Sometimes I just get lucky 😉 and get a buyer that is unreasonable.   This buyer purchased a floral light set from me on June 9th it was shipped the same day.  She received it June 13th.  Pay close attention to the date and time she sends her messages.

Saturday June 13th

• 12:21 PM I received a message from  the buyer. “ I just got this item and the lights do not work.Can you send me a replacement please.If you would like this set back,please send me a pre-paid shipping label to send it back to you .Thanks”
• We respond at 2:36: “Hi – I am actually handling my mom’s ebay stuff while she is out of town handling a family emergency. Most likely, she will wasn’t you to send them back, but let me get in contact with her first. I’m sorry about this!”
• At 2:45PM she sends: “What would you like me to do?”
• At 7:53PM she writes: “Any news yet?”  My daughter had called me and I told her that she probably didn’t turn the item on correctly and had it sitting on “timer” and not “on”.

I knew I would be back home to respond to this buyer late Monday evening.  SURELY the buyer would understand this based upon my feedback and years on eBay… BUT NO..

Sunday June 14th

• At 12:48AM we respond: “Not just yet- I will definitely get back with you as soon as I hear. My grandfather was just diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, so everything is kind of crazy right now. I’m sorry about this.”
• She responds at 6:07PM  “I’m very sorry about bothering you again,but if you don’t have a replacement to send could you please just refund me.Again,I don’t mean to be a pest but I would like to settle this and I do wish your family well.Sorry again”
• We respond at 10:30PM: “Not a problem at all – I’m sorry about the delay. I was told to ask you to return the branches. I don’t have any more of these in stock in amber, but I do have them in white. I can send you white as a replacement, or issue a full refund once I receive them. I will pay your return shipping. Please return it to: (my address here)”
• At: 10:38PM she writes: “The white won’t look right for my home.Could you please send me a pre paid label so I could ship it back to you.”

Tuesday June 16th

•  At 12:38AM she sends this message back to me: “The white won’t look right for my home.Could you please send me a pre paid label so I could ship it back to you.”
• At 12:46AM she sends me: “I have them in their package,if you send the pre-paid label now,i’ll ship it back first thing in the morning”
• At 1:06AM “Did you need me to go through Ebay for you to do the pre-paid label.I know when the item is defective,they do automatically deduct it from the seller and send it to the buyer.I was trying not to do that and go directly through you but of you don’t know how to do it just let me know.Thanks”
• At 1:36 AM “If you could please let me know if you are going to send the label tonight,I would appreciate it as I’m getting tired and I would like to send it back first thing in the morning as I p’ve been waiting for a few days now for you to tell me what to do with them.I don’t mean to be insenstive but I feel like I’ve been understanding but I don’t want to stay up all night waiting for the label to send these back.Could you just send it so I can send it back to you and be done with it.”
• At 8:56 AM “I responded to your email about 15 minutes after you sent it.Then I waited,waited and waited for you to respond to mine.I don’t stay up all night and you only send emails around 12:30am.I’ve been waiting for days to get this resolved with you because you said you had a family emergency.I don’t know what to believe but obviously you severly lack customer service skills.I’m tired of waiting on you so just forget it.Terrible seller!”

SO.. We tried for several hours to attach the PDF label to eBay’s message but we couldn’t get it to attach. SO I sent the PDF to her email address with PayPal.

• At 9:50AM I write: “Hi, I am Suzie, and the business owner. I found out last Wednesday (after coming home from a mission trip with 20 high schoolers) my father has stage 4 lung cancer. I dropped everything and drove from Kansas to Georgia. My oldest daughter who has been messaging you, is not the best at handling eBay issues, but was trying while I was gone. I so sorry that you feel I am a terrible seller and communicator, I normally stay right on top of things. I can check with the manufacturer to see if they have any more of these in stock, if you’d like. Sometimes it does take them a couple of days to get back to me via email. Would you like for me to do that?”
• WE ALSO decide to send her a return label This is what we say to her: “I’m sorry for the delay – attached you will find a return label for the branches. All you’ll need to do is print the label within the next 24 hours and ship the branches back. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience.”
• She responds: “The last email I sent you said”just forget it”,I was so fed up with it that out in the trash they went.You keep my $28.00,buy something good with it because I sure didn’t!” 
• I respond via eBay’s messages at 11:58 on Tuesday: ” I can’t attach the label to an eBay message, which is why I had my daughter send it to your email address. I have copied and pasted the message I sent and the one you just sent me below. I would be happy to refund your money once the item is sent back. I am sorry that there was an issue.”
• She responds: at 12:24PM “I threw it out about 2 am waiting for a return email from your daughter after I emailed her back 15 minutes after she originally emailed me.This has been going on for days and the only time I would get a response from my emails was around 12:30am and like I said,I emailed her back about 15 monutes later and stayed up waiting for a response so I could ship this trash back first thing this morning.I don’t stay up all hours of the night,not everyone does,I understand you had a family emergency and for that I’m truely sorry but after waiting up last night after I sent three additional emails,I got fed up with the whole situation and threw them in the garbage and I’m not digging through the trash for them now.$28.00 will not break me so obviously you need it more than me so keep it.I’m done!”

**** you see she says she’s not digging through the trash?****  Later she’s going to say she can’t dig in the trash because of Tropical storm Bill.  She’d go out at 2:00am to throw something away? But not go out to get it?

• I respond at 1:12PM “ I understand what you are saying. If you would like to retrieve the item out of the trash, I would be happy to refund your money once they are sent back.”
• She responds at 1:18PM “There is zero chance of that happening,that’s not even funny.I asked for a return slip the day this arrived at my home because the lights never worked.I was more than understanding even though I had to contact your daughter everytime any correspondence happened,no updates from her,not once.Look,it is what it is,you are in the wrong here,not me.I’ll just take the lost.Hopefully you treat your next customer better.Good day”

** how have I treated this buyer horrible? What have I done?***

• At 2:28  she writes: “It says to contact you because I have to wait 7 days after purchase to leave feedback”  I respond: “I’m not sure what you mean by this.”
• She responds at 3:25 PM “Well I contacted Ebay and I guess I’m screwed because even though I contacted you immediately after delivery to notify you of the lights not working because I got aggravated and finally through them out after being up to an ungodly hour waiting for a response and refuse to go out in TROPICAL STORM WEATHER(tropical storm BILL) and dig it out the trash to send it back to you,They can’t make you give me a refund.They said the only thing I can do is leave a negative feedback on you because your future customers will see this and some will be detered by it and will not buy because of this experience.That’s all good and fine but definetly not fair by any stretch of the imagination.You treat people the way you would want them to treat you and karma always balances things out so I know this bad experience will fade and good things will come to me because I was wronged by you.”

*** this is where she says she’s not going out into Tropical Storm Weather.. except when you google the weather on Monday even through Tuesday at 3:00pm IT WASN’T RAINING.***  This was my first call to eBay.  Where a customer service person told me that she was threatening negative feedback and AFTER she left it, it would be removed.  They also stated that eBay would never advise a buyer to give a negative.  PLUS.. if you review the feedback she leaves others.. you’ll see that she is quite proficient in leaving negatives she needs NO help or advice from eBay in this department.

• At 4:05pm I respond: “My daughter and myself have been nothing but professional with you. You messaged me 3 days ago, we’ve responded to your messaged. I have explained to you that there is a tragic event going on that made it so *I* personally could not respond. We’ve sent you a label.. now you want me to refund your money or you’ll leave me a negative feedback, because “that’s what eBay told you to do?””
• She responds again at 4:42: “Yes,because I gave more than suffient time for a response.Again,I don’t know your schedule or your daughter schedule but I don’t stay up all hours of the night.If you look,you can see I answered your daughters emails 16 minutes after she sent it then she never emailed me back after I emailed her another three times.Very unprofessional as far as I’m concerned.I told you that YOU WIN,you get to keep my money and I have nothing to show for it.I’m so happy for you,you should feel real good about that.But you can’t stop me from leaving my honest experience about how this transaction went,you got the money,I got the truth.Anyway,like I said,when you do something wrong,nothing good comes from it.You have to live with yourself.I was nothing but nice since Saturday morning but being up to wee morning hours waiting for a response was the straw that broke the camels back.You and your daughter are very inconsiderate people”
• She responds at 4:40pm “I told you what Ebay said was my only option since this was a terrible transaction.Your daughter surely had contact with you since Saturday and anyway I have every right to leave accurate feedback”

** I call eBay again the CS confirms that this is feedback extortion.  She says “YES” to my “now you want me to refund your money or you’ll leave me a negative feedback?”

At 4:58 I respond: “eBay would have NEVER told you to leave negative feedback. Many business are not even open on the weekend. I do not believe the item did not work, it was tested before it left here. I don’t believe you threw it in the trash. So send the item back and I will refund your money. Just because a seller does not give in to your extortion does not mean they are rude, or inconsiderate. I did google your tropical storm bill information and the weather for the last 48 hours. I’m not sure you are telling the truth about that either unless the weather channel can’t forecast the weather from YESTERDAY. Don’t email me again unless it’s to tell me you are sending the package back. Have you ever googled your own name? It appears you have a history of doing this to other eBay sellers.”

***Google her registered eBay name (which is her dead father.. NOT her name) she has complaints from others where she has been less than honest.  You’ll see she addresses that later where she tells me “everyone does it”.***

• She responds at 5:03pm: “If you don’t believe that I called Ebay and they told me that was my only option than by all means call them and ask them.I originally asked your daughter for a replacement and a pre paid label so that I could send this back to you.You calling me an extorntionist is slendering my name.You are a terrible person and no wonder why you have the problems you have.How dare you threaten me.You are a complete liar,if your item was tested,why wait to now to say it.I reported someone on Ebay a couple years ago on a website because they were fradulant and in response they say it was me.I don’t care what you think because you are a terrible person and that’s why you are having hardships.I’m not going to tolerate this”
• She responds again at 5:22PM “And anyway,you should get your facts in order because when I filed that complaint on that gentlemen,I wasn’t the only one who had done that.I don’t quite understand what you have to be mad about anyway,I told youYOU WIN.Like I said,call Ebay and ask them if I called on you and you can tell them that I said they can tell you what they said was my option since you “don’t believe me”,I’m not the liar here.You can’t stop me from telling the truth about this transaction,so don’t threaten me because all you negativity surrounding you makes me sick.I have a right to express my experience and you can threaten me but you won’t scare me into telling the truth!”   (I love that she says you won’t scare me into telling the truth)

***Please take note..  she says: “You are a terrible person no wonder why you have the problems you have” and “I don’t care what you think because you are a terrible person and that’s why you are having hardships.”  This to me implies it’s my fault my dad has cancer..

** I called eBay and spoke to CS and to another department that sounds like Trust and Safety but it was another name.  I spoke to a manager where HE told me this was feedback extortion.

• At 5:22 I respond: “I’m having hardships because “I’m a terrible person” So it’s my fault my dad has lung cancer?”
• At 5:32 she responds: “I truely believe when you are a bad person and treat others bad that ora of negativity affects all aspects of your life.It’s not for me to say if it’s your fault that your dad has lung cancer that’s on you.I’m not a liar and you have called me a liar and said you googled my name and assume to know things about a situation from 2013 that you don’t have the facts to.ThE person left that about me because I reported him on that website,and I was not the first person to report him by the way,so in retalition,he said things about me,but that’s none of your business anyway.You are not God,how dare you judge me about something when you don’t even know the facts.That’s what I mean about your person in general,you don’t need to question me weather it’s your fault about your dads lung cancer,question your own actions.When your daughter first told me about your dad,I prayed for him,I even told her I was sending prayers his way.The things that you said about me are mean spirited and uncalled for.All because I said Ebay said I could leave negative feedback?”  
• At 7:58 she responds:  Go to the same google website you went to to look me up brainiac and look up nico canino and you will see I’m the one who reported him,check the dates.Get your facts straight before you accuse someone of something.I feel sorry for your farther but you not so much.Please donate the $28.00 that you RIPPED OFF OF ME to fight cancer in your farther name.

She left negative feedback on Wednesday, I called eBay and they told me it WAS not feedback extortion.