Another ebay member to avoid!

Barnezy

I recommend all add penguin767 to their eBay blocked list. 

He he made a £100 bid, followed by a £101 bid for a Martin DJrE I’m selling. On the second offer I declined stating I might consider £102 hoping he would make his 3rd and final offer so I could decline it and not have to deal with him anymore. 

Since then I have received 15 messages in the last 12 hours stating I’m now legally obligated to sell this to him, demanding my address details, threading legal action from his QC mate, to get his mates to bid on my other items to ruin the auctions etc. 

Clearly the guy is a nutcase and one to avoid. I can see from his feedback he’s done it before but has had it overturned by eBay. And by the looks of it he buys guitars regularly.

Ive reported to him to eBay and they “are taking action”, whatever that means. 

Admin suggestion: Can we create a sticky feed where people can add dubious eBayers so we can all add them to our blocked lists? 

SouthpawMark

Just add him to your block list. If you’ve not accepted an offer, than you’re under no obligation to sell.

prowla

I wish ebay also had an option to block sellers.

(Not related to the OP, BTW! :-) )

digitalscream

Barnezy said:

Admin suggestion: Can we create a sticky feed where people can add dubious eBayers so we can all add them to our blocked lists? 

While I appreciate the idea, it's a "no" for several reasons:

1 - The overhead of dealing with it for the modmins is too high.

2 - We're going to get sucked into arguments over stuff that happened on eBay all over the place and sellers/buyers there who think they've been wrongly accused.

3 - While I'm happy with policing this site for scammers as much as best-efforts will allow, it's most definitely not our job to police eBay/Gumtree/Facebook/etc as well.

Sorry

skunkwerx

Even if they do make a bid, the auction ends and you accept, the legal part baffles me because they still pull out and all ebay does it note it on their account. 

Recently I had a set of alloys up. Guy bids, wins them, then 3 days after the auction had ended I still hadnt had payment, and I get a message from the buyer saying 'his mums in hospital in spain, so he cant buy them now and to relist' all the usual shite. 

Ebay obviously took their % cut from me because the sale 'happened', so I had to go through the process of claiming it back, which I did get.. so I'm no money down but still have the wheels. 

Barnezy

Fair and understood

Barnezy

skunkwerx said:

Even if they do make a bid, the auction ends and you accept, the legal part baffles me because they still pull out and all ebay does it note it on their account. 

Recently I had a set of alloys up. Guy bids, wins them, then 3 days after the auction had ended I still hadnt had payment, and I get a message from the buyer saying 'his mums in hospital in spain, so he cant buy them now and to relist' all the usual shite. 

Ebay obviously took their % cut from me because the sale 'happened', so I had to go through the process of claiming it back, which I did get.. so I'm no money down but still have the wheels. 

There is no contract agreed until the transaction is complete. Even if the buyer had paid, you could have pulled out yourself. No one is obligated to sell what is there's even if an value of exchange has been agreed. 

I've had several selling pull out after an auction has completed, as they've not liked the final value. They've made excuses like the item is damaged to avoid a bad profile on eBay, but they have every right not to finalise the deal if they don't want to, no matter how frustrating it might be. 

UnclePsychosis

Barnezy said:

I recommend all add penguin767 to their eBay blocked list. 

He he made a £100 bid, followed by a £101 bid for a Martin DJrE I’m selling. On the second offer I declined stating I might consider £102 hoping he would make his 3rd and final offer so I could decline it and not have to deal with him anymore. 

Since then I have received 15 messages in the last 12 hours stating I’m now legally obligated to sell this to him, demanding my address details, threading legal action from his QC mate, to get his mates to bid on my other items to ruin the auctions etc. 

Clearly the guy is a nutcase and one to avoid. I can see from his feedback he’s done it before but has had it overturned by eBay. And by the looks of it he buys guitars regularly.

Ive reported to him to eBay and they “are taking action”, whatever that means. 

Admin suggestion: Can we create a sticky feed where people can add dubious eBayers so we can all add them to our blocked lists? 

I don't understand why you'd engage with the guy in the first place.

If people make stupid bids, just decline them. Or better yet, set a sensible auto-decline limit then you don't even need to see them. 

It's like the people who send messages to delusional sellers - just steer clear of the nutters altogether, no good will come of trying to reason with people who are clearly beyond it in the first place. 

Barnezy

You're completely right!

ICBM

UnclePsychosis said:

I don't understand why you'd engage with the guy in the first place.

If people make stupid bids, just decline them. Or better yet, set a sensible auto-decline limit then you don't even need to see them. 

It's like the people who send messages to delusional sellers - just steer clear of the nutters altogether, no good will come of trying to reason with people who are clearly beyond it in the first place. 

This. Don't try to be a smart-arse.

Do not tell low-ballers their offers are too low, just ignore them.

Do not tell sellers their items are overpriced.

Do not reply, do not engage, do not pass Go, do not get into an argument with an idiot - they will drag you down to their level and then win by experience.

Wonky

When I've got the available funds I buy loads of stuff off Ebay and have spent many thousands on guitars.  I've had some seriously amazing guitars off there.  So it really grips my shit when all these scammers start messing things up. What I'd like to say to sellers though is that there are decent, honest buyers out there.  Don't give up guys, just be wise and get to know your buyer.  There are obviously low lives on there, but there are in any walk of life.  I think as a seller you maybe just have to be savvy.  

Simon_M

Barnezy said:

I recommend all add penguin767 to their eBay blocked list. 

Admin suggestion: Can we create a sticky feed where people can add dubious eBayers so we can all add them to our blocked lists? 

I second this.

Barnezy

Just a few snippets from the 20+ messages he’s sent me in the past 24hrs. 

“I’ll be advising the ‘winning’ bidder of the situation at the end of your illegal auction - it’s only fair, don’t you agree?”

“If you had any sense you would follow my advice and correct this situation now thus saving yourself trouble and expense. 
Bye for now - see you in court.
Robert Alan”

“I’ll give you until tomorrow at noon to accept your obligations under our legally binding contract. I sincerely hope you do as I would hate for you to be financially punished with damages and my legal costs.”

“I have now consulted my genuine legal adviser (QC) who has confirmed he will be happy, considering our friendship, to do this for me ‘Pro bono’. You’d be best just to concede now. Otherwise he’ll be asking for damages and his normal fees to be paid.“

“That’s fine I’ll raise a complaint. I’ve also asked my friends to bid for me so it’s blocked until EBay sort it out.”

“I’m sure, like me, you wish to avoid any unnecessary unpleasantness. I am an OAP living on pension but I am a reasonable Christian man.”

Where do these people come from! 

Epsilon

At some stage this becomes harassment. Despite the bad rep I actually find ebay customer service is very good if you get someone on the phone (don't use the chat system or email). Once you get a human looking at the messages they can hopefeully take some slightly more forceful action against this account.

For myself, I have added them to my blocked buyers list!

Barnezy

Absolutely it’s harassment. I blocked him this morning but the messages keep coming. 

Good shout, I’ve only spoken on on chat with eBay about this. I’ll request a call tomorrow. 

Modellista

Unlucky. You’ve stumbled across a right fantasist there. 

crunchman

Simon_M said:

Barnezy said:

I recommend all add penguin767 to their eBay blocked list. 

Admin suggestion: Can we create a sticky feed where people can add dubious eBayers so we can all add them to our blocked lists? 

I second this.

These scammers keep changing their names.  There was another thread where the guy had had several usernames.  I don't think it would work.

That's on top of the other reasons given by digitalscream.

Barnezy

crunchman said:

Simon_M said:

Barnezy said:

I recommend all add penguin767 to their eBay blocked list. 

Admin suggestion: Can we create a sticky feed where people can add dubious eBayers so we can all add them to our blocked lists? 

I second this.

These scammers keep changing their names.  There was another thread where the guy had had several usernames.  I don't think it would work.

That's on top of the other reasons given by digitalscream.

True, this guy only seem to use this account for buying. 

fastonebaz

He sounds like thre sort of guy who would tell you that you have won $466456567 and he needs you ti last his bank transfer fees first. 

UnclePsychosis

The guy is clearly nuts.

Make sure you block him from bidding or buying on your auctions and phone eBay tomorrow. Don't respond to any messages in the meantime. 

Voxman

The guys clearly a nutter.  But I'm a bit confused. Did he make a bid or did the auction invite offers? If the latter, surely all you need do is decline any unreasonable or unacceptable offer?  

I'm also far from convinced one person could actually enforce a sale on another because an eBay auction is not a true auction as defined in legislation.  eBays status means it doesn't act and perform in the same way as a true auctioneer.  And regardless of what ebay might tell people or internet opinions (even from lawyers) as far as I'm aware there is as yet no legal precedent as there have been no test cases on this in the courts.