Negative feedback after 2 days

[ukcollector]

Hi all,

First of all I'm a seller and a buyer who joined in 2009 and have never had negative feedback in those 12 years. I started selling my collectibles more through lockdown to help me and my family with the money problems.

Me and my wife have 2 young children and my wife is vulnerable to Covid so we had to shield for a while and I ended up working from home and this year I started a second job as a delivery driver to help with money. This also meant that I have to stay outside as much as possible as I do not want to risk bringing the virus back home so post as much as I can in a postbox. She also now home schools our kids permanently so that they don't risk getting infected / bring the virus back home. 

I recently put a few Xbox games up for sale, that we don't play anymore, and posted them the next day after payment was received as I always do. One buyer that paid on the 6th October gave me negative feedback 3 days later simply saying 'It’s not even in transit yet'. Keep in mind that this buyer has '0' feedback and is a member since 24th Jan 2020. I've been messaging them and they have been replying but are telling me they haven't received it but will let me know when. How are buyers allowed to give negative feedback so quickly? I've emailed eBay and they are not removing the feedback. 

So my guess is that this buyer could be a scammer and is going to claim that they never received it. I will be forced to refund them and be out of pocket, lose the game and also be left with a negative feedback that could affect my future sales. What can I do?

Thank you.

[mine7289]

Hi there, the eBay mafioso will not remove the negative feedback, 95% of the time they favour the buyer. Did you send the games tracked? If not, do you have the proof of postage receipt, because that will have a reference number on it which you can enter on the Royal mail website, that's if you posted with Royal Mail, if so the reference number will tell you if the parcel has been delivered, and it will also show you what time and day it was delivered. Take screenshots from the Royal Mail website so you can show them to eBay in case the buyer opens up a not received item case, which is looking like they will do that.

[ukcollector]

Thanks for your reply.

I post what I can in the postbox on my street as I try not to go inside any buildings to reduce the risk of bringing the virus back home so unfortunately I don't get proof of postage for things like this. I've explained this all to the buyer and am being as helpful as I can be.  I guess I just trust buyers to be genuine. I just thought eBay could get an actual human being to check it out and see that it looks a bit dodgy especially with the buyer having no feedback. 

[mudshark61369]

@ukcollector ,

If you did not purchase your shipping label through ebay, you have to manually upload the tracking number. To do that get your postal receipt and then find the item in your sold item history, and open the listing. There will be a space to type in the tracking information.  Once you have done that, wait a day or so for the tracking info to show updates. Since you are located in the U.K. do a search for "Feedback Removal ebay".  You will get a link to the policies along with how to get the feedback removed or to send a revision request.  The process may be different on the U.K. site (ebay.uk.com) than the one here in the U.S. where you have posted.  

Unless the last estimated delivery date has passed, the buyer cannot open an Item Not Received (INR) dispute and get a refund through ebay.  If the tracking shows the package enroute, ebay will make them wait to be able to ask them to step in. Also as long as tracking shows you shipped on time, that will qualify you to have the feedback removed, but wait before doing that.  The buyer may be willing to revise the feedback to a positive. On your feedback profile page you can reply to their comment saying what day you shipped the item. 

[ukcollector]

Thanks for your reply,

I purchased the 1st Class shipping online through eBay once payment was made, printed it and posted the item in a postbox just as I usually do but there is no postal receipt. The tracking does not update at all after posting in a postbox even when it's been delivered, I know this from my past sales. Also when I copy and paste the tracking number on the Royal Mail website it says 'Tracking information is not available for this service' so I am basically trusting the buyer to say the item has been delivered. 

I've been through the feedback removal process and almost instantly got an email back saying 'We’ve looked carefully at this feedback and see that it doesn’t qualify for removal'

[mine7289]

I stopped using that postal service on eBay a long time ago, it's a waste of time and causes more problems. For some reason, every time l used this service the parcels would take much longer to reach the buyer, and you cannot track them on the Royal mail website like you say 'Tracking information is not available for this service', which does not make sense because it's a Royal Mail service, just not direct from Royal Mail, but through eBay. If eBay is not helping, there is not much you can do, hopefully, the buyer is honest, the other alternative is to have the parcels collected from your home with a different courier, it may cost a little bit more though, but you will have a tracking number you can actually track and will be updated, plus you have peace of mind. 

[ukcollector]

Update:

Buyer has just messaged me telling me they have just received the item and has asked to remove the negative feedback that they left.

Thanks for everyone's help, much appreciated.