Competitor Got Me Banned from 3 Stealth - Need Advice

[Zola10]

Hi Guys,
A very long story short, I found myself a great niche market on ebay and business was doing really well.

One of my customers started buying bulk from me & I screwed up by accepting payment direct outside of eBay. ..

My account gets closed down out of the blue & within a week this guy is selling all the items I was selling. He must have researched & found my suppliers.

Turns out he was reporting me all along & even had the nerve to contact me under an alias asking where I was & had I opened a new shop...

He set up a new email but used his real name during the sign up and contacted me under the alias he was pretending to be.

I know 100% that this is the person who has destroyed my buziness.
He is still active after 20 negatives / 2000 positives @ 99.6%
My friend even called eBay & PayPal as he also sells some counterfeit stuff but he gets away with it.

I would really like some good advice for what to do about this guy.
It would have been fine to compete within the niche but he was very sly & cunning with how he destroyed me!

People say to me that Karma will come back on him but he is making a fortune now from my old customers while I struggle to support my family.

What would you do?

[SaiJin]

Start new. Grab the stealth guide if you haven't already done so and this time make sure that all your photos, description, prices, EVERYTHING is different.

This will make it harder for eBay to act on you even if he were to try.

Be smart and don't make the same mistakes again.

[bjammin]

what exactly did he report you for?

was you selling vero?

[Zola10]

Thanks for your replys.
I did purchase the Stealth Book last year which was great for getting me back on ebay.
The problem was that I was selling Vero items at the time & my competitor knew who to report me to.

I was just curious if any of you guys have dealt with the same issues & how you went about dealing with these people.

This is something I would never have even thought of doing before but this guy is a real nasty piece of work.
I know he has already had a 1 week suspension for selling counterfeit.
I reported him to the same company he used against me.
He has 21 negatives - 99.6%
How on earth has ebay kept him selling?

Any ideas guys?

[newjerseymax]

Originally Posted by Zola10

Thanks for your replys.
I did purchase the Stealth Book last year which was great for getting me back on ebay.
The problem was that I was selling Vero items at the time & my competitor knew who to report me to.

I was just curious if any of you guys have dealt with the same issues & how you went about dealing with these people.

This is something I would never have even thought of doing before but this guy is a real nasty piece of work.
I know he has already had a 1 week suspension for selling counterfeit.
I reported him to the same company he used against me.
He has 21 negatives - 99.6%
How on earth has ebay kept him selling?

Any ideas guys?

Use that energy to move unto more productive measures for yourself. You knock him down and 100's other waiting in line behind him.

Stay away from Phakes if you do and you wont have to worry about it.

in all honestly its the best move

[GoteBay]

I just have a feeling that honest sellers are being bullied by these ruthless self-acclaimed eBay watch-dogs. If this trend continues, we will have elephants fighting each other.

No mercy, an eye for an eye.

[Zola10]

Thanks for the messages guys.

What I can't understand is how this seller can still be active after over 20 negatives & already had a suspension for copyright infringement.

Has anybody seen anything like this from their own experience?
How would you deal with this guy if you were me.

[MM78]

At this point you should focus on getting back to selling and worry about your competitor.

[bjammin]

Originally Posted by Zola10

Thanks for the messages guys.

What I can't understand is how this seller can still be active after over 20 negatives & already had a suspension for copyright infringement.

Has anybody seen anything like this from their own experience?
How would you deal with this guy if you were me.

Negative FB affect how buyers view his transactions. Negative FB doesnt always mean that he was reported or suspended for anything. I do not think you would be able to find out if he was suspended, restricted, or even warned before.

If you try to play this game with him, then you will eventually both get battered. If you want revenge, you should do something less obvious for him to re-retaliate.

Creative minds can do awesome things when inspired properly.

[Zola10]

Originally Posted by bjammin

Negative FB affect how buyers view his transactions. Negative FB doesnt always mean that he was reported or suspended for anything. I do not think you would be able to find out if he was suspended, restricted, or even warned before.

If you try to play this game with him, then you will eventually both get battered. If you want revenge, you should do something less obvious for him to re-retaliate.

Creative minds can do awesome things when inspired properly.

This is indeed very sound advise.
Part of me wants to just dust off & move on but I want revenge for everything I went through.

Eye for an eye is the only true justice for this situation in my opinion.
It just seems very wrong that I should allow this asshole to prosper.
If anybody can offer some help or advise I would really appreciate it.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by Zola10

Eye for an eye is the only true justice for this situation in my opinion.
It just seems very wrong that I should allow this asshole to prosper.
If anybody can offer some help or advise I would really appreciate it.

Take from me, it is not.

But before going too far to the dark side, take time-out.

Cool down. For every action, there is a reaction.

Look after yourself first.

[Dmshark25]

The best productive way is to move forward and keep building accounts , the more accounts you have the less you will be targeted if u look like a occasional seller

And if u do get hit again by competition it won't be more than a tiny sting if it's me account of many.

Acting out of emotion and anger will get you no where positive especially when seeking revenge.

You need to keep building and learn from your mistakes so that u prevent this from happening in the future

[pr0wake]

ive dealt with this before.. customers who force you to call the police.

I never like calling the police for anything, so when that moment comes, I'm infuriated.


best to listen to the goddess of wisdom and beauty's advice

[kingdomcome84]

This has happened to me 2yrs ago when I didn't know about stealth at the time. I was making a fortune selling digital items. One buyer who seems to know my business model bought from me. I sent the code to him thru eBay message and he replied it didn't work. I sent him another one and he also said that didn't work either. Me looking back now i would of just refunded the buyer but instead i got into a heated argument with buyer and he said he will report me.

An hour later i was indefinitely restricted from selling. I tried to avenge the buyer by buying items from his account but he lived in the UK and doesn't ship outside the UK. i tried this for a few weeks but then i gave up and focused on getting back on ebay instead

[undercoverdon]

What a devilish way to eliminate someone.

Sorry but its part of the game and this is why stealth accounts are important. When there is competition on ebay, people would rather think of ways to eliminate the seller completely instead of being professional and thinking of fair ways for more people to buy their product.

Personally, I would focus on getting myself back up, having stealth accounts and learning from mistakes.

Wish the best for you.

[Heisenberg1]

Originally Posted by GoteBay

I just have a feeling that honest sellers are being bullied by these ruthless self-acclaimed eBay watch-dogs. If this trend continues, we will have elephants fighting each other.

No mercy, an eye for an eye.

AGREED, 10000%---to the first part about honest sellers being bullied by self-proclaimed watchdogs. And these watchdogs are dirty as anything. I am thoroughly disgusted by ebay in many ways.

[pokerpro]

LOL...join the club!

[oompaloompa]

your issue is, do you have the time and accounts to burn down this seller? if you do, then you could mess up their account- they might just start up another though and they may take revenge back on you...

then again, they may just give up.

you do not have a crystal ball...competition like this is the hardest thing on ebay to get past, as it is personal. you can slip past a corporation as they are not specifically after you, but competition is nastier...

another thing is never rely on ebay for all your income.

[rsot]

@Zola10, too much analysis of this other seller - if you can't compete, change your business model or market niche.

[undercoverdon]

Originally Posted by oompaloompa

your issue is, do you have the time and accounts to burn down this seller? if you do, then you could mess up their account- they might just start up another though and they may take revenge back on you...

then again, they may just give up.

you do not have a crystal ball...competition like this is the hardest thing on ebay to get past, as it is personal. you can slip past a corporation as they are not specifically after you, but competition is nastier...

another thing is never rely on ebay for all your income.

It's soo unreliable, you could be out of the game easily.

[skinnyhardaway]

Originally Posted by rsot

@Zola10, too much analysis of this other seller - if you can't compete, change your business model or market niche.

I must agree.

[isitworththestress]

I am afraid that is ebay in a nutshell. Far too easy for idiots to be giving more power than they can handle with any kind of dignity.

But then you spend too much time thinking about it and all you will want to do is throw in the towel.

Forget about the idiot, if it is costing you money to constantly think about them and start taking some of the great advice you have been giving on this thread.

You never know this fresh start may just bring in better options for the future than you would have ever thought of otherwise.