eBay seller demanding retraction of comment

So 15 January this year I bought two items from a same seller in Ebay for karneval costume. It mentioned that delivery will take 1-2 days. The fact is that, we had to wait for almost 3 weeks! We tried to call and send email to the seller but no reply at all. We even almost buy other whatever costume in supermarkt cos Rosenmontag is approaching.

But then around 2 days before the D-day we got the package and all the costumes are in good condition. So, I gave him NEUTRAL (not negative comment!) comment: “langsamer Versand, keine Antwort auf Mails, telefonisch nicht erreichbar.Ware ok“

So we went to Rosenmontag with our expected costumes and everybody happy.

BUT suddenly, last Friday (9 May) I got email from this seller plus a letter from his Rechtsanwalt, asked me to remove my NEUTRAL comment cos its not fair (!!) for the seller. If I don’t remove it till 16 May then I have to pay 120,67€ .

Is this for real???

Of course I don’t want to remove my comment and also don’t want to pay that money! I think it’s fair enough to gave him neutral comment since the ware arrived in 3 weeks instead of 2 days like the promise.

I’m quite amazed…

So what should I do now? Should I get lawyer also? Sounds too much for just a simple case! Grrr…

I do not think there was anything wrong done on your side.
The comments you left reflected the situation with what he had promissed to deliver.

I am unsure how he can force you to pay money/ remove your comment if the service was sub-par.

Live longer and you see more!

He cannot sue you for your comment. It's baloney.

Check his E-bay profile and see the history of his ratings.
If he had negative/ neutral comments in the past that means he is trying to pull your leg into removing your comment.

I would not pay attention to this unlogical request!

Why is he saying you'll have to pay him? I sell and buy on ebay, and I've never heard anything like that ever. Maybe you should report that to the administrators. Sounds a bit dodgy to me.

1. The comment and feedback rating of Nuetral, is justified due to the very late shipping,
2. Even if you wanted to, once feedback is made it can't be removed. The only people that can do that are ebay and they refuse to do so.

So tell the lawyer to go F*** off, the Lawyer is prob is brother or something or doesn't even exist.. Have you tried to see if this lawyer
even exists? There are websites that list all registered lawyers in an area. If the person isn't in the register, then their a fake.

Yes, I checked already and some people also had removed negative and neutral comments. I think he sent this kinda scary rechtsanwalt letter to everyone who gave him un-positive comments

Ebay should be made aware of this then. I'm sure they don't want people keeping their ratings good, by intimidating buyers.

So it's two pages letter from the lawyer. Bla..bla...in 6 points and in the fifth point, its mentioned the detail of value I have to pay:

Berechnet nach 13 rectsanwaltsvergütungsgesetz (RVG)
Gegenstandswert: 800,00 €
Geschäftsgebühr 13, 14 RVG, Nr. 2300 VV RVG-----------------1,3-----------84,50 €
Post- und telekomminikation Nr. 7002 VV RVG---------------------------------16,90 €
Zwischensumme netto-----------------------------------------------------------101,40 €
19% Umsatzsteuer Nr. 7008 VV RVG--------------------------------------------19,27 €
zu zahlander Betrag-------------------------------------------------------------120,67 €

bla..bla...

Mit freunlichen Grüssen

Dr. B... H...
Rechtsanwalt

Im not hiding the name...That Dr. B... H... is original from the letter. What does it means??

Obviously the quick fix here is to remove your comment and never use his services again.
Since you have true grounds for your comment I am sure there is nothing this person can do and if it were me I would look into counter suing for harassment.
You definitely need liability and legal insurance for these situations (not expensive).

Then I would suggest that you tell him this is going to stay and I will report it to E-bay.
This hand-twisting approach will not be appreciated by E-bay.

Then he will lighten up a bit!

Sounds like a real chancer to me. What a dick. I would just ignore it.

€ 800 value for two Fasching costumes? Who does this guy think he's fooling? Send the letter to the local Rechtsanwaltskammer for further action along with a copy of your letter to Ebay drawing their attention to the seller's activities.

What a twat. Just ignore it.

A lawyer is required to use their full name and office address on all legal documents. (There should also be a register/license # as well)
If this is how you received the letter/email, then its deff. a fake and the seller is just trying to ruffle your feathers.
Is there also an address on the email/letter? If not, then theres your 2nd bit of evidence that its fake. If there is its easy to
see if the lawyer is real. If the lawyer is real, it still doesn't mean the letter came from them. contact the lawyer directly.
Perhaps the seller is using the lawyers name/details and is creating fake letters. If he is he's in for a big world of hurt..

Also report the person to ebay as others have suggested. (To the Fraud Dept) I'd also post a follow-up comment to your 1st one
stating what is currently going on with the seller to warn others.

This seems like a fraud.
As others have said, report it.
Also, the Finanzamt might be interested in someone who is trying to collect Umsatzsteuer without listing their tax number.

If you have liability and/or legal insurance, I'd contact them to see about getting them involved in taking down this jerk.

As they say: "best defence, is offence." As BatallionBoy said too, counteract by sueing him for harassment. Inform e-bay also. I'm not too familiar with German law, but posting a comment like that can not be against the law.

You are in the clear. If you had called the seller a 'Betrüger' (without a court having him found guilty of Betrug), he would have a case, but in this case you can just ignore the letter.

Report the person to ebay and add a follow up comment to let other people know what's happened.

It sounds like threatening behaviour without an actual lawyer to back it up.

Sounds like a scare tactic, it also wouldn't surprise me if the lawyer is a friend of his. Have you googled the name of lawyer? He has to be registered somewhere. Maybe the name comes up somewhere else.

Talk to Ebay. -

Good luck

kateTV

The lawyer must indicate that he has power of attorney to act for his client, and if requested show you this. Without question, if he has not shown you this PoA ("Vollmacht" in German) you should ask for it immediately. If he can provide it then it might be more than an idle threat and should be taken seriously, at least in any response you make (and I'd advise against ignoring it as they can simply claim a default settlement which a court may enforce, whether you are innocent or otherwise). If he can't provide it (as I suspect) then the laywer (probably) is simply ambulance chasing on Ebay responses...

If you feel that the comment is a fair reflection of the service, then you have a duty to other buyers to leave the feedback. The seller wouldn't have legal grounds to sue if the comments are factual.

Post the link to the seller's feedback page so we can see for ourselves what he's like.

Oh really now ? So what's the purpose of having a rating system if the buyer can't honestly put down their assessment about the customer service?

Furthermore, I have lawyer friends too who would easily write me an intimidating letter if I ask them.

But just don't be intimidated, because if you back down it will only perpetuate this seller doing the same crap to someone else.

So what can he actually sue you for "being honest"?

It means... Dr. Bullshit Handler .

Boy is this a scam!

Definitely contact Ebay, but also contact your local Verbraucherzentrale. It's looks like the one in MUC is:
http://www.verbraucherzentrale-bayern.de/U...398/link2A.html

Good luck!

It probably has absolutely nothing to do with Ebay, and the unless the lawyer cannot provide the Vollmacht the Verbraucherzentrale won't be interested at all...

Why would it have nothing to do with ebay?

Of course it has to do with ebay. And I'm sure they won't appreciate such heavy-handed tactics by sellers and may take action against him. I don't see what this has to do with a lawyer. Besides, once you leave feedback, you can't go back and change it. This guy is way out of line, and if he sues her he has no case. The feedback was neutral, FFS!

Like everyone else has said, contact ebay asap. They're pretty good with things like this. They emailed me ten minutes after someone had hacked into my account...before I even realised it had been hacked into, so they're really on the ball with things like this. Contact them, send them a copy of the letter and they'll sort it out.

scan the letter and complain to ebay like everyone else already suggested, they'll take it from there. important is that you scan the letter and forward it to ebay

@ i_beth: Did you copy and paste that bit with the charges or type it? There are a few typos that should not be in the original letter if a "real" lawyer sent it.

No, I type it, cos its a postal letter not from email. Then the wrong typos is my fault

Btw I think I did the right first step. I received email from Ebay system, whether I like to remove my comment as the seller want or just ignore it, and I choose to ignore of course. Asap, I will scan the letter and report it to Ebay. Then see what gonna be happen on 16th May as the seller said its the deadline to remove my comment.

Here the seller feedback profile:
http://feedback.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...mp;interval=180

Looks like they manage to make some people remove their comments!

Its a scam for definate.The lawyers charges are not enough.Every lawyer i have used has a basic charge of about € 300 and then the charges on top.No mention of this.On top of that there are so many spelling mistakes in that letter its unbelievable.Get in touch with e bay and you will see that his name will disapear from e bay.

Send him a letter or e mail back saying you are taking the letter to the police.Its fraud or 'betrug' in German.You will see that they will all of a sudden give up

Thinking about it you only get a bill when you have lost a court case.Anyway do not i repeat do not pay anything as you then have accepted liability in the eyes of the German Law.Will send you a P.M.

God you're receiving some conflicting advice.

Its very simple. The rating system is there so you can leave feedback. If it was possible to sue for negative feedback, the rating system would not work at all. It is not possible to sue.

1. Do not remove your feeback, if aynthing change it to negative saying you have received a threatening letter from a fake lawyer
2. As poeple pointed out, a lawyer cannot sign a letter with B... H...
3. Scan the letter and complain officailly to Ebay. However much they side with sellers, they will not accept fake threatening lawyer letters.
4. Send him an Email expressing your outrage at receiving a fake lawyers letter, and tell him you're forwarding said letter to admin
5. Relax that you're doing the right thing

I would change the neutral feedback if at all possible..
The seller clearly deserves a negative one.

No, they are too high. The lawyer set the value of the case at €800 - for two used Fasching costumes. That is why the Rechtsanwaltskammer should hear of this.


No. If the claim is justified and OP did not remove an unfair evaluation after being requested to do so by the seller the involvement of a lawyer becomes necessary and the OP has to cover the costs as damages.

@ i_beth - What did you pay for the costumes? For any claim up to €300 the fees are €25 plus costs and VAT.

What he said - and - just calm down, he's clearly trying to upset you.

Ebay has tools for sellers to take action against fraudulent comments and this isn't one of them. Just hand it over to Ebay and leave it.

There is no lawyer involvement or damage suit in a situation like this - which is why the letter doesn't have a name or registration number of the lawyer - there is no lawyer. The guy is trying to scare her, end of.

If anything she could sue him for extortion - with that ridiculous letter she would easily win.

Ebay has rules which you agree to when using Ebay, they protect both buyer and seller from bullshit like this. Even if he found a lawyer dumb enough to bother with his crap, he couldn't win a suit even if she was in the wrong because he isn't abiding by the established rules of trade for Ebay and she could then counter sue him and easily win.

After Ebay sees the letter he sent her, he might be looking at a suit from Ebay for fraud.

Ebay will remove a negative comment when the seller bitches about it enough - I know. A neutral comment is nothing to sue over and a late delivery is easily substantiated - she's got nothing to worry about.

Not much to add, but this post needs to be followed point by point!


On the email, I would copy ebay admin to that email as well. On changing the feedback to negative, I definitely would do that. I would also copy everything to the legal authorities as what he is doing is illegal.

The seller has a lot on natural and negative feeback/comments! If I were you, just out of curiosity, I would get in contact with some of the others buyers and ask them if they also out a threatening letter from this dubious lawyer.

But in any rate, as some other TT'er already said - do not pay and report this to ebay. Maybe mention some of the other buyer names - or have them also writing an email. That'll surely get this seller busted!

Does it occur to anyone here that this may have nothing to do with the seller? Any unscrupulous person (or lawyer) could have seen the neutral/negative comment and simply sent the letter to attempt to extract money from the victim. All he has to do is find your address, which is no big deal. Hence I still maintain it may have nothing to do with Ebay and the OP should ask for the authorisation on which the lawyer is acting.

A few people have said to change the feedback to negative. Is this possible, and I just didn't know that? Damn, that would have come in handy on a couple occasions...

@YL6

If that were the case how did they get her details? Unless you have a valid transaction (buy/sell) with a person you can't get their details.
You can only send them a message via the Ebay mail system. Which doesn't give email addresses out to either party.

YL6's point is still valid. They can't ask you to do anything without the Vollmacht agreement and it's unprofessional to even attempt such a thing without it. You could still report it to ebay but most important thing in my opinion is to ask for the Vollmacht agreement.

I agree with DG: report this to eBay. This is intimidation. I am guessing that this seller makes a habit of poor delivery service and trying to cover his/her tracks by intimidating others through an "eat shit" letter from the attorney. It must cost some money to have an attorney draft such a letter, and the seller must therefore calculate that the threat to his/her business from neutral or negative feedback is greater than the attorney's fee. I hope you will stand your ground and file a formal complaint through eBay against the seller's bullying. eBay has very strict policies against such conduct and regularly suspends or bans such sellers. As you tell it, you offered an impartial statement of the facts. Even in Germany this is legal. Your leaving such feedback is a service to other potential buyers and the whole eBay "community."

By the way, did the seller leave feedback for you? eBay policy changed this February, such that sellers cannot any longer leave negative feedback for buyers. (I am not sure about neutral feedback, however.) This shifted the balance of power closer to what one finds on Amazon.com/.de/etc., for example, and made many eBay sellers unhappy.

Oh, and in case you did not earlier, please post the seller's eBay name, perhaps with a link to a current auction, so we too can be aware and maybe have some fun with this too.

Just a few thoughts:

a. you can be sued for wrong and damaging feedback
b. the Gegenstandwert of 800 € doesn't equal the articles because the Gegenstandswert is probably the perceived damage done to the business
c. some people seem to be pretty certain that it's a fake lawyer, i'm not to sure about that, in fact I'm pretty sure that it's a real letter. If you can scan the letter, black out all personal information and post it.

I would add to comment to the negitive rating about the letter and the threat.. you can comment on with your rating

Check post nr 30

Pretty obviously there are a fair number of his customers who are far from happy.

It's only a real letter if there is a Vollmacht agreement signed on behalf of the person that the lawyer is representing. As long as the original poster is only telling the truth in the feedback, then they have nothing to worry about.

@ i beth please keep us informed with what happens. I am curious.

It looks to me like it's got to be the seller. Not only does he have 55 retracted comments, there are also two negative comments and one neutral comment which later added that they were asked to remove or change their comments (though admittedly none of them mention a letter from a lawyer).

Cheers, MrNosey, and right you are! Once logged in to eBay, anyone could, if one wished, from the seller's feedback page click on "Mit Mitglied Kontakt aufnehmen" ("make contact with member") to send this seller a message through eBay. With some 905 current listings, this seller is very much in business.