Bogus Negative Feedback - HELP

[nameless_user_101]

Negative feedback received 10/6:

 

Buyer did not reach out to me before leaving feedback.

I requested feedback removal but was denied on grounds of no policy violations (which I do not think is correct - buyer uses profanity “**bleep**”).

I reached out to buyer to initiate a dialogue on 10/7 asking him politely to remove the feedback because my listing was accurate and received no reply. I then followed up offering a full refund on 10/8 and received no reply. Clearly I am not at fault but the impact of the negative feedback is real and I just need to solve, so I offered the refund. In the 8 days before the feedback I made 10 sales. In the 3 days since, 0 sales. The impact is real.

I emailed customer service but so far am getting the standard template responses suggesting I reach out to the buyer to resolve. If buyer doesn’t respond / isn’t interested in resolving then what?

Anyone have any advice here? I really earned my perfect feedback score so this is a difficult pill to swallow. If negative feedback came along for something genuine I would accept it and move on, but there is nothing I can really learn from this other than that there are buyers out there you just can’t work with and no way to anticipate and block them ahead of time. Super frustrating.

[mam98031]

What policy do you think the feedback breaks?

This one negative is highly unlikely to cause you ANY sales.  The title of the darn listing is right below what they buyer posted and it in direct conflict with what the buyer said.  Other buyers will see that.  Really don't worry about this.

[mam98031]

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@heckofagame wrote:

The buyer is not required to contact the seller before leaving feedback.

The feedback does not contain profanity.

Offering a refund for better feedback might be a policy violation. 

It is unlikely that this feedback will have any impact on your sales, even though you believe otherwise. 

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You are absolutely right, but when a member goes to leave a negative or neutral FB, a message pops up asking them if they had Contacted their Seller first.  They can get around it easily, but the question is still asked.

[mam98031]

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@brightlightbookseller wrote:

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@nameless_user_101 wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

One rebuttal - the feedback does contain profanity. Here’s the proof. I quoted the specific term in my post above and it was automatically replaced with **bleep**

 

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You do know everyone can see your feedback?  Here's the exact text:

Why sell in the United States a copy from a euro region, I don’t know what region B is. I searched for the USA not bloody Europe so some sort of B S going on!

Space added.

That's not really profanity by any standards I know of.  Certainly not going to be likely you'll get that removed.

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I think they are referring to the buyer using "**bleep**" in their FB.

[mam98031]

The Blu-ray Disc region codes are as follows:

• Region A: North America, South America, U.S. Territories, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast Asia
• Region B: Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Region C: Asia (except for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast Asia)
• Region FREE: This is not an official setting, but discs that have the region FREE symbol either have no flag set or have all region flags (A, B & C) set.

[fbusoni]

@nameless_user_101 

Several months ago I went through all the DVDs I have listed and removed those which were not compatible with US devices.   

I suggest you do the same to avoid future complications.

Meantime, you can reply to the negative feedback with a simple explanation.  Be respectful, non-emotional... just state the facts about the DVD (overseas compatible) and note that you would be happy to provide a full refund if the buyer wants to return the item.

Your reply is for the benefit of future eBay buyers who opt to go through your feedback. 

They will see that you handled this buyer in a professional manner and will conclude that the buyer is just another imbecile who shops on eBay.

PS:   Whether this one negative has had any impact on your sales is highly questionable.  I suspect that you have gone for several days without a sale prior to receiving this negative.  It hurts to do your absolute best, only to have a moron come along and penalize you for something out of your control.   It's a risk we all run by selling to the general public.  

[nameless_user_101]

In honour of World Mental Health Day… thank you all… I feel better… gonna just let this go and carry on living my life. Namaste.

[gloryglorygifts]

As others have said not much can be done about the fb, but the one thing you can do is add them to your blocked bidder list. 

Sigh. 

[itscalledapostingid]

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@mam98031 wrote:

What policy do you think the feedback breaks?

This one negative is highly unlikely to cause you ANY sales.  The title of the darn listing is right below what they buyer posted and it in direct conflict with what the buyer said.  Other buyers will see that.  Really don't worry about this.

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@mam98031

@nameless_user_101 

Current feedback removal policy states this as a reason for removal:

"The buyer is raising an issue that was correctly disclosed in the listing"

Their entire complaint is that it's region B.

Region B is stated in the title

However it sounds like everyone convinced the OP to let it go.

Source: https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-policies?id=4208

[fm2000]

I wouldn't let it go without asking eBay to review it, citing the fact it was disclosed it was a region B disc. They may or may not remove it, but it doesn't hurt to have them review it (by policy, it does qualify for removal.)

If they don't remove it, then you have no choice but to let it go. Your frustration is justified, you did absolutely nothing wrong and what they did is completely uncalled for. The fact they didn't know what they were buying aside, a simple return would have solved their issue, there was no need for a malicious negative.

[itscalledapostingid]

Twice I pointed out that it's removable under the new feedback policy but other users convinced the OP to just let it go.

@nameless_user_101 

I see the negative feedback is still there. Did you really decide to just let that feedback ride?

[nameless_user_101]

I asked 5 times for it to be removed. Got a different but equally painful condescending response back each time from a different cs person declining to remove.

[nameless_user_101]

Yes thank you your response was very helpful. I basically used your earlier post verbatim in one of my requests to ebay to remove the feedback. Response didn't acknowledge the policy at all and just gave the same canned cookie cutter responses as previous requests. At this point trying any further to get it removed just isn't worth my time. 

[itscalledapostingid]

elizabeth@ebay 

kyle@ebay 

devon@ebay 

Is the following section of the new feedback policy not enforced in real life?

"The buyer is raising an issue that was correctly disclosed in the listing"

The OP received a negative feedback where the entire complaint is that it's a region B disc.

Region B was stated in the title of the listing.

The feedback also contains a questionable slang term that ironically would be censored if I typed it here in the Community.

[gurlcat]

I'm pretty sure I know why the buyer lashed out like this.  When I look at the listing and title, I would never guess that the disc won't play in the U.S. -Like this buyer, I never heard of these having "regions" and I can't imagine why certain copies only play in certain places, never mind HOW the disc knows where it is, LOL.  

Anyway this person sat down to start season 5 of Man Men ..... oh my god, that show.  If I thought I was going to finally resume watching it after however-man-days of waiting for delivery ....then it DOESN'T PLAY ......  then I get on eBay to do a return, and I see THIS



Then I realize it DID say 'Region B' in the title, but I had no idea that meant it wouldn't play, but it also means this item is as described, so I can't return it by claiming INAD ....... 

...... well I would claim INAD anyway and just say "it doesn't play" because I happen to know the return would automatically be approved.  Also I would suspect that the seller would probably rather I return the item than leave a negative feedback (which I wouldn't of course, assuming the seller refunded me without hassle).  

But you have to look at things from the average buyer's point of view.  They don't know what we know.  They hit what looks like a brick wall, and it makes them angry, so they lash out.  
You should accept returns.  

[nameless_user_101]

Thanks for highlighting this 👍🏼