Buyer left negative review on canceled order because i wouldn't take a loss **bleep**?

[habiteerworkshop]

So had a bug in how my app was publishing items to ebay, for some reason it was giving out free shipping, including international. I had a cheap item that was a few dollars in profit but shipping was about double the profit(item sold for about 12$ after fees, and shipping was 14$), causing a massive loss. I had to cancel this order, i explained to the buyer the issue and he STILL left a negative review.  "Seller cancelled order due to them deciding to charge for postage. Avoid!"

What can i do about this? the order was canceled even so i can't even attempt to fix this and just take the loss, i would hope that ebay wouldn't even allow for canceled  & refunded orders to even be able to leave a negative review like they have on etsy (guess thats not the case though).

This is clearly a mailious buyer so will ebay even help on this issue?

[disneyshopper · Accepted solution]

That item had shipping to USA only.  If the buyer is not located in the USA, you could have canceled with the reason "problem with buyer's address."  If you did wish to ship to an international buyer, then you are within your rights to charge for shipping.

If you don't want to ship internationally, you have to set up your shipping preferences and buyer requirements.

My eBay > Account > Site Preferences (Show all) > Selling Preferences > Shipping preferences (Show) > Offer the Global Shipping Program No; Exclude shipping locations from your listings > Yes (Edit) [ ] Apply to all current live listings > Apply

While there, also click on Buyer requirements (Show). These are my Buyer requirements:
-Have received 2 Unpaid Item strike(s) within 6 Month(s)
-Have a primary shipping address in a location I don't ship to
-Have a feedback score of -1 or lower
-Are currently winning or have bought 6 of my items in the last 10 days and have a feedback score of 5 or lower

Use the HELP & CONTACT to call ebay customer service in the morning.  They open at 5am Pacific time.  Let them know the shipping was to USA only and your buyer was not located in the USA (if that is correct) and perhaps they might remove the negative.

[usebutnew]

you should of sold the item because it wasnt the buyer fault. The same thing happen to me and eBay paid for half of the shipment cost back to me. 

[orangehound]

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@habiteerworkshop wrote:

So had a bug in how my app was publishing items to ebay, for some reason it was giving out free shipping, including international. I had a cheap item that was a few dollars in profit but shipping was about double the profit(item sold for about 12$ after fees, and shipping was 14$), causing a massive loss. I had to cancel this order, i explained to the buyer the issue and he STILL left a negative review.  "Seller cancelled order due to them deciding to charge for postage. Avoid!"

What can i do about this? the order was canceled even so i can't even attempt to fix this and just take the loss, i would hope that ebay wouldn't even allow for canceled  & refunded orders to even be able to leave a negative review like they have on etsy (guess thats not the case though).

This is clearly a mailious buyer so will ebay even help on this issue?

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Four thoughts ....

1. $2 is not a massive loss ... even factoring in the cost of the item, it is actually quite a small loss.
2. This is your mistake, and thus you are responsible for it.  If you choose to trust an app to list for you, then you assume responsibility for any mistakes made by the app.
3. eBay considers cancelling a sale to be a major no-no because doing this produces high buyer dissatisfaction for our shared buyers.  That is, this one incident might cause this buyer to no longer shop on eBay any longer, and tell all his friends about how bad eBay is ... your poor performance has a negative impact on every eBay seller.
4. The negative feedback is very appropriate (not malicious).   You should not have cancelled the sale.

[habiteerworkshop]

2$ profit, not 2$ cost, so would be losing 16$, almost double the cost of the item. Though hell i would have sent them the thing if i had known canceled orders still get to leave a review, or thought people would be so ticked off about not getting some trinket that was clearly priced wrong and corrected/explained within the same day.  The  free international shipping was clearly a mistake to which i explained to the buyer . If a store has a massively wrong price on something you don't get to demand they sell you that 1000$ tv for 100$, any reasonable non-malicious person understands that.  

[orangehound]

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@habiteerworkshop wrote:

2$ profit, not 2$ cost, so would be losing 16$, almost double the cost of the item. Though hell i would have sent them the thing if i had known canceled orders still get to leave a review, or thought people would be so ticked off about not getting some trinket that was clearly priced wrong and corrected/explained within the same day.  The  free international shipping was clearly a mistake to which i explained to the buyer .

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Even if you assume a loss of $16, that's a small loss to a US Seller ... not a massive loss.   And, one you should have taken.

As a seller, I've had at a couple of transactions that have resulted in well over $100 in loss.

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@habiteerworkshop wrote:

If a store has a massively wrong price on something you don't get to demand they sell you that 1000$ tv for 100$, any reasonable non-malicious person understands that.  

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Yes, a store can do that.  They can do that because that sale cancellation affects their customer and their future relationship with that customer. 

On eBay, that is not your customer, it is our customer.   So, you do not get to make that decision independently, thinking that it only affects your seller reputation ... if affects all of us, including our collective reputation.  That is why the negative feedback is allowed, and that is why you are receiving a seller defect for cancelling the sale.  If you get another defect, you might find your selling privileges revoked on eBay.  (Yes, it is a serious selling mistake).

[rockbottomvalues]

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@orangehound wrote:

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@habiteerworkshop wrote:

2$ profit, not 2$ cost, so would be losing 16$, almost double the cost of the item. Though hell i would have sent them the thing if i had known canceled orders still get to leave a review, or thought people would be so ticked off about not getting some trinket that was clearly priced wrong and corrected/explained within the same day.  The  free international shipping was clearly a mistake to which i explained to the buyer .

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Even if you assume a loss of $16, that's a small loss to a US Seller ... not a massive loss.   And, one you should have taken.

As a seller, I've had at a couple of transactions that have resulted in well over $100 in loss.

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@habiteerworkshop wrote:

If a store has a massively wrong price on something you don't get to demand they sell you that 1000$ tv for 100$, any reasonable non-malicious person understands that.  

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Yes, a store can do that.  They can do that because that sale cancellation affects their customer and their future relationship with that customer. 

On eBay, that is not your customer, it is our customer.   So, you do not get to make that decision independently, thinking that it only affects your seller reputation ... if affects all of us, including our collective reputation.  That is why the negative feedback is allowed, and that is why you are receiving a seller defect for cancelling the sale.  If you get another defect, you might find your selling privileges revoked on eBay.  (Yes, it is a serious selling mistake).

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Good point, "not your customer..."  I would tend to support this position that it is worth the loss to satisfy the buyer.  Along that train of thought, every time a seller who is selling something on ebay adversely impacts the customer experience it filters down to other sellers. 

[rockbottomvalues]

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@habiteerworkshop wrote:

So had a bug in how my app was publishing items to ebay, for some reason it was giving out free shipping, including international. I had a cheap item that was a few dollars in profit but shipping was about double the profit(item sold for about 12$ after fees, and shipping was 14$), causing a massive loss. I had to cancel this order, i explained to the buyer the issue and he STILL left a negative review.  "Seller cancelled order due to them deciding to charge for postage. Avoid!"

What can i do about this? the order was canceled even so i can't even attempt to fix this and just take the loss, i would hope that ebay wouldn't even allow for canceled  & refunded orders to even be able to leave a negative review like they have on etsy (guess thats not the case though).

This is clearly a mailious buyer so will ebay even help on this issue?

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I wouldn't say the buyer is malicious. I would, however, say that the buyer expects commitments to be fulfilled. Losses occur all the time for reasons like the one you posted.  When I first started selling I sold one dozen pairs of leather work gloves. I stupidly used a stock photo that the manufacturer had on their website.  The buyer contacted me saying the item was different from the photos. The buyer was right - there were subtle but vital differences. The buyer was in construction and needed a certain type of glove. I refunded the entire order of 24.00. The buyer left no feedback but the issue was larger than the feedback. I failed this buyer. I took the loss.

That has NEVER happened again.  

What some buyers and sellers fail to understand is that the feedback system was not intended to assess the product but to assess the seller's service and overall ability to do as promised. Reviews are for product assessment. Still most buyers leave feedback on the actual product.

Vow to never fail a buyer again. You are relatively new and you will make mistakes - we all have. Going forward strive to put the customer first. In the long run you will be more successful because of that. 

[stuff4divas]

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@habiteerworkshop wrote:

So had a bug in how my app was publishing items to ebay, for some reason it was giving out free shipping, including international. I had a cheap item that was a few dollars in profit but shipping was about double the profit(item sold for about 12$ after fees, and shipping was 14$), causing a massive loss. I had to cancel this order, i explained to the buyer the issue and he STILL left a negative review.  "Seller cancelled order due to them deciding to charge for postage. Avoid!"

What can i do about this? the order was canceled even so i can't even attempt to fix this and just take the loss, i would hope that ebay wouldn't even allow for canceled  & refunded orders to even be able to leave a negative review like they have on etsy (guess thats not the case though).

This is clearly a mailious buyer so will ebay even help on this issue?

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Do you check your listings after they are published?

Don't know what listing app you use, but even when I listing from a desktop MAC, I still check my listings due to massive glitches on the ebay site.

I get what you are saying, but in the end, the buyer should not suffer for your app's errors or you not following up on the accuracy of the listings.

If it was an error on ebay's part, you can call ebay and possibly they will fix your situation.

[feiacrianca]

I’ve taken a negative rather than yield to a buyer’s demands to ship an item in a way not listed in the auction’s terms. They did not communicate with me before they won the auction, then expected me to ship using their preferred method, which was not listed as an option. I had to cancel the sale, as they stated their unhappiness about the shipping price and method, which was fair & clearly listed in the auction. If as a buyer I hadn’t read the shipping terms, was unhappy with the total price, and the seller offered to cancel the sale,  I would gladly accept the cancellation of the sale. I certainly wouldn’t want to enter a transaction I was already unhappy with. Not my buyer:  I got my first and only negative.

Oh well. I did what I thought was best for an already unhappy buyer. The alternative was an unhappy buyer, who, had I shipped it using the method and price listed, insinuated they could complain to eBay, keep my item, and get a full refund. It was a guaranteed loss from the beginning, I mitigated it by at least keeping my item. I wasn’t happy about having to do it, but the overall vibe was of someone who felt they were being forced to eat a meal that was rotten, and the only way out of that was to threaten feedback blackmail for not doing as they wished. Well, here’s a full refund, and my sincere apologies, please leave whatever feedback you feel necessary to vindicate your inability to grift me.

I am obviously not a big seller on eBay, and some buyers try to take advantage of that. I mean, do you think these people go to big online retailers and try to haggle the shipping prices and carriers there by threatening to leave a bad review?  If it really was a large source of income  to me selling on eBay, I would eat the loss and/or  run across town to get the a different box and shipping method desired by the buyer. I’d be more flexible in how and where I ship. But for a just a couple hundred bucks of sales, maybe, every year? I’m not a power seller, people can figure that out.

What’s the point of having shipping terms, item descriptions, and a dozen photographs if a percentage of the populace are illiterate grifters? If you’re doing high volume, you factor the cost of the occasional illiterate grifter into your business plan, and duly kiss their behinds, I get it. But if you sell ten items a year like I do, well, I’d rather cancel the sale when the rare bully pops up. I don’t sale enough to get dinged that bad, and the great majority of buyers are decent. I’d rather sell my ten items to them, and I usually do.

tl/dr: If you’re a big seller, take the loss and make the sale. If you sell 10 items a year and don’t like dealing with shenanigans, take the negative and cancel the sale. Sometimes, you’re going to get a negative no matter what you do. Most people are decent and can figure that out when reading your feedback profile.    

[kh-gary]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies.  Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!