question about auctions/ebay... are there any humans there?

[tkim]

ok... so my gf has a perfect record of over 300... we've been buying and selling for over 2-3 years now. last week, one buyer from canada (after winning the auction as the sole bidder at the lowest possible price) sent her an email stating that her shipping was too high. so we told her that our cost is $9... and we were charging her $11. so for the extra forms and all the other shipping duties, we charged her $2. not too bad IMO.

after we let her know this, she kept b*tching about it and indirectly accused us of being dishonest and trying to rip off people who are non US bidders (keep in mind that we have +300 feedback.. to me, that usually means a seller is fair across the board)

so i started to get mad.. we always try to be as fair as possible and even try to work things out with all our buyers.... then this girlie accuses us of cheating and lying...

so we decided to tell her that we dont want her business and that we would refund her money. we also told her to READ the auction b4 bidding!!!

they next thing we know, we get hit with a notice from ebay saying that we are keyword spaming? we were like wtf? we dont do that? we had 30+ auctions pulled by ebay without any warning. the emails we received even state for us to reply back... however, everytime we do.. we get an auto reply.

its as if we are guilty until proven innocent! is there any way for us to fight back? we have NEVER had one complaint from a customer.. and as soon as some cheapa$$ complains... we get this bomb from ebay.. those 30+ auctions took over 3 hours to post!

any ideas as to what we can do?

thanks

 

[Schadenfreude]

Don't work with Ebay?

Sorry. I have no idea. I hope you get it cleared up.

 

[tkim]

bump for help

 

[Hossenfeffer]

Yes, the buyer was being a typical newbie by not reading the auction details and assuming that $11 shipping was "high" (it's not neccessarily)

Regarding the keyword spamming issue... could you provide a link to one of your completed auctions? (either here or through PM is fine)

 

[fs5]

eBay support is usually good, I always get replies the next day. whats the rating on the buyer that screwed you? Maybe you can foward eBay those emails saying that this person is the one that probably has beef with you.

 

[tkim]

the girl who messed with us actually had a few negative feedbacks... i am really surprised that someone like that can totally mess it up for good sellers.

so far... we have made about 3 attempts at contacting ebay... and we have only received auto replys...

here's a link to her feedback page... EDIT:check below

 

[Hossenfeffer]

After looking at some of the auction titles/descriptions, I'd say that your gf could work on em a bit. Forexample, every one of her auctions that ended in last week had the word "japan" in the auction title. That makes little to no sense. If someone came, searched for "japan"... those auctions would show up.

I can only assume that the 30 or so recent auctions had similar titles.

 

[vegetation]

a) put on blocked bidder list
b) put in a final value credit with reason that the user did not follow auction policies
c) report to ebay that this user is sending harassing emails to you
d) post this user's email on usenet so they can get bombarded with hundreds of spam emails per day
e) never respond to anyone who starts complaining about things

 

[Spac3d]

Originally posted by: tkim
the girl who messed with us actually had a few negative feedbacks... i am really surprised that someone like that can totally mess it up for good sellers.

so far... we have made about 3 attempts at contacting ebay... and we have only received auto replys...

here's a link to her feedback page... linky

407 positives. 316 are from unique users.

0 neutrals.

0 negatives. 0 are from unique users.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Just relist your items and ignore her.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Spac3d

Originally posted by: tkim
the girl who messed with us actually had a few negative feedbacks... i am really surprised that someone like that can totally mess it up for good sellers.

so far... we have made about 3 attempts at contacting ebay... and we have only received auto replys...

here's a link to her feedback page... linky

407 positives. 316 are from unique users.

0 neutrals.

0 negatives. 0 are from unique users.

That's his girlfriend's feedback, not the bidder's.

 

[waggy]

bah ebay is starting to piss me off.

i won a auction on the 30th paid on the 31st and only got one email from the guy! i emailed him on the third asking of he had mailed it yet. he emailed me back stating he will mail it tuesday. so i emailed the guy on the 8th asking for a tracking number or if he even sent it. he has yet to email me back!

fricken people.

 

[Sid59]

sucks. sorry =\

 

[Jhill]

What is keyword spamming?

 

[AnyMal]

Originally posted by: Jhill
What is keyword spamming?

Modifying auction title to include the words that are commonly searched for but do not necesserely represent your item. It's a shady advertisement technique. For example, you're trying to sell an old generic laptop, in your title you put something like "Laptop, not Toshiba, not Dell, not IBM".. So when people do search for any of thos companies they come across your auction.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Today I got an email from one of my auction winners saying that I have to send my item to him now (he needs it by a certain date) or else he will leave negative feedback. That normally wouldn't be a problem. I usually ship very quickly. However, AT THE TIME OF HIS EMAIL I HAD NOT RECEIVED HIS PAYMENT! Sure, buddy, I'm going to mail this thing out to you without receiving the payment.

 

[Hossenfeffer]

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
Today I got an email from one of my auction winners saying that I have to send my item to him now (he needs it by a certain date) or else he will leave negative feedback. That normally wouldn't be a problem. I usually ship very quickly. However, AT THE TIME OF HIS EMAIL I HAD NOT RECEIVED HIS PAYMENT! Sure, buddy, I'm going to mail this thing out to you without receiving the payment.

That would easily fall under the "feedback extortion" rule

 

[fr]

If you really want to talk to someone at eBay, their number is listed as 1-888-749-3229 on DVDTalk's CSR list (http://dvdtalk.com/csr.html).

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: Hossenfeffer
After looking at some of the auction titles/descriptions, I'd say that your gf could work on em a bit. Forexample, every one of her auctions that ended in last week had the word "japan" in the auction title. That makes little to no sense. If someone came, searched for "japan"... those auctions would show up.

I can only assume that the 30 or so recent auctions had similar titles.

Actually if you are refering to all the clothing, might it be some sort of brand name/style?

 

[tkim]

the reason for the "japan" title is.... it is the style of clothing that is popular for what we sell.... its like saying.. hiphop or grunge... japanese people are known to dress a certain way.. according to my gf.. and so far, it has paid off.. most of our shoppers are looking for that kinda style... i dont think we have had one bad transaction.. everyone has always been happy with our products and has NEVER complained about auction titles, descriptions, etc...

i will have to try that csr line... *crossin legs, fingers, and everything else on my body*

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: waggy
bah ebay is starting to piss me off.

i won a auction on the 30th paid on the 31st and only got one email from the guy! i emailed him on the third asking of he had mailed it yet. he emailed me back stating he will mail it tuesday. so i emailed the guy on the 8th asking for a tracking number or if he even sent it. he has yet to email me back!

fricken people.

That's not EBay's fault.

tkim- I'd talk to EBay customer support.

 

[Rob9874]

I love eBay. Made $1000 last month. I'd go for Power Seller if I had enough inventory. The problem isn't eBay. The problem is people. Any time you deal with people, they're gonna piss you off. The same thing happens in a B&M store. eBay is just another way to sell to customers. There are no more or less stupid people on eBay than there is at a real store. I'm sure people in retail have the same complaints. (I should know, I was one in college.)

 

[tkim]

i totally agree.... it really amazes me how lame people can be over a $1 or so..

after over 500 transactions on ebay.. i can safely say that some stereotypes are very true IMO and from experience....

as of now.. we stopped shipping outside of the US..