Anyone been hassled by manufacturers for things you make?

[roykirk]

I have an interesting situation unfolding concerning a product I print and sell. Before I started selling my "widgets" on Ebay, there was only one manufacturer in the world (so far as I could tell) that produced the same product. Since they had no competitors, they charged about $150 for this piece of plastic that probably cost them, at most, a couple of dollars to make. After confirming that they held no patent (nor pending patent) on the item or idea, I decided to design my own version and start printing it and selling it. With a listed price way lower, you can imagine they've been selling like crazy. They look nothing like the manufactured version so there's no case to be made that I copied their design. I just made something that accomplishes the same thing via different means.

So an odd thing happened a few days ago. I normally sell two or three of these things a day. Suddenly one buyer grabs up 50 of them all at once...my entire inventory. While pleased with the big purchase, I became suspicious when the buyer was quite cold and a bit rude in a couple of messages exchanged following the purchase. Checking Ebay for the "ship to" address showed that they had all been ordered by the manufacturer in question.

I have no idea what their game is, but I'm going to ship the items to them as they paid fair and square for them. I figure they bought them all up to make me run behind on sales or they want to look at them close up to see if I copied their design (but why not order just one then?). My slightly more sinister theory is that they bought them all up so they could try to leave 50 instances of negative feedback on my seller account for some made up reason, which could definitely kill my future sales.

Anyway, just a story that I thought other 3ders might be able to relate to or have similar experiences to share. Not sure if I should be nervous or what.

[Feign]

If you can prove that they're a manufacturer of a competing product, you can contact e-Bay and contest bad reviews if they make them. Be sure to ship them with some kind of certification that they were delivered and keep a close eye on all the paperwork. If they do swamp you with 50 negative comments, you can go straight to e-Bay with evidence of them defrauding the system. Their reviews would get taken down (possibly all of their reviews) and if they would possibly get their account banned.


If possible, contact e-Bay beforehand to let them know that your competitor is planning to buy 50 of your product. It certainly couldn't hurt your case later on for them to have that on their records.

[RAMTechRob]

You are in the clear. Just keep all the paperwork and send them with Signature needed.

[bshadown]

I have to point out thats a market strategy, buy the competition stock give them bad publicity(reviews) the competition runs out of bussines, start shelling the competition product + copy their desing..... Remains me of monopoly táctics, at léast thats how it sounds to me, one word of advice, contact the admins of e-bay, tell them everything in detail and ship the product, if you see it happends the above, well you have the backup of the admins, and also read the legal of the site, Its better to be ready.

and just to be curios.....what whas that product you said? Sorry cant helped, had to ask. Cheers

[roykirk]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I was just feeling a bit nervous about what their endgame could be. Maybe they'll try to sell them on their own website with a markup?

[awerby]

That seems more likely than getting 50 of them just for the extra opportunities to disparage your product.

[crowbar]

Maybe they figured buying from you was cheaper? Maybe they had their own orders to fulfill? There hasn't been any harassment yet as you've jumped the gun in your curiosity.

[Geoff]

This actually happened to me, and what I did to combat it was offer more and more options, so many they could not keep up. They eventually gave up and not only stopped buying up mine, but stopped selling them on their page also.

It's a stubborn fight, but you sort of have to be in the current environment.

[JohnA136]

If they bought all 50 in one transaction, they can only give one feedback. If they bought them individually, you should be making a little bit extra on individual shipping? At any rate, you seem to have covered yourself with ebay so you should not be at a disadvantage if they try to get back at you for offering a similar product. What is the worst they can do, say their widget is better than your widget? They have no patent or license to fall back on?

[av76]

I've seen this before. When they receive the items they could claim that the widgets are knockoffs of their branded widgets and report you to eBay. This is especially true if they are a member of VERO (http://vero.ebay.com/). Purchasing your entire inventory effectively puts you out of business while your competitor is waiting to receive the items and eBay is processing their complaint. I hope that isn't the case but it is a possibility. Can you keep us updated on what happens?