Apparently partial refund extortion is no longer reason enough to get negative feedback removed

[westchestervillage]

Buyer bought a stamped envelope, sold as described at a best offer deal of $10.

He got it, then someone from a different account sends us a message on that item talking about our prices, not the buyer but a different account, demanding why we are pricing our items the way we are. We think its the same buyer with 2 accounts and forgot to switch his accounts.

Then the actual buyer with (0) feedback (new buyer) sends us a message, now mind you, we have a 30 day return policy, we pay for return shipping, all he has to do is return it. No he states in a private message "You failed to mention that it is completely ripped open on the side of the envelope anywhere in your post. I feel like that’s a disservice, and I should at least get a partial refund for the disingenuous sale or else."

There is no tear anywhere we can see on the item. So we responded to him right away, the whole thing was a $10 sale. That we can give him a full refund if he just opens a return or we can give him a 50% partial refund ($5) and keep the item and we also asked for a picture of the damage he is talking about so we can understand what happened. We check all the items and we would notice rips or tears, its kinda crazy. 

Message sent. He never replied.

Then we get a negative feedback stating that "They lied about the condition of the item, and failed to mention tears in the product - i’ve contacted them and they have since never replied back. "

Just a bunch of lies. There are no tears, we would disclose that for sure, the image is what he got. He states he contacted us and we did respond to him right away within 2 hours of his message.

We asked customer support if our message was recieved by him and they said yes it was sent and received.

I then asked CS to remove the feedback based on the 'partial refund or else' message he sent us initially and they said "Unfortunately we won’t be able to remove this comment because it doesn’t violate any of our feedback policies"

Talked to a CS rep supervisor and took our concern but can't promise anything, that we should get a response in 7 days, lol.

Then you see this buyer and he's a new buyer already left 2 negative feedbacks to 2 sellers.

Just awful.

So in the end, I guess we can all start asking for a partial refund and then if we don't get it, its OK to leave a negative. You all can use our case as an example moving forward. Apparently, partial refund extortion is back on the menu folks!

[vintagecraze50]

Good job! And why in the world did he not get the message from ebay. That really sucks. All that trouble if that message did not get to the buyer.

[vintagecraze50]

Yes. That would be extortion absolutely. You cannot use leverage like that to threaten a negative for a partial refund. That is just wrong.

[vintagecraze50]

Yes. That is how you navigate through these. Always check the buyers feedback left for others. If you see something suspicious. Block them.

[jasoheat_0]

or else is a threat ........ i would have pushed the envelope on that request , as i have had negative feedback removed for similar statements 

[inhawaii]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

"or else" I will be unhappy

"or else" I do not know what I will do

I understand what the buyer meant, but it may not be spelled out enough to be removable by eBay standards.

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Yes - extortion has to be crystal clear for the FB to be removed - this was just innuendo. The red donut will be buried under lots of great feedback soon enough.

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I'm sorry this happened to you,  but I have to agree with @chapeau-noir 

The extortion has to be clear/precise:

"If you don't give me a partial refund i'm going to leave you negative feedback."

Asking for a partial refund, not getting it, then leaving negative feedback is NOT feedback extortion.

Just my opinion.

[westchestervillage]

Yea buyer seems sincere that he did send it but we never got it, this was after we put him on the block list but we have the setting that we allow messages from blocked people but even then his messages should go thru since its for a transaction he was part of. I don't know but we never got it and of course this site won't take responsibility for their on and off glitches. The CS reps don't have the tools to investigate this deeply or frankly care to do so they just think the buyers words are golden over a long term seller like us. Sucks all the way around. We take full responsibility if we shipped something not as described but this was just out of left field from the get go with an aggressive new buyer that was on a mission it seems to get a partial refund or else. Not even his words demanding a partial refund or else was sufficient for this site to see that the feedback was extortion. We were gladly giving him a partial as he wanted but apparently this site didn't send us his message agreeing to the partial so that we we can send him his partial refund. We just never got that crucial message anywhere. Sucks.

[monster-deals]

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@westchestervillage wrote:

I then asked CS to remove the feedback based on the 'partial refund or else' message he sent us initially and they said "Unfortunately we won’t be able to remove this comment because it doesn’t violate any of our feedback policies"

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Sounds like a flow chart response from an untrained overseas call center CSR. They don't have authority to do much of anything. They are mostly a buffer to tell you whatever they can to get you off the phone. You'll need to get ahold of a USA based CSR

[postcardcountry]

In the future, you may want to picture both the front AND the back of the envelope.

Then at least, if the "tear" is significant it will show in your pictures.

[westchestervillage]

Yea, totally.

I asked several times for a USA rep and the the transfer was to another rep in Thailand or wherever they are at. They are all nice people over there, not bashing them but you're right, they don't have the tools.

Need to contact this site thru their social media like the other person said.

I do hope this buyer follows thru on the deal we made for partial and he said he would revise the feedback, but frankly I shouldn't have to use one of my feedback revisions (1 of 5) on this. It was really one of those abrasive buyers with 0 feedback.

[dentalsales4u]

Even though you added this buyer to your blocked bidder list, a buyers messages will continue for that specific transaction, even if you didn't allow blocked bidder messages.

[westchestervillage]

Yea thats what we thought as well, we took him off the blocked list just to get his messages, that's where this site has us at because he's saying he can't reach us via messaging. I don't know if he's lying or this site is blocking his messages to us but yea we never got that crucial "yes" to the partial refund message he said he sent us. I do actually believe him over this site. It's been very glitchy the last 2 weeks here. Oh well. Just a total disappointment all the way around. We are at fault for not checking this buyer's feedback left for other and his history though. Total red flag buyer. Lesson learned. We have wonderful positive feedbacks and that's the true manner in how we operate as a seller. Oh well. This just came out of nowhere with demands from the get go, we're like its ok! just send it back, we pay for return shipping, we can do a partial like you wanted (in his first message to us) how about 50%? and we never got his response to "Yes" that would have killed this transaction but instead he thought we were ignoring him. Whole thing was a mess and we're not even talking about his first message asking for a partial refund or else too. Oh well.

[iamalwaysright]

@westchestervillage Ymmv but try this as I've had success with it before. Forget about the whole extortion claim. Ask a CS to review and remove the feedback because it claims you never replied and you have proof that you did in fact try to communicate and replied to your buyer in a quick manner, using the incorrect information defense.

Sometimes when reps see that you went above and beyond your obligation to try and help the buyer and they can see that info on the feedback is false, they might be more inclined to help you remove it. I say might because while I don't believe "incorrect info" is actually removable by policy, many sympathetic reps might still issue you a courtesy removal. The item condition issue you cannot prove that it's incorrect. So I'd stick to the message reply and hope the rep just continues to read the messages and feedback.

[iamalwaysright]

Then again, times when I have tried this I haven't written a reply to the neg feedback yet. The rep might read those too when assessing. Good luck 😀

[michigancolor]

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@westchestervillage wrote:

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He didn't know we never got his agreement to the partial refund message. We honestly never got it from this site.

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You might want to see https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2023/5/1685578448.html and the video it refers to at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqXqjHHyznI

I have no personal experience with eBay blocking buyers' messages, so I don't know if it's actually happening.  But, it's concerning to hear someone say that they are.

[westchestervillage]

Great advice. Thank you.