Suspicious buyer

[valuemade]

I am unsure of this buyers intentions, I feel that maybe he have bought from me before and is doing this out of retaliation:

I received a best Offer for an item. Listed price: 37.99.. best offer received: 35. This was a slight red flag out of curiosity why such a small difference of an offer was made but I accepted it, printed the label and packaged to ship all immediately. 

Buyer then right away left negative feedback: "I made an offer, I didn't receive an answer, why am I being charged without my consent."

I replied: "Sir, when you submit an offer on ebay, your offer IS your consent to be charged if the seller accepts. Ebay charged you for this order after I accepted your offer! This negative feedback is unwarranted. Please answer my DM's looking for a resolve, if you still want this order shipped still or would like to cancel due to your confusion. Thank you."

I DM'd also right away asking for a resolve and if it was his intention to purchase the item, and whether or not he wanted to cancel or have me ship. No response. I message again the next day, no response. I raise a report to ebay, they do nothing. 

A week and a half later I messaged again and the buyer says "I didn't leave a negative comment, I just said I didn't receive a reply and I am being charged, for what I didn't order, had I got a reply I would have decided it I wanted the item or not." 

I sent a screenshot of his negative feedback and he ghosted me again without replying. This all started on Oct 23rd. The buyer has yet to reply or resolve at all ever since. I asked a couple times again if he wants the item to be shipped orto be canceled, no reply. Finally yesterday he replies and stats again "I did not leave you negative feedback" but ignores any thing related to shipping/canceling.  I fear that if I go ahead and cancel the order, then ebay say something or another that I am at fault and nothing they can do, however, I have yet to receive any help from ebay to resolve. 

I called ebay a couple times now and the person I speak to completely understands that "this is not reflecting your actions/service/product as a buyer and the negative feedback should be removed" so they send some sort of report however nothing happens after as of yet. 

This is infuriating since ebay is right, this has nothing to do with my actions/services/products and the buyers negative feedback should be removed but ebay is even ghosting me without any resolve. 

Any ideas or suggestions or advice on how to move forward? I really believe the buyer is intentionally malicious since he has given zero f***s about the item he purchased, whether I have shipped it or not/canceled for a refund. This negative feedback (along with another one I got which is an issue of itself i believe is hurting my sales, causing a reduction in sales ever since the neg feedback was left, which is causing financial damages, is it possible to recover that from ebay or the buyer since this was done with malicious intent...) 

Thank you

[bonjourami]

I dont think that negative hurts you at all, your response was spot on. But certainly Ebay should remove it. I expect the item he receives will be a snad complaint..but up to you if you want to cancel and take the defect. Good luck.

[inhawaii]

They pay, you ship.

The buyers intentions has nothing to do with it and are none of your business.

Every single item I sell I have no idea what the buyers intentions are and it's none of my business either.

[valuemade]

I dont think you thoroughly read my situation and understand clearly. Its okay, thanks for adding a response to this regardless..

[dbfolks166mt]

     The proverbial rock and a hard place. From your post I gather that the buyer has paid for the item. This leaves you in a bit of a bind with regards to meeting your metrics and getting the item to the buyer on time. Since you already printed the label the clock has kind of started and you should probably ship the item and see what happens. It's a $35 item and not sure what your shipping is or would be should the buyer decide to want to return the item. 

     If after the buyer receives the item they take some kind of action such as opening a case come back to the forum and let us know what transpired. Make sure you retain all the communications as well as the chat session from customer support which by the way is not much help these days. Odds are they never opened anything but told you what you wanted to hear to get you off the phone. 

[ittybitnot]

Any ideas or suggestions or advice on how to move forward?

@valuemade 

Your buyer was likely not aware that by having to put up a payment source in order to make an offer works like it does.  That is indicated by the statement: "I made an offer, I didn't receive an answer, why am I being charged without my consent." For a very long time this procedure was pitched to buyers as "New improved, good for you, smoother checkout, now you can (i.e. really MUST or you don't get to play etc. etc.)  Buyers are NOT told of the actual consequences for complying with posting a payment source FIRST which you require. 

It is a function of your "Buyer Rules" that you can view here: 

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

Buyer Rules:

*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid.

*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer.

Not only does this limit a buyer's options available for payment (no Apple Pay, Google Pay, Spendable Funds, PayPal Pay in 4, PayPal credit, some gift cards, etc. etc. , but if prevents invoicing/combined shipping for multiple items.  If a buyer sends you five offers and you accept all 5, they are supposed to be instantly billed for each separately at full shipping cost.  Kind of like going to the grocery store and having them charge your card separately for each of the 50 items in your cart. 

Though pitched to SELLERS as a way to get rid of non-paying buyers, it has worked very well in discouraging REAL PAYING BUYERS from patronizing your listings.  You likely just had a buyer that hasn't read enough here, or was not  a victim yet or informed of the consequences of the form they had to fill out in order to proceed to make you an offer.  Don't think you have to worry much about them coming back.  

Since it is a function that YOU can control as a seller, keeping it has its consequences for buyers that have not had a good experience. 

[reallynicestamps]

curiosity why such a small difference of an offer was made

That's 10% off.  A reasonable Best Offer.

Does the Accepted Offer show other lower Offers which were automatically accepted?
You do have automatic Accept/Reject enabled right?

Buyer then right away left ..."... I didn't receive an answer, why am I being charged without my consent."

Do you have the Automatic Payment option enabled? Buyers often don't understand that and most detest it.

if you still want this order shipped still or would like to cancel due to your confusion. Thank you."

Good answer.

Well, maybe not the "due to your confusion" part.

The offer to cancel at their request was spot on.

I fear that if I go ahead and cancel the order,'

Personally I would cancel "at buyer request" and refund.

Whether they are saying so or not, they don't want it and mistook an Offer (with attached Automatic Payment) for a haggle.

Partly based on thinking the buyer would be unable to challenge the reason for cancellation

[inhawaii]

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@valuemade wrote:

I dont think you thoroughly read my situation and understand clearly. Its okay, thanks for adding a response to this regardless..

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You're right.

I did not read your entire post.

I just did and I apologize.

[12345jamesstamps]

It's a buyer who knows not how 'best offer' works.

Have to remember there are some not so smart buyers out there...you snagged one.

Ask for a buyer 'revision'...is it too late?

If you can cancel sale without a 'ding' DO IT...not sure if it was shipped...

You already got the negative feedback.

Block the buyer ASAP...you already got his feedback.

Buyer is a true drama sale...good luck with him.

[stephenmorgan]

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@valuemade wrote:

Buyer then right away left negative feedback: "I made an offer, I didn't receive an answer, why am I being charged without my consent."

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I understand that statement to mean that buyer did not intend to purchase at this time and would cancel the order with Buyer Requested to Cancel.

[steady2304]

If the buyer did not intend to purchase, then why in the world did they send an offer to the seller. It states right on the offer page this is a binding contract if seller accepts you offer. They should have sent a message to the seller instead. 

This is the type of buyer that caused all of this **bleep** with eBay enacting payment required before bidding or making an offer. 

[broto_64]

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@inhawaii wrote:

They pay, you ship.

The buyers intentions has nothing to do with it and are none of your business.

Every single item I sell I have no idea what the buyers intentions are and it's none of my business either.

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This is the correct answer, when a buyer pays it is the seller's obligation to ship.
There is really nothing more to it.

[broto_64]

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@valuemade wrote:

I dont think you thoroughly read my situation and understand clearly. Its okay, thanks for adding a response to this regardless..

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Perhaps inhawaii did not but I did and it has been almost two weeks since the buyer paid and you still have not shipped?  There is more wrong with a seller not shipping than anything else that may be going on.

You should ship the item.
That is what should've happened already, then ask the buyer to revise the feedback (it's a bit late for this now, but the item still needs to be shipped or there are likely to be more consequences).

Perhaps you are able to "interpret" the whole situation as a cancellation for reason of "buyer requested."
That would likely be the only other acceptable answer.

Ship, or cancel for reason of "buyer requested."
One or the other, I would do it now.

[stephenmorgan]

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@steady2304 wrote:

If the buyer did not intend to purchase, then why in the world did they send an offer to the seller. It states right on the offer page this is a binding contract if seller accepts you offer. They should have sent a message to the seller instead. 

This is the type of buyer that caused all of this **bleep** with eBay enacting payment required before bidding or making an offer. 

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It sucks.  I get offers often and accept but very rarely does the buyer follow thru with the purchase.

Several reasons someone sends a offer.

Buyers do not always read the entire term and conditions and understand they should purchase item if offer accepted.

If a buyer makes a offer then eBay may send them listings with same or similar item for sale at a better price.  A person could just be trying to get these solicitations from eBay and will change their mind.  

While waiting on the offer to be accepted or denied, they continue to shop and have now found something else.

A buyer just does like that their payment was automatically taken from their default payment source.  They may have wanted to use a different funding source when they paid.

According to policy

When you or the seller receive and accept an offer, the item will still be available to other buyers until you complete payment.

So not exactly a binding contract on the buyer, the seller or eBay.