I've been an ebay member since 1998 and had my first encounter with a bad buyer! This person(s) uses two different accounts, *soledog* and meinschatzmatz and is from Germany. They both have private feedback and although they are positive, I've figured out how it is, and why it is private.
They must be a vintage shoe dealer, because that is what they are most interested in purchasing. They purchase these, take a few days to pay, act all innocent when you are asking for payment. They refuse to pay priority mail (global) which I admit is my mistake in making them or refusing to sell to those who won't pay tracking. (however, I've never had a problem on ebay before...there is always a first!) Then they wait a few weeks, knowing full well customs takes awhile and file an "item non received" complaint with paypal. Although I had the customs tracking form and it says they received the package(s) from me and are in transit, since I didn't mandate tracking and confirmation, there is nothing you can do. Paypal takes the money back out of your account and gives it to them. This seems standard, but when I had it happen the second time, again in Germany, their paypal account comes up with the same information, Toni and Dirk Richter....although their buyer names were different and they tried acting like different people via email. (contact me for any email copies, I have them all) So, back to the private feedback thing. You, like most other buyers probably wait to leave feedback until the purchaser has left it, or is happy with their purchase. Well, once a claim is filed with ebay, you cannot leave negative feedback, only positive. So, I'm assuming what happens is all these buyers probably put positive, but SHOUT negative in the remarks section, so their rating is 100%, or 99%, but their remarks state that they are bad buyers. However, they have made them private so all you can see is their feedback numbers.
Although this is 100% my fault that I didn't mandate the papers that paypal says you should, I want everybody who sells VINTAGE SHOES to know these people are in it and out to screw you over. You can only trust so many times before you get burned and it finally happened to me, to a tune of $550! I sent him an email saying "what comes around goes around" and I'm aware they are the same person. I will be glad to give you any email details and contact details from this person(s)! Do not let them screw you over too!!!
Travoltatime
Shreveport, Louisiana
U.S.A.