Buyer is leaving a lot of negative feedback for sellers, including me, and it hurts sales.

[dhaga]

I have been with ebay for over 25 years and I don't understand why ebay is allowing buyers to leave negative feedback because they found me to be "uncompassionate". It is my first negative feedback received ever.  Of course I appealed and ebay says that sort of feedback does not violate policy. Ebay shows zero loyalty for those in my position and allows abusive buyers to leave damaging remarks based on a how they feel. This seems plain wrong. Is there anyway to communicate with ebay concerning policy change requests? 

[kmcangel2012]

I read the feedback they left and I would NOT hold that against you at all. It is that person that has an "issue". Sounds to me like they are a scammer wanting you to give a refund without having to return it. I only wish I could see their full ID so I could add them to my BBL....

[4pawsup*]

This was a long time very experienced ebay member who left that feedback. You have not been selling much lately.  I have to think if you would have approached the communication better something like. Ebay makes us go thru a return process to get your MBG. When buyers have something go wrong they want the seller to help them. Not just tell them to file a claim. You could have explained the process to them even though they probably knew it.  This was according to the feedback they left

[dhaga]

It is exactly what I communicated to the seller, that they need to go through the MBG process. I was not abusive in any way. They were upset I asked them to file the claim through ebay instead of processing the refund without them taking that action.  They did not want help and, as you correctly point out,  if they have been with ebay a long time they know the proper procedure.  Out of their last 14 purchases they left 7 negatives. Before that they have been leaving mostly positives. Something has changed with that buyer recently and they appear to attempt to get refunds without them being required to have those recorded through the MBG process. The recent change in their pattern of leaving a lot of negatives ,and not wanting to go through the MBG process, seems fishy. 

[hartungcards]

Really?  "According to the feedback they left" you're going to put this one on the OP/seller?  Did you actually read the feedback they left, and the OP's response?  Telling the buyer to file a claim is helping them.  What was the OP supposed to do, drive over there and help them glue the stuff back together?

[maxxilano]

99% of the time eBay says the negative feedback is the buyer's opinion and doesn't violate any policies.

They keep saying it even if the feedback makes no sense at all (straight-up gibberish), or simply a lie that is easy to confirm.

The best you can do is to answer to that feedback in a way that others will understand you didn't do anything wrong and did not deserve it.

[slati_2013]

At 5000 plus feedback, this buyer clearly knows the return process and is probably also a seller. They tried to scam you and then spitefully left negative feedback. The problem with eBay CS is it depends on who you get hold of. In this case this feedback should have been removed if they read the messages with you explaining to them how to start the return process. Does eBay want us sellers to start being "compassionate" with buyers when they ask for a return? This is a business. eBay is not exactly compassionate with us when the shoe is on the other foot. 

[gurlcat]

When you say "I appealed" -in what way?
 And "eBay says that sort of feedback does not violate policy" - who/what represented eBay?  -A phone CSR or chat CSR, an email, a social media dm .....???   

[dhaga]

I used the methods described in the following:

https://replyco.com/brainery/how-to-remove-negative-feedback-on-ebay/

[dhaga]

I was asked, through a PM, to identify the buyer so that the person that PM'd me could block them. If I remember correctly it is against the rules to for me to do that, publicly and privately, am I correct about that?

[mr_lincoln]

Hi @dhaga 

-Did they send you pictures of the broken item?  Did you request that of them?

-I had a Buyer bid on an auction and when I checked their FB I saw that of the 29 there were 7 Negs that they left for Sellers.  I cancelled their bid and added them to my blocked list.  The number of neg FB wasn't so much the issue but in reading the FB they were leaving it was apparent they were making no attempt to work things out with Sellers, just slapping down the neg FB ... 

[candd205]

I don't see any problem with a private message between 2 people, it's the public shaming that is not allowed.

[dhaga]

Yes, I did request that and they sent me pics of the item, sitting on their porch unopened, and then they sent me a picture of it after it was opened. What is weird is the item also had a distinctive piece of glass in it but the pictures did not show any of that glass and I would have assumed that would have also been broken. They only took a picture of the broken cast metal pieces. The package showed no signs of damage or mishandling when it was unopened and if you look at my other feedbacks I often get complimented on how well I pack things. If they scammed me, and the pics of the broken pieces were of another unit they already had, there is really no way I could prove it so benefit of doubt prevents me from being able to do that. 

[mr_lincoln]

---

@dhaga wrote:

Yes, I did request that and they sent me pics of the item, sitting on their porch unopened, and then they sent me a picture of it after it was opened. What is weird is the item also had a distinctive piece of glass in it but the pictures did not show any of that glass and I would have assumed that would have also been broken. They only took a picture of the broken cast metal pieces. The package showed no signs of damage or mishandling when it was unopened and if you look at my other feedbacks I often get complimented on how well I pack things. If they scammed me, and the pics of the broken pieces were of another unit they already had, there is really no way I could prove it so benefit of doubt prevents me from being able to do that. 

---

@dhaga   You are probably right, the piece they had pics of was not yours.  In early Nov my wife sold a decorative plate, one that might be a nice decoration for Thanksgiving ... sure enough, the Buyer sent pics of a broken plate but mentioned there was no damage to the package ... I pack all of her items, I've been in the packaging industry since 1983 and was shipping many items around the world long before selling on eBay.  Damages from here due to packing is an extremely rare event ... so we figured the Buyer had started to decorate for the holidays, broke their own dish and found a replacement ... which they ultimately got for free.  They never left any Feedback which was fine with us.  They had a high enough FB count that they knew what they were doing and I would have thought they would have left a nice thank you type FB for resolving an issue.

[fern*wood]

What did you end up doing?