Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Crazy Cat Buyer Beware

For the last 5 days I have been dealing with a real psycho on Ebay. I hate to be mean but this lady has issues. Either that or she is a 12 year old child. It started out with a simple question. I have a huge, and by huge I mean 30 inches huge, plush cat listed on Ebay. It has free shipping.



Eleanor (fans of the Simpsons will get the reference) messaged me asking if I could sell her the cat for $10. I responded with my standard "Thank you for looking at my items but at this time, I am not accepting offers." Usually that will make them go away. But no, not Eleanor.


Her next message tried to play on my heartstrings. " as a mother of 4 as it says in your description, you know how sad it is when a child wants something but can't have it" I tried explaining to her it would cost me $8 to ship to her and after fees, I would be selling it at a loss.  I thought maybe she would understand simple math. 

She was getting desperate and asked if no one bought it before it was about to end, would I sell it to her. Again, I told her I would be losing money. She continued to persist and I told her maybe she could find one at Goodwill. 



Eleanor told me she was not able to go to places to search for this item. Of course not. She is a home bound crazy cat lady. I decided maybe, just maybe, ignoring her would make her go away. Nope, this made her more desperate. 



By this time, I had already blocked her but she was still able to message me. 4 messages filled with the word please. I had enough and called Ebay. The first rep told me she would send a report and see about being able to prevent Eleanor from messaging me. Good, I thought this ordeal was over. Then I got another message. I responded with "Please do not contact me again. Your message will continue to be reported to Ebay and this could result in your losing your privileged to transact on their site, under any user name." 

I called Ebay again and explained my situation to another rep. I asked her if Ebay could send her a message telling her to stop contacting me. The rep assured me that she would get this taken care of but it might take 24 hours. 

In the mean time, Eleanor responded to my do not contact me message: 

"look you can report me to eBay as much as you want and I will message you if I please and you know what I was trying to be nice and give you money when lets face it no one else will and you know what I don't need your item resellers like you are heartless and defiantly not "amazing people" I have tried being nice and you know what I hope you never get anything sold so you and your "4 beautiful children" go bankrupt and guess what you are going to wish you accepted my offer because you would have got $2 but now you won't get any hope you are happy" 



ahh the true side of her begins to show. I was going to ignore it but I had enough of her and Ebay not doing anything to end this harassment. During this time I had been posting my dilemma on a FB Ebay page. One of the members suggested part of this response. (She had called Eleanor a nut job and I removed that part) 

"What? I don't know what your problem is but I am done being nice with you. So listen up. I sell on ebay FOR MY KIDS.. so they can have clothes on their back and food on the table and can get back and forth to school and activities.. but oh yes Im sure that some total stranger having a used stuffed animal is far more important to them than eating or being clothed. Once I pay for shipping and ebay fees and packing material the whoppin 10 cents I might make on this sale would certainly keep them fed and clothed"

Again I called Ebay, this time the call center in Utah and asked to talk to Trust and Safety. I explained my situation to the 4th rep and she told me I didn't have Eleanor on my blocked list. I wasn't logged in to check and I said I'm certain I blocked her. (I did have her blocked and the rep was wrong) The rep also told me if Eleanor was violating any policies, they would deal with it.



So is this the end of my story? Not quite. I woke up this morning with 2 more messages. Apparently she found another seller willing to give her stuff away. 

"Look I'm sorry I'm gonna stop messaging you only because I'm tired of this and I got a deal on another one of these and the seller was very nice and helpful thanks for not being like her enjoy not getting even 10 cents and yes your right "some random stranger" who wants a used cat us more important" 

What a freakin flake. A used cat is more important than feeding my children? 

and at last an attempt at an apology. 

"Fine I'm sorry I shouldn't have said those things that was mean I'll stop messaging you good luck selling your cat"





21 comments:

  1. You have to go to the html tab and remove the word "white" wherever you see it anywhere after it says "background color."
    Anyway, thanks for the tip. I put her on my BBL. She sounds like the lady I had before Christmas. I ended the listing and said it wasn't available anymore just to get rid of her.

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    1. She opened her account the day she started messaging me Feb 20 2014

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  2. It's buyers like that that make me want to curl up in the closet until they go away, or scream bad words at the monitor, or both. Must be the sister of "the b!#^& that bought the sheet" from me not long ago.

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    1. I tried so hard to compose myself and remain professional

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  3. im sorry i had to laugh i have had a few of those. When I first saw the title I thought we had the same buyer. I accidentally made a NWT Gymboree baby outfit too cheap and a reseller bought it. 1st mistake. Then it gets sent back to me because its "covered in cat hair" (4 black cat hairs and my listings say we have 3 cats and a dog. Then I got negative feedback (which to my complete shock ebay removed) haha! never satisfied nut jobs are the best! :D (but glad its over for you now :D

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    1. when you take yourself out of the situation, it is pretty funny

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  4. Darn it, but you missed out on that 10 cents profit to feed your children!!! OMG what a super nut-job. It's really scary that blocking her didn't stop her from filling your in-box with crazy messages. You really don't need that kind of customer. Hopefully they only come along once in a blue (full) moon. Congratulations on surviving this without any violence!

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    1. Not sure what century she is living in but Im almost certain I can not buy anything for 10 cents.

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  5. gosh, how many nut jobs are out there? I have had that almost same scenario several times. The last one I had tried to make me feel bad because her son had autism (which my nephew does as well so I am very aware of the struggles with a child with autism) and I would not sell her a Sully Disney store costume for 10.00. I had it listed for $70.00 offered to go down to $40.00 because I felt bad for her, and when I still wouldn't give in and sellit for $10.00 she started getting nasty and messaging me NONSTOP. People think with a sob story you should do what they say no matter if your not making money. Give me a break. Nut Jobs!

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    1. yup they seem to find me at least once a month but this one takes the cake

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  6. Wow. What a warcko. I will admit though... her emails to you were pretty crazy, and totally hilarious. I am sure at the time, the situation wasnt as funny to you.
    You handled it well! :)

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  7. Unbelievable, I am a newbie and enjoyed the story but very sorry for you! I hope I never come across her :(

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    1. Hopefully she will get herself banned before she finds you

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  8. She sounds like a scammer to me. I've read that there are buyers that do this all the time. Trying to get people to feel sorry for them and their sob stories. Taking advantages of sellers. It's hard though not to let it get to you.

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    1. Usually they go away after the first or second message but this lady was ruthless. I feel sorry for the seller who she bought from

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  9. I have had people do this to me to. Never quite that crazy though... YIKES!

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    1. yes something isnt quite right with her. I kept telling Ebay I thought she was a kid but you need a credit card to register with Ebay and it has to match your name

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  10. I had one nut job who "knew where I lived" and was coming round to murder my children because i wouldnt sell for peanuts . So glad we dont have guns in the UK

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  11. Wow! I haven't had the privilege of dealing with someone quite this insane yet. I can't imagine how anyone could've handled it any better. At least she's moved on, and you now have a really funny story to share :)

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  12. I haven't had anyone that crazy yet! Likely because I sell mostly on Etsy, people are eBay are definitely more cut-throat! Yeaaah, that person's a total asshole, no other word. You did indeed handle that well!

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