posted on January 2, 2001 01:18:50 AM new
I sell in several different cats on ebay. I sell quite a bit more than I buy. When I purchase items I tend to be sympathetic to the seller if they get a little behind on shipping or if they forget to email me back.
About a month ago I purchased a halter top from a seller. The starting bid was about 65% off of what the manufacturer has it listed for on their site.
I pay her very quickly. I get an email from her the day she gets my payment to let me know the item will be shipped the next day using priority mail.
About two weeks go by and no halter. I am getting a bit worried but not too much. It is the holidays and mail has been very bad in some areas due to the weather. During the third week after shipment, I notice the seller has gotten a negative for allegedly taking someones money and not shipping. I get nervous. I contact the seller and asked if she had proof of mailing the item. She said yes. She would email it to me and if I didn't get it soon she would file a claim and refund my money. She sent me a tracking number that came up invalid.
I was contacted that same day by someone that claimed they had been in contact with others that she had ripped off and that she sent them an invalid DC number also. I email the seller and ask for a refund. She says that she will issue one as soon as the 30 days are up and she can file an insurance claim. A little over a week later I get my refund. Two days after that my halter shows up postmarked when she said and with the tracking number she sent me on it. I contacted her and informed her that I got the halter. She told me to keep it and Happy Holidays. I emailed her my thanks and we got into a conversation about ebay and selling and problems with bidders. I told her about the bidder contacting me and told me she was ripping people off. She emailed me back very upset. She said that this person had contacted several of her high bidders and tried to get them to file fraud complaints with ebay. She said that several angry buyers emailed her later to apologize after they got their packages postmarked when she said she mailed them. She also said that her contact info was being pulled by people she had never dealt with.
She asked for my advice as an experienced ebay seller in how to deal with the situation. She sent me copies of the emails the lady sent her and a copy of the fraud complaint the buyer filed with ebay. She said that she normally would not have done that but the buyer had emailed copies to some of her high bidders. I read both the emails and the complaint. From what I saw something strange is happening.
In her fraud report the buyer says that she purchased insurance. She later admits in a letter that she didn't but she thought she did since she always purchased insurance. In a letter she sent the seller this weekend she says that she has never purchased insurance and all of her other packages arrived okay. I will backtrack and say that after the bidder left the seller the negative the package was returned to the seller with 'unclaimed' stamped on it by the post office. Tonight the seller forwards me an email where the buyer refuses insurance and says that she will just be out of more money if she pays for insurance. She wants them shipped just priority mail with a tracking number.
The seller is new and has decent feedback with a negative from the buyer in question and negatives from two buyers that did not pay her. The buyer is new and has great feedback for paying quickly. The letters on both sides have been pretty nasty.
What I find strange is the buyer refusing insurance again. The other strange thing is when she named some of the users that pulled her contact info, one of the ids was that of a huge powerseller in her catagory. It is a second id that they use for whatever reason. I found out about it, because they purchased something from me once and emailed me from and address that corresponded to that id. Also the buyer that filed the fraud complaint lives in the same state as that of the powerseller. The other thing is she had to make all of her auctions private, because someone emailed (from an aol address) some of the bidders on her auctions and accused them of being gay and crossdressers. The emailer also pulled the bidders' contact info. Many of them canceled their bids after getting the emails.
She said that out of about 130 items that had bidders she has gotten payment from about 40. She said that nearly all of the deadbeats are aol members with no feedback. I have never heard of a percentage that bad. I think someone is trying to run her out of business on ebay. In that particular cat it would not be the first time a powerseller had made a new seller's life miserable.
For once I have no advice. I honestly think someone is trying to ruin her, but I don't know what to tell her. She stopped listing auctions due to all of the problems.
I am also sending her a link to this. You guys give out some pretty good advice.
I hope she signs up for AW since she can she more light on the situation than I can.
posted on January 2, 2001 04:33:31 AM new
Frankly I would get in the car an take care of the problem myself ouytside the eBay/or legal system. Can't take a plane with the equipment I would need.
posted on January 2, 2001 06:23:34 AM new
Typical competitor sabatage.
It is probably the top factor for there being so many bogus ripoff sellers on ebay.
The legit ones are targeted and methodically picked apart by this kind of action, as well as the usual flood of phoney complaints to ebay by "alternate" user IDs of these lowlifes.
eBay staff are so frigin stupid, that they fail to see this as a scam.
Powersellers seem to be the most prevelant in this type of action. After all, they most likely became Powersellers by using immoral means of eliminating the competition.
I am not saying ALL Powersellers, but I AM saying that in the MANY times it has happened to me and others I know, it HAS been Powersellers doing this.
They get away with it because when your a Powerseller, you don't need to follow the rules like the rest of us, and you get a nice little connection "inside" that will cancel and suspend competitors accounts at your wimsy.
posted on January 2, 2001 06:51:45 AM new
Pocono ... "Typical competitor sabatage ...
The legit ones are targeted and methodically picked apart by this kind of action, as well as the usual flood of phoney complaints to ebay by "alternate" user IDs of these lowlifes."
Hmmm ... sounds familiar This is EXACTLY what was happening to me on eBay before I gave up trying to sell there ... eBay were ending my legit auctions based solely on the 'advice' of one of their members. Glad to see that it's not just me who believes this is happening ...
posted on January 2, 2001 02:35:10 PM new
I stopped using my power seller logo because there are such strong feelings against it.
Do I think that it is more likely a power seller is doing this? Yes sorry to say it is.
But the idea that they defer to us --- sorry they are not bright enough to follow their self interest that much. They end our auctions just as easy for stupid reasons.
Even if you have TENS of thousands of feedback some snot nosed kid they have hired on the cheap, that never has
had to deal with the work and thought involved at that sales level, can cut you right off at the knees for very little reason.
It does work the other way - they will take a complaint from someone who has a new account with almost no feedback and end your auctions
that you have been running for a couple years. The idea that it is a business tactic seems beyond their little brains.
[ edited by gravid on Jan 2, 2001 08:02 PM ]
This is EXACTLY what was happening to me on eBay before I gave up trying to sell there ... eBay were ending my legit auctions based solely on the 'advice' of one of their members. Glad to see that it's not just me who believes this is happening ...