Want can be done about buyers with no feedback?

[sjef0900]

Hello!

I had a of trouble recently with a buyer. She ended up sending threats about coming around to my house and things. Terrible stuff!

The story is long but basically I printed the item number involved in the scandal on a forum thread. The lovely ebay community used this item number to research her buying and selling practices. It turned out she was buying second items on ebay and relisting them as new. She was also using photos from the original listings. I think others from the community contacted her and also reported the items that had fraudulent condition descriptions to ebay. This made her furious and she started sending ominous messages to my inbox about "big consequences" and "ripping off the wrong person" and of course the worst "I will knock on your door and collect the return post amount or get the jeans back.....its up to you...I can create a scene at your house if you want..." (I had paid the return amount a month ago - this was all just crazy scary stuff.)

Today I listed some new items. I had a watcher on all of them within minutes of posting. One item has a bid and that member also contacted me asking for a buy it now price. That member joined today and has no feedback history. I suspect this is a "burner" ID created by the person who has been harassing me - presumably to buy the item and cause further trouble.

I"m a low volume house house seller and not much ebay knowledge or experience. Naturally I have a few questions:

a) is there anyway I can link this buyer ID to the original buyer that is harassing me?

b) I have already added this new ID to my BBL - is there anything else I can do because she has already bid - lets say she bid $1000 that $40 dress will be hers...

c)is the best option to just end all my auctions and use gumtree instead?

Many thanks, I really appreciate the response I recieved from the community last time!

NB: The item with the bid was an item I also purchased second had on ebay - I have listed the condition as preloved and contacted the original seller out of courtesy. I'm not trying to make money on it - just I bought it for a specific occasion and don't think I will have another occasion for it, so am selling. Should I add that I originally purchased it on ebay in my description for fairness and full disclosure?

[joethenuts]

for a start lyndal  never boasted anything  only said in contents  and if you read it properly  it states it prob picks up ip addresses , but as usual you print part of a sentance ass usual, so who is telling porkies now,

[4myson2003]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

Just ask ebay....don't they match up accounts by using the IP addresses?

That was what I understood.

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you can change IP addresses at any time, a million times a day if you want.

[joethenuts]

but how many people do

[joethenuts]

oh i have found it were i said ,that i think its an ip address thing   have a look in the buying section post 19  on the thread  sellers list free postage bla  bla  , maybe you even posted on that thread mmmm

[sjef0900]

Thank you everyone!

To the peeps that have suggested I cancel the bid...

What happens then? Can they still leave poor feedback or complain etc?

The ebay segment says the following:

In general, sellers shouldn’t cancel bids on their listings. However, there are a few legitimate reasons for doing so:

• A bidder contacts you to back out of the bid.

• You cannot verify the identity of the bidder after trying all reasonable means of contact.

• You end your listing early.

Should I contact the new user to ask her to verify her identity before I can the bid? And what does "verify identity" mean - I can imagine it means asking for a name/DOB/address. What should I ask if I do this?

Joe is right - everything about my current problem is speculative. However - I think I really need to approach this with a high index of suspicion. I understand and also believe that user IDs should be private. My husband has suggested a method of tracking IPs by tagging my images to a different server and watching the hits to images and seeing if we can match them to the messages I recieved from both IDs - he's only a hobby IT guy so Joe's probably onto something, a proper hacky-computer-magic-guy could probably trace IPs. I imagine she's using her phone though... 

[collect247]

If you suspect that this new ID is the same person then just cancel the bid but make sure your reason is that the buyer wanted to cancel it otherwise you will receive a defect.

Then put them both on your BBL and move on with your life.

When I was selling I had plenty of these situations that you're in and I dealt with them all by blocking them.

Verify identity means they will get your details and you will get theirs which will only be a name,phone number and a suburb.

[joethenuts]

thank you  for your coments  and i hope what ever you do gets the results, anybody coming to these boards should have there id private  and if you find something  then they should keep it to them selves .  have a nice day 

[sjef0900]

Thanks crow.

Great advice and tip. Can't agree with you more; This is tiresome in the extreme! (i really don't think this loony is worth the time and effort).

All that said - I'm still cheered by those of you doing your best to help this hapless newbie!

[sjef0900]

Sorry crow - one last quick question:

If I say that the buyer has asked to cancel the bid and they haven't do they have right of complaint or any claim to reporting me or my item?

Again - I realise this is a bit paranoid. I just want to end this interaction in a final way.

[pennyforum14]

I didn't think you could get a defect for cancelling a bid?  While you definitely get a defect for cancelling a sale unless at buyer request, a bid is not a sale YET.  I thought you had the right to cancel any bid up until 12 hours before the end of the auction?