topic Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90 in Selling

threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

naturesluxuryau — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 09:07:35 GMT

the item in question :

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/221803226987?euid=911074e8b4ad46c78dcb76280368533e&cp=1

basiclly, I put colour options too simply, I put white/light green/light blue in the options. But I included 2 pictures with the "white" set with pure white sheets, you can clearly see the quilt color is more towards "creamy" instead of 100% pure printing paper kind of white.

The buyer receives the item, and said the item description is "white" whish is wrong and misleading, and said she would NEVER purchase or want a cream coloured quilt set, like the ones in the photo. She said she saw the photos, but assume the photo color varys from screen to screen, she belived the white option quilt should be 100% pure printing paper kind of white, instead of the photo color.

I offered full refund, and also cover return postage. She refused. She wants to keep the item.

I offered 10% discount, which is $18.00, and let her keep the item, she refused.

I offered $30 discount, and let her keep them, she again refused.

She insisted on keeping the item, and ask me to send her $90 via paypal, otherwise she will "have no choice to leave a negative feedback".

I was being very honest, and let her know the exact costs from my end. "

1) CNY340(standard 3 pc) + CNY70(2 european cover) = CNY410, with currency rate of 4.8 (When we imported, it is actually 4.66 right now). the quilt alone cost 410/4.8=AUD$85.42,
2)To ship the item from China to Sydney, it cost US$15 per set, which is around AUD$20.00
3) Shipping cost from us to your address, AusPost regular parcel AUD$19.75
4)Partial refund does not qualify us to receive a eBay final value fee refund, so we would still be paying eBay for $180*8%=AUD$14.40
5)We would also be paying PayPal transaction fee for the $90 dollar we received from you after 50% partial refund, which is $0.3+$90*2.6%=AUD$2.64
This sums up to a total expense cost in our end for $142.21"

(**this doesn't even count storage rent/bills/my time in.)

I told her I can not sell at such a huge loss.

TBH, my store is a tiny tiny store, I don't make that much money, this loss actually mean a lot for me.

The buyer think the item alone, with currency rate of 4.66, it would cost AUD$87.98 only.

And the shipping, both national and Auspost, and ebay/paypal charges is none of her business. I should be more than happy to send her $90.

I continuously ask her to open a refund case with eBay, and send the item back for a full refund, I told her countless times i will cover the return postage. She said NO. She is defently want to keep the "Never purchase or want a cream quilt set", and demand me send her $90 or she will leave a negative feedback.

I have ran my tiny shop for over 3 years, this is the first time I faced with a negative feedback. Tried to call eBay, they said they can not force the buyer to return and ask for a refund. The buyers gonna do what they like. And they also can not gurantee they will be able to remove the negative feedback.

I'm very upset right now, I've put a lot of effort to keep my 100% postive feedbacks.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

nevillesdaughter — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 09:42:27 GMT

This is feedback extortion, and well against eBay policy. I would cease talking with her - you have been more than reasonable, but always keep all communication via eBay's message system so that eBay can see it if a dispute arises.

In the morning, phone eBay or organise a call back via the Help and Contact link at the bottom of the page. You'll have to click through a million options, but stick with it until you are given a one-time code to use for a call, or organise someone to call you.

Feedback left after a threat like this can be removed - ask eBay to check your listing and the exchanges you have had with the buyer, and follow their advice from there. If by chance you don't have satisfaction from the first person you talk to, calmy ask to talk to a supervisor (they have to put you through). Sometimes the first line help people are not well trained or across all the ins and outs of the system.

Hang in there, I'm sure you'll have a win - just don't lose your cool!

Marina.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

phorum_junkie* — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 09:44:32 GMT

Was the email threatening to leave neg feedback through ebay messaging? If it was then I would call ebay and ask thheir advice as you have a buyer trying to extort a refund from you with the threat of negative feedback and tell them you will report the offending message. You then have it on record that the buyer is trying extortion, you did everything and more to rectify her problem so don't feel bad about anything, your listing is very clear that it is creamy white.

I would stop communicating with her altogether, I would not have tried to appeal to her by giving her a breakdown of your cost, none of her business.

As she hasn't opened a dispute I suspect she knows that even if she won she would have to pay the return postage, if the worst she can do is leave you a neg then good luck to her, you should, although may not be able to, get the neg removed and even i you can't I would rather have a red dot than give her a red cent.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

snowbunnies2016 — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 09:56:57 GMT

"The buyer receives the item, and said the item description is "white" whish is wrong and misleading, and said she would NEVER purchase or want a cream coloured quilt set, like the ones in the photo. She said she saw the photos, but assume the photo color varys from screen to screen, she belived the white option quilt should be 100% pure printing paper kind of white, instead of the photo color."

So the buyer says she would NEVER have purchased a cream quilt set yet is refusing to send it back. Now if she really didn't want a cream one surely you would return it especially when the seller has offered a full refund including postage! Not to mention the discounts offered. This person is just trying to get the item for half price.

FEEDBACK EXTORITION!

Definitely report her!

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

fixnwear — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 10:00:34 GMT

OP, that is the most disgusting display of a human nature - greed and nastiness.

I would send a note to your buyer - a parting one:

"You have turned out to be nothing but a common thief.

You want a full refund as well as to keep an item that would be no longer your property.

And you just finished telling me how you'd have NEVER bougt one in that colour - so did it grow on you? The color!

You developed the liking for it the longer you looked at it?

Or you just want to steal something, anything, and threaten the bad f/back if you don't get your way.

Well, here is a newsflash: Go ahead with your vile intentions. You sicken me. Don't call us.. we'll call you - you know the saying."

As she has issued a f/back extortion threat you DO have grounds for re,moval, even by Ebay's own rules.

You just need to persist with calls until you get someone to help.

Good luck.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

chameleon54 — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 10:16:20 GMT

@fixnwear wrote:
OP, that is the most disgusting display of a human nature - greed and nastiness.

I would send a note to your buyer - a parting one:

"You have turned out to be nothing but a common thief.
You want a full refund as well as to keep an item that would be no longer your property.
And you just finished telling me how you'd have NEVER bougt one in that colour - so did it grow on you? The color!
You developed the liking for it the longer you looked at it?
Or you just want to steal something, anything, and threaten the bad f/back if you don't get your way.
Well, here is a newsflash: Go ahead with your vile intentions. You sicken me. Don't call us.. we'll call you - you know the saying."

As she has issued a f/back extortion threat you DO have grounds for re,moval, even by Ebay's own rules.
You just need to persist with calls until you get someone to help.
Good luck.

There are plenty of times when this is what we want to say. Often though it is not the wisest choice. Keep your communications polite but firm. Follow other forum posters advice and contact ebay as soon as possible by phone to report the buyer for feedback extortion. Make sure you have the relevent policy handy so that you can direct the CS staff to the exact words. This often helps. Dont forget to put the buyer on your BBL immediatly the issue is sorted. It sounds like you have been more than fair. Good luck

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

fairlaneltd — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 10:50:32 GMT

I have been selling on feebay, for 10 plus years.. l do my best, in giving good service, but sometimes you cant keep everyone happy, if l receive a negative feedback,, so be it, dont stress over it..

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

nevillesdaughter — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 12:03:23 GMT

@fairlaneltd wrote:
I have been selling on feebay, for 10 plus years.. l do my best, in giving good service, but sometimes you cant keep everyone happy, if l receive a negative feedback,, so be it, dont stress over it..

Often easier said than done! With eBay's newish defect system, we can't really afford to take too much on the chin. It can eat into your seller performance rating, and doesn't seem to take much to wind up having your selling restricted.

Marina.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

springyzone — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 20:57:04 GMT

The buyer is a scammer, totally unreasonable. There is no way I would give her a cent.

But I did look at your ad. I suspect the last bit in red might have been added after you ran into trouble with this buyer?

3 available colors:

Light Green
Light Blue
White/Cream
**** PLEASE check all the photos before you purchase. The colour is as shown on photo. Especially on our "White/Cream" sets, we have provided 2 photos of the set with pure white sheet, and you can see clearly the colour is more towards cream instead of 100% pure white.

---------------------------

You did right to pull the ad because it is extremely confusing. The drop down menu listed 4 colours with white and cream listed separately. (white out of stock)

The text in the body of your ad then says 3 colours & lists one as white/cream.

The photos show what looks to be a slightly different range. I agree the cream looks cream, you can see it isn't stark white. But there is a photo there of what almost looks like a mustard colour. Is there a photo there at all of a white set?

If I were you, I would take clear photos of each colour set and label them. On the photo.

If the white is not white, list it as off white or winter white, with a note as you have done.

It is a good idea to show it against a pure white sheet, but I have no idea if that was a photo of your cream set or your white set. I would have assumed they were photos of your cream set if I were a customer.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

naturesluxuryau — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:17:24 GMT

I tried to remove the white option after received first email from this buyer, but I cant remove or edit once item being old. so I make the white option out of stock, and added cream option in the colour.

I was in a hurry to put the ad, shouldn't have done that 😞 I got a listing template, but was very slow with those html stuff, so I just listed the item with a few words, was going to update the listing with a more detailed description and photos later, but i've pull the whole listing off, never going to listing item without a more detailed description and photos anymore.

Buyer has left a neg now,

Quote from her emails:

"For $180 am so disappointed and would not have purchased a cream one. What are you willing to do about this"

so I offered full refund or 10% off and keep the item.

"I don't believe that the photos should be based on as colours usually vary in photos therefore I assumed white meant white. I don't feel that 10% refund is a fair solution in this instance"

"I'm happy for you to refund me half of the purchase cost as I stated before, I would not have purchased this otherwise. Failing this I will have no choice but to leave negative feedback thank you"

I offered full refund or $30 off and keep the item.

"Not happy with this go ahead and refund the 10% of $18 and I shall go ahead and leave negative feedback as I don't feel you are even teying to resolve this issue!"

so she wants me to send her $18 and then she'll left me a negtive feedback. I told her again, and asked her nicely to return the item, i'll give her a full refund.

"I have a disabled son and do not have time out of my day to stuff around going to post office for your misleading advertising. You admitted to me your ad states wrong colour, so do the correct thing! next step is escalate to claim. $30 does not come anywhere near compensating for your dishonesty in your ad"

"Would not have purchased a cream quilt if ad stated it was cream. Im happy to keep quilt if they refund half for their dishonesty and misleading ad for mucking me around. I have a disabled son and cannot go to post office or anywhere else for that matter, hence shopping on ebay!"

This is the paypal claim message I got from her later. I choose to issue her full refund but she must return the item to me via this paypal claim. I do hope i would receive them in its original condition, I do not want to deal with her any more.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

lyndal1838 — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:34:25 GMT

Why oh why did you leave the followup feedback.

The buyer has mentioned a paypal claim in the feedback and that is grounds for getting it removed entirely....but they will not remove the followup.

Now prospective buyers will see that ebay has removed a feedback as it will stand out like a sore thumb.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

onleme — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:37:25 GMT

report to eBay, this is illegal, and nothing short of extortion.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

beautbots01 — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 01:52:32 GMT

Report her to ACORN (see previous threads re online fraud). Also let buyer know you have reported her to the online fraud squad and she should expect to be hearing from them in regards to her threat of extortion.

Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network ... The ACORN allows you to securely report cybercrime incidents which may be in breach of Australian law.

http://www.acorn.gov.au/

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

comcol — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 02:05:17 GMT

Despite what the Pro-Ebay trolls tell you, contacting Ebay will do nothing but upset you further and waste your time. If the buyer makes a threat or posts negative you will never have it removed without unbelievable proof of blatant exortion. And ONLY if it was sent to you via Ebay messages.

Even then it is only 50/50 that Ebay would act upon it.

Unfortunately, with the way Ebay is now setup you are at the mercy of small percentage of dishonest buyers. Even honest buyers who make mistakes in their purchase actually cause your account damage. Not through their fault but through the stupidty of the Ebay system now. IE. Something as simple as a refund because buyer purchased the incorrect item now affects your rating.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

naturesluxuryau — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 02:22:10 GMT

all those messages were sent via ebay messages, I guess i'll have a try later when i have time to call them.

I'll let you guys know whats the outcome.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

harley_babes_hoard — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 03:36:25 GMT

vega what's up with you? whos pro ebay.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

springyzone — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 04:00:33 GMT

I totally agree she is an unreasonable buyer.

The fact she has a disabled son is neither here nor there. It doesn't mean she never leaves the house & in any case is not your concern.

As I said, I would not refund a single cent to this woman, I would rather have a neg than 'resolve' it by letting her get away with extortion.

You can't do more than offer her a full refund/postage if she returns the product. She just wants to keep it with a discount and that is not on.

Never mind, if you are on ebay long enough you're sure to run into some real ding a lings, I know.

But I guess in future just tweak your ad with clear labels etc and you should be right. Well, we can hope.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

black*poppy — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 04:01:24 GMT

@lyndal1838 wrote:
Why oh why did you leave the followup feedback.
The buyer has mentioned a paypal claim in the feedback and that is grounds for getting it removed entirely....but they will not remove the followup.
Now prospective buyers will see that ebay has removed a feedback as it will stand out like a sore thumb.

Lyndal, that's not true. I've had fb removed before along with f/u comments with one quick phone call. I think it would be well worthwhile for the OP to chase ebay to have the fb removed on grounds of extortion.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

wendshees-rocks — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 04:34:24 GMT

It annoys the heck out of me when people pull out the disabled story. It gets my back up very quickly. People are faceless names on eBay, not our problem if they have a disabled child. How do you even know she's telling the truth? Could be yet another excuse to get you to comply. Do as the others suggested, give her nothing. Good luck with it all.

Re: threat with negative feedback unless I pay $90

character_parties_aus — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 05:54:27 GMT

I'd kop the neg take it on the chin and move on.

Most buyers are great. Some are a pain in the ass and are not worth the time of day. This one falls it appears into the latter category.

One neg is no big deal.