Kosh Vorlontay wrote:Interesting...on toolhaus.org he used my id from here as aa signature for some feedback he left gwvamp666:

Excellent ebayer. Item as described. Would recommend. A+++ Buyer: gwvamp666 ( 482)  Sep-14-07 14:59
Reply by cougarrinard (Sep-16-07 10:22):
if buyer dont reply to NPA dispute ebay remove FB even if +FB ~Kosh Vorlontay
Rating withdrawn by eBay
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 TSR AD&D 2.5E ROAD TO DANGER 11376 FROM DUNGEON MAGS (#120139772421) GBP 0.99 View Item
 Excellent ebayer. Item as described. Would recommend. A+++ Buyer: gwvamp666 ( 482)  Sep-14-07 14:59
Reply by cougarrinard (Sep-16-07 10:23):
dispute timed out I requested buyer to reply many times +FB removed ~Kosh Vorlon
Rating withdrawn by eBay
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 D&D 3E 3.5E D20 PTOLUS PLAYERS GUIDE MONTE COOK WW16116 (#120139760276) GBP 0.99 View Item
 Excellent ebayer. Item as described. Would recommend. A+++ Buyer: gwvamp666 ( 482)  Sep-14-07 14:59
Reply by cougarrinard (Sep-16-07 10:23):
if I had removed the alert sans reply it would be removed I tried ~ Kosh Vorlont
Rating withdrawn by eBay
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I don't get it...Cougie is having POSITIVE feedback removed?  That's nuts.  Way to go, champ.

Mike B.

Advising a seller to read an Ebay member's feedback seems like a completely legitimate thing to do.

The record is public...posted in public.

Something like..."Hey!  Read this guy's feedback!"  How could that be wrong or unethical?

That might be me, I believe. I send out warnings regularly.

Awwww he likes you !

Welcome oncebitten!  You have come to a good place of people who love to game, collect games and promote positive gaming among other pursuits.  You'll get a variety of advice here, but I suspect most of it will be good.  If nothing else, you definitely will find a bunch of people whom sympathize and empathize with you.  I myself have been a victim of Coug's shenanigans, and have tried to be helpful with people like you in similar straits.

You have basically three avenues before you.  You can give positive feedback, negative feedback or none.  Let me say straight away that many people here view negative feedback from Coug as a badge of honor.  Unfortunately, I was not aware of this community when I was going through my travails, so I simply clammed up and ignored all his BS and rode it out.  

Giving positive feedback holds the least advantage for you since he does have a reputation for giving negative feedback after others have given positive feedback.  And since Dave is known for browsing this forum, once he sees your post, you stand an excellent chance of receiving negative feedback no matter what.  I recommend against that route.

You can also report all of this to Ebay, but our collective experience is that Ebay appears to ignore his problems and put the blame on the person reporting.  It is also our typical experience that Ebay usually talks big and does nothing.  I therefore recommend you report all of this to Ebay and hope for the best.  Several folks suspect Coug has an inside man protecting him. Still, this holds few disadvantages for you and some possible gains.   I recommend reporting him.

If or when you report this to Ebay, present it like a lawyer.  Have a neutral party review your presentation and make sure it contains all the facts and little to no emotional content.  You likely have a worthwhile case, but the method of presentation is as important as the case.  If you would like one of us to review your presentation, I'm sure several of us can help.

If you give him negative feedback, make sure you give legal negative feedback.  In other words, make sure there are no web-links present and such.  I know it's a real pain to read this whole thread, but you can learn a lot about what works and what hasn't worked.  Coug knows lots of tricks to get it removed.

I also recommend you no longer communicate with Coug.  The more "rope" you give him, the more he has to hang you.  Save all communication from Coug.  The more "rope" you have, the more you can use to hang him.  He tries to goad and bully.  Do not take the bait.  He has been called a lot of nasty names so he's probably heard them all.  The only "name" that appears to really hurt him is with negative feedback.

One thing you may be experiencing is that you have never had negative feedback before.  Don't worry about it.  Every reasonable person realizes there are problems and problem people.  Frankly, I wonder about people with perfect feedback; do they have a spine?  Or another way to think about it is this way: Is the better measure of a person who their friends are or who their enemies are?  All great people in life had enemies.

Finally, add Coug to your blocked list of bidders.  Don't allow him to enter your life again.

Thanks again for trusting us.  I hope this helps!

And he's about to win a decent-looking copy of Wild Things!




** expired/removed eBay auction **

oncebitten wrote:Hi

I got to this forum after having some dealing with the vortex of eBay strangeness that is Cougar and deciding to Google him further.

I seem to be encountering a variation of the Non Payer dispute tactic that he uses on others.

To cut a long story short  I bought several items and asked for a slight delay to bid on a later item and consolidate postage. He said this wasn't a problem. I missed the last item and asked if the previous invoice was still right for settling up. He confirmed it was and I paid by Paypal. Three days later I get several non payment disputes raised by him through eBay. I send off messages on these via email and the Dispute Center asking WTF and sending my paypal receipt. Three days after that he posts the package. Well wrapped, items in good nick as described, postage charged was a few quid over what it cost to post, but I wasn't too upset as I got a good price on the items themselves.

So I ask him to close the dispute and now he tells me he won't until we both leave mutually satisfactory feedback, because once he closes the dispute he can't open it again. Of course I have asked him why he'd want to re-open it, he has the money I have the items

So what is his game, is it just to force me to give him positive feedback, which I would have done anyway if he hadn't started playing silly buggers?

I have lodged an appeal on this and told eBay that he appears to be coercing me to give positive feedback when he has got the money and I have got the items.

Where do I go from here though? If I give him poor feedback I will just get the same. Best just to wash my hands of it and walk away, but I'm a stubborn cuss and hate to think he'll just do it again on some other schmuck. I wish I had seen your forums before I got sucked in but he was pleasant in his emails and I had no reason to suspect this BS was coming

Anyhoo thanks for the space to vent

cheers

All very good advice above from Benjoshua. The main thing is Whatever you do "do not leave positive feedback first"! Check COOGIES ratings he always negs people that aggrivate him (in his own mind),despite the fact that they leave positive feedback.

At this stage would you possibly want to give bully boy COOGIE a positive? He is trying to intimidate/force you into a decision you would rather not make. Some buyers left positives but just made a note that the postage was a bit steep in the feedback line....COOGIE responds with a neg? If you leave him a Neutral he always responds with a neg too.

Bottom line is, if he is annoying you now...think how much more annoyed you will be if you leave a positive and he responds with a neg.

He even negs people for not leaving feedback?

Good luck Once bitten and welcome to the club my friend. We have all been there!

oncebitten wrote:Hi


So I ask him to close the dispute and now he tells me he won't until we both leave mutually satisfactory feedback, because once he closes the dispute he can't open it again. Of course I have asked him why he'd want to re-open it, he has the money I have the items

So what is his game, is it just to force me to give him positive feedback, which I would have done anyway if he hadn't started playing silly buggers?

I have lodged an appeal on this and told eBay that he appears to be coercing me to give positive feedback when he has got the money and I have got the items.

cheers

This may fall under eBay's "Feedback Extortion" Go to this link http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... ationDate= and fill out the form.



In the future, correspond only through eBay's mail program

Do not make any kind of threats to the seller.

If you decide to leave Feedback, follow eBay's rules to the letter. i.e. no names, URL's or anything else like that.



This seller wins these disputes because he plays the system like a fine violin and most of the people that have been burned by him are like bull's in a china shop.

oncebitten wrote:So I ask him to close the dispute and now he tells me he won't until we both leave mutually satisfactory feedback, because once he closes the dispute he can't open it again. Of course I have asked him why he'd want to re-open it, he has the money I have the items

Yikes. Yet another loophole. I swear, Diamond Dave has a particular genius for exploiting the eBay system. I've never seen anything like it.

As to some of your other questions:

1. Block him. That's a two-word piece of advice that no one, not even Portsmouth Dave, can get around. And, of course, never, ever place a single bid on anything he is selling.

2. Neg. him. Say anything you want to, provided you don't use any names, links, URLs, or threats of bodily harm. Short of that, just go for it.

Your inevitable return negatives will not only be a badge of honor among the collecting community, they really won't affect anything (and, if you're mostly a buyer, they will affect nothing ... not one single part of your eBay experience will change).

Every single week, I become more and more convinced that eBay feedback just doesn't matter. It's a broken system that produces meaningless data ... and I'm not sure anyone is really even looking anymore. The system is good at weeding out the extreme examples (the rip-off artists or the overwhelmed sellers who are about to crash and burn), but that's about it.