Buyer abusive, threatens and then leaves negative feedback.

[jttrain]

I have had 100% feedback over more than 700 listings, but now have a buyer who is abusive and left negative feedback even though I gave a full refund. He said I was trying to steal his money even before I had a chance to refund and threatened  to "slam me with a bad feedback". He just did so and I contacted Ebay to get it removed. The representative didn't give much hope, saying that it would be reviewed. I have read that Ebay will remove negative feedback if there has been a threat. Is this not true anymore?  This buyer has been abusive to others and reported.

[takikawa4]

Ebay will usually leave feedback if they find feedback extortion has been used. What, exactly, did the buyer say?

[bremontoy0]

I believe it depends on how the threat was worded. For example if the buyer returned the item and you were being slow about refunding and they said "I've returned your item, you need to process my refund or I will have to leave bad feedback", that's not extortion.

Now if they demanded a full or partial refund and to get to keep the item, that's extortion.

[jttrain]

His message. He has left similar feeback to others.

  "So i saw you uploaded a photo about some photo metadata **bleep**, I really don't know what you are trying to do here. You lied about condition, and I sent the exact thing back to you that i received. If i'm able to leave feedback after this is resolved I am going to slam you on feedback, you are the worst kind of e-bayer, lie to make a sale, and then try and cheat someone out of their money when they return an item. I will escalate this all the way. Seriously you need to own up to this and stop acting like a child, though that's probably above you, seeing as you seem to be spewing lies all over. You can't just screw people around however you like, and there is no way you will be keeping my money. I hope you have a horrible day and or stop deciding to be a horrible person. Looking forward to having the money back that you screwed me out of. You suck."

How long will it take for Ebay to decide?

[takikawa4]

Doesn't seem like extortion to me.

[bremontoy0]

That's not extortion. The buyer didn't demand anything in exchange for not leaving neg fb

[jttrain]

It was a demand for a full refund before the item was shipped back to me. Ebay says to not refund until you have examined it. I suspected a substituted poor quality disk for the original. Eby has said that any threat to give negative feedback is not acceptable.

[bremontoy0]

He didn't actually say "give me a refund or else" he said
"If i'm able to leave feedback after this is resolved I am going to slam you on feedback, you are the worst kind of e-bayer, lie to make a sale, and then try and cheat someone out of their money when they return an item."

Sounds to me like he had returned it and you argued about the condition of the returned item.

He did NOT make a direct threat, the only mention of a refund came towards the end of the message "You can't just screw people around however you like, and there is no way you will be keeping my money. I hope you have a horrible day and or stop deciding to be a horrible person. Looking forward to having the money back that you screwed me out of. You suck."

Again it kind of sounds like you were jerking the guy around over the refund.

This isn't FB extortion, its simply a buyer telling you what they plan on doing because you failed to 1) accurately describe and 2) try to refuse to refund.

Arguing with an unhappy buyer, which seems to be what you did by the tone of his message, never ends well.

Always keep it simple with upset buyers 'I'm sorry you are unhappy with the item, please return for a refund"

When the item arrives, "Thank you for your return, your refund will be processed immediately"

[bremontoy0]

---

@jttrain wrote:
Eby has said that any threat to give negative feedback is not acceptable.

---

Actually here is what the policy says

The buyer isn't allowed to threaten to use Feedback or detailed seller ratings in an attempt to force a seller into providing:

• Goods or services that weren't included in the original item's description or purchase price.

• A return, refund, or replacement item not covered by the original listing or the eBay Money Back Guarantee.

  Your buyer said in that message " I sent the exact thing back to you that i received. "  you had already recieved the return, so none of that applies.

[jttrain]

He hadn't sent the item back when he threatened me. The only tracking for a week after was that the post office was waiting for him to produce it. It arrived much later. I was polite to him at all times and was willing to refund his money. I sent the refund the same day as I received the item. He has treated others in a similar way and has been reported. This type of abuse should not be acceptable.

[bremontoy0]

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@jttrain wrote:

He hadn't sent the item back when he threatened me. The only tracking for a week after was that the post office was waiting for him to produce it. It arrived much later. I was polite to him at all times and was willing to refund his money. I sent the refund the same day as I received the item. He has treated others in a similar way and has been reported. This type of abuse should not be acceptable.

---

So the buyer lied when he said "sent the exact thing back to you that i received"?

[missjen831]

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@jttrain wrote:

His message. He has left similar feeback to others.

  "So i saw you uploaded a photo about some photo metadata **bleep**, I really don't know what you are trying to do here. You lied about condition, and I sent the exact thing back to you that i received. If i'm able to leave feedback after this is resolved I am going to slam you on feedback, you are the worst kind of e-bayer, lie to make a sale, and then try and cheat someone out of their money when they return an item. I will escalate this all the way. Seriously you need to own up to this and stop acting like a child, though that's probably above you, seeing as you seem to be spewing lies all over. You can't just screw people around however you like, and there is no way you will be keeping my money. I hope you have a horrible day and or stop deciding to be a horrible person. Looking forward to having the money back that you screwed me out of. You suck."

How long will it take for Ebay to decide?

---

It wouldn't surprise me if customer service removed the feedback after reading that message, if you call back and get the right rep.

Its not feedback extortion but the buyer mentioned feedback and told you that you need to "own up to this". usually they remove feedback right away, they don't take days to make a decision

[jttrain]

I suspected that it was not the same one, but could not prove it

Jen, thank you for your kind response. I will wait to see what Ebay decides and then move on.

[jttrain · Accepted solution]

The negative feedback has been removed.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-extortion.html

Buyer explicitly violated Ebay policy regarding feedback extortion
On Ebay website the Guidelines explicitly provide as an example of FEEDBACK EXTORTION:
The buyer can't threaten to leave negative Feedback if the seller won't:
refund payment before the buyer ships the item back to the seller.

The buyer's feedback threat was in an email on 10/13 @ 11:56 am (thru Ebay mail)
and at that time USPS Tracking indicated USPS Awaiting Item only Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS
That is, this threat was made before there was any evidence of return shipping.
This is reinforced by the fact that he had stated in an email on 10/6/2017 (at 10:13am) (7 days earlier) "he had already mailed it".

It seems that buyer was trying to keep merchandise and get "immediate" refund using malicious threats!

[usgamecollector]

that doesn't look like abuse, sorry.