Buyer Harrassing and Reporting to Ebay

[bigbadbiddy]

I write ebooks that i sell on ebay. They usually only sell for aroun $2-3 per book and I offer them to be sent via email or if they prefer a cd with the ebook on it I charge $3 for the shipping. So, naturally all of my listings say free shipping. The person bought an ebook from me and paid $1.25 . I emailed the book within the hour and even left feedback. About a month later i get an email from the person saying that it has been plenty of time and they want their book. I replied and told them that I apologize and that I emailed it to them but i would email it again.
After emailing it to the person again the person replied saying that no where in my listing did it say it was an ebook (It did about 20 times plus it said it was a .pdf file). They said that I am going to ship them the real book and they arent paying for shipping or they are reporting me to ebay. So, I emailed them back and said that I would refund them since they thought it was a real physical book and it was only $1.25 .
I refunded the person and then they emailed me again and here is what they said : "So....you are emailing a person a copyrighted item??? Something I can download & print out myself??? A copyrighted item??? That's called illegal!!!!!!!!!!! I am reporting all of your items to ebay!!!!!! I am calling ebay and the police!!!!!!!!!"

Now, here is the thing. This is my only source of income now since I lost my job so i depend on selling these books. They are all written by me! They aren't copyrighted by anyone but me! Well, i didnt think much of it I even got the buyer to agree to close the sale and I got back my FVF. Well, guess what happened today. All 55 of my listings were pulled off ebay but I decided to relist them and so far they are still going as normal. The person also hasnt left any feedback yet. Should I be worried of getting my account cancelled because this person thinks that im doing something illegal? How do i keep this person from emailing me on ebay because they wont stop? Even though I refunded them and closed the sale completely they are still demanding that i send them the physical book for free and now they want the .53 paypal fee that was charged to them. You see when I refunded them paypal took .53 cents in their fees and this person doesnt understand that. What should I do?

[oompaloompa]

I know you say you are in the right on this but relisting without straightening it out with ebay may lead to suspension..relisting pulled auctions is dangerous

I dont think that buyer can give feedback if you cancelled sale and got FVF back

keep this ebayers emails and forward them as evidence of harrassment, they could possibly be a competitor on a different account....or just a psycho..

give them whatever thy want in terms of fee, some people are petty

[bigbadbiddy]

To make things worse they logged in to a different account and did the same thing just a few minutes ago and posted negative feedback! I have reported the person to ebay!

[bigbadbiddy]

I believe this person is just trying to get me banned on ebay! They have created 3 different accounts and i have now blocked all 3 from bidding on my items but I have paid the price on one because they bought 3 items this morning and left neg. feeback for them and i didnt even send them to the person yet. I reported this person to ebay hoping to get the negatives removed as well as get this person to stop harrassong me. I dont know what they have against me.

[EmptyPockets]

I went through something similar, although not ebooks. Sounds to me like a competitor or another seller trying to be sh!tty, and not just some buyer with a vendetta.

If you dont want alot of problems with your account, I wouldnt relist what they previously removed. Are these buyers using brand new accounts? Ebay can track alot of this activity if alerted by you - unless they are members of this forum and have read eBay Stealth then you might just be at a loss.

Sorry I dont have any 'real useful' info for you but I'm sure others will chime in with some ideas.

FYI, I finally figured out how to stop these people when I had the problems and that was to not sale anything so cheaply ($2 - $3 items) When they stand to have more money tied up, they dont do this crap as often to my experience.

Good luck

[Here We Go Again]

I had a buyer last year follow me through 4 different accounts selling the same style item.
I totally stopped selling that item for 9 months and just let my inventory of that item sit.
I started back up last month and have not heard a word from them.

OP:

If you write these ebooks yourself, are you placing a copyright notice at the absolute very beginning of the ebook? It's perfectly legal to sell those copyrighted ebooks if YOU hold the copyright.

This post is
Copyright 2009 Vic Velcro LLC and released to the public. No rights reserved.

[bigbadbiddy]

Yes, i have put all copyrights and everything on the listings and the books. Now someone else is doing the same thing to me. The only bad thing is it seems that about 3 out of 10 people are thinking that I am selling a real book. I dont accept returns anymore because of people hitting buy it now and then after paying realizing they bought an ebook. I dont understand why people dont read the description. I mean when you say its an ebook over 20 times in the listing and i say it will be emailed you think that they would know its not a physical book. But time and time again they keep getting mad because they didnt receive the physical book.

[EmptyPockets]

Have you tried at the very top of your listing in RED BOLD letters stating it is NOT a physical book etc. etc. Before they even have to scroll, its visible?

Just an idea

[ebay got me again]

I know it sounds stupid but you and i know what an ebook is but maybe 3 outa the 10 dont maybe they just think you accidentally hit the e before you wrote book and just purchase it thinking there really getting a book. Maybe put in the title or subtitle that this is not an hardback or softback book its a book you get recieve via email and maybe put that in the heading when you open up your auction site. You'de be surprised how stupid people are. The other thing is maybe swicth your name on ebay or create another account.

[bigbadbiddy]

Well believe it or not it says ebook in all of the titles as well. It really blows my mind how people can be. Answer me this. I just had to people buy it now for my ebooks. Here are there user names: aznfrenchex with 0 feedback and aznkillerz69 with 1 feedback. Is it just me or is this probably the same person trying to get me again.

[Lyda]

Do you require "Immediate payment" by PayPal in your listings? Since you can't block 0 feedback buyers, you can at least request immediate payment with Buy It Now... Most 0 feedback sellers who created accounts for harassing competition, will not have paypal with it.

[Here We Go Again]

^^^^^^^^^^^
ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding

[Lyda]

Actualy, I have to give credit for this little "self-defence" trick to you HWGA! You mentioned it in one of your posts I read quite some time ago in similar thread.. I just remembered it.