwise. i offfered him his money back but he declined, and kept the watch.i guess we cant completely please everyone! sorry

kn_1610 (61)

An abrasive rude buyer, his money was real and I had no problem spending it so no worries here.

richardworldwide2021 (891)

This buyer caught buyers remorse and claimed I sent the wrong item to him

ariusp74 (122)

Ebay really needs to fix this one sided feedback system. Item was accidentally relisted, that was clearly explained but unfortunately member1696 decided to leave unwarranted negative feedback.

rafaleo (475)

All this and more in a 1 year period, and yet Ebay rewards this buyer with 100% Feedback, Now if I was able to read these reviews under his Negative Feedback, I would have NEVER sold the watch to him in the first place.. Ebay's feedback system only works one way, buyers have ALL the leverage, Ebay earns 15% commission on every sale and sellers come out on the losing end. 

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@454v wrote:

Buyer had NO negative FB history to view, it was only until after that I learned sellers can't post negative, this is what I found after the sale under the buyers positive reviews;

Judging from this, I strongly doubt he's going to send the watch back, he never intended to send it back, it was all about getting another discount. The following feedback was posted under Positive Feedback

This buyer was by far the most disrespectful person we ever sold to. He asked if we were sure we had a battery put in a watch. We did and he called us a liar our previous feedback tells our future buyers who we are. We sell at low cost. We ship fast and some disrespectful hunk of skin like this acts like a child. We creat nobody. This is a stern warning to this sellers future buyers. #1 if there is any chance he can buy from you block him to avoid his mental issues All be ware a back stabber

bayonetreasuers (4359

This guy or whatever he is said i sent him a bad watch too make a long story short i simply told him to

return it and i pay for shipping so dont sell him anything.

98kenwortht2000

unfortunately my first disappointed customer. i graded a watch when i knew very little about them.i thought it looked amazing, and i sold it very cheap. my customer felt otherwise. i offfered him his money back but he declined, and kept the watch.i guess we cant completely please everyone! sorry

kn_1610 (61)

An abrasive rude buyer, his money was real and I had no problem spending it so no worries here.

richardworldwide2021 (891)

This buyer caught buyers remorse and claimed I sent the wrong item to him

ariusp74 (122)

Ebay really needs to fix this one sided feedback system. Item was accidentally relisted, that was clearly explained but unfortunately member1696 decided to leave unwarranted negative feedback.

rafaleo (475)

All this and more in a 1 year period, and yet Ebay rewards this buyer with 100% Feedback, Now if I was able to read these reviews under his Negative Feedback, I would have NEVER sold the watch to him in the first place.. Ebay's feedback system only works one way, buyers have ALL the leverage, Ebay earns 15% commission on every sale and sellers come out on the losing end. 

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@454v  use all that to do what I told you in post 26.  It is your best chance of getting it removed & I think you have a fair shot.  

[albertabrightalberta]

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@454v wrote:

I sold a pre-owned watch to a Invicta reseller, I too sell these watches, I have been a Ebay member for over 23 years and HAD perfect 100% Feedback.. The buyer pleaded with me to reduce the price of the watch by $200, way too much but I did it anyway, Watch was delivered, buyer receives it and then complains of a loose screw in the wristband, and demands that I credit him $25 to repair it, considering the huge discount I already gave him, I offered him a full refund instead, apparently he didn't like that and left Negative and False FB shortly after;

"WATCH ARRIVED IN POOR CONDITION!!! AVOID!!!

Now the buyer NOT once complained about the "condition", and even if he had, we posted over 10 photos and what he received is no different, he received exactly what he paid for.

Come to find out, this buyer buys from other Watch sellers also, and has left them Negative FB as well on almost ALL of the purchases he made, relative to what he left me, which leads me to believe, he not only wants additional money, his intention is to lower the FB scores of his competitors while he maintains a perfect 100%.

I reported all of this to Ebay and they completely ignored it, I don't believe they looked at any of the evidence in the messaging or his FB history, Ebay sent me what appears to be a auto generated denial.

Ebay has a policy against FB extortion and unfair practices like this, but they did NOTHING about it in my case, NOTHING, quite surprising when you consider that Ebay deducts a 15% from every sale, I would expect A LOT MORE THAN THIS! 

I'm going to have to cancel and block watch resellers from buying my watches, it's the only way I can protect myself from getting burned like this again.

Currently waiting for buyer to ship item back, it will likely be replaced with another watch or vandalized and then I'll have to file a police report in the buyers jurisdiction, and reporting it to Ebay will likely be a waste of time, they'll let him get away with that too.

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Okay. I'm playing devil's advocate here. 

1. Although I love BIN/IPR, I also offer a best offer option on my listings because it gives me the opportunity to review a potential buyer's feedback left for others. And without exaggeration, I can confidently say that I've dodged about 2 dozen bullets by blocking wannabe buyers who've made offers.

2. I see nothing in the feedback (or in @454v 's  OP that implies feedback extortion. I don't think that will be removed.

3. I looked at the listing and see no mention of a loose screw in wristband. That would have been such an easy fix! 

4. As far as your conclusion that the buyer will send back a fake and your plans to file police reports, I think you're quite premature. Maybe the buyer didn't consider that you'd accept a return since you have a no return policy and just had to make up a reason to return something he didn't like.

[454v]

Again, I offered a FULL Refund to the buyer and he left Negative FB AFTER acknowledging the offer... He clearly doesn't want to return the watch and has stated so, he wants $$ for a non existent repair,  and the only way I see having this negative removed is to pay him what he's asking, that's extortion.

[dogofwar777]

I ran into a buyer like this years ago. He would leave negative feedback for everyone, including me, BUT, those were the good old days when we could leave negative feedback on the buyer and me and lots of other sellers hammered this guy with negative feedback. His feedback percentage dropped fast and soon he disappeared off of eBay. He may have changed his name, but I never had to deal with this guy again.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@dogofwar777 wrote:

I ran into a buyer like this years ago. He would leave negative feedback for everyone, including me, BUT, those were the good old days when we could leave negative feedback on the buyer and me and lots of other sellers hammered this guy with negative feedback. His feedback percentage dropped fast and soon he disappeared off of eBay. He may have changed his name, but I never had to deal with this guy again.

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And that's why ebay stopped allowing sellers to neg buyers. 

I'm not saying this buyer was a saint and I have no idea whether the negs he left were valid but it was retaliatory negs left by sellers that made ebay make changes to leaving feedback.

[gurlcat]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

4. As far as your conclusion that the buyer will send back a fake and your plans to file police reports, I think you're quite premature. Maybe the buyer didn't consider that you'd accept a return since you have a no return policy and just had to make up a reason to return something he didn't like.

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I would agree, except the buyer sent a photo of a different watch.  See OP's reply #32.  

[stuff4divas]

@454v   u will be able to fight for that feedback removal if u show eBay that message

follow what @simply-the-best-for-you  posted on message #26

[lonebuck-books]

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@hightid7 wrote:

 

Why you gave someone a discount more than you wanted to sell it for is irrelevant. The $25 request sounds like it was 5-10% of the total amount or less. Perhaps the buyer was lying, all you could do was what you did. You got a neg, it is what it is. As someone who buys without concern for negs or bad feedback from others, you may not lose as many buyers as you think. Respond to the comment with your side and that's that. 

 

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This.  Them offering $200 less and you accepting has nothing to do with your problem.  If you look at the first picture of your watch you can clearly see the loose screw.  One could say the buyer should have noticed it but it is also on the seller to disclose in writing that the screw was loose.  Heck, you probably should have taken an eyeglass screwdriver and tightened it back up before shipping but I understand that not every one is comfortable doing that.  If you don't want to fix it yourself, disclose it.  

The feedback to me looks like something that eBay won't remove unless they see in your private messages that he tried to extort you (Give me $25 or I will give you a negative).  If he didn't do that, eBay isn't going to do anything about it.  Negatives hurt, I get that but you have some nice items so buyers will continue to buy from you.  Just leave a professional response and move on.  Many, if not most buyers don't even look at feedback.  Heck, I've been buying on eBay for over 20 years now, know all about checking feedback and there are times I even forget to look at the sellers feedback before clicking the buy button.  I'm sure it happens to all buyers from time to time.  It isn't nearly as important as it feels like to you right now.  Blocking all resellers is an emotional reaction that will only hurt you in the end.  

[hightid7]

That's nice that people are breaking rules leaving false negs because they relisted something and then didn't follow through on the transaction. 

The idea that the buyer should withhold feedback and the seller has a right to retaliate on their mistake is funny. He/she can have those removed in one fell swoop with a phone call .

Like that seller, when i get retaliation from bad sellers, I leave it. What do I care? I was honest, other people like yourself can believe all you want from them.