Does Ebay care if members abuse others and repeatedly threaten physical violence? I have to answer No, they definitely don't. I made a small purchase and when the order arrived only half of what I ordered was in the envelope. I sent the seller a polite message and asked if he would send the remainder. He replied that he would. Shortly after I received a nessage from Paypal telling me that I'd been given a refund. I told the seller I would have rather he send the missing parts. The seller immediately launched into a volley of fould language and threats of physical violence in over 40 emails which he continued to send until after 2am the next morning.
He told me he was flying up the next day to "Smash me" and teach me a lesson. He also told me he was arranging for his friends to pay me a visit. He rang my wife and abused her when she told him I was ill in bed and suddenly he assumed I was a schoolboy and my Wife was actually my Mother. He told me he was going to be waiting at the school gate the following Friday. His emails were gradually turning into more and more threats and more strange. He was flying up the day before, the following day, the following week and on Friday. I was getting the impression he had completely lost it. He informed me he was the one who would start it and it wouldn't be over until he saud it was over.
Things were turning into a nightmare so I rang the police. Three police officers turned and interviewed me and took copies of the emails. They showed great concern but obviously they couldn't really put my wife and myself under protection for a week. Basically I was told there little I could do apart from getting an AVO at the local courthouse. They advised me to contact Ebay and if possible get the seller's name and address, I already knew this wasn't possible, but I did go ahead and inform them of the situation. They told me they would be taking action and in no way do they allow anyone to threaten members. My only course of action was to leave feedback telling others what had happened in just a few words.
I wrote to the seller as the police suggested and told him the police had been contacted. Very quickly he replied saying things like "us servicemen should stick together" and he loved me and only got upset because of his PTSD. He had mentioned earlier that he was an ex- commando in the SAS. Personally I found this hard to believe, SAS personell are taught to handle conflicts, and nothing he said earlier appeared to be done with any hint of self control. But obviously the mention of police made him change his tune, even though he said he could handle them with no worries. I'm 70 years of age and my Wife is 73 neither of us had any sleep and to be honest we were scared. The police promised to keep sending a car past our house and if anything happened to use the Medialert I have.
So I left the negative feedback, I could hardly leave any positive, even though he sent me the missing parts and a full refund. At no stage did I encourage his behaviour, in fact in all I sent only 4 emails total. Ebay in their wisdom decided to remove my negative feedback and he's happily selling. Possibly because he pleaded it was his supposed PTSD which caused the problem. I'll definitely remember that one, PTSD made me do it. So Ebay believed him with no proof, just his word. It makes no difference if he thought I was a schoolboy and was silling to take me apart at the school gate. No, I'm a disable war veteran on a war service pension, confined to bed.
