Buyer left negative feedback immediately after purchasing and then canceled order without cause

[tiltedtimecompany]

I had a buyer yesterday that purchased an item (a pocket watch) from me for $80. The description was spot on and it had photos of the item from every angle. The item was exactly as described.

Immediately after the buyer made the purchase (no more than 5 minutes later) they left negative feedback stating "Way to go. Your a dishonest scammer. It's getting sent right back." They then requested to cancel the order; all within 10 minutes of the original purchase.

I requested a feedback revision from eBay and it was declined saying it didn't violate any of eBay's policies. I contacted eBay for Business on Facebook and they suggested I contact the buyer, and request a revision from the buyer. I messaged the buyer politely asking what we could do to improve, and why they left the feedback they did. The buyer never responded. 

I had eBay call me back so I could speak to a live person about this, and was informed that they would submit an appeal for the eBay feedback revision request that did not end in my favor. 

I am extremely disheartened and frustrated by this experience. Why would eBay allow buyers to abuse sellers like this for no reason? What can I do beyond this to remove the false, defamatory feedback? What's stopping other sellers from doing this to their competition to tank their feedback ratings, and as a result; their sales? Why is it okay for a buyer to buy an item just to leave negative feedback to hurt a business? 

[studiodeflores]

It might be a buyer who scans the shopping sites for gold priced below market.  They thought they were getting 18K gold and didn't read the description until after purchasing.  Some of those gold buyers are like vultures and not interested in being nice.  Next time you list a gold plated item be sure to include "GP" in the title.  Sorry this happened to you.  It's not so much a reflection on ebay as it's a reflection on this type of nasty buyer that you will run into once in a while.  You can at least enter a reply to the feedback saying that the seller cancelled immediately before it even shipped, never gave you an explanation, and that there was no scam.  Then other sellers will see that when they look at the buyer's feedback and will know to that this may be a problematic buyer.

[harborauction]

Looks like an AI description gone bad to me, along with having 18K gold in the title which was a mistake

last part of AI description reads " watch metal has been tested and is 18K

If you're going to use those idiotic AI descriptions you should proofread them to insure AI isn't selling something you don't have

[albertabrightalberta]

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@slyders_finds wrote:

Nobody said it was. It was a general response to dqdistributions comment:

"What if the seller never ships? Should that seller just not get negative feedback?"

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Your comments are totally irrelevant.

Point 1: The item wasn't OOS

Point 2: Of course the seller won't ship! He refunded at the buyer's request. 

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@gurlcat 

 Reported on the financial channel that the reason has ties to the war in Ukraine.  Russia had its assets frozen and is buying up gold along with China. This brings gold prices right now at an all time high.

     I suspect right along with you that we will be hearing more from gold sellers and the frenzy that is now beginning to take place globally....let the games begin.

[wilsonharborsales]

If you keep calling customer service they will eventually prevent you from using the phone number.

[kraftique]

Reach out the the buyer. 

[albertabrightalberta]

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@tiltedtimecompany wrote:

I have also had another feedback removed recently where the buyer swapped a genuine swiss movement and then returned the item. With that feedback eBay decided the buyer violated policy and so they removed the comment, but not the negative. This can be seen in my feedback as "--".

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I'm curious @tiltedtimecompany 

For that previous neg for which the comment was removed, does that buyer happen to be from the same vicinity as the latest buyer who canceled and negged you? 

I'm wondering whether there's a connection. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Honestly, I would be persistent in having this removed - sometimes its taken some badgering to do. CS on Facebook really should have known better - the buyer could not possibly have received the product in the five minutes between purchase and leaving FB calling you names and saying they would send it back (why do these people always have bad spelling, too).

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Didn't you know? FB is operated by bots at least some of the time now... I've asked questions and got scripted replies seconds later that were obviously pulled from the selling pages. (I can read the selling pages, I want interpretation since their language is sufficient that it has more than one interpretation and I want to know what eBay means so I don't accidentally violate the policy).

C.

[monster-deals]

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@tiltedtimecompany wrote:

Why would eBay allow buyers to abuse sellers like this for no reason? 

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Because it costs money to train people to do things like remove abusive feedback.

ebay doesn't want to spend money on us so it is done by bots now. Even egregious nonsensical feedback that last year was an easy one call removal is now just blanket denied.

Feedback removal is a joke and ebay needs to immediately undo this nonsense policy

[gurlcat]

All these recent posts about sellers being unable to get horrendously policy-breaking feedback removed has me wondering, what about when a buyer gets a false positive, accusational comment from a seller?  Come to think of it, how does a buyer get eBay to look at that anyway?  Since it's a "positive" does it have a handy 'request revision' button?  Or do they just have to use the generic 'Report Seller' feature?  

Oooo!  @tiltedtimecompany  -did you try that?  Just reporting the buyer as abusive?  
(anybody know if that is still possible after the order is cancelled?). 

[gurlcat]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

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@tiltedtimecompany wrote:

I have also had another feedback removed recently where the buyer swapped a genuine swiss movement and then returned the item. With that feedback eBay decided the buyer violated policy and so they removed the comment, but not the negative. This can be seen in my feedback as "--".

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I'm curious @tiltedtimecompany 

For that previous neg for which the comment was removed, does that buyer happen to be from the same vicinity as the latest buyer who canceled and negged you? 

I'm wondering whether there's a connection. 

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Great question.  Unless I'm mistaken, the Ship To addresses should still be visible for both orders.  

[gurlcat]

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@silverstatetreasureboxes wrote:

@gurlcat 

 Reported on the financial channel that the reason has ties to the war in Ukraine.  Russia had its assets frozen and is buying up gold along with China. This brings gold prices right now at an all time high.

     I suspect right along with you that we will be hearing more from gold sellers and the frenzy that is now beginning to take place globally....let the games begin.

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Man, there's probably more games already begun than we can even imagine.  A buddy and I are going to see Civil War tomorrow.  What if I become one of the freaks, start digging a hole in my rented back yard?!!  

You know, I don't think about guns very often, but when I do I can't deny there's a part of me that could get soooooo into them, and when I get into something it's a 2-3 year obsession, like eatdrinksleep 'that thing' 24/7.  When I was into coins I would literally lurk under drive-through windows in the middle of the night to see what was dropped there, abuse vending machines at 24-hour laundries and stuff. You know, like a coin crackhead. Then I got a metal detector and that led to silver stacking, which led to silver jewelry, which led to costume jewelry.  Before any of that was aquarium fish and sewing.  But guns -yeah I know if I got one I'd want to know everything about it, then I'd want more, without a doubt.  The metalsmith interest virus is already in me obviously, but coins and necklaces don't have that gun oil smell .....mmmmm-MM!!!!
 😆  

[tiltedtimecompany]

I refunded the buyer for two reasons, eBay didn't allow me to cancel:

1. Since the item had been marked shipped (I printed the label immediately after it was ordered and packed it - but after they had left negative feedback; as I had not been watching the page) eBay would not allow me to cancel the order stating "You let us know that you can no longer cancel this order because you already shipped it on Apr 9,2024." I did not click anything to warrant this, so this is a separate issue with eBay. 

2. A refund would arrive sooner and hopefully be best for the buyer (regardless of their abuse) than a cancellation in terms of getting their money back quickly.

We all have bad days, weeks, months, years; but that should never justify putting someone else down. 

[tiltedtimecompany]

I am not going to share their location, but the sale came from several states away. I researched the phone number associated with the account and it was a disposable number (think: free phone call app). It is still possible they used someone else's information for shipping if it was indeed the same person. 

[janet9988]

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@tiltedtimecompany wrote:

Not to sound like a broken record, but that's because it is plated. It was tested in-house. 

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Yet you gave  VERY  conflicting description....different than the title which clearly states 18K gold Monet Chain.

The watch metal has been tested and is 18k.

the chain has been acid tested and came up positive for 18k gold plating