Abusive e-mail from seller

misty

I bought a pair of what were supposed to be designer boys trousers. When they arrived (in a piece of bin bag) they were definately not designer and were cheap nasty tat. There were no labels just a paper tag attatched by plastic. I e-mailed the seller and explained I didn't believe they were designer, they disputed this but said return the item and we will refund. I returned the item(obtained proof of postage) and when weeks later they still have refunded money e-mailed seller again. They quite rudely said they hadn't received item. I responded by saying how convenient. They have subsequently sent a very, very abusive e-mail which ends "Still, there are ways of dealing with your kind as you'll find out." I'm not too bothered about the cost of the item - it's the first time I've been stung and it may be the P offices fault but I'm livid about the e-mail. Is there anything I can do? i've searched ebay but can't find any relevant sections. I don't like being intimidated and don't think they should get away with it. any ideas welcome.

soolin

Ok, Firstly get a claim form from the post office for missing post. Your proof of postage gave you a degree of protection and as long as you keep on at the post office you can get compensation. However, having said all that I think that compensation can be dependent on the 'receiver' of the item responding to the post office when they are asked for confirmation that item was not received, but keep on at it.

Secondly, report all abusive mail to ebay, again you need to keep on at them as they tend to drag their feet. To make a simple report to ebay log into your ebay and click on 'help'. On the page that comes up look on the left hand side you'll see a 'contact us' button, click that and follow the instructions.

Good luck, none of us should have to deal with abusive people, sellers or buyers.

Soo

Hintza

I once bought a set of wooden place mats which looked great in the pic. When they arrived they were awful and I suggested that they were a failed school project.

Oh dear what a mistake...

The torrent of abuse was awful.

Anyone for a set of wooden place mats?

soolin

I once bought a set of wooden place mats which looked great in the pic.  When they arrived they were awful and I suggested that they were a failed school project.

Oh dear what a mistake...

The torrent of abuse was awful.

Anyone for a set of wooden place mats?

I once had a theme party with friends and we all had to bring the most dreadful item we had ever actually bought for ourselves to swap, sounds like your place mats might have won ;D

Soo

sad_gills_fan

I paid for karaoke CD once and i didn't arrive. The seller first of all said he'd sent it the day before, then after another few days, I asked him when he had posted it and if he had proof and he started to get all cagey.
After 2 weeks of email bantering, he started to become really abusive, teling me to 'f off' in very large letters and threatening me with all kinds of things.

I immediately contacted Ebay who basically couldn't care less. I then contacted 4 other buyers who had left negative feedback for this guy and it turned out that they had all suffered exactly the same fate as me.

We all had copies of his emails so we ganged up together and reported him to Ebay ... nothig was done. Ebay said they couldn't do anything as he used a private email account and not their 'ask the seller a question' link. Utter pap I say !!

Moral of the story is .... Ebay will quite happily take your money (through Paypal) but won't help you out when you have a problem.

BTW, one way you can beat the Paypal charges if you're selling at a fixed price is to put your price at perhaps 99p then put your p&p at a high amount. I believe you don't pay Paypal charges on your p&p,just your selling amount.

Regards
Sad Gills Fan
Happier today as we won .. hoorah

soolin

I paid for karaoke CD once and i didn't arrive.  The seller first of all said he'd sent it the day before, then after another few days, I asked him when he had posted it and if he had proof and he started to get all cagey.
After 2 weeks of email bantering, he started to become really abusive, teling me to 'f off' in very large letters and threatening me with all kinds of things.

I immediately contacted Ebay who basically couldn't care less.  I then contacted 4 other buyers who had left negative feedback for this guy and it turned out that they had all suffered exactly the same fate as me.

We all had copies of his emails so we ganged up together and reported him to Ebay ... nothig was done. Ebay said they couldn't do anything as he used a private email account and not their 'ask the seller a question' link.  Utter pap I say !!

Moral of the story is .... Ebay will quite happily take your money (through Paypal) but won't help you out when you have a problem.

BTW, one way you can beat the Paypal charges if you're selling at a fixed price is to put your price at perhaps 99p then put your p&p at a high amount.  I believe you don't pay Paypal charges on your p&p,just your selling amount.

Regards
Sad Gills Fan
Happier today as we won .. hoorah

I realise the incident is in the past, but if you paid by paypal then you could have started a chargeback and just not bother dealing with an abusive non seller.

As for inflating Post and packing charges, that *is* likely to get a warning placed on your account. P and P is supposed to be reasonable, if it is inflated to avoid fees there is a dedicated reporting system for it.

Soo

Hintza

The bigger question though Soolin are EBay's/PayPal fees reasonable?

If you pay a foreign seller you lose 5c in the transaction as well.

As sellers/buyers do we get the service, support and protection we should from EBay?

soolin

The bigger question though Soolin are EBay's/PayPal fees reasonable?

If you pay a foreign seller you lose 5c in the transaction as well.

As sellers/buyers do we get the service, support and protection we should  from EBay?

I see it as quite simple really, if I didn't like the fees then I wouldn't use ebay. Yes I would prefer them to be lower but then I traded for many years on two other auction sites that had no listing fees at all, but then I sold barely nothing and those auction sites were flooded with page after page of junk. Nothing ever sold as good auctions couldn't be seen amongst the rubbish that was listed.

Just check out free listing days, serious sellers usually prefer to avoid listing items on those days as the good things get lost in all the rubbish being listed (probably by people like me) clearing out book shelves and cupboards on the basis that I might as well list it because I'm not being charged.

Paypal is the same, when I first started selling I didn't offer paypal, but my items sold for less than now when I do accept paypal. Again I would prefer the paypal fees to be lower, especially as I sell low cost items, but I prefer to accept paypal firstly, because my bids go higher, and secondly because I have considerably more problems with cheques than I ever had with paypal. At least with paypal I do have some protection, with cheques the banks cause me all sorts of problems. I have a problem with a cheque at the moment that was paid into my account nearly a month ago and which is being recalled, costing me ages of my time on the phone to my bank with no success so far.

Personally I think paypal is wonderful, several Sundays ago I sold about 8 items, all were paid for within minutes by Paypal and posted out Monday morning. By Tuesday positive feedback had been left both ways and that weeks ebay was complete and finished with no real hassle. Contrast that to the following week, same amount of sales, 6 paid for paypal and all completed and over by Wednesday, one cheque posted late and apparently will be with me tomorrow, but buyer wants their item for Saturday at the latest (its always the slow payers who want their items the quickest!) and one paid by postal orders which appear to be either lost in the post or delayed massively.

As for foreign transactions unless I use paypal I could not buy and sell abroad at all. Western Union has major scam potential and banks charge the earth for foreign cheques or bank transfers.

Soo

Fuzzy_2

For Sadgillsfan

Re Paypal fees:

You do pay Payapl fees on the total amount which includes the p&p, so if you over inflate the p&p to "cover" the Paypal fees they still get their cut. It's the Final Valuation Fee on Ebay which doesn't take a percentage of the p&p only the final bid amount.

HTH
Fuzzy