Ebay Customer Committing Slander?

[lylah]

What is the name of your state? NH
I had a customer on ebay who's needs I couldnt fulfill. So I gave him a refund. Well he left me a negative feedback saying I was the most incompetent seller on Ebay with a maturity level way below sesame street. I also own a retail store and use Ebay as my website. Which I have not stopped. Ebay told me to contact Squaretrade and pay them 20.00 for a mediator to get the feedback removed. Well I did this, the customer said he refuses to remove the feedback and even called me an idiot on their site and they didnt do anything except close the case. Ebay refuses to do anything. It gets worse, a customer of mine actually emailed this person asking how could he leave such a nasty comment and he responded to my customer calling me an idiot. So I emailed this buyer and told him if he continues to degrade me I'll pursue his suspension with Ebay and he told me "hey sicko..build a bridge and get over it. Is there and if so, how do I do something about this? Any info appreciated!

 

[Night_on_Earth]

As long as you keep reacting, it will continue. Stop responding and it's 99.99% that it will stop.

 

[Shay-Pari'e]

You brought on the replies all on your own. He didn't write your friend first, and he replied to your mail also. He is correct, get over it. He is allowed to state his opinion on EBay, same as you have the right to a reply to that negative feedback. Drop it.

 

[lylah]

So someone has the right to degrade someone? This negative feedback had nothing to do with my selling on Ebay, he degraded me. Obviously there are no lawyers on this site.

 

[JETX]

So someone has the right to degrade someone? This negative feedback had nothing to do with my selling on Ebay, he degraded me. Obviously there are no lawyers on this site.

Sorry, but your are not correct. There are several experienced attorneys on this site.
Acordingly, I will let you know that you have a VERY, VERY weak case against the buyer and before even considering taking your case, I need you to answer the following questions:
1) What is the EXACT dollar amount of your provable damages?
2) How can you PROVE to a court that you incurred those damages?
3) Are you prepared to cover the costs of bringing a lawsuit in the buyers home state?? Including all travel costs and accomodations for you during any trials or hearings??
4) Finally, and most important, do you have $10,000 to send to me as a retainer for legal services?? If so, contact me off forum.

 

[nextwife]

I've made many ebay purchases. Ebay buyers understand that a seller who has almost all positive feedback and one or two off-the wall opposite responses probably ran into a nut. If the rest of your feedback is good, let it go - you have to do so anyway.

 

[dworrill]

If you think defamation is an option, you have a long long narrow road ahead. You have the 'option' of tailoring your ebaying to whom you want to do business with. i.e. bidders with a certain number of positive feedbacks. Experience before wisdom. Take it with a grain of salt.

If you consider yourself a top-notch ebayer. Forget it. That one negative will be watered down in no time.

DAM

 

[AnotherMoron]

Way to go ad help the little guy - hopelessness accomplished. Your deplorable **************... i'll make your point = if it has dollar value. I'll have morales for a price and well I guess mow that I have discovered a population of poeple being harmed - well "Eh not so much" - what's in it for me?

Nice one - it is Always nice to see a crocodile smile ;-)

Are you on drugs? Your posts make almost no grammatical sense whatsoever.

OP: What answer did you want to hear? Yes, it's illegal to offend someone, say mean things about them, post things on websites they may not agree with. No one should ever be offended or have to hear anything bad ever in their entire lives. Life is always fair and if it's not being fair well, then just sue, because obviously a crime has been committed!

Now go get you a lawyer and plan to spend all of your retirement on it.

Is that what you wanted to hear? If you're looking for platitudes you've come to the wrong site. If you're looking for honest legal opinions then open your eyes and read, because they're there.

And if you want to make a go of it on eBay you better get some thicker skin or you're doomed to a future of hurt feelings and misplaced righteous indignation.

 

[TheGeekess]

Dude, this post has been dead since 2004.... why are you necroposting?

 

[AnotherMoron]

Dude, this post has been dead since 2004.... why are you necroposting?

Holy crap, I didn't even realize. It was up near the top and I assumed it was a new post. Not sure why it showed up there. My bad.

 

[quincy]

This post was revived why??

But, just as a quick comment on the original post, the negative comment posted on eBay was not defamatory. It was opinion and rhethorical hyperbole. Neither would support a defamation action.

 

[tranquility]

Degrading someone is not actionable. Otherwise Bush or McCain would be rich. Stating facts which are false and defamatory to a third person can be. Still, we have to determine if the person is making a claim, if it his opinion or, if it's true. (Along with a bunch of other possibilities.)

Defamation lawsuits are expensive and painful. Both sides get to talk and, sometimes, it's really hard to prove something is false. (It's hard to prove a negative.)

In this case there is the sole legal advantage of the comments being related to the businsess of the OP. However, we still have the "facts" considered defamatory after the writer ordered something but did not get it, but a refund.

I was the most incompetent seller on Ebay with a maturity level way below sesame street.

"Most incompetent seller on Ebay" and "with a maturity level way below sesame street". Also,
"called me an idiot". Clearly calling someone an idiot, even to a third party is not actionable. If it is, we're all screwed. It's opinion. Unless differing levels of functioning were an issue and being called an idiot was worse than being called a moron in the receipt of government benefits in some way, it just wouldn't be actionable. Even then it would only really matter if one were an expert and then we'd have a malpractice or negligent misrepresentation in some way. Talking about someone's maturity level is the same way. It's an opinion. We're allowed to have them.

As to being the most incompetent seller on ebay, that seems more a claim of opinion as well. But, let's pretend there is a certain segment of the relevant population who felt it was an actual claim of fact. What now? The OP would have to prove he was not the most incompetent seller on ebay. What does that mean, anyway? I don't think we have anything actionable if "most" wasn't in the phrase as the OP took money and didn't supply what he promised and later returned money. A cheat? No. But he clearly got his wires crossed somehow. It would be hard to prove up the falsity of the statement, especially when incompetent can mean many things.

But, we're stuck with the "most". Let's go crazy out there further and say we spent the tens of thousands of dollars on attorneys and hours and hours of depositions and the cost of ebay expert to prove up what incompetent seller means and we win. Huzah! Now we get to JetX hard cold reality. What's that going to get us?

Damages. Here is where the advantage of the defamation happening to his business helps, but the presumptions of damages in a libel/slander per se case does not divorce reality from the equation. How much will it cost to prove how much, exactly, the OP was hurt? Real money damages, not, I suppose damages.

Info edit:
I saw the post as new. I'm sorry for the necroposting but didn't catch the date and can't bring myself to delete the few minutes work I did. Maybe it will help someone else in the future. It seems like ebay feedback could be a new niche.

 

[quincy]

My goodness you went to a lot of effort here, tranquility.

 

[Zigner]

What your (former) customer posted was opinion. Everyone's entitled to their opinion.

 

[quincy]

Zig, just to point out in case you missed it. Lylah, the original poster, posted this in 2004. It is an OLD post. I doubt if she is around any longer to benefit from our words of wisdom.