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?

[phorum_junkie*]

Since when has a seller received a defect for cancelling a bid? If they try and cancel after a buyer has won an item yes but no way could ebay sanction anyone for cancelling a bid.

If it is the same person and they have been stupid enough to use their own address then if they win you have the evidence you need to report them to ebay, creating an id to circumvent blocks is something ebay do take seriously.

If you don't want any more hassle then you can just cancel the bid and add the id to your BBL but chances are they will just keep creating new ids and bidding on your items until the end of days.

As they have made actual physical threats you have every right to go to the police, just because it is ebay does not mean they can break the law with impunity.

As you don't have a huge amount of feedback why not create another id, build up a bit of feedback by buying then use that for selling things and keep this id for buying only they your twonk buyer won't even know it is you selling things.

[springyzone]

You don't have to tell people in an ad that you bought an item off ebay.

If you do, what will happen is they will look up all your purchases to see what you originally paid for it. That is what I would do.

I do suspect though the current bid could be your problem buyer. With regard to IP addresses, there are some sites where people can get a proxy IP address so their own area isn't showing. I've been on another messageboard where a couple of people did just that, so we couldn't guess which regular was coming in under a different name to fling abuse. I don't know many people would go to those lengths though, they probably think a new ebay account would be enough.

Which brings us back to your problem.

I would definitely ring ebay and ask them to check it out.

If it turns out to be your problem buyer, present situation sorted as presumably ebay would cancel her new ID or at least send a warning.

But it doesn't solve the future. It might just upset her more and she might look for another way to get at you, maybe by bidding on a friend's account.

You don't want to stop trading on ebay.

Have you considered opening a new account for yourself? NOT changing your present ebay name-your problem buyer will see that.

Open a completely new account.

I think that would be worthwhile anyway, if you plan to buy and sell the same items on ebay. Buy on the sjef account, sell on the new one.

Just a tip, use completely new titles, don't copy them off the original seller, and leave a little space between listings, maybe at least a month, so it isn't too obvious.

[collect247]

Yes sorry my mind was wandering when I said you could get a defect for cancelling a bid that should have been when cancelling an order, my bad.

[lyndal1838]

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@4myson2003 wrote:

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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.

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Yes, I know that, which is why I made the comment that Joe's claim that a site that matched IDs as he claimed was not the same as a site that matched IP addresses.

I have changed my IP address in a few seconds just by changing my laptop from connecting through the router to connecting via my wireless connection.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@sjef0900 wrote:

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... 

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Unless the buyer wins the auction, they can't leave feedback or stars for you as no transaction has taken place.

Verifying a bidders identity before they have won an auction is different to pulling someone's details after they have bought (another poster mentioned that's what it was). Basically if you have contacted the buyer and they refuse to reply, you can't verify who they are. Therefore, you can cancel their bid. After a transaction has taken place, you can request the buyers details to contact them, for if they bought a pick up only item and haven't made contact, as one example.

When you request their details, they also get yours. Name, phone number and suburb. Therefore, unless you have a silent number, it always pays to only have a mobile phone on eBay, rather than a landline. That is because once someone has your listed landline number, they can do a reverse lookup and get your address. Most people don't have their mobile listed in the phone book, therefore it's a safer option.

Unless a transaction has taken place, eBay is NOT going to give you a buyers details because it would come under privacy. Same as they wouldn't give out your details if a potential buyer asked for yours.

I have learnt over the years to always go with your gut. If your gut is telling you it's bad, cancel the bid. I have gone against my gut a few times and was wrong, I should have listened to my gut. If you then get another 0 feedback bidder with a brand new account, rinse and repeat.

I think there is some merit to what some of the others said. You don't have a lot of feedback so create another account, buy a few cheap items from China for $1 from multiple sellers (Chinese always give feedback). Link the new account to this one so you get an increased selling limit. Use this account for buying and the new one for selling. That germ will just think you have given the game away and feel they have won. What they don't know won't hurt them.

[davewil1964]

What they don't know won't hurt them.

Don't you mean 'What they don't know won't hurt you'?

[*tippy*toes*]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

What they don't know won't hurt them.

Don't you mean 'What they don't know won't hurt you'?

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LOL, yes, that is probably a more truthful statement!

[joethenuts]

i wish some posters would read there own posts more often mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[sjef0900]

Thank you again to everyone who has replied. The help is invaluable. Ulimately I think that tippy and others that have suggested I start a new ID for selling, are onto something. I've removed my more valuable item and will remove the others too. It's just too unpleasent...