I had to take a hiatus on eBay selling. The last item I sold was mailed to a buyer who gave me an address in Florida. After it was indicated arrived, I asked the buyer if they got it OK. He told me the address was a relay shipping service to his country. I didn't realize he was from United Arab Emirates and that my package would be making a trip there. I had indicated in my auction that I was selling only to the USA.
Well, a few months had passed and I had forgotten about this. The buyer never reached out to me. But as I reviewed my account in preparation to make some new listings, much to my horror I saw that I had a major smackdown on my feedback score. The buyer had left a negative and claimed he never got the item! Well, this wasn't on me, as he used a 3rd party who took possession of the item, unbeknownst to me.
I reached out to eBay to check into this for me. After I spoke with 2 representatives (the first said they'd check... never responded, so I opened another case), they did admit this was wrong and they were going to flag the buyer for doing this. But I really don't care about buyer penalties. I just want that feedback removed. They told me that they're terribly sorry, but feedback over 90 days cannot be removed.
So now, my 100% feedback of perfection for 21 years is marred by this negative. And because of my lapse in selling, apparently the percentage appears to be calculated on some narrow period statistics, giving me a 95%.
Is there truly no recourse in this matter? Also, will it take a full year for this negative to roll off affecting my feedback percentage?
Thanks!
