What shall we do with an eBay seller… early in the morning.
Leave him/her negative feedback until he’s sober?
To get to the point; I bought some audio books on eBay last week. The listing did say that they were MP3 audio books, but I didn’t think much of that, and handed over some hard-earned cash to snaffle them. Now that they’ve arrived, they are indeed MP3 audio books, but unfortunately seem to be home-made pirated editions copied onto a DVD. I haven’t left this seller any feedback yet, but looking over the past comments, other people have made the same observation. So, denizens of the Dope, I turn to you in your infinite wisdom - what would you do in this situation?
Yeah, it seems harsh to leave flat out neg feedback, but clearly you and other customers are not getting what is being touted in the auctions. To the gallows, I say!
Er, uh, I mean, yeah, I agree, I also think you should leave negative feedback.
Always always always- talk to the seller before leaving a NEG. Explain (politely) that you thought these were originals and that you (due to moral reasons) have chosen to not own dups. Ask for a full and complet refund, and give a time limit. If the refund is given, no reason to leave any FB at all.
If you have paid through Paypal, make sure you start your dispute timely.
Yep, it happened to me as well, maybe 5 years ago. Ordered a Charlotte’s Web as read by E.B. White, when it came was obviously an illegal rip-off. I exchanged e-mails with the seller, who acted maybe 15 years old. Left negative feedback, to which he left negative feedback.
His “out” was that he’d labeled it CDr (just like that), in the description so that “anyone should know” they were getting a copy. Of course, the photo was of the original cover art, not a Memorex CD lettered in Sharpie.
Pissed, I tracked down the copyright holder (a giant German conglomerate these days, bought out the American publisher) and somehow found an e-mail address for a legal firm representing the company. Sent a long e-mail with explanations, and links.
Lo and behold, the lawyer not only contacted me back with a very polite thank you, but he laid a heavy-duty “cease and desist” on the offender, whose handle shortly after left eBay.
Then, in a moment of pure class, the lawyer followed up to describe what had been done and sent a complimentary copy of the original Charlotte’s Web and another audiobook CD with the company’s additional thanks.
I’m not saying that’s what would happen in your case, but it did on this one. I’m still tickled about it.
In the case of counterfeit goods, I understand it is possible to file a Significantly Not As Described dispute (if paid for vis PayPal), but instead of returning the item, it can be handed over to Trading Standards, and the receipt they give can be used in lieu of a proof of return.
I think you should leave negative feedback and skip asking for a refund. He is pirating , and if you accept an offer of a refund in exchange for no negative feedback he’ll just rip-off someone else.
I agree with pretty much all of the above - but be careful when leaving negative feedback… if you leave the Neg before they have a chance to leave you feedback, they can retaliate w/ a Neg against you and even if you post a note explaining the feedback - it’ll count against you.
Personal experience, I recently purchased an eBook, which turned out to be information ripped off from a couple of magazines’ websites. The text and diagrams were directly lifted, with links that still pointed to the original website. I emailed the copyright holders. One of them sent me a nice letter of gratitude and a free copy of their bookazine. Presumably their legal department is currently having words with the pirates. I’ll leave it to them to sort it out.
Thanks for all the opinions. I’ve contacted the seller - I know it’s a wimpy cop-out and I should take a strong stand, but I feel they should at least get the chance to explain themselves. If there’s no reply, I’ll take it further.
In the future, you might want to read feedback before bidding/buying. Other than that, I’d say it’s nice of you to give them a chance to respond before leaving feedback. I think that’s what I’d do to see if they’d refund the money on their own. Even if they do, still report 'um!
Here’s the thing, though - the seller’s feedback score was well over 99%, with only two negative, IIRC. I do normally check the feedback score and read the last few comments before bidding, and I had to go digging to find the negatives and realise that I wasn’t the only one this had happened to. Oh well. Caveat emptor, I suppose. Just have to be more careful in future.
