Ebay Negative Feedback

[greenmonster66]

Would like your thoughts on an Ebay Transaction I recently had. I sold an item a few weeks back. Unfortunately I misplaced the item and looked everywhere for it in my house. Never sold it, just misplaced it. Told buyer and sent him an apology note and fully refunded his $$ asap. Tonight he goes ahead and left me negative feedback. Does this seem fare?

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I've been in your shoes, and while I would hope for understanding, it wouldn't surprise me. I had someone leave me negative over a $7 card that they thought I misgraded without even contacting me first. I work like hell to avoid it but I couldn't blame a buyer for dinging me in a situation like yours.

[thetruthisoutthere]

The problem is that Ebay does not allow sellers to Neg buyers or they might think twice about leaving a seller Negative Feedback.

I recently purchased an item on Ebay and finally after three lies and 20 days, Ebay issued me a refund, but I still didn't leave the seller negative feedback.

[T205 GB]

You must have missed the other thread. I would say your 50/50 with the board on whether it was good or bad so I'm not going there again😎

It's sucks to get a negative but you can reply to it and let other buyers know what happened if they check your feedback.

[bbcard1]

Shouldn't be a big deal if you have decent feedback. He could have cut you a break and not filed negative feedback, but he probably wasn't completely out of bounds dinging you, the way I see it. No, I wouldn't have left negative.

[Luke]

I've had same thing happen a couple times over the years. I would always offer a great deal on something else, or offer to send a more valuable item in place of the one I lost. I've never got a negative, but I also make it very clear I want to make up for my mistake.

[savedfrommyspokes]

I have been on both ends.

As a buyer, I have a near infinite amount of understanding if a seller loses a fixed priced item I have purchased at market price. However, when a seller loses an item I won via auction, at a better than market price, than I am not as happy. My feedback in a case like this will likely depend on how frequently this happens to the seller. If they exhibit a history of not honoring winning bids, feedback will obviously not be positive.


As a seller, I sell fixed price items and following my apology to a buyer for misplacing their purchase, my first offer is to locate a close as possible replacement followed by a refund or credit towards another item.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by thetruthisoutthere

The problem is that Ebay does not allow sellers to Neg buyers or they might think twice about leaving a seller Negative Feedback.

Thats the way it should be. Buyers should not have to worry about retaliatory feedback if the seller messes up. The system is not perfect but its better than the old way

[Snapolit1]

It think it's a dick move and feedback under those circumstance. If you quickly explained what happened and gave a refund I think completely unnecessarily. No harm, no foul.

[silvor]

Originally Posted by thetruthisoutthere

The problem is that Ebay does not allow sellers to Neg buyers or they might think twice about leaving a seller Negative Feedback.

I buy and sell various hobby related stuff on ebay. I think the sellers brought this on themselves in some ways. I bought a tape recorder advertised as "great condition" back when sellers could leave negative feedback. When I opened it, it smelled like horrible smoke, all except one light was burned out and the reverse function on the deck didn't work. So, I asked to send the item back (this was before the whole dispute process). He told me no. Just absolutely refused to do anything. What could I do except leave negative feedback? Thing is, he threatened to leave ME negative feedback.

As a seller now, I sort of figure I need to take returns, I need to describe every little issue and I need to work with the buyers. All that said, I try to sell on Craigslist first.

[Huysmans]

Truthfully, I think negative feedback is more than fair in this scenario. As a seller, you list an item, and while it's for sale and then purchased.. it gets lost? How hard is it to keep something put aside, especially considering you plan to enter into an agreement with someone to purchase said item? With all due respect, to buyers it will look like you either didn't care enough, or you're incompetent.

...and be honest, now that you got dinged you will probably be more prudent in the future so this doesn't happen again. If you didn't get dinged... would you be overly concerned about this happening again? Probably not....

If a buyer reneged on a purchase because he "lost" his money.... how understanding would most sellers be?? Think about it...

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by Jim65

Thats the way it should be. Buyers should not have to worry about retaliatory feedback if the seller messes up. The system is not perfect but its better than the old way

This. ^

To answer the question, it is fair. That's exactly what feedback is for. If the buyer felt like it was a negative experience, then they have the right to leave negative feedback.

That said, I probably wouldn't do it, but it would also depend on the situation. If I thought I got a really good deal on something and that the seller just didn't want to complete the transaction because they thought they could get more money for the item, then I would probably leave negative feedback. But if it was something that I could purchase for the same price any other day, then I would accept the seller at his word and just chalk it up as a mistake.

[greenmonster66]

Actually the buyer messaged me back, The only reason he left negative was because in his words:

You offered to notify me and an offer to sell if you ever located the cards. That was three weeks ago or so with no follow up thats why I waited before posting the negative feedback.v

I told him I would only contact him if the cards were ever located being said I didn't find them!

[steve B]

I guess he figured you'd find them right away or something.

One thing I've noticed becoming more common with the rise of places like Amazon is a serious lack of patience from pretty much everyone. There are a few patient people, but not as many as before.


I've had a couple selling experiences that were similar.

First one was when I was fairly new to Ebay. Sold an old weightwatchers ad flyer for I thin $3. And in the batch of stuff I was shipping it got under a box flap and I didn't know about that for a while. Meanwhile the buyer wrote a nasty email - Somewhat understandable. I figured the mail might be slow since my incoming was spotty and asked for a couple more days. No luck, so I sent a full refund, shipping included, plus a bit extra as an apology, and offered to send it free if it ever turned up.
Got a negative on that. Kinda bugged me at the time, as it was my first.
Didn't send it when I eventually found it a month or two later.

Fast forward a few years.
I sell a 3-d Disney postcard for a pretty decent amount. And to my dismay I can't find the stack of them I have. Pretty bad, since they're BINs.... Pull the rest right away, write a very apologetic email to the buyer, refund from PP immediately after, same thing, I offer to send it free when it turns up, which I'm sure it will. Buyer is disappointed, but says it's ok. Leaves no feedback. (Negative would have been deserved, and I really felt bad about losing the whole stack, maybe 20 of the things. )
About a full year later I find them.
Go through emails etc and find her email.
Good news, if you still want it the 3d postcard finally turned up!
Reall? How much?
Free, no charge, no shipping.
Ok, thanks.

I sent one of each and she was really happy.

A few other situations happened, but fortunately all the buyers were reasonable. A couple were actually pretty cool.
What should I do with the cracked BMX helmet?
Well, it's no good, so don't bother sending it back. It's just solid white, so I'd see of a local graffiti guy could airbrush or spray it with something crazy then I'd make a lamp out of it, but whatever want to do is fine.
....Them....That's a great idea! Thanks!


Once they made feedback a one way street I stopped doing it. I will if a seller goes way beyond what's reasonable, or is new and requests it, but in general I don't bother. It's mostly meaningless. A handful of sellers I like also very occasionally get feedback, to keep their dsr numbers up.

I check a sellers negatives sometimes, and find that most of them are from a few of the same sort of people.
1) People who can't read so they miss important parts of the description.
2) People who are only marginally connected to the reality the rest of us live in. Like the ones who buy from Europe and complain their item didn't arrive within 2 days. (remarkably, I've had a few stamp sellers regularly have stuff they ship to me from Europe arrive faster than I'd expect from a US package. One from Norway actually did only take two days )
3) People with very little feedback - they're usually the most impatient unreasonable ones out there.

[ALR-bishop]

Steve--- guess I will quit waiting on the weight watcher ad

[cardsnstuff]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

If a buyer reneged on a purchase because he "lost" his money.... how understanding would most sellers be?? Think about it...

I have had 4 buyers cancel orders within the last 2 weeks; it was within a few hours and before I even shipped item, no harm no foul, right; {wrong I have to get my credit from ebay and I have to relist item and usually pay for add'l listing because my limit is used up} but it happens a lot more than you would think. I usually just relist & move on

[ngnichols]

Here's the thing, if you've got stuff listed on eBay, it needs to be in one specific place, easily accessible, and in order, PERIOD.

I don't care if you have 1 item or 10,000 items listed, be organized or don't be on there at all. It's not that hard.

That being said, not being able to leave a buyer negative feedback is definitely a significant drawback to eBay as some people non-pay, abuse eBay rules/policies, etc. A "non-payment" strike isn't enough to stop people.

I've set my eBay requirements as strict as I can make them and would make them even stricter if I possibly could. It just weeds out all of the a-holes that are on there. I look at my list of people blocked from buying/making offers on my items and about 99% of it is "Too many non-payment strikes."

[Marchillo]

I don't have a perfect answer but Buyer Feedback should be different than Seller Feedback (they should also be listed separately). Someone smarter than me should develop a system kind of like a credit score.

Here are the thoughts. Your score could go up and down in a few different ways -

Score goes up
Positive Feedback from Sellers - Big Impact
Leaving Positive Feedback for Sellers - Medium Impact
Paying for auctions in a certain amount of time - Small Impact
Length you are on ebay - Medium Impact


Your score could go down
Leaving negative feedback for a seller - Small Impact
Taking too long to pay a seller - Small Impact
Bid Retractions - Big Impact
Non-Payment - Big Impact

And when I say your score could go down based on leaving negative feedback this is what I mean. If I pay all my bills on time for years and have a couple of long term credit cards then maybe I have an 800 credit score. But lets say in a 2 month period I apply for a couple of credit cards, a car loan, and a house loan my credit score could be hurt very slightly with hard inquiries. But lets say I decide not to pay my bills and I get reported to collections this will have a huge impact on my credit score.

So leaving negative feedback would have a low impact on your ebay buyer rating while bid retrations and non-payment would have high impacts on your ebay rating. And then maybe set a threshold where sellers can block buyers who are below a certain threshold. It would put more responsibility onto the buyers and make them think twice about certain things. Maybe try to resolve the issue before leaving a negative feedback or not paying for an item or retracting bids.

I am saying this and I am only a buyer. I have sold less than 10 things on eBay in my life. But now I could start selling things on eBay with a 100% FB rating. And maybe I'll turn out to be a crappy seller.

I've thought about this outdated rating system from eBay and I feel they could do a better job. Whether its something revolving around my idea of not. Buyers should feel comfortable leaving negative feedback when the experience is negative but if they do it all the time without trying to resolve the issues it should reflect in their rating. Just my opinion.

[nat]

I don't know about the "reply to the negative" advice. Unless they're for selling counterfeits or something like that, I don't hold a negative or two against a seller. Things happen, isolated incidents are no big deal. What does make me reconsider dealing with someone is when they reply to their negatives blaming the buyer. Even if they're right, and it's the buyer's fault, the reply makes them sound like a jerk and someone whom it would be a hassle to deal with if things didn't end up going smoothly.

[jbsports33]

This would be one reason I have been thinking about not taking offers on items I do not have a best offer on - I get emails all the time to lower my price or get a lower offer - and have had similar issues, but nothing like this - so yes what happen to you may not be fair - but everyone is different and I would not have left you negative feedback

Jimmy

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by thetruthisoutthere

The problem is that Ebay does not allow sellers to Neg buyers or they might think twice about leaving a seller Negative Feedback.

Leaving feedback on buyers is incredibly rare. Do sellers or manufacturers get to leave feedback on you on Amazon when you give a product a 1-star review? or leave terrible feedback on a seller? Of course not.

And, really, sellers only have themselves to blame for this. Waaaaaaaay too many sellers were holding feedback hostage and retaliating against people and eventually Ebay had to step in. And they made the right call in doing so.

[toledo_mudhen]

Originally Posted by steve B

One thing I've noticed becoming more common with the rise of places like Amazon is a serious lack of patience from pretty much everyone. There are a few patient people, but not as many as before.

Patience is readily learned by doing a bulk submission to PSA

[Leon]

Originally Posted by greenmonster66

Would like your thoughts on an Ebay Transaction I recently had. I sold an item a few weeks back. Unfortunately I misplaced the item and looked everywhere for it in my house. Never sold it, just misplaced it. Told buyer and sent him an apology note and fully refunded his $$ asap. Tonight he goes ahead and left me negative feedback. Does this seem fare?

BS move on the part of the buyer.

[ALR-bishop]

I am strictly a buyer on eBay.

Tabe- I agree with you that until seller retaliatory feedback was eliminated buyers did not give accurate feedback on sellers. But also agree that too many buyers now extort and scam even good sellers with negative feed back. I can only assume this model works best for eBay profits, but recognize it has driven some good sellers off eBay

Nat-- interesting take on sellers leaving responses. I had not viewed that as a negative, depending on the nature and tone of the response

I would not have left negative in this case unless it appeared to be a pattern of conduct or I had specific indication seller was just trying for better price.

[greenmonster66]

Update with Good News. So I left the buyer positive feedback and explained on my feedback what happened. Buyer appreciated me leaving him positive feedback and took the liberty to contact Ebay to remove the negative feedback for me and change it to positive. he also email apologizing with a long sory.

[Roulette44]

It's cool that they buyer did that. Whether he was warranted in leaving you a negative or not, it sounds like you offered the right kind of positive attitude. I find that strong customer service goes a long way (even when a mistake happens).

When you have thousands of listings, it's easy for something to sell prior to pulling it down from ebay, for example. It happens every so often to me, and i always apologize and offer the buyer something in reciprocity (since they invested their time to look at my item).

Glad it worked out for you. I'm sure a neg is annoying, even if it doesn't affect your ability to gain customers.

Joey

[bmattioli]

I don't even look at someones feedback score anymore. If the price is right I purchase the item and know that I'm 100 percent protected. Don't sweat it.. But then again it was unfair in my book with your deal..