Ebay purchaser being awkward.

[jonathanc]

I'm not a regular seller on Ebay (I usually purchase), so would appreciate some advise from those with more experience.

I recently auctioned off a complete exhaust system ( £310) that came off a new motorcycle that had it's original exhaust system upgraded. The dealership packaged up the original system up and all I did was take some pictures and list the item.

Yesterday the purchaser received the item and has informed me that one of the parts were damaged. It seems from the pictures he sent me that this part wasn't sufficiently protected. The dealership has accordingly accepted fault and are willing to compensate me if I return the entire set to them.

I informed the purchaser that he would receive a full refund +£17 for the hassle caused to him and that I would arrange a courier to collect the box. The problem is that the purchaser doesn't want to return the whole set to me. Rather he is demanding a 50% refund for the damaged part and wants to keep the rest of the kit. There is no way that the damaged part represents 50% of the kit, at most it represents 5%.

I understand his grief so said that I would offer him £40 compensation if he is demanding to keep the set. However he's not budging.

What am I supposed to do?

 

[OldWelshGuy]

tell him no simple as that. he is trying it on and you have been more than generous so far.

 

[jonathanc]

I know but at the same time he's trying to use his ability to leave me negative feedback as leverage

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Welcome to the world of Ebay selling where the cutomer can blackmail and use extortion with impunity and sellers lose out each and every day.

 

[MBE1]

You have to get across to him you will not sell for feedback, bear in mind any threats via email or ebays messaging system can be used to rid yourself of any unfairly given feedback.

In all honesty, as long as you mainly have good feedback, the odd negative has little real effect.

 

[jonathanc]

Thanks for the confidence boost! Will deal with this accordingly.

 

[cholland]

Keep all messages, and if they do leave feedback just call ebay! 9 times out of 10 they are more than helpful!

 

[TheGeekestLink]

Keep all messages, and if they do leave feedback just call ebay! 9 times out of 10 they are more than helpful!

Not that they'll do anything to remove negative feedback. I had one guy admit he'd actually got the goods after I'd given him a refund and eBay still did nothing - even though he gave me negative feedback - for nothing.

My advice: just be as reasonable as you feel you can possibly be. If you're going to get negative feedback anyway, it's really not worth worrying about, and no one really counts a few isolated negative comments anyway.

 

[MBE1]

Ebay often do remove negative feedback, particulalrly if emails etc show the buyer threatening to leave negatives if they do not get their way.

Best of luck OP.

 

[danny156]

I have heard of buyers being chucked off eBay for threatening negative feedback - not that it matters as they can create another account but eBay do pay attention

Good luck OP

 

[TheGeekestLink]

Ebay often do remove negative feedback, particulalrly if emails etc show the buyer threatening to leave negatives if they do not get their way.

Best of luck OP.

They certainly refused to back down for me despite the same behaviour, but if this has happened to someone else then I'd have no fear!

 

[David P]

Definitely refuse this. Classic ebay buyer attempting to get as much as possible from a seller using feedback extortion. Offer a complete refund plus cost of P+P to post back to you. Only refund once you recive the items

Keep copies of all your emails so you can try to get it removed but to be honest I would not worry about one negative on your account. Ebay allows you to put a small comment /reply underneath feedback given to you so try to explain what happened there if you cant get rid of it.

There is a change coming soon allowing sellers to report bad buyers which should hopefully put a stop to a lot of this.

Good luck - Keep us updated with what happens!

 

[TradeboxMedia]

The other posters are correct; you have been more than generous so far.

The law makes no provision for a partial refund should the buyer wish to retain some of the items sold to them.

If the buyer leaves negative feedback, eBay are generally quite good at removing this once you have filed a concern with them.

Finally, and this is a little extreme but depends on how precious you are about your seller ratings, you can always take the buyer to court for defamation (but this is quite extreme!).

 

[David P]

The other posters are correct; you have been more than generous so far.

The law makes no provision for a partial refund should the buyer wish to retain some of the items sold to them.

If the buyer leaves negative feedback, eBay are generally quite good at removing this once you have filed a concern with them.

Finally, and this is a little extreme but depends on how precious you are about your seller ratings, you can always take the buyer to court for defamation (but this is quite extreme!).

Has anyone ever actually done this? And if so were they successful? I think many ebay sellers daydream about doing this to buyers

 

[cholland]

I find its always best to ring and not email / live chat!

 

[TradeboxMedia]

Has anyone ever actually done this? And if so were they successful? I think many ebay sellers daydream about doing this to buyers

Well..... I've raised the claim in the Small Claims Court before and the buyer backed down and paid me compensation. But I've never had one go to an actual court hearing.

I believe it all rests on what the buyer has publicly posted about you and whether this is classed as defamation.

 

[I-Credit Enforcement]

ebay support is very helpful you should get theminvolved they can of course remove negative posts as well

 

[lesliedocherty]

we have 4 or 5 negatives removed recently, it only happens when you speak to someone in Ireland, they have common sense, if you get a foreign call centre you have no chance.

every communication we have with a customer, we bear in mind ebay may want to look at it to decide in our favour, so we get the customer to admit they used it incorrectly or threatening to leave negative feedback.
if you get it on an email, ebay should back you up

 

[JackLandelsxD]

Your being far to nice to him, I know I would tell him where to go TBH. He's having your life mate!

 

[littlebiz]

My chap's has just had exactly the same thing - I suspect the guy does it regularly to get a cheap deal. Although a full refund has been offered (its an antique item) he wants to a refund of half the amount, and to keep the item. Which would mean selling it to him for less than my chap paid for it, and as there is nothing wrong with it, he can resell it.

 

[Thinehost]

We had something similar happen through amazon. The guy ended up with the goods after we were bullied into refunding the item because of the effect of negative feedback. I'd love to turn up on his doorstep and ask for the item back!

Margaret

 

[Davek0974]

I find its always best to ring and not email / live chat!

I would not, i keep ALL ebay chat via the internal mail delivery system, if there is a problem, ebay will NOT help you unless you do so as they need to read the comms to decide.