Personal threats

[motherslittlehelper1]

Hi

I received a threatening message and feedback on my other ebay ID tonight. I wan't to give the buyer time to rethink what he said and remove the feedback before I let the world see it on here.

Firstly, the buyer purchased the item about 1 month ago and it ended up going to an unpaid item dispute. He later contacted me and said he had trouble with Paypal and would send the $5 in the post. He asked could I remove the unpaid item case when the money arrives in the post and I said "no problem".

I had to take my daughter down to Sydney last Thursday and didn't read my mail until Saturday morning. There was a letter with $5 in it and a PO box to send the item to. The letter had arrived on Thursday or Friday afternoon almost 2 weeks after he had said he would send it. The unpaid item case had already closed on the Friday and I was going to mark it as paid when I packed the item tomorrow morning. I hadn't got around to contacting the buyer because I was away from my PC most of the weekend.

When I sat down tonight to go through the items I had sold over the weekend, I received an Ebay message from the buyer. This is what the message said.

i don't appreciate being ripped off.
see you soon to sort this out.. its gonna cost you more than 5 bucks and a non paying bidder strike against your name..
im going to show you exactly what happened to the last person who tried to rip me off. 

I sent him a reply message and told him I didn't receive the money until Thursday or Friday and the unpaid item case automatically closed. I also told him that the threat was a bit unnesessary and his item was ready to be sent tomorrow. 

I thought I would check my feedback and I noticed he had left a neg feedback, which is

didnt receieve my item, sorting out in person not through ebay AVOID!

I thought to myself that he is pushing things a bit far now, so I sent him an option to remove the neg feedback through the feedback revision. I sent him another message and asked him if he would remove it and told him I would prefer not to get Ebay involved.

My ebay ID this happened to has over 2400 feedback and always receives great feedback for postage time etc

My main problems are

He lives about 20km away judging by his PO box

I don't know where he lives, but he knows where I live. So he has the upper hand there.

I'm not worried about him personally, but I'm concerned he could do damage to my property etc

He has a feedback over 1400 and also sells, so as soon as I request ebay to remove the neg, all hell will break loose

I will give him overnight to sleep on it before I send him another message. Surely he knows he has left himself wide open sending the message through Ebay.  

I really don't wan't to start a war with somebody over $5, especially when they have my postal address

But I'm not going to cop a neg feedback for somebody that pays for an item a month after purchasing and when the case had already closed

Interested to see how others would handle this

[Anonymous]

firstly this is the exact reason why i have a PO Box.. no one i sell to will ever know where i live

secondly i'd be reporting this to ebay right now and possibly the police

a threat is a threat

personally i think he is a keyboard warrior who is trying to scare you

[padi*0409]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

firstly this is the exact reason why i have a PO Box.. no one i sell to will ever know where i live

secondly i'd be reporting this to ebay right now and possibly the police

a threat is a threat

personally i think he is a keyboard warrior who is trying to scare you

---

Not possibly report it to the police, definitely report it to the police, with copies of all the emails sent to you through eBay by them.

[beasbooteek]

Unless the letter was registered they can have had no idea when it arrived, You could have said that you only just received the money and were in the process of preparing it for postage along with an email asking ebay to remove the unpaid item strike however you are no longer prepared to deal with them and will place the money into their Paypal or bank account if they send you details. Also inform them that their threats will be reported to both ebay and the police then ring ebay, tell them about the threats and that you are going to the police and would like the negative feedback removed.

[digupatin]

If your local Police appear not to be very interested indoing anything about it report the abuse to the ACORN.

http://www.acorn.gov.au/what-is-cybercrime/cyber-bullying/

That's what they were set up for. 

The maximum penalty for this offence is three years imprisonment or a fine of more than $30,000.

[motherslittlehelper1]

The main thing that worries me with this is they know where I live and they could also create fake ebay names and cause problems with my selling activity. 

I might send them an email worded like this

I know people say things in the heat of the moment and thats why I have given you the opportunity to remove the feedback without Ebay getting invlolved.

I will not be copping a negative feedback for an item I was in the process of sending and if it isn't removed by the end of today, I will have no choice but to contact ebay.

You have made 2 threats against me for the whole world to see and I consider those threats against my family.

I'm a reasonable person to an extent and willing to send you a refund through Paypal and forget the whole thing. I have bigger things on my plate than to start a war over a $5 item

This email wouldn't be classed as threatening would it? I don't want to make the same mistake they did and send a threatening email.

[motherslittlehelper1]

Thanks, I will keep this in mind

[*tippy*toes*]

You should have got their address when they bought the item. If you can't still access the order details from the sale, check the sold email you got when they bought it. As the others have said, report them. They may just be a keyboard warrior, but there's that many weirdos out there these days, I wouldn't be taking any chances.

Given that their feedback contains a threat, I'd be calling eBay and getting it removed.

[motherslittlehelper1]

I checked yesterday and It only had their PO Box details. The ironic thing is the item they purchased is a security surveilence sign, so I can only imagine what type of person I'm dealing with. I checked their items for sale on Ebay and it  says in the listings that they will only give their address details when bank deposit is in their account. Sounds like somebody that likes to hide behind their PO box.

[harley_babes_hoard]

umm call me dumb but how can this buyer leave feedback if you say the unpaid dispute closed. this would mean they are unable to leave feedback and if they left the feedback before the unpaid dispute closed then get on the phone and tell ebay you want it removed.

Yes he paid cash as far as ebay are concerned tell them it wasn't paid, he has no proof to say otherwise.