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Attorney Sues eBay over Negative Feedback

Posted by michael on from the thin-skinned dept.

Mephie writes "MSNBC is running a story on an attorney who is suing ebay over negative feedback a seller left about him. It sounds like a classic case of buyer leaves negative feedback for seller; seller responds accordingly. The plaintiff claims he'd not be filing the suit if he didn't feel ebay's policy needs revision, stating 'They can control content and for them to fail to do so is unconscionable.' Yeah. That's great."

14 of 408 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Better not say anything bad about him here... by n0wak · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't mod the above post down... or you'll be next.

  2. let this serve as notice... by macsox · · Score: 5, Funny

    i am issuing a subpoena to all reader to be deposed in my action against CmdrTaco, et al., for damage done to my technological reputation by poor or uninformed moderation of my comments.

    it is clear that the macintosh operating system is indeed superior, indicating that a recent 'troll' moderation was slanderous, and it is too funny to make that beowulf cluster joke -- another indication of improper and damaging moderation.

    my lawyers will be in touch.

    --
    go get it
  3. Horray! Lawsuit time! by gatesh8r · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "I was selling various pieces of crap, er... 'Fine Wares' and I got negative feedback from one of the sucke... er, 'buyers', and he's lying to destroy my image! SUE! SUE! SUE!"


    C'mon, you idiot. Not everyone is going to be pleased with your business, and eBay can't say "Only say positive things about the buyer, even if they screwed you over!" People have opinions, and eBay allows you to voice them on the buyer. eBay isn't going to change their policy now over something that has made them sucessful. Deal with it; not everyone's going to distrust you if you manage to keep your positive feedback up.

    --
    Karma whorin' since 1999
    1. Re:Horray! Lawsuit time! by TCaM · · Score: 5, Informative

      While the line may appear to be fine at times, there is a difference between libel and a simple statement of fact. If you are ripped off by someone on ebay simply document it as much as is possible. Then condense this factual information into your feedback. When you use the feedback as a tool to make statements about someone that are not provable or are a personal attack then you are veering into the area of libel or slander.

  4. Suit asks for filters by instantkarma1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Although libel is obviously not protected under "freedom of speech", the banning of certain words (such as fraud, liar, cheater, scam artist, con man) as proposed by this lawsuit, certainly lends itself to a slippery slope.

    How can individual words represent libel out of context? Who is the judge of this libel-ous words? Where does it stop?

  5. He's right that it needs revision by York+the+Mysterious · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Last summer I stopped selling on eBay. I had been selling since Nov of 97 to make a few bucks on the side. I'd probably sold 2000-3000 items and 99% of the transactions went perfectly. Over that summer I had a huge number of people leaving me feedback for totally bogus reasons. People would pay with a money order with no return address and no note of what it was for even though I e-mail out detailed instructions. When I didn't mail the item (since I didn't know what the payment was for) they would just leave negative feedback without e-mailing me first. I would also get negative feedback from people a week after they made payments. They claimed I had failed to ship items even though these people were paying for parcel post mailing which takes up to 2 week sometimes. I think that there is a new wave of people on eBay that forget they are dealing with people and not businesses. Remember catalogs quote 4-6 weeks. Dont expect a week off ebay. If you need it the next day go to CompUSA or Fry's and pay full price. If you dont want to pay full price dont expect lightning fast delivery and perfect items. They're on eBay for a reason.

    --

    Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
    1. Re:He's right that it needs revision by rjamestaylor · · Score: 5, Interesting
      No kidding. I had an auction for some items my company asked me to sell, so I placed a large Dutch Auction. Unfortunately, the company took just over half the items out of the auction (*sigh*). Bidding was starting to pick up and I didn't know what to do -- I had enough product to cover the existing bids but didn't have the quantity stated in the auction any longer. I checked with eBay and realised I needed to cancel the auction. My first cancellation.

      A number of people contacted me and inquired what had happened. Most asked if they could still get the item. I told them I would honor the opening bid price (which was realistically what the winners would have paid, anyway, due to the large number of items in the Dutch Auction). Almost all of these people bought the item.

      Then there was one guy who wrote to me and said: "This is bullshit! I will have you banned from eBay." I wrote back and explained what had happened and that I was not B.S.'ing but rather trying to be honest by cancelling the auction in accordance with eBay policies. I also told him that every other inquiry I received showed decorum and respect and I had worked out a way to get the product at the low price that was bid to those who asked. He responded, "Sorry, I didn't know the policy. new to ebay." I wrote back and told him to check his bleeping attitude and, no, I would not be working out a way to help him.

      People are behind the "screen names." Learn it, live it.

      --
      -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
  6. What an administrative nightmare by Occam's+Hammer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If Ebay was somehow responsible for every feedback left on their site, they would shut down rather quickly. Fortunately these kinds of lawsuits are being thrown out of court at a pretty good pace (most recently Obesity v. McDonalds)

    Ebay clearly states: "WARNING: Once placed, comments cannot be retracted. If you later change your mind about someone, you may leave a follow-up comment to explain the misunderstanding. See the Feedback Forum for an explanation about how your comments affect a user's feedback rating.... eBay cannot remove a comment once it is submitted, nor edit a user's feedback profile. For this reason, we encourage you to contact your trading partner directly by email or by telephone before leaving a negative feedback comment."

    The purpose of the ebay feedback system it to create social governance. If you have one or two negative feedbacks out of a hundred or so, I will still buy from or sell to you. If, however, you have a 50% negative feedback I will not. That is the point.

    --
    (sig on loan to Smithsonian)
  7. Read the last P by mlknowle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Obviously, the guy is a whiner... but the last paragraph of the MSNBC article is interesting:

    " The lawsuit also demands that buyers and sellers, who use aliases in eBay transactions, register their screen names with the state of California as fictitious business names, and that eBay be forced to collect state sales tax."

    This seems to have little to do with his complaint; but making everyone register with the state Secretary of State would be a big deal! So your name would be Your Name, d.b.a (doing buisines as...) screename. Christ, what a mess... Can someone who is a Calfornian and or a lawyer comment on paying sales tax on USED items? I know that here in RI, sales tax is only on (some) new sales - used goods (and many new goods) are exemt.

  8. Re:Why is this in the lawsuit? by raju1kabir · · Score: 5, Informative
    "The lawsuit also demands that buyers and sellers, who use aliases in eBay transactions, register their screen names with the state of California as fictitious business names, and that eBay be forced to collect state sales tax." Is this an underhanded way of getting ebay to pay tax? And the rest of it a smoke screen?

    Nope, exactly the opposite.

    The sales tax thing is a way of putting pressure on eBay to settle; this is a classic crooked lawyer blackmail tactic (go ahead and sue me, Grace; you're a disgrace to the profession and this is the sort of barratry that would see its perpetrator disbarred in more genteel times). It's potentially far more costly to eBay than any judgment they could reasonably expect to pay for the bogus libel claim. eBay throws him a bone, he stops making noise about the sales tax, everyone signs the papers and goes home.

    --
    "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
  9. Re:I agree with this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Personally I find people take online opinions too lightly

    You are right. Where were our manners. The opinions of the goatse man and all the hot grits, natalie portman, etc trolls were overlooked. We appologize as a community. Now get a fuckin clue Stan. If you base your choice of lawyers on his e-bay feedback, I'm sure you choose your doctor on what he's ranked at Yahoogames. I hear DocJones395842 is the man at Hearts.

  10. Re:I have an idea! by JonWan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't know about that, but it makes a cool new karma sig.

    --
    Karma Excellent (Mostly due to pending lawsuit.)

  11. Judge's decision by PanBanger · · Score: 5, Funny

    Trial was great! Would preside over again! A++++!!

  12. Re:Why is this in the lawsuit? by mrleemrlee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's the problem. EBay shouldn't be the one to hold the liability for the customer's libel (if it is such). This is an area where libel law falls down in the Internet age. Historically, the owner of the printing press could be held liable for libel. However, (as Slashdot's little reminders constantly tell us), in an era when every post is its own little printing press, the Web site owner should not be held liable for the words of the customers.

    I have no problem with the feedback-leaver being sued for libel. However, holding EBay liable for its users' libel isn't the way things should work. The law must adjust to the new medium.