Hey guys,
Question for anyone that may be in a position to advise on this.
A friend of mine bought an outdoor umbrella off ebay. It broke within 24 hours. My friend contacted the seller and exchanged photo's and details etc of the broken item, but the seller says they stand by their product, no refund.
The umbrella was outside during the recent hailstorm, however where the umbrella broke was the latch that holds the umbrella open.
The seller claims they left it open in the storm and this is what caused the damage.
Now my friend left the following feedback "The product is rubbish and broke within 24 hours. The seller refuses to refund the money."
They tried the ebay feedback remediation service which failed to reach a happy medium.
The seller has now emailed my friend saying if they do not withdraw the feedback they will start a civil suit against her for libel and damages to her online reputation. She also has other umbrellas she wishes to sell and believes this bad feedback will prevent her from selling those so will also claim the cost of those in damages.
Initially I thought this is simple standover tactics, however a quick read on Ebay under the feedback section states buyers need to be very careful when leaving negative feedback:
"Feedback cannot be edited or removed once it has been left. It generally becomes a permanent part of a user's eBay record and is viewable by the entire eBay community. Users could be held legally responsible for damages to a user's reputation if a court were to find that the remarks constitute libel or defamation. Under U.S.A. federal law (the Communications Decency Act), because eBay does not censor feedback or investigate it for accuracy, eBay is not legally responsible for the remarks that users post, even if those remarks are defamatory. However, this law does not protect the person who leaves the feedback from responsibility for it. "
Now straight away this strikes me as being a copy paste from the US ebay so I am not too sure how relative this information is here in aus, nor what action my friend should be taking.
Anyone here having meaningful advice ?
