How to protect yourself from sabotaging competitors

swbluto · #1 10-21-2015

I'm selling a lot of penny auction images, and then a buyer makes the most fictitious complaint I've ever heard (It was all mangled and had inkspots on it, etc.; Where exactly did the ink come from? It was brand new.) claims to be a fellow seller on there. OK, obviously, this is a seller trying to sabotage my account because he's a competitor. How do I protect against these guys? Most of my buyers have been well meaning, but this guy might just ruin everything which would suck for a $200 account.

There's nasty competition in the picture market, lol. People get nasty when they're starving, and I'm guessing there's a lot of starving artists on ebay, lol.

Edit: He's probably trying to buy my picture to resell it on ebay, lol (He's obviously trying to make money on the shipping). So I sent him a new one in a well protected envelope and hopefully this should resolve it. He's probably not trying to sabotage me, I'm guessing...?

Still, I didn't mean my pictures for nit-picky resellers. It's meant for feedback builders.

BigCJ · #2 10-21-2015

Id be more concerned about what youre selling rather than who you are selling to right now...

Penny auctions are a great way to crash and burn on a new account. If he is a competitor, the simple act of reporting you to ebay may cause your account to go down.

As for your problem at hand, send them a new one and then block/hope he doesnt spill the beans about what youre selling.

GhostOfAmazon · #3 10-22-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigCJ

Id be more concerned about what youre selling rather than who you are selling to right now...

Penny auctions are a great way to crash and burn on a new account. If he is a competitor, the simple act of reporting you to ebay may cause your account to go down.

As for your problem at hand, send them a new one and then block/hope he doesnt spill the beans about what youre selling.

This.

Also, selling penny/photo/feedback auctions are against eBay policy. If you think you're fooling anybody, I've got a bridge to sell you...

Just follow the rules and list low risk items for the first 20 sales or so. Quit trying to cheat the system...it doesn't work. eBays bots detected what you were doing the moment you published the listing. They search for "penny", "photo", "picture", "feedback" etc...

Hercules · #4 10-22-2015

Sell cheap plated jewelry from Alibaba. You can get items for penny's
Sell only in USA (made in the USA Ha!) and brag that you will receive the item
within 3 days apposed to 3 weeks from the Chinese if that.
Two dollar shipping 99 cent auctions.
No one will bother you. With a pretty listing and story you might make money too!
Wedding rings sell the best!

solefoodbk · #5 10-22-2015

Honestly I sold one cent recipe auctions last year across about 15 accounts. I did this right before the end of the year to set these accounts up for next year...

Well most if not all never experienced problems (over 1k in AMOUNT of sales)

I just tried this out on a semi old stealth and got 3 negatives. Shameful people nowadays... They all said poor customer service, never received it etc. I don't know why people would purposely hurt an account when they pay 7 cents for something they didn't even pay for (local pick up) then open up cases etc ....it's actually shocking how much time people have.

I'm going to just do it the "real" way and go to the dollar store. It's not worth the headache and absurdidity that comes with getting negatives for items with 0 value. Because at end of the day, 99% are buying for feedback, which means they either are poor sellers themselves or are running into difficulties and want to spread the negatives they get to whomever they can.

Short answer, GOA is right penny auctions might be a thing of the past.

Not to mention we can't do 1 day auctions now without a fee.

ovidiu · #6 10-22-2015

don't know why people would purposely hurt an account

The Internet has attracted every breed of sociopath out there. These people can't get away with their behavior in a real store; the manager would just deck them on the spot. So they act out their little sick power & control fantasies on places like eBay. Ironically, this feeds right into your signature, solefoodbk.

Pandoras_box · #7 10-22-2015

Once in a while you tend to get people like these come your way on eBay. I have the lifespan of my stealth account at heart so I take the loss and grow my block list.

swbluto · #8 10-23-2015

This seller has one negative feedback, so his feedback % is 98, so he's probably a little hurting from that. "Spreading the pain" and all that.

I'm half tempted to buy one of his lower priced items and use it as a trump card lest he takes the lower road. lol

Chuckchamberlain12 · #9 10-24-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by swbluto

I'm half tempted to buy one of his lower priced items and use it as a trump card lest he takes the lower road. lol

If the seller you are referring to has decent eBay knowledge he would report you for "disruptive business practices." That could get you shut down.. so tread carefully I guess. lol.

solefoodbk · #10 10-27-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckchamberlain12

If the seller you are referring to has decent eBay knowledge he would report you for "disruptive business practices." That could get you shut down.. so tread carefully I guess. lol.

Typically, well they need more than 1 person when it comes to this. (i.e a history of complaints similar to this)

Unless I'm mistaken?

pzlv · #11 10-28-2015

One of the reasons for multiple ebay accts. :P

Startacus · #12 10-29-2015

I've never had this problem with selling penny items. However I've received a neg or two here or there for absolutely no reason whatsoever. With that I've learned that when they ask a question I make sure I answer them ASAP. If they didn't receive it I always offer to mail it to them. Most of them just want it sent to their email address. Offering to go the extra mile usually wins brownie points even though most won't really take me up on the offer.

GhostOfAmazon · #13 10-29-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Startacus

I've never had this problem with selling penny items. However I've received a neg or two here or there for absolutely no reason whatsoever. With that I've learned that when they ask a question I make sure I answer them ASAP. If they didn't receive it I always offer to mail it to them. Most of them just want it sent to their email address. Offering to go the extra mile usually wins brownie points even though most won't really take me up on the offer.

People that leave negs on these things know what you're doing and they are intentionally trying to hurt your seller rating. Kissing their a$$ isn't going to sway them. They know you're manipulating the system and they want to shut you down.

DevSpent · #14 10-30-2015

I blame the economic state. Tensions are on the rise because quality of life is not improving.

people turn into animals when they have to fight to survive

GhostOfAmazon · #15 10-30-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevSpent

I blame the economic state. Tensions are on the rise because quality of life is not improving.

people turn into animals when they have to fight to survive

"Fight to survive"? You've been watching too much propaganda.

In America, VERY FEW people have any legitimate needs. Whatever they need is provided by the government, aka the taxpayers, aka you and me. These days they even have non-essentials, like free cell phones. Anyone complaining about how hard it is to live in the US today needs to move to a REAL economically challenged country, like the Ukraine. THEN I want to see them talk about how bad it is buying from eBay sellers.

solefoodbk · #16 10-31-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostOfAmazon

People that leave negs on these things know what you're doing and they are intentionally trying to hurt your seller rating. Kissing their a$$ isn't going to sway them. They know you're manipulating the system and they want to shut you down.

How boring can ones life be to sit and bid on penny auctions, most don't even pay (local pick up) ONLY to leave a negative. I had an account I just did this on get 3 negatives out of 40 sold.....shameful.

Worked last year, now there's to many weirdos. There's a MILLION other things I could be doing than bidding on a auction knowingly just to try and hurt a person I don't even know................

GhostOfAmazon · #17 10-31-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

How boring can ones life be to sit and bid on penny auctions, most don't even pay (local pick up) ONLY to leave a negative. I had an account I just did this on get 3 negatives out of 40 sold.....shameful.

Worked last year, now there's to many weirdos. There's a MILLION other things I could be doing than bidding on a auction knowingly just to try and hurt a person I don't even know................

They justify it by saying to themselves "They're being dishonest and trying to pad their feedback, I'm making sure others aren't fooled".

Both parties are in the wrong, but you're right....only a basement dweller would sit around and waste their limited time doing something so trite.

GreenBean · #18 10-31-2015

Any one selling Tin Foil hats.

dealagreeproceed · #19 10-31-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenBean

Any one selling Tin Foil hats.

I call 1st again hehe

...

dealagreeproceed · #20 10-31-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostOfAmazon

"Fight to survive"? You've been watching too much propaganda.

In America, VERY FEW people have any legitimate needs. Whatever they need is provided by the government, aka the taxpayers, aka you and me. These days they even have non-essentials, like free cell phones. Anyone complaining about how hard it is to live in the US today needs to move to a REAL economically challenged country, like the Ukraine. THEN I want to see them talk about how bad it is buying from eBay sellers.

this is true for the most part. Americas "poor" are other countries middle class and up... americans generally take care of their own

swbluto · #21 11-01-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostOfAmazon

Anyone complaining about how hard it is to live in the US today needs to move to a REAL economically challenged country, like the Ukraine. THEN I want to see them talk about how bad it is buying from eBay sellers.

No doubt about Ukraine. Just yesterday an ukraine hacker was trying to hack into my site.

swbluto · #22 11-01-2015

So, I added a explicit warning to my auctions. "This will be sent in the worst way possible and probably will get extremely damaged. Do not bid if you disagree with this.". The bidding price went down a little bit, but people are still bidding, lol.

Anyway, I refunded the complainer and send him a new one in an protective envelope immediately. About a week later, he left a positive. Hooah!

Felt like I dodged a bullet there. Wondering if I should stop while I'm ahead...

How much positive feedback do I need? 10 or 25?

I saw something about "You need to sell 25 items, at least $250 overall and 90 days before lifting payment holds". Uh, yeah, what about those who just don't have $250 in used goods to sell on ebay? ($250 of used goods is easily worth $1000-2500 retail, not an amount that a lot of people have to sell on ebay, especially not today's younger generation.)

Seems like these low priced auctions seem to attract the disadvantaged poor (The only demographic I was trying to attract was feedback builders), which seem to overall have a more bitter/negative attitude. The kind that tends to leave negatives without discretion...