[HELP] Help needed re: possible Malicious Bidders/retaliation. [long read]

CitizenBidet

Hi. I wonder if any of the experienced eBay sellers out there could give me some advice, because I’m really unsure of what to do

This is a little messy, but I wanted to give all the details, to save you having to ask for more.

Situation 1.
* Sold item X [over £100] to a bidder with no feedback, and who only joined the previous day before bidding.
* Messaged her 3 times to ask how she was going to pay for her item [before she’d won it], given that she had no feedback and I wanted a little reassurance.
* She did not reply, and won the auction [I forgot to cancel her bid before it was too late]
* She paid automatically through paypal [but has an unconfirmed address]
* As she wasn’t picking up her eBay messages I emailed her to ask for confirmation of her address before I was prepared to send out the item.
* She confirmed her address via email, and I sent it by next day courier.
* As always with my customers, I emailed her a tracking number, so she could track it online.
* Courier tries to deliver, no-one in, so they leave a card.
* I let her know that they tried to deliver, and that she would need to rearrange delivery [I always check my items status]
* She says she will, and that she’ll get back to me when she’s arranged it [which she doesn’t]
* I call the holding depot and they say it’s due for return to me, but they agree to hold it until Monday evening as a goodwill gesture [tomorrow]
* They tell me that no-one has been in touch to rearrange delivery.
* I message her and let her know that they’re keeping it for her until Monday, and pass on all the relevant phone numbers and tracking numbers again.
* No response [via email or eBay] so I phone her and let her know this evening that she needs to rearrange it to be redelivered. She makes excuses for not doing it and blames her husband and being away, and then contradicts herself numerous times in the conversation and says that she already tried to have it redelivered and took a morning off work [I tell her they’ve heard nothing from anyone but me]
* I let her know that it will cost her additional postage if they return it to me and I have to resend it to her.
* I ask her to contact me tomorrow when she’s rearranged delivery [the conversation was always civil and polite from both of us]

Situation 2
* Sold item Y [today] which was won last minute by another member with no feedback [but they’ve been a member since 2001]. No history though.
* He has a confirmed address [but this is possibly from being confirmed years ago, after many years of no activity, so I’m not sure if it’s reliable]
* Pays automatically through paypal.
* I have messaged him to confirm his delivery address before I am willing to send the item out, just in case.

Now, this is the part that’s made me paranoid.

My sister and I had one of our auctions copied verbatim [all the html coding, the works], using all my personally taken copy written pictures [there were loads of them] some time ago, and I reported them to eBay, after the seller didn’t take them down when I requested. The auction ended before eBay could do anything about it, and I’m not sure if the seller was warned or not. [A power seller too]. He seems to sell 2nd hand goods and looks a little dodgy after reading some of the negative feedback he’s got, but I’m not sure.

Item X which has just been sold to the 0 feedback new buyer is the same item as the template he stole, and I think these people may be involved with the seller who I reported.

I’m inclined to think that the other buyer is now too.

What do I do?

I’m not interested in tit for tat style behaviour or causing a fuss. I just want to minimise my losses and make sure I don’t lose out on anything. I’ve thought of the possibilities of what they could do next to pre-empt all the possibles and prepare myself. They could:

* Not arrange redelivery [so it’s returned to me and then do what? Not sure where I stand with that but i would be prepared to refund her the cost of the item - AND postage if necessary - but I'd prefer to charge her for fees and postage because of the lengths i've gone to to avoid this happening]
* arrange redelivery and say the item is faulty [which it isn’t, it’s brand new and I still have the receipt for it]

My gut instinct is telling me to get the depot to send the item back, refund her, and just write the delivery and fees off and thank my lucky stars I got my £100+ item back and just lost a couple of quid on it. [not sure if i can get that authorised by the couriers yet though]

I don’t want the hassle of going through false claims of a faulty item because they could damage it at their end, and then I’ve also lost that too.

What are my options?

I thought that even though the second buyer has a confirmed address, if it is a malicious retaliation, he could say that it was faulty on receipt [which it isn’t]. I also sold one on a second chance offer to the guy who he outbid – he looks legit, and I’ll post his out tomorrow.

Is there anyway of getting a third party to officially check over the goods and confirm they’re in working order before I send out the item to the buyer I’m unsure of? [Like eBay or whatnot?]

Should I report this to eBay now? I’ve started to fill out a “User is bidding/buying to harass seller or prevent sale” email, putting in all the details of the seller [and image theft info] who i reported, and the names of the two buyers, but I haven't sent it yet and thought I'd wait for your advice first. The woman I spoke with was definitely not telling the truth on the phone and tripped over herself a number of times – that could just have been general nerves or something though, not sure.

Any advice is welcome.

I find this whole thing frustrating, because I’m a retail manager in my day job, and really am a genuine seller who’s just found a few bargains to sell on. Worrying about other malicious traders is making me not want to continue.

Also, not long after I called the lady, I got a caller withheld call which put the phone down on me as soon as I said hello, something which never happens as im ex-directory [I wish I’d done 141 before calling her now, because I don’t like that they have my name and telephone number].

PINGA14

Just thought Id bump this up a bit.
Sound complicated!

angelcake

This does sound complicated so please bear with me!!

Can you give any identities out? perhaps pm me and I will look into it through advanced search.

If I were you I would set your auctions to say that you will not sell to people with less then 5 or 10 positive feedback etc (you can do this when listing an item. If you are not sure just ask and theres good people on here that will help you.

File NPB for X and report to ebay - you can always withdraw complaints and it covers you! Refund costs expect P&P costs you will get your fees back through npb. - you never know if they have done this before it may kick them off ebay.

With person Y I would perhaps - after a while of waiting for comfirmation - back out of the sale and say the item was broken when you tried to package it and is no longer for sale and refund them (could save you less hassle).

Make sure things are in place to stop this happening Like what I said above about banning certain people...and add these to your blocked bidders list! Just don't rick it!

Hope this makes sense but seeming as no-one else has yet replied I thought I would make a start!!

carrie483

Can you file a npb if they buyer has paid? with regards to item X if the item gets returned to you then refund the money less p&p and then file a npb.

Item Y, i wouldn't worry too much, they are confirmed and therefore you are entitled to seller protection and you have sent it trackable and have stuck to the rules so hopefully you shouldn't have a problem.

You say you don't like them having you name and phone number, with ebay a buyer or seller has the ability to pull your details and they can get it through them.

frivolous_fay

You can block bidders with feedback of less than 0
You can block bidders with strikes
You can block bidders who don't have a credit card on file, and you can choose to do this only if they have 5 or less feedbacks. You can't block people with less than 5 bidding... although you can put it in your auction terms and hope they get read.

Go here:

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences

dodger65

CitizenBidet wrote:

My sister and I had one of our auctions copied verbatim [all the html coding, the works], using all my personally taken copy written pictures [there were loads of them] some time ago, and I reported them to eBay, after the seller didn’t take them down when I requested. The auction ended before eBay could do anything about it, and I’m not sure if the seller was warned or not. [A power seller too]. He seems to sell 2nd hand goods and looks a little dodgy after reading some of the negative feedback he’s got, but I’m not sure.

Item X which has just been sold to the 0 feedback new buyer is the same item as the template he stole, and I think these people may be involved with the seller who I reported.

I’m inclined to think that the other buyer is now too.

If you didn't have powerseller status when you reported this seller for copying your listings, ebay will have done absolutely nothing for you - your email will just have been deleted and the seller will know nothing of you reporting them.
So may well just be coincidence.

CitizenBidet

Thanks for your advice people.

update:

I called the DHL depot today and asked them to return the parcel. i'd rather just cut my losses and get my item back in working order, than thrash it out if things go wrong. I dont trust the purchaser one bit after she lied on the phone, so I think it's too risky to leave it with her.

Re: the second buyer. I'll take your advice angel cake and back out of the sale if he doesnt respond to my message, as well as banning all 3 from future bids.

Fay: I understand about the blocks you can use now, as i looked into it when this first began. In my future auctions I will make sure I state that bidders need 5 feedback or above to bid.

carrie: I'll take your advice too, and file a report as soon as I have refunded. I expect she will create fuss so I'll be prepared for a dispute.

I expect both buyers will leave negative feedback but I can trade together with my sister on her account if that happens [both of us have 100%].

Dodger: I told the seller I would report him to ebay unless he took his auction down, so he knows I did this.

I can quite believe that ebay would just dismiss it though, and it makes me so annoyed. It took me ages to code the html and prepare images, as I like to make my auctions look good.

As his auction wasn't taken down because they took so long to deal with it and it had ended by the time I'd sent [and resent] them all the info they wanted, I asked ebay what they'd done about it [ie: hopefully warning the seller], but they said they couldn't tell me for "security" reasons.
Translation: "We did nothing" GRRR!

Thanks again for all your help

carrie483

Good Luck mate, let us know how you get on.

Carrie

angelcake

Hi, I can't find a link I am sorry! I think that perhaps you should obviously stick to what you have said above and just put it down to a bad experience. A lot of the time you can trust these people and with regards to person X They have paid so they have £100+ out there that they obviously wouldn't want to lose so are probably just unreliable! But better be safe then sorry!

As for copying pics etc there is a hmtl code that you can put to stop people being able to steal them! either that or put your name over the photos! I expect someone on here will help you with that! If no-one can remember so a search on here as it has been mentioned before!

Good luck on future sales!

CIS

The problem is that most, if not all methods of securing the webpage, even the codes for disabling the right click can be gotten around

Contains_Mild_Peril

One popular method of dealing with sellers who steal your pictures is, if the seller is using the url's from the site where you have your photos are hosted (more than likely if they've copied the whole ad) and your auction finishes before theirs, change the pictures after yours is finished. The other seller's customers could then be treated to, for example, an ad for some tasteless !!!!!!, an illustration of a turd or, better still, an explanation of what the seller has done and an ad for your listings.
Another way to discourage theft of your pics is to watermark them.
I wouldn't worry about the "number withheld" phone call. Perhaps surprisingly, it was probably a failed sales call. Many companies phone ex-directory numbers by using computers to dial random numbers, some of which will turn out to be real phone numbers. Their systems often accidentally terminate calls as soon as the phone is answered. This problem was featured on Watchdog a while ago, and apparently it's quite widespread.