Reporting a Buyer for Feedback abuse

Here is the deal. I have a feedback score of a little over 1500. Just received my 3rd Negative a couple of days ago. Offered a refund in exchange for a feedback revision. The amount is only $11 and was sent by Free shipping without tracking. Almost all of my items are less than $15 and sent without tracking. All items are legit and not fake goods. My Ebay and Paypal Accounts are legit as well. I also reported the buyer for feedback abuse.

I just finished sending the Buyer an Email. Didn't want my message to show in my Ebay Message history.

I'll copy my Email below. It explains everything:

I offered you a refund in exchange for a feedback revision. Surprised that I have not received a reply. Because when a Seller sends without tracking there is no proof that you received it. So you take advantage of that. When you receive the item you then leave a Negative claiming that you didn't receive it. Hoping that the Seller will give you a refund in exchange for revising the feedback. Then you get the product for Free.

You have done 54 transactions on Ebay. You have already left 7 Negatives and 2 Neutrals.

5 of your Negatives were for the same reason. "I didn't receive the item"

Another 4 feedback was revised. Probably after you left Negatives claiming that you did not receive the item and you revised the feedback in exchange for a refund. Out of our last 1800 transactions you are only the 4th person that has claimed the item was not received. The first 3 contacted us about it and we sent their order again and all 3 received the 2nd order. Those 3 were legit. I have a real hard time believing that yours is legit based on your feedback history of "I didn't receive the item".

13 transactions out of 54 you left bad feedback. The problem is with YOU and not the Sellers.

What you are doing is called Feedback Abuse and is against Ebays policies. Ebay does suspend Accounts of Buyers that have shown a history of leaving bad feedback in comparison to the number of transactions that the buyer has done. Your Account more than qualifies for suspension. But Ebay will only do something when a Seller reports a Buyer.

The same thing happened back in February. We received a Negative. Offered Refund in exchange for feedback revision. Our offer was ignored. We looked at the "feedback left for others" for that Buyer. That Buyer left a Negative or Neutral feedback in 20% of the transactions that Buyer was involved with. We reported the Buyer. We contacted some of the other Sellers that received a Negative or Neutral from that buyer and encouraged them to report the Buyer as well. Within 3 weeks, that Buyer had his Ebay Account suspended and all feedback left by that buyer was removed from the Sellers records.

I'll get your feedback removed whether you cooperate or not. I'm still offering a refund in exchange for a feedback revision. But if you just ignore me, then I'll report you to Ebay in a couple of days and I'll send messages to the other Sellers you left a Negative or Neutral for and encourage them to report you as well. There is a very good chance that your Ebay Account would get suspended, your Negative feedback comment would get removed from my record as well as all the other Sellers you left a Negative or Neutral for. Which would work for me because I'd get your comment removed without having to give you a refund.

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The part about me reporting that one Buyer back in February and getting their Account suspended is the only part that is not true. Never happened. Just meant to put a scare into the Buyer. Most of my transactions are sent without tracking. I rarely ever have a customer that never received their item. The part about 3 customers not receiving their package out of my last 1800 transactions is accurate.

I have already reported the Buyer yesterday. I'm about to contact other Sellers that the buyer has left bad feedback for and encourage them to report the buyer as well. What are the chances that Ebay would do anything about this buyer? Have you ever reported a buyer and had any success?

I'm probably wasting my time.

Yes, you are wasting your time. No tracking, no proof no tengo.

Ebay cares only about feedbacks when you get to many neg's / neutrals.

pipei said:

Yes, you are wasting your time. No tracking, no proof no tengo.

Ebay cares only about feedbacks when you get to many neg's / neutrals.

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I figured that I was wasting my time. But I thought that I would try just to see if anything would happen. Lol

I do not know why Ebay doesn't give Sellers more control over who can bid on their auctions. I can block buyers with a feedback score of less than 0. Completely useless considering that Sellers can not leave a Neutral or Negative for a Buyer. Ebay should allow Sellers to block Buyers that have left a certain number of Negatives and Neutrals for Sellers over a certain period of time that is chosen by the Seller. For example, if I want to block Buyers that have left 2 or more Negatives or Neutrals over the past 6 Months, then I should be able to. Or better yet, give the Seller the option to choose a percentage. For example, if a buyer has been involved with 100 transactions and left 2 Negatives and/or Neutrals, then that Buyer has left bad feedback in 2% of his/her transactions. I would like to be able to block buyers that have left bad feedback in 2 or more % of their transactions. If I select 4%, then I block buyers that have left bad feedback in 4 or more % of their transactions. Etc.

That would allow Sellers to block bad buyers. It is only fair since Sellers can never leave buyers bad feedback.

The entire Fb system is a farce. We could discuss this for a long time. Now with the 'defect' rate is gonna get worse.

On average we get about 35% feedbacks from transactions. Of course, buyers that ain't happy will always remember to neg you.

How bout automatic positive after 45 days ?

Ebay sucks but it's the way it is. So don't waste your time with idiots and the occasional scamming buyer. Sell sell sell

pipei said:

The entire Fb system is a farce. We could discuss this for a long time. Now with the 'defect' rate is gonna get worse.

On average we get about 35% feedbacks from transactions. Of course, buyers that ain't happy will always remember to neg you.

How bout automatic positive after 45 days ?

Ebay sucks but it's the way it is. So don't waste your time with idiots and the occasional scamming buyer. Sell sell sell

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I agree completely. With all of my transactions, I find that only 40% of buyers leave feedback. But a buyer is more than likely to leave a Negative with a bad experience than they would a positive for a good experience.

Since a buyer and seller can not leave feedback after 60 days, then a positive feedback should be automatically left after 60 days if feedback has not already been left.

Not sure how this new 'defect' rate will work. Haven't looked into it much. If it is based on all transactions, then it could be an improvement. But if a Negative, Neutral and an opened case is only compared to the positive feedback received, then it's a joke. Any transaction that has not received any feedback at all should count as a positive one.

I usually don't waste my time with the occasional scammer. I'm actually very surprised that I've had very few of them. When I started selling on Ebay, I assumed that I'd get scammed every once in awhile. Just a cost of doing business. If you open a store, there will be people that will shoplift and steal from you. You can try to control it as much as you can. You can reduce it, but you'll never eliminate it. Unfortunately, it is a cost of doing business.

There has been a few times where I've dealt with a Bad buyer that wasn't happy with the product they received for whatever reason. I always check that buyers feedback history to see the feedback left for others so that I can tell what kind of a buyer I am dealing with. But it all depends on the tone of the message from the buyer. If the buyer is nice and pleasant, then there is a very good chance that I won't check his feedback history and I'll g out of my way to help him/her out. If the buyers message is ignorant, then I check the buyers feedback history guaranteed and I might not do much to help the buyer out depending on the buyers feedback history. Very hard to do with new buyers that really do not have any history yet. So the tone of their message determines how much help they will get from me. If the buyer has a history of leaving positive feedback comments for Sellers, then I take the complaint seriously and help the buyer out. Either a refund or send him another item. I make sure that the buyer is happy in the end. But if the buyer has a history of leaving bad feedback, then I act nice and just pretend that I am going to help out. With buyers like that, I don't offer a refund, but instead I'll tell the buyer that I'll send him another one right away. The item will just "get lost in the mail" if you know what I mean. I just try to string the buyer along for at least 2 Months so they can no longer leave feedback.

I got scammed for a zero feedback member who was based in Malta but bought from me in UK. He left my first ever neg. feedback before even messaging me. He got both the item and a refund. I would have reported him but since this was the one item I had not had tracking for, so I can't prove he got the item... I'm just damn sure he did. It appears there are many of these scammers out there with zero feedback just waiting to pounce.

Khris33 said:

I got scammed for a zero feedback member who was based in Malta but bought from me in UK. He left my first ever neg. feedback before even messaging me. He got both the item and a refund. I would have reported him but since this was the one item I had not had tracking for, so I can't prove he got the item... I'm just damn sure he did. It appears there are many of these scammers out there with zero feedback just waiting to pounce.

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Frustrating isn't it. I don't ship international because I would have a much higher chance of getting scammed.

A couple of days ago, I had a buyer open a case against me. I sold him a cell phone battery and a charger. He claims that the battery does not hold a charge. If the buyer contacted me about it, I would have sent him another battery with no problems and would not have requested that the buyer send the defective battery back to me. It is possible that he received a defective battery. But he made no effort to contact me so I went strictly by my policy which I include with my listings. Return policy is that I offer an exchange on the return of the item and the buyer pays for the return shipping. I sent the buyer a message to let him know that if he contacted my support first and gave me a chance to help, I would have been more than happy to send him another battery. But since he opened a case against me, I went strictly by my policy. Return the item to me with a tracking # so that Ebay has proof that the buyer returned the item. Then I will refund the buyer after receiving the battery and charger back in good condition. The buyer closed the case 12 hours later. I then sent him a message last night and let the buyer know that since he closed the case, I will be more co-operative. I offered him a partial refund of half the money for the battery because he still gets a charger, or I can send him another battery. Still waiting for a response.

I checked this buyers feedback history and he has not left any Negatives or Neutrals for Sellers. A score of around 300. 200 of his feedback left were for people that bought from him. Which is surprising, because he is a Seller and you think he would not like it if a customer opened a case against him instead of contacting him first. Because of his feedback history of not leaving bad feedback for Sellers, I offered to help and be more reasonable after he closed the case. If he had left several Negatives or Neutrals, I wouldn't have bothered.

I sent the items to him without tracking. My shipping cost would have been $8 higher with tracking. But the fact that I sent it to him without tracking is irrelevant. He acknowledged receiving the package with his claim that the battery did not hold a charge. Since he opened a case, it is up to him to prove he shipped the items back because I could just claim that I never received them even if I did. Ebay would then decide in my favour. As far as I know. That was only the 4th case I have ever had and I resolved them all quickly without having it escalate to Ebay.

That customer would have been better off to open a case against me claiming that he didn't receive the item. Since I sent without tracking, there is no way for me to prove that he received it. If he did that, I would have already refunded him.

Seems like you got it pretty much under control.

We have stopped wasting time on the daily BS we get from buyer's, it being complaints about the functionality, compatibility, color, size, packing, "it doesn't look new ", or just plain stupid ones trying to scam.

All our stuff gets shipped with tracking but still some simply get lost and tracking stops at a location and never re appears.

It is cost of doing business and time saved on stuff like that is better invested in selling more of the same.

Sure, for a small time seller every sale counts, I see that. But once you are into volume it is for sure much easier to refund and get on with it. 2 refunds out of 200 daily sales - who really gives a shit ?

pipei said:

Seems like you got it pretty much under control.

We have stopped wasting time on the daily BS we get from buyer's, it being complaints about the functionality, compatibility, color, size, packing, "it doesn't look new ", or just plain stupid ones trying to scam.

All our stuff gets shipped with tracking but still some simply get lost and tracking stops at a location and never re appears.

It is cost of doing business and time saved on stuff like that is better invested in selling more of the same.

Sure, for a small time seller every sale counts, I see that. But once you are into volume it is for sure much easier to refund and get on with it. 2 refunds out of 200 daily sales - who really gives a shit ?

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That is around what my average is. 1 refund out of 100 sales. I don't really care about that. But when I see a buyer that has shown a history of scamming Sellers, then I will report the buyer. This is the first time I ever reported a buyer, so I'm just curious if it will do any good. I'm sure I would have better odds of winning the lottery than I would have of Ebay doing anything.

I am from Canada and most of what I sell are small packages with Free shipping. It cost me $1.80 to ship a package anywhere in Canada. If I want to send with tracking, then it will cost $10-$14 to ship. A huge price difference. Nobody would buy from me if I ship with tracking because all of my competitors use the cheaper shipping method with no tracking.

I had reported a Competitor 3 weeks ago for duplicate listings. Some of his duplicate listings were outranking mine and my sales went down because of it. 7 duplicate listings for each item. Each one with slight variations of the title. Each one with the exact same gallery picture. Each one with the exact same price. Can't be any more obvious. I was playing by the rules and only had 1 listing per item. Ebay has done nothing. So now I am doing the same. But I am only doing 3 duplicate listings per item. Each one with a slightly different price and using a different gallery picture