Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[Banners]

I spent a couple of hours trying to find out about her past dealings but to no avail, sorry. There are still a couple of things I want to try but I don't have high hopes. Frustrating.

Gosh, you truly are a legend! Thank you—I am humbled.

It's just amazing how this thing is still going around my head. I spent lots of time trying to find info online as I lay awake last night. I have the lady's name and email address, her home address registered with eBay, and also the address of the shop where the item 'should have' been delivered to.

It's not like I want to physically track her down, I'm just trying to find something – anything – that might explain her bizarre and spiteful behaviour.

[The Legendary Shark]

No probs. Sometimes, people link their Ebay activities with Facebook, Twitter, etc. See if she's been bragging on social media, message boards or a blog...

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

What gets my goat is those who buy an item and ask to cancel with comments like "I didn't realise I was bidding", or "I don't want it", or "I've changed my mind", or (my own favourite, given they set the bid) "it costs too much."

I just tell 'em to feck off and ignore them. One even had the cheek to email details of how a seller can cancel.

I've stood by a couple of deeply drunken purchases.

So, too bad. You bid, you pay. You've outbid those who wanted it. Ebay even give a big warning about not bidding unless you are commited to pay, so hell frigging mend you.

[The Legendary Shark]

I once busted a guy with two accounts who used one of them to up the bids on the other. Ebay wasn't interested.

[I, Cosh]

It's just amazing how this thing is still going around my head. I spent lots of time trying to find info online as I lay awake last night. I have the lady's name and email address, her home address registered with eBay, and also the address of the shop where the item 'should have' been delivered to.

It's not like I want to physically track her down, I'm just trying to find something – anything – that might explain her bizarre and spiteful behaviour.

Really not trying to be a prick but isn't this a contradiction in terms? Bizarre behaviour is not logical. Some people are helmets. Please don't lose sleep over it.

[Professor Bear]

Finally got to tackle the downstairs landlord about his making off with my washing machine and was met first with laughter, then umming and ahhing, then he asked for a few minutes to compose his thoughts.  He later knocked at the door and claimed that it was an honest mistake and he'd dumped it, which was fair enough as the thing wasn't exactly mint condition and its main virtue to me was simply that it was working, even if I'm stumped why he dumped the heaviest item he could find but didn't dump any of the trash around it - which actually belongs to the downstairs tenants - and which remains there even now.
Unfortunately he kept talking: it was a piece of shit anyway and he was actually doing me a favor, it shouldn't have been in the hall, he won't complain about the water damage to the roof of his flat (which we traced to a leak located in a vent connecting both flats but to get at it necessitated my taking a sledgehammer to the wall in my back room and paying for the plumber), I was probably lying to him which he could prove if he looked around my flat to see if I had a new washing machine recently installed, then he offered a tenner for me to go and look around local charity shops for a new machine, then he stormed off promising to get his solicitor involved to charge me for repairs to his bathroom roof - during this time, I hadn't actually managed to say a single word, he just kept gabbling and getting louder and louder until he cleared off.

[TordelBack]

Feck's sake Bear, he's letting you live in his building, and talking to you using his mouth, I think you should just count your blessings and stop making trouble.

[Professor Bear]

He owns the downstairs flat, not the one I live in.  I sledgehammered our back wall and paid for a plumber myself to fix a leak that was technically his and the council's problem, and ever since I've had a chimney that runs from the downstairs flat into my own, delivering the smell of legal and illegal forms of smoke, sweat, stale alcohol, burning food, and despair directly the room I sleep in.

Also, did you know that female dogs can develop a condition called "phantom pregnancy" which compels them to whine and howl constantly for no reason whatsoever, and to hoard fluffy toys like they were pups, licking them lovingly while crying because - in the words of my vet - "possibly they think their babies are dead"?  I have discovered in the last few days that this is an actual thing.  It's good to learn new things, I have heard, but it does not feel like it right now.

[TordelBack]

See, you're arguing again. Will you ever learn?

Yeah, sorry, I forgot the downstairs landlord was just that. Dog thing seems magnificently grim, awful situation.

[Hawkmumbler]

Humans can also suffer from phantom pregnancies, specifically people who have suffered from dementia from a young age. And yes, I do not feel any happier knowing this is a thing. Poor devils.

[M.I.K.]

I don't think it's that specific. It's been a few years since I read anything about it, but I seem to remember there was some debate about whether it was primarily a psychological or physical condition, due to seemingly genuine symptoms of pregnancy that often fool medical doctors. It can also happen to men, (which probably doesn't often fool medical doctors).

More common in dogs, (and mice), though.

[Banners]

So, in order to redintegrate my eBay imbroglio, I had to sign a form saying the feedback was defamatory under English law. I'm no Judge ~ahem~ but that seemed to be the case so I sent the form and now the dishonest feedback has been removed, but in a half-arsed way.

What has actually happened is that the negative feedback remains but the specific words used have been removed. That kind of implies that as far as eBay are concerned the negative feedback was justified (which it wasn't), and that it is only the specific wording used which was not allowed.

As such, I still have a black mark against my name, and my feedback won't be corrected and still shows <100%. So, the damage is done and eBay have not helped in righting this wrong properly.

I am thinking twice about using eBay in future—not just because of their apparent ineptitude, but also because the potential value of anything I might sell will now be negatively affected by this stain on my profile.

[The Legendary Shark]

That sucks.
.
Might change soon, though, as Ebay and Gumtree have been taken over by a Yorkshire firm. The two will be amalgamated and rebranded as Ebaygum...
.
I'll get me coat.

[I, Cosh]

I am thinking twice about using eBay in future—not just because of their apparent ineptitude, but also because the potential value of anything I might sell will now be negatively affected by this stain on my profile.

I honestly can't tell if you're being serious about how much this is getting to you or if you're pretending to overreact for comic effect. I hope it's the latter but apologise for my lack of empathy if it's the former.

I can only speak for how I look at these things but I don't think any potential buyer is going to give a shit about one negative rating. Obviously, that assumes a reasonable number of total deals. If it's one negative  from two then I'd be wary but, the more sales you've made, then the greater the chance of a mistake, a mishap or a loonie and everyone knows that's how eBay works.

Personally, I wouldn't have any qualms at all about dealing with somebody with >95% positive. If it's something like a couple of quid for a comic, my threshold would be significantly lower.

[TordelBack]

I'd agree completely with The Cosh (as always).  One or two bad feedbacks just reflects the perverse nature of our fellow netizens.  Anyone who has sold anything on eBay themselves (surely most of us) know the dickery that goes on - my wife still maons about someone who bought a blanket for a doll's bed from her and complained that it was too small for an adult, was refunded in good faith, and continued to complain about bad service, rudeness, misdirection...