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Complaint about negative feedback
Hi everyone :). I have a question about the behavior of a seller who threatened to sue me over a negative feedback.
On December 24 I bought an item on eBay worth 90 euros. Even though the seller had confirmed that shipping would take place on January 2 (within 4 working days), he disappeared until January 4, when I told him that eBay had marked January 8 as the last delivery date and that unless the package was shipped that same day it would arrive after the final delivery date. After literally 5 messages on different days, the seller replied telling me that the package would be shipped that same day and so it was.
If it weren't for the fact that on the 8th the package was still listed as in shipping status with no updates from the courier, so I decided to check the tracking code, which in fact turned out not to exist. Believing, however, that maybe it was still in transit and therefore not yet visible, I decided to ask the seller for an explanation and meanwhile I opened an eBay ticket because I noticed that the courier tracking code used by the seller allowed 14- or 19-digit codes while his was 15 digits. Let me be clear: I did not want to go against the seller, but only to protect myself, since the seller was being evasive with "it's almost there," "I'm trying to sort it out as soon as possible," and because the code turned out to be nonexistent.
I asked the seller several times for the updated code, but he kept being evasive, so after three days I asked him one last time to update me on the shipping status, because it was starting to seem like a scam. When he heard the word scam, the seller started insulting me with phrases like "you can tell your brother about a scam" when I had been polite up to that point, and he proposed cancelling the order because "that'll teach you not to talk bullshit."
I decided to keep being polite and explained that I still did not want to cancel the order because I needed the item (which is a collectible card). I also told him that if by January 13 (the date eBay gave me to resolve the ticket I had opened) the ticket still hadn't been resolved, eBay would step in.
The morning after my message he told me that he would "sue me for the bullshit I wrote," that "your brain doesn't work," "how old are you," and "can you read?" I then decided to refrain from continuing the conversation and contact eBay support, who advised me to leave feedback and report the seller. I then decided to leave negative feedback saying that the shipping code was nonexistent and that the seller had taken a negative tone toward me and had threatened to sue me. I also proceeded to report the seller because he seemed disrespectful even though I had always referred to him in the third person, even.
Once he read the feedback (leaving aside the fact that the seller replied to my feedback saying that I enjoy leaving negative feedback for sellers and that I was offensive when literally this is the first time I have left feedback and later he left similar feedback on my profile) he replied with a long message in which the most important phrases were "I don't want to hurt anyone," "you have 24 hours to change the feedback you wrote." He also continued proposing a compromise and asked me to let it go, even offering to send me the same item (which magically had first been lost by the courier, or at least that is what can be inferred from the messages since he never directly told me that the courier had lost it; he always told me "I'm trying to sort it out" but never said what, then another identical one would supposedly arrive after 15 days, then magically after two hours he finds another one in his collection and wants to give it to me).
I then decided to ignore his messages and leave the assessment of his behavior to eBay support. Not satisfied that I was not replying on eBay, he first decided to contact me on WhatsApp where, for the first time, literally almost three weeks after the purchase, he told me that the courier had lost the item I bought and that this was why the tracking code had not appeared (but why not say that first instead of vaguely telling me he would sort things out?). He then asked me if we could reach a compromise, but honestly, if he had not been offensive toward me I would have even bought it again at double the price I had paid the first time.
I don't reply, so after a while he decides to call me, and I answer and he starts threatening me, telling me that he had first checked with the Guardia di Finanza and then with the postal police whether he could use the terms he used and that they told him he could (I guess he didn't read eBay's rules, but oh well), and so he told me that unless I removed the feedback he would report and sue me for various reasons including false testimony (?) and something similar. All because I wrote that he had threatened to sue me (which he did) and he didn't like other people knowing it because "I am now apologizing to you on the call if you felt offended or threatened." I also tell him that he even said "I don't want to hurt anyone" (which sounds like a threat to me) and he tells me that "it's just an expression" (maybe for him, for me it's a straight-up threat). We stay on the call for about 40 minutes, during which he keeps insisting that I remove the feedback because "I apologized to you, what sense does it make to keep fighting now? Do you want war?" at which point I tell him that I am not removing the feedback, at most I will remove the part about the threat if that was just an expression for him, but he doesn't like that. So I tell him that he can go ahead and sue me because I am not removing the feedback from him (apparently he was okay with neutral but not negative) and he starts telling me that there will be a legal case, that he will report me, and that I am the one fueling this since "you don't want to let it go and you're telling me you won't remove the feedback, so you're telling me to report you."
I therefore ask for support from you in the community to understand whether I actually risk anything? Or whether I did the right thing by standing firm in my choices. Thanks a lot 🙂
marioelegio
Mentore2 years agoYour “shady salesman” is matched by his “offensive and not very reputable”.
You could report each other without getting anywhere.
When things don’t go as they should, it’s better to follow ebay’s procedures quietly, without excessive contact with the other party.
bye
mario