Stalker Customer ‌

[garygsguitars]

😲

A little background; I sell custom made guitar pickguards. One of the most popular materials we sell is a celluloid tortoiseshell that's absolutely gorgeous. It's a 4 ply plastic material with the top layer being the tortoiseshell color, and it's a poured, swirly pattern of amber and brown colors--so it's an organic pattern, no two pickguards are alike. They are VERY similar, however, and while most customers are happy with whatever the swirl patterns look like, some are more picky. We have no problem with that at all, and we state in the listings we'll send photos of the pickguards currently in stock so a customer can choose which one they want. It's never really been an issue. Until recently. A fellow in Italy sent me a request to see the 4 tortoise Fender Stratocaster pickguards I had in stock at the time, so I pulled them out and took a quality detailed close up photo of each pickguard, edited them to add the numbers 1-4, and shot them over to him. The next day he asks me to send him more pictures, but taken outside in the sunlight so he can "see the little differences" better. OK, fine. The thing is, these 4 pickguards literally look exactly the same from 3 ft away. But I take the time to do this for him and shoot the photos over to him, and add another couple photos with the pickguards all next to each other so he can see how close they really look to each other. I figure at this point he'll understand and choose one. Nope. Next day he asks me if there are any more pickguards to choose from, and I tell him "No, I'll get more once these sell out, and they're going to look just like these." I tell him if he doesn't see one he likes he's not going to like any of the next batch either. He then asks me again to take more detailed close ups of the 4 I have in stock. I don't respond. Fast forward a few weeks and the whole process starts over again, but now he's asking me to take photos of #1 and #4 together, or #2 and #1. etc. so he can compare them. Quite frankly at this point I figured he was messing with me. I tell him once again that I've sent him all the pictures he should need to make a choice and that I wasn't sending any more. Then a couple weeks ago he came back and started up AGAIN, at which point I tell him I'm not interested in selling him anything, because if he's this much of a PITA before the sale, I can only imagine a time suck of even more epic proportions if I ever sold him something. And I block his account. Today it started up again. He's got a new account, he's asking for the same thing, photos of the Stratocaster pickguards. I blocked his account immediately. Is there something else I should do?

[monster-deals]

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@garygsguitars wrote:

The next day he asks me to send him more pictures, 

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That's when you should have banhammer'd them.

You can call in to a CSR and tell them a BBL'd buyer is circumventing your block and they can report them.

...but if you get an overseas call center they aren't going to help you

[mtgraves7984]

"A fellow in Italy..."

@garygsguitars 

Instead of playing Whack-A-Mole with the user, could you afford to exclude shipping to Italy for a bit? Just a thought...

[chevymontecarlo88]

IMHO This is what to expect from Vintage Instrument buyers looking for a pick guard. Custom guitar buyers are even worse at times. Blocking sales from Italy sounds like the best way to avoid him as mtgraves7984 posted. In my experience with these types (time suckers) is to establish ground rues quickly before they spin you out. You have already done more than enough for this guy and at this point, it most likely will end in a damaged return (cracked screw hole) with negative feedback.

-Good Luck and your work looks great.

[mantle1951]

Yes ,use paragraphs it makes it easier for us to read, thanks.

[mam98031]

Report them to Ebay !!!!

On each Ebay page there is a link to contact Customer Service at the top of the page and again at the bottom of the page.

I would suggest that you contact Ebay for Business on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for the better trained CSRs.

Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service. Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is. Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message. It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.

https://twitter.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/ebay

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

Your options will be on the left. If you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant or Chat box type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options. Not all options are available 24/7. It will depend on staffing available. So sometimes you can request a call back and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you have the Chat option available and other times it won't me. If it is important to you to use one of those options, just try back later.

If you use a cell phone or other mobile device, you may need to turn off your Spam filter so that Ebay can call you.

If you are a seller outside of the US or Canada, you will need to use the Chat Option.

https://www.ebay.com/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

https://www.ebay.com/help/home