Thanks to those of you who were scammed AND willing to leave negative feedback for this scammer, it looks like hailitele has lost this eBay account (although he is probably still operating under some others). Now it is time for eBay to do the right thing & withdraw the negative retaliatory feedback that this clown left, effectively harming his customers a second time. I would encourage you to contact eBay & insist that they do the right thing. Following is my second attempt at this after being blown off the first time by a form letter styled templated email.

Sent to eBay on 12/28/07

According to your TOS (as follows) an unregistered user can not leave feedback:

I bought something, but the seller is no longer registered
Question

The seller’s no longer registered. How does this affect my purchase?
Answer

We don’t recommend buying an item from a seller who is no longer registered - and you are no longer obligated to do so even though you won the item. Neither you nor the seller can leave Feedback for an item if the seller is not a registered member.

If the seller registers again in the future and files an Unpaid Item dispute against you, please let us know. We’ll remove any Unpaid Item strike for this item from your account.

You may still want to go ahead with the purchase, especially if it’s a hard-to-find item. In that case, we recommend that you check the seller’s recent Feedback and contact the seller before sending payment

Since a retaliatory f/b was left for item 120121556908 and this user is unable to withdraw the feedback, I believe that you should do the right thing & withdraw the feedback.

Please do not send me a stock templated reply. This scammer was exposed in my blog http://www.nnim.org and I am happy that I saved a number of unsuspecting buyers from this scammer. This is a unique situation that deserves special consideration.

Please send a personal reply that addresses the specific merits of this request or call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Thank You

So what are the odds that eBay does the right thing? I’ll follow up, once I receive their reply.

Update: December 29 2007

To eBay’s credit, a “customer support” rep named Reseda, followed up with a semi-personal email addressing my complaint:

Dear Chuck,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the removal of negative Feedback
that you received from seller “hailitele” who is no longer a registered
user. You also mentioned that you wanted to be called back.

I would like to let you know that we can remove Feedback, but only if
the comment meets the requirements for removal under our Feedback Abuse,
Withdrawal & Removal policy. We’ve reviewed the Feedback that you asked
about and determined that it doesn’t meet the removal requirement as
outlined in the policy.

To learn more about the eBay Feedback Abuse, Withdrawal & Removal policy
and the requirements for removal, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-abuse-withdrawal.html

At the same time, since your trading partner is no longer a registered
user, you may still enter mediation through SquareTrade, which is an
independent, third-party dispute resolution service available to eBay
members. SquareTrade offers a free web-based forum where users can
attempt to resolve their differences on their own. If necessary,
SquareTrade also offers the services of a professional mediator for a
fee.

If you can come to a agreement with the other member with the assistance
of a SquareTrade mediator, and eBay receives a copy of the agreement
directly from SquareTrade, we are able to withdraw either or both
comments, depending upon the member’s agreement. If you would like, you
can contact SquareTrade at:

http://www.squaretrade.com/spl/jsp/eby/eb_nf.jsp?marketplace_name=ebay

With regard to your second concern, eBay offers customer support
primarily through online content and by responding to members’ emails.
Due to the high volume of users on our site, we’ve found that our online
and email support allows us to respond to members more quickly than we
could with phone support. Another advantage of email communication is
that we’re able to document important information that you send us.

What other resources does eBay offer?

(Blah blah, blah, back to template blah, blah)

Sincerely,
Reseda

eBay Customer Support
______________________________

I still think that I have a pretty good argument here and even though I’m not thrilled about the process, I decided to check out SquareDeal.

Once on this website, one is directed thru a series of questions regarding the transaction. This includes an overview of the dispute:

My take:

hailitele is a big time eBay scammer that I exposed on my blog http://www.nnim.org. One of his scams was to bait & switch, then leave retaliatory feedback for those who exposed him. He would then ask for mutual withdrawal, essentially cleaning his slate. In short, he knew how to work the system. A simple search for “hailitele” in Google supports my claim.

hailitele can not be allowed to get away with this. It is ridiculous that it took the large amount of pressure from myself & others to finally get eBay to ban this clown. Since hailitele is no longer a registered user, it looks like it is up to you to do the right thing & recommend that the feedback be withdrawn.

Can I count on you to do the right thing?

Please advise

After hitting the submit button, I get this piece of good news:

We recommend mediation to resolve your case as it has multiple issues including feedback withdrawal. Mediation is successful in over 80% of cases - and as per eBay policy, it is the only way you can have feedback withdrawn through SquareTrade.

And this piece of BS:

Exclusive for eBay users: Low $29.95 fee for mediation. For standard cases, you are charged only when the other party agrees to mediate or feedback withdrawn for non-response.

That’s right - if you have been screwed & want any chance of clearing the feedback, pony up $30 Bucks. I wonder if eBay allows other “neutral” third party services to do this. Heck, I’ll do it for $15.

So, eBay, what do you day - do we have a deal?