50% feedback with only 2 reviews... what to do?

[yussa6620]

Hello, earlier this year I bought and sold a Samsung Galaxy S6 on eBay. The person who sold it to me left a positive review, while the person who bought it from me left a negative one. This in turn makes my feedback go to 50%. I haven't really thought much about it until now when I am looking to sell on eBay more. I knew it was bad but then I read that below 95% is horrible, what can I do? Should I delete this account and create a new one?

[gracieallen01]

Well, you could always buy a lot of lesser things that you need and use and get your average up from buying, before you start selling again.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Don't delete or cancel the original account. Just start a new one.  Members are allowed to have multiple accounts.

[mam98031 · Accepted solution]

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@yussa6620 wrote:

Hello, earlier this year I bought and sold a Samsung Galaxy S6 on eBay. The person who sold it to me left a positive review, while the person who bought it from me left a negative one. This in turn makes my feedback go to 50%. I haven't really thought much about it until now when I am looking to sell on eBay more. I knew it was bad but then I read that below 95% is horrible, what can I do? Should I delete this account and create a new one?

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Sellers can ONLY leave positive FB.

First you need to learn from the neg you got.  What could you have said or done in your listing that may have prevented that.  Did you give a good description with clear pics?  

Make sure you understand the rules and guidelines for selling on Ebay.  From how to construct a listing, to about payment holds, Ebay fees, etc.  Below are a few links for you to read through.

Now as to your original question.  If it were me, I would open up another account and use it only for selling.  You can keep this account and use it for buying.  But it would be better off starting off a new account for your selling account.  This one has nothing of value at this point for selling and could hurt your attempts to start selling.  I can imagine that most buyers looking at this FB would be reluctant to give you a chance since your very first buyer did not have a good experience.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling/selling?id=4081

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/funds-availability.html

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/get-started/seller-fees.html

I wish you good luck and LOTS of sales.  Welcome to Ebay selling.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@mam98031 wrote: ... First you need to learn from the neg you got.  What could you have said or done in your listing that may have prevented that.  Did you give a good description with clear pics?  ..

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The neg says that the item arrived broken. So the lesson here isn't about the listing description, but about responding to a buyer's complaint.  Or maybe about better packaging.

[mam98031]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote: ... First you need to learn from the neg you got.  What could you have said or done in your listing that may have prevented that.  Did you give a good description with clear pics?  ..

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The neg says that the item arrived broken. So the lesson here isn't about the listing description, but about responding to a buyer's complaint.  Or maybe about better packaging.

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IDK.  We have no information to go on to try and figure that out with any accuracy.  But clearly something went wrong.  IMHO the OP needs to learn from that experience and then move forward with a different account to sell under.  It serves no viable purpose to start selling under this account.  There is no value in that and would actually likely hinder their selling efforts.

It is my opinion for the OP to learn more about selling, fire up a new account and then move forward slowly to enter the selling world on Ebay.

[upgradedendmills]

Did you resolve the issues with your first buyer or did eBay have to do it for you?? This account screams "I don't care!!!!!!!!!!!!"  If you have fixed your problems and learned how to sell properly, just start fresh. If eBay had to step in, you have limited options. Doesn't matter what you need or want to sell, this account is dead, just needs to be buried.  If I saw your feedback, you would have zero chance of selling me anything, and I would probably cancel and take a strike if you bought from me.

[castlemagicmemories]

I usually cut new sellers some slack.  If a transaction falls short, I don't leave feedback because they need a chance.  However, not everyone is that kind.  As you have seen, just one neg can sink the account of a new seller.'

Sorry this happened to you, but as you move forward, be VERY careful when you sell, so that this does not happen to you again.  You want flawless transactions.  Buyers expect to get what they bought in the condition specified, and really, that is a very basic expectation for them to have.  You have to see that you comply.

[femmefan1946]

Make that poisoned account your Buying account.

Start a new account for selling.

It would be a good idea to do some buying on your new Selling account to build feedback, since that is a measure of trust and also a defense against scammers.

It 's not a good idea to buy and sell on the same account anyway. It's not your customer's business where you got your products or how much you paid for them.

[yussa6620]

Thanks to everyone here who gave me advice. Yeah I am going to start up a new account now. Again thanks to everyone.

[mam98031]

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@yussa6620 wrote:

Thanks to everyone here who gave me advice. Yeah I am going to start up a new account now. Again thanks to everyone.

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I think that is your best option.  I wish you nothing but the best.  Please come on back if you run across more questions.  We will be here to assist.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

Did you resolve the issues with your first buyer or did eBay have to do it for you?? This account screams "I don't care!!!!!!!!!!!!"  If you have fixed your problems and learned how to sell properly, just start fresh. If eBay had to step in, you have limited options. Doesn't matter what you need or want to sell, this account is dead, just needs to be buried.  If I saw your feedback, you would have zero chance of selling me anything, and I would probably cancel and take a strike if you bought from me.

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A very important point there, thank you, @upgradedendmills   and a very valid question.  Ebay expects sellers to handle problems or issues that come up with your buyers.  That means you.  They do not want to step in.  They want you to handle it.  If someone opens a case, you need to resolve it before the buyer escalates it to ebay, which is asking them to step in.  If the seller escalates the case because you did not handle it, and eBay has to handle it for you, you get a very serious case closed without seller resolution defect, and a few of those will cause you to lose your selling privileges, and you cannot get around that by opening a new account.  Good luck to you.

[mam98031]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

Did you resolve the issues with your first buyer or did eBay have to do it for you?? This account screams "I don't care!!!!!!!!!!!!"  If you have fixed your problems and learned how to sell properly, just start fresh. If eBay had to step in, you have limited options. Doesn't matter what you need or want to sell, this account is dead, just needs to be buried.  If I saw your feedback, you would have zero chance of selling me anything, and I would probably cancel and take a strike if you bought from me.

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That is such a HUGE assumption.  None of us have any way of knowing that without more information being provided.  The FB they left certainly doesn't allude to what you question.  It could have happened, but that isn't what the FB says.  "I sold a phone and it came with a broken screen .. very bad seller"  

There are some very good seller that have similar FB from time to time.  It means there was an unhappy buyer apparently for the reason they stated.  It is not unusual for a buyer to say that the seller is bad.  But there is no way of knowing at this point, with the information provided if the phone screen was broke before, during or after delivery.  

"If eBay had to step in, you have limited options. Doesn't matter what you need or want to sell, this account is dead, just needs to be buried."  While I have encouraged the OP to open a new account to start selling from, this statement by you had nothing to do with that suggestion.  Even if Ebay had to step in on the transactions that the seller got the neg for, one defect would NOT prevent a seller from continuing to sell or start selling again on the account.  

It should also be noted that we don't even know if a Request for Return was ever even filed for by this buyer in question.  Buyers are frequently noted to leave negative FB before filing a Request for return or even contacting a seller stating there is a problem.  We have ZERO information on what transpired on this particular transaction for the OP.  

But even if it went as you suggest it did, the OP has chosen a good path and has hopefully learned from the one transaction they had that did not turn out so well for either the buyer or the seller.  And hopefully history doesn't repeat itself.

[upgradedendmills]

I didn't assume anything. I asked the OP if eBay had to resolve the issue because they mentioned something about not using the account for some time.  If eBay had to step in and shell out $300 there is a very good chance that the OP has been indefinitely suspended because this was their first transaction. If that were the case, the rest of this discussion is totally moot. Without that information it is difficult to advise the OP in any way.

     At the very least, the OP is going to be required to repay eBay any expenses due before being able to list anything on this or any other account.  Starting at 50% feedback would be an almost impossible climb to legitimacy for even the most experienced seller. Please look at what I actually wrote, it is basic to helping this person.

[mam98031]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

I didn't assume anything. I asked the OP if eBay had to resolve the issue because they mentioned something about not using the account for some time.  If eBay had to step in and shell out $300 there is a very good chance that the OP has been indefinitely suspended because this was their first transaction. If that were the case, the rest of this discussion is totally moot. Without that information it is difficult to advise the OP in any way.

     At the very least, the OP is going to be required to repay eBay any expenses due before being able to list anything on this or any other account.  Starting at 50% feedback would be an almost impossible climb to legitimacy for even the most experienced seller. Please look at what I actually wrote, it is basic to helping this person.

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Yes, clearly you did ask, but the OP never answered your questions.

I don't know where you got the $300 figure from either.  According to the OP's FB page and the listing, it was $57.

If there was a Request for Return and if that request had to be escalated to Ebay and if Ebay ruled for the buyer, yes, that creates a defect.  But one defect, even on a new account does not get the seller sanction, much less sanctioned to the point of losing selling privileges.

From the Ebay rules:

The defect rate won't affect your seller performance status until you have transactions with defects with at least 5 different buyers, or at least 4 different buyers to impact Top Rated status, within your evaluation period.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy?id=4347

I don't know about fees, that didn't come up before on this thread.  Certainly when the OP goes to open their new selling account, if there are fees still owing from this account they will be required to pay them.