Buyer is leaving a lot of negative feedback for sellers, including me, and it hurts sales.

[dhaga]

I have been with ebay for over 25 years and I don't understand why ebay is allowing buyers to leave negative feedback because they found me to be "uncompassionate". It is my first negative feedback received ever.  Of course I appealed and ebay says that sort of feedback does not violate policy. Ebay shows zero loyalty for those in my position and allows abusive buyers to leave damaging remarks based on a how they feel. This seems plain wrong. Is there anyway to communicate with ebay concerning policy change requests? 

[dhaga]

That sounds reasonable on the face of it but what if the person I PM that information to shares it publicly and identifies me as the source of that information. It seems like there might be a liability for me sharing that information, no? I had a conversation similar to this many years ago on this site and was contacted by PM by someone that had a list of such buyers they were publishing on a third party site. If I remember correctly being a source to feed such a list is still against the rules. I think I will error on the side of caution here. 

[dhaga]

After the buyer finally submitted a request through ebay for a refund I issued the refund, not much else I could do. The buyer chewed me out through private messaging for making them go through the proper process. They were upset I would not issue a refund without having to go through the MBG process by requesting the refund through ebay. 

[mr_lincoln]

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@dhaga wrote:

After the buyer finally submitted a request through ebay for a refund I issued the refund, not much else I could do. The buyer chewed me out through private messaging for making them go through the proper process. They were upset I would not issue a refund without having to go through the MBG process by requesting the refund through ebay. 

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@dhaga 

Not sure if any of these links will help considering their eBay messages to you.

Feedback misuse policy | eBay

Feedback policies | eBay

[dhaga]

Thanks, I did try to get ebay to look through the messages but they gave me no feedback on if they did so. In the past ebay was more receptive to getting involved but they really streamlined the process with boilerplate and they box us in with a very narrow path of options. 

[mr_lincoln]

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@dhaga wrote:

Thanks, I did try to get ebay to look through the messages but they gave me no feedback on if they did so. In the past ebay was more receptive to getting involved but they really streamlined the process with boilerplate and they box us in with a very narrow path of options. 

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@dhaga   Have you used the Report Buyer link on the sold transaction yet?

[dhaga]

Yes, I did. I got a boilerplate response. Since I did that the buyer left more negatives for others so I tried again to see if I could get ebay to revisit an ongoing pattern that seems to be happening but I get automatic messaging saying I already reported the buyer. 

[awesome_electronics]

Man I must say you really butchered this situation:

1 he aaked for a refund without opening a return... that in itself is grounds for removal..

2. You stated you sent him a good product it arrived broken. You get your item back and call ebay, that case could have been resolved in your favor

3. Wjth the mbg closed and rhe appeal denied theres nothin anyone can do about that feedback

[luckythewinner]

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99% of the time eBay says the negative feedback is the buyer's opinion and doesn't violate any policies.

That is because 99% of the time it doesn't violate any policies. 

The best you can do is to answer to that feedback in a way that others will understand you didn't do anything wrong and did not deserve it.

Unfortunately the OP's reply did not do that. The response lacked emotion and came across as mechanical and uncompassionate. I would have simply responded "I offered a return at my expense with a full refund, but that offer was declined." 

[dhaga]

This is why I asked the one and only question in my OP. Is there a way to open dialog and lobby ebay for policy change. It really should not matter when I contact ebay and show them proof the buyer requested refund without going through the MBG process. If the buyer violated policy they violated policy and ebay does not seem to take that into account through the report buyer or feedback removal request process. 

[awesome_electronics]

Requesting a refund without returning an item violates policy

[awesome_electronics]

Behaviors we don't allow

Don't demand something not offered in the original listing

• Requesting a partial refund without returning the item

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/buying-practices-policy?id=4374

[dhaga]

That is an interesting response.  Thing is I came here when it happened and asked for advice on how to handle it and got consensus that my response should be what I left (I actually copy and pasted the response recommended by a very experienced user). The advice was to leave the response completely devoid of emotion. 

[genv]

When Hal Lawton was at eBay, I would call & report the pattern. The Internal folks could view all the msgs, the feedback, the 'Buyer' made. See a pattern. Usually, these types were suspended. And, all their ISP related I.D.s - I suspect this 'Buyer' is using Msgs to get refunds, so they stay off the 'problem child' radar, which 'Excessive Claims' puts you at risk, for. Smart companies know 'the Customer is NOT always right'. They know thieves & refund seekers EXIST, & hurt bottom lines. A good Venue knows enough about best practices to retain good Sellers, who offer wares & service good Buyers want. A smart Venue knows bad apples destroy trust & reputation.

[mr_lincoln]

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@dhaga wrote:

That is an interesting response.  Thing is I came here when it happened and asked for advice on how to handle it and got consensus that my response should be what I left (I actually copy and pasted the response recommended by a very experienced user). The advice was to leave the response completely devoid of emotion. 

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@dhaga   Your Reply to the FB was just fine.  Its business, not personal and in my opinion your Reply reflected that.  

[awesome_electronics]

Yeah sorry dude u received some really bad advise.

Also ebay only reviews a fb once oncd its reviewed its flagged and cant be reviewed again