eBay

454v · ‎02-05-2023

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.

454v · ‎02-06-2023

@stuff4divas

I did just that, but it took several escalations for them to finally see it (or read it) and remove the feedback, it hasn't been removed yet, Ebay rep stated that once the case closes, feedback will be removed 🙂 Is this usually how it works?

stuff4divas · ‎02-06-2023

@454v wrote:
@stuff4divas
I did just that, but it took several escalations for them to finally see it (or read it) and remove the feedback, it hasn't been removed yet, Ebay rep stated that once the case closes, feedback will be removed 🙂 Is this usually how it works?

@454v yes, wait for the case to close. if after a few days it doesn't,

Contact eBay via their social media sites with a private message:

https://Facebook.com/ebay

AND-OR

https://Twitter.com/askebay

Great customer service on both

sapphire_studio · ‎02-06-2023

If you are a top rated seller who offers buyer pays or free returns then you have a Seller Protection against negative feedback if a case is opened. I got somebody to edit a feedback to positive, and when she failed to return the item in the case closed they automatically deleted her feedback even though they didn't need to since she had edited it to be positive. A rep told me the feedback she had left originally would automatically get deleted once the case closed. I decided to talk to her and since she agreed to edit her feedback I sent a revision request anyway just so I didn't have to have that bad feedback on there for a few weeks.

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/selling/seller-protections

memphiskansasgirl123 · ‎02-14-2023

I was told my a Rep, the mere fact that a Seller accepts returns protects them from negative feedback . I do believe the original poster should speak with a representative. It's worth a shot.

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-15-2023

You might have gotten a partial refund scammer trying to reduce the price by complaining after the sale. We just love those folks! You could reply under the feedback stating “buyer refused full refund for watch, and kept the watch after asking for partial refund on excellent condition watch”. If this person wants to play hardball with you then other people reading your reply will make them cautious of them.

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-15-2023

Sorry, I thought they refused the return of merchandise. Just reply something like “Buyer asked for partial refund on watch that was in excellent condition. We refunded him in full”.

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-15-2023

They might not send it back at all if they were just fishing for a partial refund. Wait and see.

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-15-2023

Yes, if ebay can look at the buyers feedback left for other sellers and this is a pattern that might help as well.

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-15-2023

Yep, that is the best protection you can get in many situations. Deduct 50 percent off the return and make them work hard to get the credit card company to refund the rest.

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-15-2023

Yep, that is extortion. Partial refund extortion.

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-15-2023

It is never a good practice to give into partial refund requests on here. If you were in the wrong and you know this after sending something to someone then maybe it’s appropriate and use this as a way to keep the sale. But in circumstances where you know there was nothing wrong with what you sent giving into partial refunds only feeds into this behavior on here. I cannot think of ANYWHERE on the web where you can get a partial refund for merchandise. You do not want it like it return it.

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-15-2023

Yes, that is another possible solution to the problem.

gurlcat · ‎02-15-2023

@vintagecraze50 wrote:
It is never a good practice to give into partial refund requests on here. If you were in the wrong and you know this after sending something to someone then maybe it’s appropriate and use this as a way to keep the sale. But in circumstances where you know there was nothing wrong with what you sent giving into partial refunds only feeds into this behavior on here. I cannot think of ANYWHERE on the web where you can get a partial refund for merchandise. You do not want it like it return it.

THIS! ^ It is extremely frustrating having to deal with buyers who are so spoiled by prior sellers' lack of fortitude that they seem to just try to get a partial refund out of sheer habit, like they probably do it every time, 'why not? it works sometimes so might as well'. I often suspect that I'm probably the first seller they've bought from who has free returns -most sellers in my categories don't, and they don't realize how much harder that makes multiple things for them, including the fact that they're at greater risk of negative feedback (if rightfully dissatisfied buyers believe they can't return the item, then they'll do the only thing they believe they can: neg and write a scorching comment). So to avoid this, in their item descriptions these sellers write a thing (often in big bold lettering) begging buyers to contact them about any problems before leaving negative feedback, which pretty much screams "I'll give you a partial refund to avoid a neg, just write to me!" and/or they reply to negs with "I would have accommodated this buyer if they had just contacted me" -for all the world to see. And I'm sure a lot of sellers who've given partials did so only because they were newbies and just scared, period.

So like I said I wouldn't be surprised if a buyer is surprised when I respond to their "complaint" message, "I'm so sorry about that, please initiate a return and you'll receive a free return shipping label automatically" and they realize their only options are dropping the bull or returning an item they actually like just fine. Usually what happens next is nothing; I don't hear another peep from them.

But I've had a few 'Type A personality' ones who couldn't abide "losing" and turned it into a bloodsport this way or that, and still never got a penny from me (no, not even from card chargebacks). The one and only who succeeded did so by playing the long game, on a higher-priced item. It started with him trying to buy it for $150 less than I listed it for: $800 BIN with offers disabled, he wrote 3 messages in quick succession, trying to convince me that nobody would buy it for $800 (mind you this was all within the first 20 minutes after I posted the listing!). Then he bought it because he knew dang well someone else would if he didn't hurry. Then received it and wrote that same day, claimed it needed a repair and the shop quoted him ....get this .... $150 for the repair, what a coincidence! I asked if he could send a photo of their estimate, and he FLIPPED OUT for 19 more messages, ad hominem attacks and all, but I didn't cave. Then 29 days after purchase he initiated a return, also sending a message saying he would cancel it if I would just give him the $150. To this day I don't know if he was still bluffing, but I couldn't afford to find out. Not only did I not have $800 to refund him if he wasn't bluffing, what I did have was a worse sense of this guy than any dishonest buyer before, that he would purposely damage this delicate vintage drum machine before sending it back, possibly in ways I wouldn't be able to tell because he was a full time vintage electronic instrument dealer . So with seething rage I refunded the $150, only wishing I could do it with cash so I could spit on it first. At least it was a good lesson: to block EVERY person who ignores my lack of 'make offer' and tries to override it by emailing offers. He wasn't the first such person to become a problem later, but the worst, and the LAST.

Oh, and if it wasn't bad enough that so many sellers make the foolish partial refund choice on their own, I've seen COUNTLESS veteran sellers tell them to do it, right here in these community forums. "Just give em the money, it's the cost of doing business, give it to them and move on, quit wasting time and energy you should be spending making new listings!"

charshealthybeauty · ‎02-15-2023

Sorry for the issue. I am sympathetic to your cause and have been pleading with Ebay for years now to allow us (Sellers) to block Buyers who continually leave negative feedback. It is a simple idea and would allow us Sellers to weed out at least a few of the bad Buyers before we sell to them.

We can block Buyers with little to no feedback, this would be a much better tool!!!!

Take note Ebay!!! Your Seller's are speaking to you!!!!