Don't let a few bad sellers spoil your eBay experience. The site is full of many very responsible sellers that will go the extra mile for their customers.
A couple of tips:
Contact the seller and discuss the situation.
Most of us will go out of our way to help make an issue right. No matter how great our scores our, there are often issues that can arise due to a seller making an honest error, a difference in the expectation of the buyer which can very often be way over what they should be for whatever an item is, and things like issues with shipping which are usually issues beyond a seller's control.
Seller indifferent or disrespectful?
If the seller is indifferent or treats you with disrespect, please notify eBay because eBay does not tolerate sellers treating buyers poorly. I am a seller, but I also buy on eBay as well from another account and I have had to make complaints about other seller's before, and in a couple of cases it resulted in their accounts being temporarily restricted and even permanently closed in the case of one seller. As a seller, a buyer has to be truly bad before I will leave negative feedback or make a complaint that could cost them their online business, but sometimes it is what is needed and in the long run it helps keep eBay safe.
Take the time to read a sellers reviews. Many times a seller can have a pretty high score, but when you read the reviews you will find that customers revised their reviews at the seller's request. or the reviews were technically negative in the feedback, but the buyer was simply nice and left positive feedback.
As a buyer, I recommend that you also consider your expectations relative to the item you purchased.
Was this a $2 item that you were expecting to be fabulous like a $50 item?
I have read a lot of crummy feedback by buyers that really had unrealistic expectations with their purchases.
Did you honestly take the time to read the sellers description and look at all photos before buying?
This is an issue that I read a lot in feedback where it is clear that a buyer never read the fine print and never bothered to really look over all photos of an item.
Did you buy an item at a super low price that seemed too good to be true?
If you did, then you probably got exactly what you paid for. This is where buyers often buy counterfeit Chinese items, stolen goods, or items that the pictures seem too good to be true....Yes, a lot of buyers alter photos and what you see is not what you get, and in that case you should fire away and make a complaint. I sell mostly coins and banknotes and I look at listings all the time and I shake my head because so many seller's have clearly adjusted the colors of items to make them look better than they are, and sadly a buyer could have avoided being duped if they had only read the mediocre feedback for the seller.
One last thing...Take time to research the rules for sellers. They are often not as easily searched directly from the eBay site as they are if you type them in on Google or Bing. It helps to know if a seller is actually following the rules or not.
As a coin and banknote seller, I have made sure that I know the rules for my listings which means that I also know when other sellers are not following the rules. I believe in keeping eBbay safe so I have no problems either sending a nice message to a seller because many simply don't know or taking the time to report a listing if I get some rude response from some know it all that wants to break the rules and make the platform unsafe which drives away potential buyers for all sellers.
I don't have the right to speak for the eBay sellers community as a whole, but I can simply say that it bothers me when I hear horror stories from buyer's that have had bad experiences. There are many of us that really do work hard to not only meet expectations, but to exceed expectations. I hope that you get your situations resolved properly, and that you don't give up on the site.
I hope this helps you out!
