eBay

greekdrama · ‎04-25-2017

You all might want to look at my feedback and take appropriate action to protect yourselves against the same happening to you. Just sayin'.

argon38 · ‎04-30-2017

When you call, I would emphasise the fact that "No response from seller" is unfair because people looking at it might think that you took the buyer's money and didn't send the book. The buyer doesn't say there was "Poor communication from seller"; he says there was "No response from seller" - and you can prove that isn't true.

In other words, try not to get sidetracked into an argument over how quickly you should have responded to his message. (The eBay representative may take the position that the buyer is entitled to his opinion on that score). The main point is that the buyer is trying to blame you for the customs delay, and his feedback implies that you didn't send the item.

Two things might create a difficulty...

Firstly, "Appeals aren't considered if tracking shows the item is still in transit": http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/defect-removal.html

Secondly, that follow-up comment you left on the buyer's feedback may not go down too well. You should have resisted the temptation!

Anyway, I just hope you can get the wretched thing removed. I know I would find it very aggravating.

greekdrama · ‎05-01-2017

So I spoke to ebay. The guy was very nice and very sympathetic, but... Bottom line, since the buyer's feedback did not violate any policies, ebay will not remove it. However, the rep did say that it is the buyer's responsibility to deal with his own country's customs and that I, as a seller, do not have to do anything about the package stuck in German customs and the buyer cannot ask for a refund until the package has been returned to me. Also, the rep really liked my fb response. 🙂

argon38 · ‎05-01-2017

@greekdrama wrote:
Bottom line, since the buyer's feedback did not violate any policies, ebay will not remove it.

Well, there's this:

What are the guidelines?

Automatically removed

We automatically remove defects, adjust your late shipment rate, and remove feedback when:

We can determine through valid tracking that the defect, feedback, or late shipment was the direct result of systemic delays in shipping or communication. Examples include wide-scale shipping carrier delays, items stuck in customs, or power outages due to extreme weather. Actual qualifying events are listed on our announcement board.

Strictly speaking, this only applies to "systemic" delays arising from specific events, but it wouldn't hurt to call again and quote it to them. If that doesn't work then the only option left would be to submit a feedback revision request to the buyer (unlikely to work!).

When I said your feedback follow-up might not go down too well, I wasn't thinking of the comment on your page (which is fine), but the one you left on the buyer's page about him being a "difficult buyer." eBay will remove this if the buyer objects to it.

If the negative remains, I doubt it will really have an impact on your sales. Your regular customers will have the sense to disregard it anyway, and once you're back to 100% positive in 12 months' time nobody else will even notice it, or care.