Commentary from the staff of Auctiva.com
‘Shakedown’ or Actual Concern: I smell a rat!
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I returned from a relaxing extended weekend in Carson City, NV, recently to discover an e-mail from a recent buyer in my inbox. According to him, the item he had purchased from me was missing a vital component—and would not work without it.
I politely offered to send my buyer an identical replacement ASAP, no questions asked. It would eat any profit I had made on the sale of the first item, but I wanted to do my best to make him happy, and to do what I could to prevent negative feedback. Maybe I should have asked him to return the item first, but I didn’t really see the point for this rather inexpensive item.
But part of me wondered if he was just looking for a refund to his PayPal account. Call me untrusting if you want, but after selling online for more than 10 years, I’ve come across a quite a few buyers who are just out to get something for free.
As I always do when I come across a questionable buyer, I checked his feedback. You know that red flag that goes off in your mind when you sense something isn’t quite right? Well, his feedback for sellers was not good: mostly negatives and neutrals. Great! So this is what I should expect from this buyer.
Just for fun, I called eBay and spoke with a very nice woman (yes, an actual human!) named Louise in eBay’s customer service department. I told her that I wasn’t sure if this buyer had a genuine complaint, or was just looking to shake me down. After viewing his feedback left for sellers, she agreed that he did seem to fit the description of a problem buyer. I asked if she had any suggestions for handling this situation.
She said that if a buyer had a habit of making this type of claim against sellers, he or she could be banned under eBay’s “transaction interference” policy. I’m not sure how often this is done, and she couldn’t tell me if my buyer was under investigation. But she did tell me that if this buyer was banned, the negative feedback he has left other sellers—and could leave me—would also be removed.
I was already aware of this, but hearing it from her made me feel a little bit better until I saw a recent letter to the editor on AuctionBytes.com. After seeing what one buyer had been allowed to get away with on eBay, I was still a little worried about how my situation would play out. Check out this bad buyer who was posted on toolhaus.org. (You may want to add them to your blocked bidder list ASAP). And I thought my buyer was questionable!
However, everything turned out all right for me. My buyer ended up giving positive feedback. (I nearly fell on the floor when I saw that), so maybe my willingness to work with him swayed him. I’m not sure.
Have you ever had a similar experience? How did you handle the situation? Did your problem buyer eventually get banned? Or did it all work out in the end? Let us know.
About the author
Rebecca Miller is Auctiva.com's product manager. As an eBay seller of more than 10 years, Rebecca is well tuned into the needs of online sellers, and serves as an internal advocate for merchants. She continuously monitors Auctiva's Community Forums, answering customer's questions and taking their feedback to developers for future enhancements. Rebecca continues to sell on eBay, and is currently a PowerSeller and a Top-rated Seller.
We I had a customer last year that was what I call a “see it, buy it” customer.
He had seen an auction of mine on eBay and had quite obviously decied to buy it without reading any description.
Soon after he had recieved the items i got an e-mail asking “is this it?”
I replied by asking what he meant and stating what he should have recieved, as stated in the auction details. On receipt of that I stated to get abuse. I was called a con man, rip off and numerous other things! He claimed he could have gotten the item a lot cheaper.
The point here is I buy in bulk and break things down to smaller quantities. The items have to be measured according to peoples needs etc., so basically every thing they get is premeasured to thier requirements, for which we have several preset levels. This is obviously time consuming and costly. So basically you are paying for the convienence. Of course that meal would be cheaper if you had to prepare and cook it yourself etc.!
Anyway, to cut along story short, I simply stated that I was happy to give hime a refund in full if he returned the item. To this I got no direct reply and another lot of abuse. I e-mailed again and had more than 200 happy other buyers for same items. I suggetsed that maybe he hadn’t read the auction and so to be totally fair the error was his, I was still however happy to refund.
In the end he told me where to go and left negative feedback stating that I was a con man etc. Despite showing all the e-mails to eBay they informed me that they wouldnt remove the feedback as it was a personal thing between the buyer and seller! I could, however, go through the lengthy process of claiming defamation of character!
In the end I just left it there with a follow up comment, my other 2,500 postive comments should show that he was “one off case.”
On a lighter note, I have had a few issues over time with other buyer and every single one has ended with happy buyer and seller. In fact, one said the only thing better than the product was fantasic service he got when things went wrong!
You’re so right about eBay not caring if you’ve saved and can produce e-mails from dissatisfied buyers, cursing you out, etc. They will not remove negative feedback even tho you can prove you’ve done everything to satisfy a customer who will never be satisfied. The seller should be allowed to post negative feedback on this segment of buyers so that other potential eBay sellers will not be duped.
The only problem I’ve had with buyers (so far, knock on wood) was when they unexpectedly left me less-than-perfect comments. I take advantage of the opportunity to respond. I find that eBay is very helpful in guiding me as I decide how to respond.
As a buyer, I’ve gotten lousy feedback after I left accurate, less-than-perfect feedback for a seller. In every case, eBay removed the lousy feedback when I showed sufficient evidence of its inappropriateness.
I have seen sellers get banned after they had perfect transactions with me. I called eBay and PayPal and spoke in their favor even though I didn’t know the whole story.
My second year of selling on eBay brought my first experience with a buyer who claimed the item never arrived. Fortunately, I had purchased Delivery Confirmation for this item, although it wasn’t a very expensive item.
The buyer was obviously upset (although politely so) when she told me she had not received the item two weeks after the sell. I sent my humble apologies along with the tracking number for her item with the information showing the item had been delivered. She then e-mailed that she was in the process of moving and if the mailman left the package at the door, it had been stolen and she never received it.
At that time my item description clearly stated that as a seller, I would not be held responsible for items not received through no fault of my own, especially when I had proof they had been sent and delivered.
Was it plausible? Yes. Did I believe her? I couldn’t be sure. Was I responsible? No. Did I want negative feedback? No. But I heard her “politely veiled” negative feedback comments loud and clear. Being relatively new to eBay, this was a first for me, and I was terrified of that horrid red sign being in my feedback remarks. Who would buy from me when they saw that? How would I ever sell enough items to push that undeserved feedback far back into my selling history?
So I swallowed my profit and offered to replace the item she’d bought at my own expense as I had an identical one to offer as a replacement. She was very appreciative, and left me my desired positive feedback, as I left for her.
Was this instance a shakedown? I’m still not certain, as I prefer to believe the best in people. But it ended well, and fortunately has not occurred since in the hundreds of transactions I’ve conducted on eBay.