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Negative Feedback - Ebay Doesnt Support Sellers.
I have been a top rated seller for years to which I am now considering looking for a new platform for my company to sell on. I find their so called protections these days to be exclusively for the benefit of buyers. They speak to removing feedback on conditioners where it is not the sellers fault yet their negative feedback removal process is nothing but a canned "no can do". Recently I had a buyer purchase a small dollar candlestick that apparently was damaged in shipment by fedex. Upon them advising me of it I immediately refunded the buyer and let them keep the item. The buyer then complained they didnt like the shredded paper that I filled around the item that was also wrapped in bubble wrap, sheets of paper and cardboard to protect it because it was messy to open. For a 20 dollar candlestick holder I spent multi dollars just on packing. Now the buyer leaves negative feedback that we do poor packing and dont address the issues.. Completely untrue as they were refunded and we apologized. I have never had a complain in the hundreds of items we ship yet when you contact ebay to request them to look at the feedback, even though everything here was beyond the sellers control as fedex caused the issue, ebay just sends a canned letter and refuses to do anything to fix their buyer bias platform. After over ten years selling on ebay as a top rated seller I am going to look for a new platform..
kh-cathy
·1 year agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
rosamarcella
·1 year agoI feel the same way! I have been selling for 17 years on eBay. The support for sellers is not there anymore. I am very careful when I sell and look over my items not missing anything, bc a buyer will find something to either get a refund or discount. I recently sold a Beautiful Coach bag, it is a 40 yr old Vintage bag. Coach vintage is very popular bc they made them so much better back in the day. This bag was in pristine condition looked almost new..beautiful leather! I saw no marks or defects. The buyer, received it and said she saw a tiny and I mean tiny mark somewhere on bottom. they take pictures enlarge it to look worse. I was like it is pre owned?
needless to say, eBay insisted I take it back, pay for return shipping , I lost my 15 watchers..after I accepted and refunded her, she left me neg feedback! eBay said if she leaves neg feedback, it will be removed bc I accepted return. So I requested remove neg feedback,and eBay sent me a long letter regarding why they cannot remove feedback! On top of that I got a DEFECT on my seller performance, threatening that I could loose my seller rights! What is going on? No support at all for Sellers! It’s so frustrating and I work hard to photograph and list my items, it’s absolutely ridiculous that we have no rights at all anymore. As I said, I have been selling 17 years. It has changed so much. Sellers had rights also , if something was laundered that was an immediate NO RETURN ! I cannot believe they would allow them to return an item that was launders! I am also thinking about finding another platform. This is getting ridiculous! Does eBay not see that we the sellers are making money for them also?
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI don't see a neg.
Looks like you managed to get it removed.
I've gotten similar negs for what seemed to be a silly reason when a refund and/or return would solve the problem. The merchandise wasn't damaged, just turned out to be "unsuitable" for what he was going to do with it, so he felt as though leaving one neg for each coin in the package was fair. After much fighting with ebay, they did remove it. Just because a buyer purchases something that turns out to be unsuitable is no reason to neg the seller. I didn't mint the coins.
C.
terrific_buys
·2 years agoYoure going to have that problem on any selling site. They are all about the customer. eBay is no different.
tod184
·2 years agoI recently had a buyer message me that my listing said she would get her package in 3 days. Threatened me with false advertising and a Negative feedback. I explained to her that the shipping estimates are given by eBay and USPS. Her purchase was on a Saturday and Monday was a Federal Holiday. Her item was delivered 3 days after USPS accepted it on Tuesday.
She then messaged back that it was delivered but the item had been used. She sent me a picture of a face cream jar with a big scoop of cream removed and she wanted a refund. I then explained I get my items directly from the manufacture, boxed and unopened. I told her I accepted free returns for any reason. She then opened up a return claim.
Today she gives me Negative feedback since it took 6 days to get her package, the item was opened and used, and she had not received her refund. Actually she had not shipped the return back to me.
I requested eBay remove her negative feedback . As far as I'm concerned there was extortion, false claims and not following eBay return Policy. My request was denied. I called ebay and requested an appeal. This would mean a new feedback team member would be deciding the fate.
Meanwhile I am holding off answering the feedback until I see if it is removed. Is this a wise move? The feedback removal options are poor and I see 3 problems with this negative feedback but was only able to use one of their options. I also was not able to report her a second time with a different option.
The negative and ensuing ranking change will not be a problem but I'm tired of bending over for these type of buyers.
gurlcat
·2 years agoThere's another thread where someone encountered almost the exact same situation as you, and just yesterday they finally got their absurd negative feedback removed by contacting eBay For Business, on either Facebook or Twitter (not sure which one they did). Are you aware of that avenue? If not, it's actual eBay employees who answer private messages, usually within a matter of hours but sometimes a full day or so. They are fluent English-speaking Americans, many of them are also sellers, and I believe they do these help tasks as gig work from home. They not only know the policies better than the poorly-trained overseas phone/chat workers, but they can also go right in and DO more for you; I've even had one log into my account as me, in order to figure out why I was having trouble with something. I couldn't guess how many times I've seen them perform miracles for me and others here in the forums, achieving seller-benefitting outcomes that previously looked hopelessly undoable. Even when their hands really are tied and can't help you, they give you the real lowdown about why, not bonkers reasoning like the phone reps often give. Oh, and real sympathy too, which is nice. Also you have everything you and they said in writing, which is always better than verbal.
I don't see how on Earth you were denied removal of the feedback in question, considering the buyer claimed you didn't give a refund for an active (incomplete) return case. But you didn't say what you were told on the phone about appealing -are you waiting for that at this time? Sorry, your timeline isn't quite clear. But to answer your question about holding off on writing a reply to the feedback -YES, your instinct is correct on that. I think I've seen a case or two where seller reply was cited as reason not to address a removal request. Even if that's a false memory, if it's ultimately impossible to get the neg removed, it will be there for a year so there's no reason to rush replying to it. First exhaust all avenues including the EFB one.
tod184
·2 years agoThank you gurlcat. I am currently waiting for the results of the appeal of the feedback removal decision. I was told that it would take up to 3 days and they would not be notifying me of the results.....I just have to look for the removal of the feedback on my own. The appeals team people do not ever directly converse with you. I had forgotten about the Facebook route. I will attempt that if the removal is not done. I will post back with what happens.
tod184
·2 years agoUpdate on Feedback Removal.
My appeal did not remove the Negative feedback. So I private messaged Ebay for Business on Facebook. Here is the conversation:
REP:
We can’t review feedback for removal when we have an open return. Don’t worry, you offer free returns so as soon as the item is returned, and your buyer receives a voluntary refund, the feedback will automatically fall off your account. That’s a seller protection in place for great sellers like you who offer hassle-free returns.
ME:
What if she doesn't return it?
REP:
If the return closes because your buyer failed to send back the item then the feedback will also be automatically removed. I hope this helps to put your mind at ease but please let us know if you have any other concerns.
ME:
Just one more question. If she does return it, She will be getting only a 50% refund because it is being returned used. Will that cause a problem?
REP:
Great question! While it won't cause a problem per se, it may cause a delay in removal. Once you rightfully issue the 50% refund then the return will stay open for 10 days to allow time for the buyer to ask us for the remainder is necessary. However, we can still go in and manually remove the FB but you'd need to message us here with that request after the partial refund is granted.
ME: 😃😃😃 So, needless to say, I will not be the one to tell her, or remind her that she needs to return it to get a refund.
gurlcat
·2 years agoWow thanks SO much for updating, especially sharing that copy-paste of the exact dialogue. -That's another benefit to having your answers in writing, the fact that it can be shared in the Community so we can all learn from the real-life scenarios in black and white.
And see what I meant about how clear and appropriate your rep's answers were? This reinforces (to me at least) that it's probably best to go the social media route FIRST. I know when we're upset it can feel like "I want to talk to somebody RIGHT NOW" but considering how often the overseas phone reps give wrong answers (and contradictory ones, if you talk to more than one), the chances of getting a fast solution are slim. Sometimes they even put you on hold for extreme time periods, or say they will call you back, or "someone" will, but that rarely actually happens. With the social media private messages, the conversation isn't over until you have your answers and say so explicitly ... I'm guessing you only copied the main Q&A of that conversation, that there was also a part at the end, where he/she asked for your verification that they answered your questions satisfactorily, and if there's anything else they can help you with -yeah? I believe they do that because they are held accountable in some way if they end the conversation before you're totally clear on the details, and you would have proof of that because it WAS in writing. Actually I don't know who you could report a bad conversation to, LOL, but there must be some way.
Honestly, I think it's not a bad idea to ask for help from eBay For Business even when there appears to be a 'self-serve' built-in feature you can use right on the site, but it's not the only option and you're unclear which way to go, could even be a situation where there's a stepwise procedure, and if you unknowingly did step B before A, then you're out of luck. -Feedback removal request is a good example, but there are many others. The only caveat I would give is that I don't believe the EFB employees work on weekends, so if you have limited time remaining (say less than 48 hours) to take an action and it's Friday, then the phone may be the better option. Actually, then I would do a chat instead (on the platform), as you would get an overseas rep but at least you'd still have the benefit of written conversation.
Another reason EFB is better: Very often the wrong answers the phone reps give are wrong-positive, in other words, telling you what you want to hear even if it's not true. This may even involve them telling you to take an ACTION that is inappropriate. Then when the positive outcome doesn't really happen and you call back, you can't prove to this person what the previous one said; all they can see is that you DID the wrong thing. But when you go the social media route, if you need more help for some reason, all you have to do is add a new message to the thread, where alllllll your prior ones still exist, and someone will answer .... probably not the same name as the last one, but he/she can see the thread just like you can, see the exact SAME words that you read on your screen. With the phone reps, AT BEST there may be "notes" left by prior reps, but you have no idea what they wrote.
Thanks again for sharing what you've got so far. And your scenario is a unique 'first' to me because I can't recall ever seeing what happens when the 2 factors of 50% refund versus feedback removal collide. Hopefully your awful buyer didn't actually intend to send back the item, and just initiated the return hoping you would issue the refund and she'd have a FREE item. Ironically, had you done that, not only would you have lost the inventory for no revenue, but you also wouldn't be able to get the neg removed, since your voluntary refund would indicate acknowledgement of wrongdoing. What date do you see that this buyer has to get her initial postal scan by? If that day passes with no scan, I can't remember for sure but you may have to manually request to close the return, though maybe it happens automatically .... then I'm also not sure how long after closure the feedback auto-removal occurs. So I'm curious to see that, if you'd be so kind to share what happens. Also if she DOES return, and you issue the 50% refund.
Ooo, one last thing. If she does return, and the item does appear used (or she sends back a box of rocks or something, ha), take pictures, in fact take one of the unopened package first. -I've never had to use the 50% refund tool, so I don't know if the page has an option to show evidence, but it might. And who knows, you might need it later, if she appeals. People here in the forums scoff at photo/video evidence all the time, saying the employees won't consider it, but I think that's mostly coming from the perspective of dealing with phone reps, who offer no way to send them digital files. But obviously you can attach those to social media PM very easily, and obviously those reps are also much more cooperative and seller-sympathetic.
tod184
·2 years agoIt has often frustrated me when the outcome of future actions are not displayed. We learn the most from what happens to other people on the site.
The rep did tell me that I can revisit and ask more questions pertaining to this particular chat/problem....(That blew my mind) . They also give you a survey to fill out afterwards.
The one thing that bothers me is that when you call in or ask for a feedback removal online....you are never given a reason for a denial. In this case if I was told that the removal can't be done until the Return Claim is closed, I would have not been so frustrated. Getting a canned resonce, if any, from their eBay's feedback team is really poor. (Reminds me of Amazon's account restrictions and suspensions without reasons). The EFB Rep was knowledgeable enough to tell me what I needed to and wanted to hear.
I have used the 50% refund option before. They never asked me for proof....basically my word against the buyer (pictures can be doctored). When I gave the 50% refund I was asked why and I just claimed product was opened and used. So what they did was reimburse the other 50% to the buyer out of their own pocket. The buyer has to ask for the other 50%. They are given 10 days to ask.
" However, we can still go in and manually remove the FB but you'd need to message us here with that request after the partial refund is granted." I assume that means I don't have to wait the full 10 days for the feedbaack to be removed after a refund is given.
This buyer has until Dec 11th to post a return of the item. Time will tell.
tod184
·2 years agoUpdate:
Received an email from eBay today.
We reviewed this case and have closed it without any refund to the buyer.
The case will not affect your seller performance. Any feedback left for this transaction will be removed.
The buyer did not return the item to you within the required timeframe.
lacemaker3
·2 years agoAnd the negative feedback is now gone.
tod184
·2 years agoIt's still there on my computer screen. ???
gurlcat
·2 years agoIt's still there on mine too. Second one down from the top.
mellow44
·2 years agoI totally agree with you and find only protection for buyer.
My case is one where I was not shipping internationally for many years because of the basic hassles, but ebay started its own international shipping business and automatically opted me in! All of a sudden I had a BIN buyer from Canada. The buyer complained about the ebay shipping expense and asked me to ship internationally first class, not thru ebay . I advised buyer going that route, the buyer would not have insurance or tracking. He said that was ok. I should never have gone along with this. Sent item, then all of a sudden the buyer says there was a crack in the porcelain. When you looked at the porcelain with a normal lens, no crack was there; then with special lighting, the buyer said I didn't disclose what he said was a crack. This was a $45 dollar item, that the buyer talked me down to less, but had $35 shipping. Now ebay says I need to give a refund, or have buyer mail it back for additional $35 shipping. So, it will "cost me" refund item plus 2 $35 shipping charges. I ended up doing a bargain where I refunded $40 and buyer kept item! What a scam from buyer. Even though I said no returns in my listing, ebay said that was not their policy. I am out a lot of money for this item and the buyer gets it for free! So I'm thinking done also. This was a lovely item (antique Chinese vase) that buyer concluded was defective, for something never seen with naked eye .No winning here. I never got to the point to tell ebay my side of story. The only thing I could do was opt out of ebay international shipping and block this buyer. No way to warn other sellers of this buyers scam.
showmecurrency4u
·2 years agohere is one of the majpr problems that ebay has. they wrongly believe that buyers are their customers when in fact it is the sellers that are the real customers of ebay, the buyers pay no money to ebay, it is the sellers who pay ebay.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoYeah that's why people come here and complain that there are not enough sellers but they never complain that there are not enough buyers!
eBay sellers pay eBay with money they get from buyers, with 50,000+ feedbacks I would assume you already know this (but just in case).
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThey do believe their buyers are their customers - we are just vendors on a managed marketplace. Without buyers there are no sellers and, yes, vice versa, but this site is drowning in sellers and losing buyers.
gurlcat
·2 years agoNot to dispute that, but how do you know that and how do you quantify it? Like where is the data, what counts as an active seller, active buyer, and what does it mean for the site to be drowning in sellers?
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoAccording to eBay's stats, buyers have now dropped to about 132 million - 2018 level from a high of 180 million. There are over 1.7 billion listings on eBay and, I'm sorry I can't find the article and stats now, it has been a while, but there was something like a 25% boost in sellers overall during the pandemic, with eBay citing at one point 14-15% boost, something like 30+% boost in small businesses selling here. I track numbers of listings and items in my main category, which is pretty representative as it's so large, and the numbers I've been tracking have trended steadily up, took a big jump during the pandemic and have remained high.
ETA: I think this is not at all abnormal, either, but part of the evolution of ecommerce. I even think Jamie realises this and it's why he's trying to focus the site to stabilise it with 'enthusiast buyers' (who spend steadily here) rather than one-and-done.
gurlcat
·2 years agoThanks so much. I'm tempted to ask a bunch more questions but I'm shy about exposing just how extreme my metadata ignorance is.
But just from the word 'pandemic' the picture is very easy to see. I can think of a ton of reasons why lots of people who weren't sellers before became sellers during that time, with one reason being the fact that it was an awesome time to be an online seller, what with so many buyers afraid or even prohibitted from shopping locally. Come to think of it, it was definitely the catalyst to me sourcing more of my inventory here than in my town.
But then, unlike a typical boom-bust cycle (as far as I understand those), buyers resuming local shopping happened gradually, so I could see why a lot of those new pandemic sellers would have a hard time seeing the writing on the wall, and just keep hanging on despite waning sales, blaming the wrong things and wrongly thinking there's a solution that they or eBay could do.
That said, is there really such a thing (to Ebay) as drowning in sellers, having too many? Like is there something about hosting "too many" listings that makes the imbalance problematic? Also -I actually do remember hearing that thing about Jamie wanting "enthusiastic buyers" but what did he implement to try to induce that, and is there any word on whether it appears to be working?
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoIf you check @valueaddedresource 's work, she outlines perfectly Jamie's vertical strategy and how it may and may not be working. In fact, it also lost buyers, but has stabilized and is worth keeping an eye on. She has an excellent blog and newsletters - very worth signing up for (and standing her to a cup of coffee).
Etailing is just really competitive - not just eBay, but everywhere. Only 15-20% of consumer buying even occurs online. It's so easy to get started selling online - anyone can do it with any old thing they find, so of course tons of people are going to give it a go. Heck, I patched together a living for several years after I lost my job in the data mine because I was getting so close to retirement, though I'm glad I don't have to do it now when inventory acquisition and sales is so much tougher.
gurlcat
·2 years agoHa, just the other day someone asked me if it's hard to sell on eBay, and I said selling "something" is as easy as playing checkers, but selling enough 'somethings' to live on is more like chess, no matter how much you've learned there is more to learn, and even people who are the very best can never have more than half of the control over how well they do.
All 3 of the eBay Youtube gurus I was watching for tips when I was starting out, back in 2018, they are either off eBay completely now, or have only a small presence here. And it's not just their success here that changed, I mean if you watched one of their videos in that era and then a more recent one, you would think you were seeing and hearing completely different people. They went from utter poise, assertiveness and even smugness in some instances, to bedraggled, freaked out and bitter. It should probably scare me more than it does, because my health is now such that I couldn't just jump back into a jobby-job.
inhawaii
·2 years agoThe chicken or the egg?
lakefor94
·2 years ago"I have been a top rated seller for years to which I am now considering looking for a new platform for my company to sell on."
Gets a neg and wants to move 2300 listings...
@mck_mik cross listing might be very helpful for what you sell. Would not be hard to keep up with inventory selling an item per day here and there.
albertabrightalberta
·2 years agoOne more piece of advice to @mck_mik
Always give yourself 24 hours to cool off before replying to feedback.
Boy does this make you look bad!
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoIf you can't drop it on concrete from above you're head w/o prospect damage its not packaged well enough. If it can't hold 70 pounds of weight on every side, its not packaged well enough and even at that a carrier might still mangle it.
Now as to feedback well, it's a handshake after a sale more-so anything else and not being able to leave negatives to buyers is certainly a problem as is being able to. He said/she said more or less as a site trying to mitigate wrong statement from right. I think these days far better mechanisms of trust measurement should be in place whether replacing feedback completely or as an addendum.
For issues such as this there should be administrative feedbacks, complete separate and same for buyers but likely not there as be abused.
mck_mik
OP2 years agofeedback needs to be representative of both buyer and seller.. Unfortunately feedback is only on ebay representative of the buyer to which many buyers attempt to use it as a weapon to extort money etc from sellers. They do this knowing that the seller has little ability to post the total story on their page. Think about it when a buyer leaves negative feedback saying either lies or stupid things like disappointed what remedy does the seller have.. They can appeal it but but that 95 % of the time results in a form letter stating blah blah blah. Feedback should be a two way street, both buyers and sellers should have the ability to post on each other page when a transaction occurs yet ebay only posts it on seller page and really doesnt require anything other than an opinion.. Ebay additionally likes to state how they will remove it should it be beyond the buyers control.. The only way that traditionally happens is if you file a complaint with a regulatory agency or consumer agency.l
gurlcat
·2 years agoI don't know, I actually empathize with this seller. For all we know the packing was perfectly adequate for a normal delivery but FedEx totally smashed the box or something. And if an immediate refund was given with no need to return, what more is the seller supposed to do to avoid a bright red NEG? Add some money for sadness?
To the OP: I think your reply to the feedback WOULD have been okay if you had not included that first sentence. I am curious as to whether you tried to get their feedback removed before or after you made the reply to it. But most importantly, why on Earth do you use FedEx??? They are notoriously monstrous.
fern*wood
·2 years agoI don’t know. The unusually anger message in that feedback would make me wonder what the OP seller actually said to the buyer. It isn’t a situation that would require much back & forth.
maxine*j
·2 years agoThere is nothing more a seller can do.
Feedback is the buyer's experience. It's a bad experience to buy something and have it arrive in pieces, especially when it's something "vintage" and not readily available, maybe bought for an upcoming event, or even a gift. And it's even worse if one feels the packing could have been better. So, the buyer leaves a neg accordingly.
All any seller can do is accept that this will happen every once in a great while, and that a refund of money does not offset the buyer's disappointment and aggravation. Having accepted that, the seller can decide if he wants to ignore the neg or reply to it in a sympathetic and professional manner.
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retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoThe problem with feedback is there is no good result that comes from it bottom line in comparison to a real metrics mechanism. Once upon a time leave neg's for buyers and result in even more conflict more or less eBay trying arbitrate people being impossible. Sellers/buyer taking pride in transacting and displaying it publicly well? See any Goodyear tire dealer with a board on the wall showing consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction? No.
There's buyer rate product, "This game sux." Oh well that might be removed, should have never happened.
Sellers have metrics, good sale/bad sales/problems solved sales/returns. There's a metric, already in place, no verbiage required. Buyers have complete sales/non-payment/chargeback/returns that simple. All this data is already recorded but not displayed to either seller nor buyer and is a far better mechanism of trust than he said/she said. Not only is more user centric towards trust go a VERY VERY long way in creating safer transacting for all parties, promotable by site towards that and towards Government wolves screaming about problems with third party transacting and no brain units "Boil Over."
I don't think 99% of sellers wouldn't embrace the above unless they are bad sellers in which case they are liability to eBay and good sellers. They make eBay look bad, drive off consumers and make good sellers look bad because they made eBay look bad. For buyers, well, same deal, bad buyers make good sellers look bad perhaps take advantage of them causing good sellers issues with eBay. Meanwhile bad buyers just keep doing what they are doing until stopped at some point.
When I was partner in a small game store we reserved the right to do business with certain customers because of their record with us. Sure, can do that here, block a buyer. But here I can't block you're buyer when in fact you know that buyer hosed you down.
A system such as above raises the ante considerably as bad sellers now are clearly displayed, bad buyers clearly displayed and in time will weed off and both seller/buyer trust with the platform increases. It up's the ante for ALL third party sites as essentially eBay takes the lead in seller/buyer third party transacting online.
As I said in a prior thread, the above is able to also be used completely autonomous. Sellers could set watermarks in their account to filter buyer metrics basically reserving right to transact based on buyer activities. Gee, here a chronic return person, no... Not interested.
Buyers be able to do same, gee here's a seller with 20% of sales being returns, nope.
The listings don't even need be displayed, filtered off via automation to sellers or buyers whereby the desired metrics are not meeting or exceeding settings. The entire transacting environment becomes safer.
maxine*j
·2 years agoI won't respond point by point to your post, although and I can see that you've given all this a fair amount of thought, but will say that I'd like to see the eBay feedback system done away with. If it ever served a purpose, and it may have done nearly three decades ago when eBay was launched and e-commerce was new, it no longer does.
If general "performance reviews" are still deemed useful and feedback were replaced with some kind of automatic metric system for both buyers and sellers, that would be fine with me.
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retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI've not really given it fair amount of thought but as a base to start from... Well it's a base to start from. There are problems with it. New sellers and new buyers for instance since they've no established metric need be dealt with as immediate exception, so differing rule set and I don't know eBay statistics on first time bad buyers and sellers. We do know however eBay will reserve funds on new sellers so that sorta takes care of that side somewhat. I presume there is also some sort of backend rules for new buyers that are in place so perhaps that's already managed.
Then there is the discussion of timeframes. Now it takes a year to have feedback "roll off" that front facing metric for example and since we're talking higher resolution data such as NADS, Returns, CB's that becomes point of discussion for sellers and similar for buyers.
The current FB system also does not display transaction numbers, aka: 2000 sales say total nor a statistic based on the whole of transacting.
Then there is the question of eBay revenues. Does such a system make for more or less revenue for eBay and that's important, a paramount. If the service is weeding off sellers/buyers based on a clearly visible set of metrics does eBay loose revenues due to it? Would any lost revenues be made up for or be exceed in time as the service becomes safer for transacting via regaining buyer/seller confidence in the system?
Would said metrics in way stand as optional under automation? That is to say perhaps I've never a problem with buyers yet you have. So whilst my metrics be shown I can basically shut off any filtering automation(s) as described in the prior post.
There is the matter of potential skewing of the data. In other words competitors using such a system to artificially manipulate it. That can be done now... Mister and Misses friends of competitor buy with intent to skew metrics since now they are front facing. With any system Devils in the details yet surely a more safe mechanism can come to bare or even augment the current FB system.
Money Back Guarantee is customer centric for example. But bad buyers of course will abuse it and even when a good buyer needs use it the fact they had to at all tastes sour.
See these and other issues are really difficult to consider from an eBay perspective versus that of sellers and buyers. It's why I dont fault eBay for too awful much as so much is completely out of their control. High ticket items scammers on either seller or buyer side the scam is always after the fact. The only way for eBay to really mitigate such matters is to stand in the middle of the transaction so items sent to them then forwarded with costs associated tagged into the transaction. The bad sellers/buyers be more curtailed bu the good sellers or buyer having to pay fee so eBay can authenticate is unhappy zone for transacting partners money wise. Even at that, doesn't stop the consumer from performing a chargeback and some merchandise is sketchy to begin with. iPhone, Android on and on are high risk items yet even if sellers send iPhone to eBay for authentication of operation how to test that? Not like eBay be able to activate/deactivate with a provider... Some phones are locked to a provider.
I truly do feel for eBay as a service because I can't imagine what it'd be like stress wise having to cope with that which does happen. This is why the B2C sites now pretty much gone were very selective in sellers approved to vend on the platforms. Essentially over the years eBay outperformed them and many of those sellers came over to here. Why pay a B2C venue commissions upwards of 18-25% often better than three times what it'd cost here. Here they didn't need ship quantities to the B2C venue. Virtually all of those venues required that so they perform end fulfillment short of a gifted few. For example I was in the gifted few as selling low cost PC games be a looser for me and them yet, high volume item back in the day... The value was in the "Draw of users" for them. Then when consumer want a PC, or Stereo, Home Goods etc well they go there and often get another game too LOL. We'd our own merchant account so no liability fall on the B2C venue such as chargeback where it cost em' $50 right from word go and same of support. We had handle all out own support tickets, "I can't get it to work!"
maxine*j
·2 years agoThe negative did not hurt you nearly as badly as your response to it did.
Things do get damaged in transit, no matter how they are packed. When the buyer gets the broken thing, he is naturally unhappy. Since feedback reflects the buyer's experience, he may leave a negative because it was a negative experience.
In this case, you then you jump in to show how unsympathetic you are to the buyer's feelings and to criticize the buyer and fling around the blame. It does not get more unprofessional than that.
You could have ignored the negative, so as to not draw attention to it and let it roll off the page in time. If you felt you had to respond, you should have said something along the lines of: I am so sorry the item was damaged in transit, as I strive to pack every item with great care, but I hope the prompt refund helped a bit to ease your understandable disappointment.
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atlasesattic
·2 years agoI just had that happen to me yesterday, a lady bought ceramic decorative teaspoon set of 4 and one got broken in transit, just a little tip....I apologized and told her to keep them and I refunded her right away, and suggested she can superglue the tip and just hang it in her kitchen as a decoration, she sent back a smiley and said thank you so much...and left a 5 star feedback.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoI would have just refunded the buyer and be done with it.
It wasn't a large amount of money.
No need of exchange of emails.
inhawaii
·2 years agoEvery seller/shipper who has ever had something damaged claims it was packaged adequately.
doc-holmes
·2 years agoI want to know what selling platform has buyers who are cool with receiving broken merchandise.
inhawaii
·2 years agoThere aren't any.
That's why if you check back later, the OP will still have 2000+ items listed here.
johnrj1226
·2 years agoDo you think people on any platform you may go to will be any different than eBay buyers. An old saying it takes all kinds to make the world go around.
lakefor94
·2 years agoVery unprofessional and poor form on the reply to the feedback.
A highly professional response would have turned the negative into a positive.
You can blame FedEx, blame the buyer, but neither is appropriate.
monjott
·2 years agoSeveral thoughts on this…respectfully:
1. Never use shredded paper as packing material. It's messy, dusty, and heavy; it's also not a shock absorber, so it doesn't protect fragile items. Plus it is a nightmare to deal with when the package is opened and the item removed from it.
2. The amount of "bubble wrap, sheets of paper, and cardboard" plus shredded paper needed to pack a single candlestick should not cost you "multi dollars". If it did, look for new suppliers, such as Bubblefast. Also check retail stores in your area, Freecycle, and NextDoor — you may be able to score free bubblewrap, packing peanuts, etc.
3. "Sheets of paper and cardboard" do not provide adequate padding for fragile objects, because they do not absorb shock. Use plenty of bubble wrap and surround the bubblewrapped item with packing peanuts. If there is more than a couple of inches worth of void fill, slide a piece of cardboard folded at a 90° angle into the middle of the peanuts at each corner to stabilize them enroute.
Best of luck with whatever new platform you choose!
fashunu4eeuh
·2 years agoYou are assuming that simply refunding with an apology should wipe the slate clean. It often doesn’t account for the buyer’s disappointment and frustration. The buyer let his feelings be known.
You are blaming the carrier entirely for the damage and not accepting any responsibility for your role of possibly not providing better protection for a fragile item. Paper shreds can be an ineffective filler. Double-boxing is best, using peanuts as filler.
But the worst point is criticizing the buyer in your response. That is just bad form. He receives a broken item and yet you are blaming him for reporting his disappointment. Afraid i come down on the side of the buyer in this case.