eBay sellers are no longer surprised at the behavior of "bad buyers," whose existence eBay has acknowledged. But a recent case described on an eBay discussion board thread shocked even longtime participants.
In "Mail Forwarding Buyer has left almost 1000 Neg-Feedbacks to Sellers," the poster wrote: "His grift is a hard-forward set at his home in Lake City, FL. He takes advantage of eBay's automated delivery tracking & as soon as the forwarding alert triggers, he files a did not receive" claim.
A reader sent us a link to the eBay thread, indicating he believes the "buyer" is actually a seller who is drop-shipping by sending his eBay purchases to his own buyers:
"The writer of the topic is warning eBay sellers of a buyer who is forwarding purchases to his buyer and having eBay refund his purchase. He apparently is a drop shipper, and found a way to game the system by "blind forwarding" items purchased and then filing INR claims with eBay. In addition, his feedback given to sellers is jaw dropping (see ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_profile/ (eBay User ID redacted).
"This terrible eBay user, (eBay User ID redacted), deserves to be outed in an article somewhere. Since I imagine publishing an article like this doesn't conform to your editorial standards, consider an article about "blind forwarding."
"As an eBay seller for years, I had never heard about buyers/package recipients forwarding items and claiming non-receipt to get refunds. At the very least, this threat to sellers deserves more attention, especially since eBay has been allowing this (eBay User ID redacted) to do this for years."
An eBay community mentor weighed in and wrote:
"Sellers are only responsible for the shipment to the address they actually shipped it to. If the buyer somehow gets the carrier to forward it to a different address, that would be very questionable if the seller remains responsible for the item.
"What really surprises me is that eBay clearly doesn't have any protocol in place to catch a member that is so clearly abusing the feedback system. I think that is simply very odd."
Some commentors mistook the behavior for that of freight-forwarders who have sellers ship to their US addresses and then forward the items to their own international customers. In those cases, eBay only holds sellers responsible for getting the package to the US address provided. But this residential US buyer is forwarding the eBay orders he receives to people located in the US.
The fact the "buyer" was able to leave so many negative feedback ratings and comments against sellers was shocking. eBay wouldn't need AI tools to learn what was obvious to the buyer's "victims." If someone was so unhappy with his eBay purchases, why would he continue to shop there?
Another revelation to come out of the situation: eBay customer service representatives don't necessarily have familiarity with the feedback feature. The original poster wrote in one of his responses in the thread:
"I contacted an eBay support escalation rep about it Sunday, in which I had to show the support rep where to find the "feedback left of others" section of their feedback. Support rep said "we normally don't go to this section", which I thought was odd. However, when the support rep did get to the 200 x 5 pages of 95% negative comments, she said "Oh my goodness" under her breath on the phone,..."
It's true that going to the buyer's main feedback page shows no red flags - unless or until you click on that "left for others" link, then it fairly screams off the page that something is wrong. That's because sellers aren't able to leave negative feedback for buyers, so the buyer in question has no negs to cloud his own account, but he has given sellers plenty of them.
There's a lot to this story - the original poster was attempting to alert other sellers that they could successfully win Item Not Received claims in such cases *and* get any associated negative feedback removed as a result.
Take a look at the post and comments in the thread and let us know what you think. And since we have redacted the User ID of the alleged bad buyer (and an eBay moderator removed it from the forum post), here's the first page of feedback he left for his sellers: 5 were positive and 20 were negative; of the feedback he left for sellers within the past month, 3 were positive, 9 were negative.
Never Got this. Tracking number was provided but the item never shipped. I just don't understand what is going on and why this did not ship. Totally unacceptable
Past month
Never got this. Shipping label created but it never shipped. What is the deal? Just don't understand your ebay intentions.
Past month
Ordered this and it never shipped in time but seller refunded me then relisted it again and when I won it the 2nd time he cancelled it. So that is 2 strikes against you. Shame on you.
Past month
Reply from: (REDACTED). Left within past month.
I’ve gotten message from several sellers that this buyer is unknown scammer. He has requested to send a different addresses and then say the item doesn’t show up. He has wrote bad negative feedback for a lot of sellers. Please disregard this feedback and the rest of my feedback speaks for itself. Shame on you buyer. You requested I canceled because you were impatient and couldn’t wait. You didn’t read or chose to ignore that I was out of town and there would be a delayed shipping.
Never got this. Thanks for the REFUND Ebay. Not sure what is going on with (SELLER NAME REDACTED)
Past month
Ordered 5 of these dolls and they never shipped. A tracking number was provided but the item never arrived so I filed a claim to get my money back. Thanks ebay for helping me out getting my money back. Not sure what is going on with this seller.
Past month
Loser Seller. Beware this person. You pay. You never get the item plus you never get the response. Total Scammer
Past month
Loser Seller. Have had problems with this Seller in the past. He was late the first time shipping the item. This time He never shipped it. I ordered this over 2 weeks ago and it never shipped. Horrible Ebay Seller. Beware this person. You may get scammed too.
Past month
Reply from: (REDACTED). Left within past month.
You were refunded and given a third funko for free.
Super Fast Delivery Thanks.
Past month
Super Fast Delivery Great Seller
Past month
Why did this take over a week to ship? Now it is late.
Past month
Why did this take a Week to ship?
Past month
Great Seller. Shipped and Delivered Fast Thanks.
Past month
Paid for this over a week ago and (SELLER NAME REDACTED) never shipped it. Obviously not a (SELLER NAME REDACTED) of a Seller. Contacting Ebay to get my money back. Horrible Experience.
Past 6 months
Why is this taking so long to get. Paid for it 10 days ago
Past 6 months
Seller Never shipped my item. Horrible Experience. Would not recommend this seller
Past 6 months
Super FAST Shipping. Thanks.
Past 6 months
Super Fast Shipping Thanks.
Past 6 months
Paid for this over a week ago and No Tracking and No Item. Great going.
Past 6 months
Why is this taking so long to ship? I paid for it 8 days ago. I should have had it by now. What is the problem?
Past 6 months
Why is this taking so long to get. Paid for it over a week ago and shipping label was created 5 days ago and still nothing What is this nonsense all about??
Past 6 months
Loser Seller. Paid for this 10 days ago and it never shipped. Don't buy from this person. You may get scammed too. Thanks (SELLER NAME REDACTED) Loser Seller.
Past 6 months
Paid for this 10 days ago and it has not shipped yet. Thanks, (SELLER NAME REDACTED) for ruining a birthday gift surprise. Time to contact eBay to get my money back.
Past 6 months
Never got this. It Was a gift and it never shipped. Shame on you. Wont buy from you again.
Past 6 months
Never got this. No Communication. When I asked for a tracking number No response. When I said I would leave bad feedback they refunded me with no explanation of where my item was. This is not the way to do business. Communication is needed to be a successful seller. What was the problem?
Past 6 months
Paid for this 9 days ago and it still has not shipped. Thanks for ruining a birthday gift. Horrible Seller. Time to contact ebay to get my money back.
Past 6 months
Reply from: (REDACTED). Left within past 6 months.
Thanks for not reading the "away" message that was posted when you bought the item ( I was out of town until the 14th of July)...on my portal it lists July 17th as the ship by date....
It is a bit puzzling why the buyer would take a scorched earth approach to feedback; if he hadn't, victimized sellers might not have been able to see the chronic pattern of his behavior.
And speaking of which, the original poster relayed the following patterns he observed in studying the buyer's feedback comments:
- Primary Complaint: Non-Shipment.
- Escalation to eBay.
- Use of "Scam" and "Shame."
- Ruined Gifts.
- Collector Focus.
What may also be frustrating to sellers: an eBay moderator went into the post on August 30 to delete the name of the alleged bad buyer, but 2 weeks later, it appears the user's account remains alive and well.
eBay Allows Bad Buyer with a Terrible Twist