Confusing and unwarranted negative feedback left by a buyer

[johnnyep]

I recently had a buyer leave me my first negative feedback in 20 years. This was his comment "/".    He leaves this same "so called" comment with the positive feedbacks he leaves. He never contacted me or told me what he was dissatisfied about.  I have 7000+ positive feedbacks to date.  Ebay is no help whatever.  I have contacted the buyer for an explanation and have not heard from him yet.  I will respond to the feedback he left.  Do the rest of you have any ideas on what I should say or how to deal with this.  I am prepared to move on if I have no recourse.  I work hard to provide good service and products.  It seems that the protections eBay offers are heavily weighted toward the buyer.  I have made accommodations to buyers and made refunds even when I was not required to. in order to establish my reputation as a good seller.  Thank you.

[mam98031]

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@vintage-car-magazines wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@vintage-car-magazines wrote:

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@johnnyep wrote:
These things I have done and it is good to know that someone understands this. I will take your advice and ignore it. Thanks.

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If you do reply, remember that your reply is to assure future buyers that you're a good seller. Something like:

"Please let me know the issue and I will make it right"

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The only thing any comment, no matter how neutral will do is draw even more attention to the negative.  IMHO it is much better to stay silent.

The other thing is if you were to put a comment on it, that may prompt the buyer to do a response to your response and it may end up very unpleasant.  Ebay party is only allowed one comment, so there would be nothing the seller could do except live with the mess.

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I've never subscribed to the notion of a well written, professional reply to a negative draws more attention to it. One negative in a sea of positives with no reply is no less conspicuous that one negative with a good response.

Your point about the buyer having the last word by having the ability to reply to the reply is valid. It's a decision each seller has to make. If the seller is confident in the item sent and in their ability to affect a positive service recovery, then I vote to leave a reply.

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The reason I feel it draws attention is because it takes up more space when viewing the FB.  It isn't that someone sorts up just the negs.  But when they are just going down the page of FB left, when comments are involved the area for that one FB takes up a few lines of space which brings more attention to it.

[this*old*attic]

No one cares about feedback anymore and it also doesn’t count in your metrics any longer.

Anyone who does look will just be confused or think the neg is silly.

If you just can’t resist answering, use it to build yourself up NOT cut the buyer down.

”I thrive on building happy customers, please contact me to fix the issue.”

[sin-n-dex]

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@johnnyep wrote:

I recently had a buyer leave me my first negative feedback in 20 years. This was his comment "/".    He leaves this same "so called" comment with the positive feedbacks he leaves. He never contacted me or told me what he was dissatisfied about.  I have 7000+ positive feedbacks to date.  Ebay is no help whatever.  I have contacted the buyer for an explanation and have not heard from him yet.  I will respond to the feedback he left.  Do the rest of you have any ideas on what I should say or how to deal with this.  I am prepared to move on if I have no recourse.  I work hard to provide good service and products.  It seems that the protections eBay offers are heavily weighted toward the buyer.  I have made accommodations to buyers and made refunds even when I was not required to. in order to establish my reputation as a good seller.  Thank you.

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I'd complete ignore it. He isn't saying anything except expressing that he wasn't happy with the sale. Contacting him to sort it out (and get a revision request sent) might be OK, or it might be pointless. With no content it's difficult for anyone to make judgment on this feedback. Unfortunately since he says nothing, you won't be able to have it removed.

C.

[inhawaii]

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@redmodelt wrote:

You only have two choices when if comes to leaving feedback as a seller; none or positive.

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I thought the 2 choices are POSITIVE or REPORT?

[inhawaii]

Sorry this happened to you. 

As a buyer, if i saw that feedback, it wouldn't phase me a bit. I would have no hesitation buying from you. I would just chalk it off to another nutty buyer. 

In any case i would bet $3 that ebay will remove that feedback.  Keep trying.  Be persistant.

Good luck and stay safe.

[mam98031]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@redmodelt wrote:

You only have two choices when if comes to leaving feedback as a seller; none or positive.

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I thought the 2 choices are POSITIVE or REPORT?

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Two choices that are within the Ebay rules.  1. None, 2. Positive.

Reporting a buyer has nothing to do with the act of leaving FB.  So that is completely separate.

A NEW Avatar again!!!  I like this one better than the last one.  But then I'm not a fan of yellow.

@inhawaii 

[chapeau-noir]

Might be a fat-finger mistake on a little cell phone.  I'd probably leave something like "We aim to please, let us know what happened" or something.  Still, it's painful to look at.  

Someone once left me "xyz" (fortunately a positive) so I left them "abc".

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Faze not phase unless you are planning to shift dimensions

[jrkirk]

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@mam98031 wrote:

I completely understand how you feel.  It is annoying at best.  But know that this one negative is not going to hurt your business in any way.  But it sure stings a bit every time you see it I'm sure!!!

Ebay can't help you with this.  There is nothing they could do to help.  The FB doesn't breach any rule.   So don't be upset with Ebay, there is just nothing for them to work with.

As for you, I would recommend NOT leaving a comment.  Anything you would say would only draw attention to the negative.  Since it really says nothing, leave it at that.  Whatever you might state in a comment is likely to hurt you more than just leaving it alone.  I know it doesn't help now, but it will be gone in 12 months.  

You did what you could be reaching out to your buyer to try and find out what the issue is.  Some people just aren't going to respond.  Move on as there really isn't anything you can learn from this experience other than to ignore it.  

Make sure you have this buyer on your BBL so they can't ding you again.

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We recently received our first neutral in years when we added a buyer to our BBL. He had complained falsely about condition on sterling flatware that we knew was like-new. We offered 'return for refund', he tried to negotiate for a partial refund and keeping the flatware, and we then added him to our BBL. He came back to buy more items from the same sterling flatware set, discovered that he was blocked from buying, and then posted the neutral FB. While I agree on adding a problem buyer to the BBL, that can also result in a situation like we ended up with.

[chapeau-noir]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

Faze not phase unless you are planning to shift dimensions

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Well, this IS the The Best Seller on eBay™ so he has super powers.

[threeinchgoldenlotus]

This item maybe listed as private listing in certain categories, ebay FB won't show comment for some private listings in public. That's why the FB comment as --. You can just click "Reply to received Feedback" from your FB page, then you can see all comments details even "--".

By the way, can anyone tell me during COVIN-19, how to contact ebay for FB removal? I used to contact agent under "Seller levers and performance standards", but now only option is chat between 5:00 am to 4:00 pm. Anyone has better idea? Thanks!

[div_style]

Not that I would, but I'd like to reply to that feedback with,

"Oh yeah? Take this: \"

Actually I'd just let it slide of the page.

[mam98031 · Accepted solution]

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@threeinchgoldenlotus wrote:

This item maybe listed as private listing in certain categories, ebay FB won't show comment for some private listings in public. That's why the FB comment as --. You can just click "Reply to received Feedback" from your FB page, then you can see all comments details even "--".

By the way, can anyone tell me during COVIN-19, how to contact ebay for FB removal? I used to contact agent under "Seller levers and performance standards", but now only option is chat between 5:00 am to 4:00 pm. Anyone has better idea? Thanks!

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If you are talking about the one neutral you have, its likely too late to have anything done about it.  But here are your contact options.

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

Drop to the bottom of the page and the email option is there.  Or you can click on the reason for needing assistance and the options for contact will display.  For some of them that could be the ability to call, leave a message for a call back, email or live chat.

https://www.ebay.com/sellerhelp

The seller’s help center give you the ability for file for certain types of assistance.

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/

It's important to be aware of where you post a question on Ebay’s Facebook page.  A comment on one of Ebay’s marketing posts won't be answered, but comments posted directly on Ebay’s page will.