Ebay buyer sued for giving negative feedback

Anyone that used ebay back in the day as a buyer, or has used it at any time during its life as a seller, will know that feedback is incredibly important. Not only does it give people an idea of the quality of service you provide, but maintaining that 100 per cent positive feedback rating can be deceptively hard as well as somewhat addictive. One company has fallen into this obsessive category, by announcing its intention to take a buyer to court, for not removing a piece of negative feedback when requested.

Ohio based Med Express, is the company in question. It sells old medical equipment like microscopes, an accessory of which, is what one buyer, Amy Nicholls paid $175 for earlier this year. She also paid $12 for shipping, but didn't bank on receiving an extra $1.44 charge in postage duty when the item arrived.

While some might think Nicholls overreacted a little, she ultimately gave Med Express a piece of negative feedback, citing the undiscussed postage duty. Med Express offered to refund the duty to her if she removed the feedback. She refused and now she's being taken to court.

However she's not alone. Public Citizens Litigation group is backing her, one member of which described the lawsuit as completely frivolous and intends to seek attorney fees during the case. In a letter explaining the group's actions he said:

“The point she made in her message to you was that the problem wasn't the money but the hassle… That opinion might be right, or it might be wrong, but harbouring it and expressing it is not a tort. And it is certainly no reason to seek damages, attorney fees, and an injunction. Consumers might well take this sort of bullying into account when they are thinking about whether to do business with Med Express.”

He also alluded to the idea to that perhaps Med Express only has strong positive feedback so far, because it has threatened other customers with legal action.

KitGuru Says: Not sure I feel sorry for anyone in this situation  Nicholls overreacted by giving negative feedback for an easily fixable error, while Med Express is silly for using legal action over a single bit of bad press. Now it's far worse. 

[Thanks Ars]

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