When to call the police on abusive buyers?

[zmoz]

So, if you're a seller on ebay, chances are you've had to deal with a belligerent, incompetent buyer about something. You probably also know that ebay doesn't care at all about you as a seller, and will do nothing about this, even when you report them multiple times as an abusive buyer.

It's not uncommon for them to start throwing empty threats. Amazon and ebay are teaching them to be extremely stupid and rude, they don't understand ebay is different when you purchase from an individual person, and of course, individual terms are set differently in each listing. Usually being a belligerent buyer just means you get to keep something for free with absolutely no warnings from ebay. (We have ebay to thank for this) They won't enforce their communication guidelines, either.

I am very particular about this if it involves me missing an item or a payment. If a buyer steals an item from me in any way (even with ebay's blessing) I will report both to the postmaster general (mail fraud) and their local police department (theft). Unlikely that anything will be done about it, but at least they will get a warning from law enforcement and it will be on record if they keep it up.

My question is, when should I report threats from buyers to law enforcement? I know most of them are empty, but that does not make it OK. I currently have a buyer sending numerous ebay messages that say things like "I will find you", "I'm going to get you for this", "I will get my money", etc, etc. He keeps insisting that he "knows where I am". Not direct threats of physical harm but I can read between the lines and the intent is obvious if you read the 30+ nasty messages. Ebay has been made aware, ebay has chosen to do nothing. (For reference this buyer is demanding a refund on a non refundable item with no valid reason)

I don't want to waste the time of the police over frivolous things, but on the other hand, people should not get away with making stupid threats just because they are hiding behind a computer. Ebay's answer to this problem is only making it worse than it ever has been. Should I make a police report about stupid threats like this? Should I call their local PD or my local PD?

I'm not particularly asking about this specific buyer, but something similar comes up on a somewhat regular basis. Buyers on ebay seem to be mostly really stupid people, and I'm tired of them getting away with it with absolutely no repercussions.

[ifyouloveit]

Do you realize if you have eBay read your messages and they look at the feedback you left some of your buyers you might find yourself in the dog house? You are not allowed to give negative positive reviews, nor call buyers idiots and other names.

You might want to think about that, seriously. You threw some zingers onto some of your buyers feedbacks for you in retaliation. Do you really want eBay to look into those? Just curious, not even sure what eBay does if they see that kind of feedback left for buyers. We aren't allowed to slam them at all, no matter how bad they were.

[dinpavent0]

The best thing to do is block the person in my opinion. I don't know how much the police will do in a matter like this. I personally just had a real jerk. So My younger brother of 35 passed away unexpectedly. The only family i have is myself and my identical twin brothers, which one of them is the one that passed. Anyways, I had to take care of all arrangements and I could not really pay attention to ebay like i wanted, I was devastated and now just getting back to somewhat normal. I had a buyer message me (mind you the item was not shipped late, I changed handling time on all items to 5 business days due to what was going on) and say "Hey, where is my S***? You stupid blah blah blah....." many more cuss words in those three sentences he sent me. I was not late sending the item for one, second of all who talks to someone like that? It was also an item that was not some type of necessity that I can see someone needing asap unless it was a gift which I found out it was not.
I politely responded that I was sorry he was upset and was very honest about my situation and the item was getting mailed the next day and was not late my any means. I offered to just refund them and cancel order. He replied just send my S***. Believe me, it took all my might not to go off on this person but this is my full time job and just wanted to keep it professional. I figured I would be honest with the person which I am honest always with any issue that may occur. But I did nothing wrong!! I could not believe how inconsiderate this person was and inside me all I was thinking was some day you may be in my shoes and god forbid someone treat you the way you treated to me. I did send the item, I reported the buyer. NOthing happened of course, ebay says to report abusive buyers but nothing happens. I think they may just get a generic form letter email basically saying its against the rules to do that and not to do it again. I don't think anything ever happens and getting police involved would be a bigger waste of time unless they threatened you with a weapon or threatened you in another means.

I am sorry this happened to you and unfortunately. there are just some real A****** on here. Just like facebook and all over the internet. YOu can just cancel the item and not sell to them. I blocked the person I just was talking about. I never want to deal with someone like that again. Especially the hurt I have been thru this past month, I can't believe how people can just act this way. Internet thugs I call them, can't talk all this trash thru the computer but I guarantee if you seen this person in real like it would be a different story. I have to tell my kids this even, I have 2 teenagers so alot of people get off on being jerks cause they can hide behind the computer.

[dinpavent0]

Btw, I think this person is full of it. They are not going to do anything. I would report and block. End of it. They are not going to come find you. Talking trash is all they are doing.

[subrew4u]

Wow reading your message was as if I wrote it myself.I am physically ill from all the threats from what I see as an abusive EX buyer.I have begged ebay to HELP me as I FEAR for my life but they will not help.Yes I have a police report as they attended my home to see the threats & abuse on my PC from this vile being.They directed that ebay shut this being down & block them from ever contacting me via ebay messages again.However ebay has chosen to ignore Police directive & they are committing a crime by aiding & abetting this vile EX buyer (yes I refunded them).

Is there a higher body that oversees the criminal activity that ebay allows on their platform.I am a very good seller with almost 2,000 positive,glowing feedback.This vile being has done this to other sellers & ebay WILL NOT HELP ME.

When someone begs for help & states that they FEAR for their life the lawful humane thing to do is to HELP them.

[tcscollectibles1]

The cops will do nothing unless its a threat of bodily harm. And even then state to state will be hard to enforce. Basically nothing you can do about it.

[cityslickercreations2004]

Make a hard copy of the e-mails, etc. in the event you do go to court. Your attorney will need them to present as evidence.
Hard drives do crash...

[dirk12955]

You've filed a Police report but I don't see if you filed with YOUR Police or the Police where your tormentor lives.

A word in this persons ear from his local PD might be all it takes to get them to stop.      If I were as upset as you are,  and got no satisfaction law enforcement,   The next step for me would to try to get a restraining order.   

You don't need to be a victim.    Delete their messages without reading them.     Maybe you'll sleep better. 

[paradiso*bella*a*venire]

******general reply*******

what the OP is describing is what is called terroristic threats in any state and can/will be taken seriously by any law enforement. When a person says "I will get you" coupled with "I know where you live", that is a terroristic threat, placing terror on the victim with threats of harm. The "I will get you" is a threat  of harm and will be construed by any judge as such and that judge will have no problem signing a warrant for deputies to go pick the fool up who made that threat. Of course the victim will have to have some type of proof that the threat was made,which  OP says they have in the form of email.

Only problem is, OP would have to file in the county this person lives in

Ask me how I know all this...😉

[redmodelt]

I did call the police on one buyer but it was completely different case.  I had them do a welfare check. The buyers feedback showed prompt payment on everything up to when they bought my item, but I was getting no were with him. The items I sold are bought by older shoppers, so yes I was a little concerned that maybe something had happened. As it was all turned out very well.

[vrie39]

Are you opening up to these buyers in regards to your knowledge of the law and what it is they are doing and how that interprets in your state's criminal statutes, could that be what sets them off? Perhaps it is something else about the way you're communicating with them?  Can't say for sure but I've struggled with certain issues for years until someone pointed out that when I am the common denominator in all these situations maybe the problem is not them...

Because believe me I've had some fiery roasts going before, and more than a few times.

Here is what I have found:

Buyers do not tend to self-ignite when they believe they are dealing with a robot but boy oh boy if they get a "live" one on the other end it's usually off to the races!  At least with me it is.

That is part of the reason why I limit myself to one reply per day, per buyer.  This alone helps keep the conversation from getting into a back-and-forth of 10 messages in 5 minutes and etc.  I've also compiled a list of stock canned answers that cover most every situation, simple copy and paste into various text files that I saved... When a situation comes up I first go see if any of these takes care of things, they are short, polite and robotic in nature.

Things such as:

Dear Buyer,
We are sorry, the order has already left our shipping department and can no longer be retrieved, cancelled or altered.
Thank you,
Seller

And yes it literally says "Buyer" and "Seller" when I send these off.

This answers their questions but it stays robotic.

Buyers rarely go off on a robot.

Last but not least do NOT buy into their "reasons" or argument.

Most of these can be solved with one of a few standard answers to do with either "Return for Refund" or some INR issue to do with tracking, most of them.  

You just have to get creative, a buyer is having trouble turning the TV on with the new remote they ordered?

"Dear buyer I am sorry you are unhappy with your purchase, please return for a refund, thank you, seller"

Just like that.

Don't try to explain, we are not the product support, we are not the warranty department either.

We are merely the warehouse distributors so to speak.

We source, we list, we get paid, we pack, we ship.

That's it.

Good luck to you

[attsila78]

You can report a buyer on eBay for making unreasonable demands. I am a worrier so when I got even a hint that a buyer is going to be a problem I researched and reported them.  I never had to do it until today. The minute I did it opened up the message traffic between myself and the buyer. When she tried to file a fraudulent return for an item that is still in transient(it has actually been sitting at a distribution center near her house for 5 days despite having a 2 day priority label as the mail has slowed to a crawl. I offered that upon delivery I would reimburse her the shipping cost(it was listed free shipping parcel post but I did send her the photo where I upgraded to priority 2-day), something I did not have to do ever.  I did everything to show her I bought a priority 2 day label, I sent her a photo of the box, I even filed the missing package research case on her behalf. She increasingly got more and more belligerent and threatening claiming I lied about the label I lied about the shipping, threatening my feedback ect. I chatted with ebay agents twice before she filed her damage claim and because they had been already monitoring out communications when I for the 3rd time opened chat he explained to me they already closed the case in my favor because she was making a fraudulent claim.  They also reassured me that she had to wait for the package to be delivered and  if the research inquiry deemed it as lost then I could refund her(which I planned on just to be a decent human) but told me that because she filed a fraudulent claim, I did not have to. She tried twice 2 give bad feedback and they removed it. I think the point is you have to be proactive. Don't wait for the buyer to file a claim and be belligerent but report them the minute red flags go up and demands are unreasonable.  Protect yourself on the offense and keep it professional even when they are screaming and Ebay will see it. The last agent was talking to me like he knew me personally. He told me to block the buyer and rest easy that everyone who saw her messages knew I was not the problem and I was. Being .ore than fair to her to offer reimburse her the 40 bucks for shipping on a free shipping item. For a first time issue with a problem customer I was impressed with the 3 agents I talked to today

[vintagecraze50]

The simplified return process that Ebay is implementing should help with that too. People get childish, and sometimes violent when they are refused a return for any reason. 

[vintagecraze50]

All Websites should be ultra concerned about a GOOD BUYING EXPERIENCE, sorry but you are going to encounter the same thing wherever you go. Most if all of these problems with buyers turning into fire breathing dragons can be resolved by two words-return for refund.

[fashunu4eeuh]

This is a necro thread from last March.

[whoohooohyeahdavid]

boy you're not kidding, buyers can smash whatever they want n get freebees. it's that simple. i take pictures of every package. how it's bubble wrapped. how it leaves the p.o. perfect. this is useless. when the buyer claims damage, i simply do one thing. i send them all the pictures with the caption...well it left here like this, so if you could show me the damage of the package unopened, i'd happily refund your money. i've yet to receive that picture back. you spend the next 2 weeks defending yourself. and now this new email where you have no chance at all. AND WE PAY MORE NOW!!! MAKES SENSE!!!