False vero blackmail by competitors or joksters

[Teasly]

I had this happen several times now:

Newly registered buyer (0 feedback - can't block those) buys one of my items. Doesnt pay. Doesnt send or respond to ANY messages. Leaves negative feedback (something outrageous along the lines of "REPORTED THIS SELLER; ALL AUCTIONS ARE SCAMS!!!!!!).

Then goes on to report ALL my currently listed items via "report this item" link (I think) to eBay.

Result: A couple of minutes later, the several of my listings vanish (not all of them, but maybe three or four out of 10).

The joke is, I dont sell anything even remotely vero related. Some stuff are cheap collectibles, some stuff I made myself.
I STRONGLY suspect it's one or several "competitors" (which is ridiculous in my niche) or just people getting a kick out of hurting others.

One or two days later, the accounts of these people show up in eBay as "no longer registered", so they just register, do some heavy damage, and close their accounts again.

But of course theres nothing I can do to catch them, as surely theyre using fantasy addresses, too. I have the address and phone number of one such "buyer", tried calling, its a Google Voice number.

Is there anything at all I can do to protect myself against stuff liek that?

I know I cant block new users in general (also, every once in a while theres actually an honest user with 0 or 1 feedback who buys from me, pays and is really friendly).

On my auctions I started canceling bids from all 0 feedback users (but I dont think eBay is very happy about that either).

But what is there you can do on Buy It Now items?

[a.v.limited]

sounds like a competitor or a previous customer of yours who has a poor experience.

You use to be able to block the following ebayers -
What are buyer requirements?

You can block buyers from bidding on or purchasing your items by specifying buyer requirements. You can block buyers who:

Don't have a PayPal account
Have unpaid items recorded on their account
Have a primary delivery address in countries you don’t post to
Have breached eBay policies
Have a Feedback score lower than the number you specify
Are currently winning or have bought 1-100 of your items in the last 10 days (you can specify the number)

if they don't pay once you open the case against them the feedback will get removed once the case for non payment is closed

[JamesNorth101]

If they do not pay you can issue an unpaid item strike and this should remove any freedback that has been left.

[Teasly]

I dont think its a former customer because I cant recall any customer ever being seriously unhappy about a purchase from me.

Yes, I do block buyers using the buyer requirements you mentioned. But seeing as they use completely fresh accounts and delete their accounts after doing the deed, those requirements are completely useless in this case (also the minimum requirements you can set are still ridiculously high, like min. 4 breaches in 6 months - as if I would want to sell to someone who didnt get it after the 2nd breach).

Also, removing the neg feedback is not the problem. Although its annoying and Im sure it hurts my business when I have an auction running and the neg feedback is there even only for a day before it gets removed.

The REAL problem are the fantasy vero reports! I mean buying from me to leave neg feedback is only half of their strategy. The other one is obviously reporting all my auctions as policy violations just for the heck of it (even my items have nothing to do with vero, as I said).

I dont know if I can get eBay to ignore any further vero reports from new 0-feedback users. Actually I think they should disable that completely.
I mean its quite obvious that someone who is completely new to ebay and just registered yesterday isnt going to go around reporting legitimate copyright violations! Ask anyone who is legitimately new to ebay, they surely wont even know there is a reporting option.

By the way, is there any way I can check whether ebay has removed those false vero strikes from my account, along with the neg feedback? Seeing as the reported listings just vanish, is there an overview like "you have two vero complaints" or something, so I have a basis to complain against?

[a.v.limited]

vero complaints cant be from this guy really, unless he owns the rights to the items you are selling. Possibly they are high risk items you are selling that keep getting clamped down on, like oral b or something like that

best of luck

[JamesNorth101]

What take down notice are you getting?

[Teasly]

Originally Posted by a.v.limited

vero complaints cant be from this guy really, unless he owns the rights to the items you are selling.

No, just about abody can make these complaints. eBay doesnt check at all if the complainer actually owns the trademark! Thats the whole problem, you see.

Its actually no problem at all to nuke your competitors items off eBay this way. I cant believe this hasnt been discussed before.
All you got to do is click "Report item" on the auction page, and you get a form where you can enter stuff. Ive obviously never sent one off myself, but you could absolutely write some bull**** in there and send it off. eBay doesnt really check these manually, the item will be gone within minutes and there isnt anything you can do about it, cause those people just open new accounts and report your items again.

Thats whats been happening to me. Because as I said, I dont sell any trademarked, let alone high risk items.

Obviously this needs to change but I have no clue what to do about it.

[oompaloompa]

ebay is allowing this to happen to you, reporting IS looked at manually, and some seller accounts are marked as 'safe' and it depends on who reports you. A zero fb ebayer, with a weird accusation, would normally be swatted like a fly in terms of reporting...there is more to this, this is not normal.

As for negs, if they do not pay, they cannot leave a neg, again, explain this, are they paying?

[rsot]

Would also recommend more accounts and rotating sales to get this particular set of deadbeats to not target only 1 account so much...helps to lower all negative activity directed at one account.

[jamblix]

That's odd even for eB. What was the warning message that eB sent out for taking down your listings? They usually send some kind of MC warning along with listing take-downs to explain their "reasoning" behind it.