Buyer from HELL! Insists on return & threatens negative feedback!

Mar 7, 2006
3,147
13
Ladies in all my years of eBay selling I have never felt my blood boil like this.....really have to get this off my chest tonight. In every single one of my auctions I post countless in-detail photos and specify an all sales final/no returns policy (luckily never met any bad apples, never had any a single person asking for a return....occasionally a shoe doesn't fit and I gladly offer exchange for another size even outside the terms of the auction policy and buyers of course appreciate it).

I recently sold a pair of Manolo Blahnik Nude Patent "Ringo" sandals on eBay....yes those ones seen on Ashley Olsen and on the runways. I posted 17 photos of the shoe, showing every single angle and color under different types of lighting. The color is labeled in the auction as "NUDE", as anyone familiar with MB shoes or CL shoes, or other high-end designer shoes) would refer to it as....and also as most other sellers of that shoe referred to it as. The photos speak for themselves (as anyone who buys a lot of high-end items on eBay would know -- photos speak louder than words, much much louder). That shoe in patent only came in two colors (ever), black and nude (no other colors....so it's not like it's hard to distinguish the two).

The winning bidder (waspy22 -- avoid at all costs!!) gets the shoes and proceeds to email me with accusations that the shade of nude is not as she expected, not the shade she wants (she wanted a beige shade of nude, whereas the "nude" produced by MB, CL, other high-end brands these days are more of a mauve/pinkish-based nude)....and hence the item was significantly not as described.. She says that the MB box has the official color name/code in tiny font printed as "Fodera Rose" and my calling the color "nude" was wrong and intentionally misleading -- I should have described the color as "Fodera Rose", NOT nude in the listing. The 17 photos posted do not matter to her b/c she says photos are subjective, that "pictures shown for any item on ebay are difficult to distinguish subtleties." The fact that every single MB boutique sales associate & Barneys/BG/NM sales associate (I welcomed her to call MB in NY/Vegas, BG, Barneys, & check with shoe salon SA's there about the MB "nude Ringo"), everyone who's ever bought that shoe & is familiar with that shoe on tPF/tFS/etc., and just about every other eBay seller who's sold this shoe referred to it as "nude" (and by common sense) also does not matter to her. Buyer says "I am sure it would have been a more difficult sale if the shoes were listed as 'Fedora Rose' or 'Pink' as opposed to 'nude'....but it cannot be up to the seller to change the actual facts of the shoe based on an opinion."

So according to her, it is my fault that (1) she is blind to 17 photos clearly depicting the true color of the shoe (as well as photos from the runway), (2) in her mind, "nude" equals "beige tone" and her ideal shade of "nude" on her skin tone is different from the "nude" that MB/CL/other designers produce nowadays.

She says "If you choose to not refund the purchase in it's entirety for your misleading color naming I will have no choice other than to leave feedback accordingly. . . . I have been a design director for many major high end fashion brands for the last 20 years & know quite a bit about the business far beyond being a seller." (great...i'd love to know which fashion brand those are!)

I am beyond flabbergasted. It's like selling a red Chanel bag with countless photos and then a buyer says, oh it's not the shade of red I wanted......or selling a Chanel "East-West" flap and then having a buyer say it's not what they wanted because the commonly-referred-to style name "East-West" is not printed on the tag/box.....thank God I've never had any of those tricks played on me.

What would you do in this situation? Buyer says she's already decided on sending the shoes back despite my all sales final policy. So am I basically out of luck for dealing with such a buyer from hell?
 
Ladies in all my years of eBay selling I have never felt my blood boil like this.....really have to get this off my chest tonight. In every single one of my auctions I post countless in-detail photos and specify an all sales final/no returns policy (luckily never met any bad apples, never had any a single person asking for a return....occasionally a shoe doesn't fit and I gladly offer exchange for another size even outside the terms of the auction policy and buyers of course appreciate it).

I recently sold a pair of Manolo Blahnik Nude Patent "Ringo" sandals on eBay....yes those ones seen on Ashley Olsen and on the runways. I posted 17 photos of the shoe, showing every single angle and color under different types of lighting. The color is labeled in the auction as "NUDE", as anyone familiar with MB shoes or CL shoes, or other high-end designer shoes) would refer to it as....and also as most other sellers of that shoe referred to it as. The photos speak for themselves (as anyone who buys a lot of high-end items on eBay would know -- photos speak louder than words, much much louder). That shoe in patent only came in two colors (ever), black and nude (no other colors....so it's not like it's hard to distinguish the two).

The winning bidder (waspy22 -- avoid at all costs!!) gets the shoes and proceeds to email me with accusations that the shade of nude is not as she expected, not the shade she wants (she wanted a beige shade of nude, whereas the "nude" produced by MB, CL, other high-end brands these days are more of a mauve/pinkish-based nude)....and hence the item was significantly not as described.. She says that the MB box has the official color name/code in tiny font printed as "Fodera Rose" and my calling the color "nude" was wrong and intentionally misleading -- I should have described the color as "Fodera Rose", NOT nude in the listing. The 17 photos posted do not matter to her b/c she says photos are subjective, that "pictures shown for any item on ebay are difficult to distinguish subtleties." The fact that every single MB boutique sales associate & Barneys/BG/NM sales associate (I welcomed her to call MB in NY/Vegas, BG, Barneys, & check with shoe salon SA's there about the MB "nude Ringo"), everyone who's ever bought that shoe & is familiar with that shoe on tPF/tFS/etc., and just about every other eBay seller who's sold this shoe referred to it as "nude" (and by common sense) also does not matter to her. Buyer says "I am sure it would have been a more difficult sale if the shoes were listed as 'Fedora Rose' or 'Pink' as opposed to 'nude'....but it cannot be up to the seller to change the actual facts of the shoe based on an opinion."

So according to her, it is my fault that (1) she is blind to 17 photos clearly depicting the true color of the shoe (as well as photos from the runway), (2) in her mind, "nude" equals "beige tone" and her ideal shade of "nude" on her skin tone is different from the "nude" that MB/CL/other designers produce nowadays.

She says "If you choose to not refund the purchase in it's entirety for your misleading color naming I will have no choice other than to leave feedback accordingly. . . . I have been a design director for many major high end fashion brands for the last 20 years & know quite a bit about the business far beyond being a seller." (great...i'd love to know which fashion brand those are!)

I am beyond flabbergasted. It's like selling a red Chanel bag with countless photos and then a buyer says, oh it's not the shade of red I wanted......or selling a Chanel "East-West" flap and then having a buyer say it's not what they wanted because the commonly-referred-to style name "East-West" is not printed on the tag/box.....thank God I've never had any of those tricks played on me.

What would you do in this situation? Buyer says she's already decided on sending the shoes back despite my all sales final policy. So am I basically out of luck for dealing with such a buyer from hell?


Ugh!! It is amazing what kind of deceitful tricks buyers have up their sleeves!! You were more then nice to this buyer!! Good for you!! Is her feedback good? If she has bad or iffy feedback, I would take the negative feedback. Anything she says is going to be a lie. Good luck!!
 
It sounds like she might be having buyer's remorse and coming up any reason that she can think of to return the item. If she insists on sending it back, I would first check to see if she is sent you a counterfeit pair of shoes (I know bait and switches are more common with bags), if she wore them already, etc. I think that you should reiterate to her your policy, but if she still makes a fuss, after checking to make sure everything is okay, you could refund her the cost of the shoes minus your costs, like the listing, final value, shipping fees, etc.
 
Don't give her a dime, and let her leave her stinking negative!! She doesn't want a full refund, she's blackmailing you for a partial refund. If you do a full refund she might bait and switch the shoes or damage them before sending them back. Don't sweat the negative, in a few months we are ALL going to have a lot more negs thanks to Ebay's new feedback system. Just tell her all sales are final and you are sorry she can't see the pictures clearly.
 
UGH...I hate blackmail. I had the same thing happen a few months ago with an LV. I ended up taking back my LV because I had no other choice. I did not want a negative and I've got nine years under my belt with Ebay. I couldn't bear the blackmail, but I couldn't bear the negative even more. A lot of buyers who are liars out there right now. Not a pretty picture for Ebay. Sorry, I'd advise accepting the return.
 
It sounds like she might be having buyer's remorse and coming up any reason that she can think of to return the item. If she insists on sending it back, I would first check to see if she is sent you a counterfeit pair of shoes (I know bait and switches are more common with bags), if she wore them already, etc. I think that you should reiterate to her your policy, but if she still makes a fuss, after checking to make sure everything is okay, you could refund her the cost of the shoes minus your costs, like the listing, final value, shipping fees, etc.

Thanks for this advice. Despite my stating that all sales are final and that this is clearly a case of buyer's remorse here, she's insisting that she's already sent them back (well she started email communication with me only today). I then said there will be a restocking fee involved....and guess what, she responds saying that if she doesn't get every single penny back, be prepared to suffer in your feedback (I have 100% positive feedback so far, Gold PowerSeller dealing with mostly very high-end items, $500-$3k range).

I called my PowerSeller account manager about this and will wait to hear back from him (this level of buyer-seller confrontation/threatening is completely new to me). I just emailed the buyer cautioning her not to play any games with scamming tricks as I've heard every single one in the books and am prepared to go the full length with anyone trying to pull a trick on me.

I'm not worried about re-selling them b/c I had other bidders and this is a rare shoe at below retail (not to mention a rare size).....heck if she resells it she could very likely get more. Thankfully, this is also a relatively lowered-valued item compard to most other things I sell (and I've never had anyone else who buys $1k-$3k things from me wanting to return in all my years of eBay selling) so I'm glad it's not someone potentially scamming me out of a huge sum in the thousands. But it's the principle part that's getting my blood boiling. I have nothing to hide and even offered to give her SA names at MB boutique in NYC and at BG/Barneys to have her call them directly about this shoe.....and all she keeps saying is that she has years of experience as "design director" for "fashion brands."

God, can you imagine if/when eBay changes into a system where buyers do not receive feedback?.....it could be all hell broken lose with buyers threatening sellers with nothing to lose on their end.
 
What would you do in this situation?

I'd tell the bi*ch that she got exactly what was described and that if she doesn't like them she should resell them. I'd also tell her to feel free to leave whatever feedback she'd like and that I would be sure to do the same.

With eBay's new changes to their feedback policy, this is just the coming attaction. Buyers like this are going to come out of the woodwork and pull crap like this as never before.

Thanks for posting her user id by the way. I've already blocked her.
 
One thing I've LEARNED from this ordeal is that in the future maybe I better start putting in the auction listing every single esoteric color code/color description (be it Italian or French or whatever language it's in) and serial code on the tag/box/label (however many digits there are and regardless of what little meaning they have to 99.999% of the population) so as *one* more preventative measure against buyers like this one.
 
One thing I've LEARNED from this ordeal is that in the future maybe I better start putting in the auction listing every single esoteric color code/color description (be it Italian or French or whatever language it's in) and serial code on the tag/box/label (however many digits there are and regardless of what little meaning they have to 99.999% of the population) so as *one* more preventative measure against buyers like this one.

:roflmfao::roflmfao: The only thing that sucks it there are too many buyers who will still find a way to twist your listing on you. You can't win. No spreaken any known language to man :lol:
 
If what she says is true now, that she has returned the shoes, if the shoes are in perfect condition and everything is in tact, I would refund her money.

However, if this is another scam of hers and the shoes get "lost" on their way to you, I would not refund one red cent.

If she hasn't returned the shoes, I would just take the negative feedback. Your auction was specific about your return policy and you had 17 (wow!) photos of the shoes. Let her file a claim, I'm sure you would prevail in any Paypal claim.

I'm a small potatoes seller compared to you. I had one extremely negative transaction where someone claimed I sold a fake Coach purse (it wasn't). I took the negative and I've survived with a 99.9% positive with over 300 feedback. You as a power seller will too.
 
I'm so sorry to hear this. Ebay is getting to be a nightmare....how I long for the days , even before Paypal, when there was honesty and integrity on ebay. I feel for you. Hope things work out in your favor. It seems there is no end to what people will do anymore....
 
Just because of her threats alone I would not refund her. I would refuse the package when it comes!


i kind of agree,,,shes telling you that if she doesnt get every cent back shes - you anyway,,,and so you are not going to be able to charge a restocking fee or you will get a - ANYWAY so why not just refuse the package and take the - anyway if shes gonna hit you with it one way or another,,,

or if you are worried she will do a chargeback,,then only partially refund her and take the - i know you dont want to :sad: SO you could just fully refund her and hope all goes well but from the way shes talking i have a bad feeling she is not going to leave you + feedback at all :sad: