Ebay Totally Unfair to Sellers - They Allow Total Liars to Make Fake Complaints

[wire.barn]

See the Screenshot below and tell me if you think it's confusing..... you only get ONE color in ONE length. 

So ebay allowed a customer to claim that this listing was "confusing" and they left us NEG feedback.

The idiot thought you got all the colors when there is a PULL DOWN menu.  You have to select the COLOR and the LENGTH in order to buy.  He bought VIOLET - 25 FT and claimed he thought he was getting all of them.  Ebay sided with him.    I'm just done!   I am outraged that they are so dishonest.   Time to wind down ebay and sell on our online stores only.  I purposely have not added any new products for years due to their horrible treatment of sellers.   You do not own your own business on ebay.   Once they stopped us from seeing their actual email address I knew it was a waste so didn't add more products.  Sure, it's instant income on ebay since they have exposure, but if you have products that are more mainstream online stores are best because you can actually sell your business one day, whereas an ebay store is worth almost nothing.   Anyone can copy what you do and start competing tomorrow so why would they buy your store for much more than the inventory value.      

[robbie31415]

I don't agree with your pictures showing multiples when you only get 1.

A lot of people purchase by picture.

Yes the drop down should limit, but if I'm not getting what is presented in the pic, I will open INAD.

[wire.barn]

The photo is to show you all the colors.  You have to be kidding. I can't believe you would not understand that you get only one color.   You're the first person that I have ever run into that didn't understand how pulldown menus work.  You actually have to select the color and length.  It is obvious.   

[m60driver]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

I don't agree with your pictures showing multiples when you only get 1.

A lot of people purchase by picture.

Yes the drop down should limit, but if I'm not getting what is presented in the pic, I will open INAD.

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Oh please, there are plenty of listings that show all the colors and a buyer selects one from the drop down list.  Not that I agree with the OP that it is worth leaving Ebay over a $10 item and a puerile buyer.

[mementomoria]

While you feel that your listing is perfectly clear, you need to remember that half of the population has below average intelligence. I think that when you do professional writing you need to make it easy enough for a 5th or 6th grader to comprehend. 

[robbie31415]

I'm not shocked you didn't understand what I said and made a ton of assumptions based on things I never said.

I stand by what I said.  🤷‍

[robbie31415]

That may be true, and most people would come to the conclusion that picking the color would net you just 1 item of the color you picked.

However, from a policy standpoint. The picture doesn't accurately represent what you get.

[inhawaii]

@wire.barn 

Please do not take offense to this,  but you have you listing set up incorrectly.

The main photo that shows all the colors is the "default" photo.

Once you select a color it should show you only that color  but it doesn't.

It still shows you all the colors.

You have your "color" photos amongst the "default' photos.

Yes, I agree with you that a  person of average in intelligence should be able to figure it out.

But think about  how smart  the "average" person is, then realize that half of them are not as smart as that.

-George Carlin

In any case, I hope you understand what I have explained.

If you don't, I would be more than happy to create a sample listing configured properly for you to see.

I have no life and a lot of spare time on my hands.

Also, I had that exact thing happen to me once.

It was a variations listing with 5 different flavors of candy.

The buyer thought they were getting all 5 flavors.

Even though the buyer had to select a flavor and the picture clearly shows you just that one flavor.

The buyer left me a negative feedback but ebay removed it. 

Good luck to you. 

[wastingtime101]

I agree with @inhawaii on this one. I sell mostly variation listings and my lead listing photo may show all options, but then you go into the listing and select a color or whatever attribute from the drop-down and the photo gallery leaves the main image and scrolls forward to the photos for that variation.

I'm not defending your buyer, but your listings are set up incorrectly in the photo area which hurts your case when asking CS for FB removal.

Revise your listing, go into the variation screen and underneath the main photos change the selection for add variation photos from "use default photos" to "color". Then upload photos for each color variation. The only images in the above listing photo section should be the ones for your lead pic showing all colors.

[inhawaii]

Exactly!

It should be fairly easy to revise.

Everything is already there. you just need to reconfigure it.

[chapeau-noir]

You have to explain some things like people are five - seriously.  Agree with @inhawaii  that the best way to do this is to have properly matching photos - it's what the multi-variation listing provides and what it's all about - a way to make sure people don't get confused.

Dealing with the public, you're gonna get these types - it's just the odds.

[fashunu4eeuh]

From @wire.barn’s negative feedback follow-up response:

“You would have to be a complete imbecile to think you were buying more than one color. To buy the wire you had to choose the COLOR from a PULLDOWN menu and the LENGTH from a PULLDOWN menu. There's no way you could be that stupid. You're just trying to lie about the product so you can get a free return. You're a total sleaze. We get losers like you every 4 or 5 months and it's just sad. It also states "You are choosing one color". So you're either illiterate or an imbecile or both.”

@wire.barn 

Please pardon my bluntness.

In response to your title question: it doesn’t really matter now what the buyer said or did, whether he was a scammer or not, because you just validated his feedback, while shooting yourself in the foot.

Potential buyers reading such an unfortunate seller response are going to hit the back button.

Because the most valuable piece of real estate on eBay is a seller’s follow-up comment to a negative feedback. It is the seller’s prime opportunity to flex his customer service muscles and take back control from a complaining buyer. This neg could have been utterly diffused with the right words. But that opportunity has been squandered.

The follow-up message is always for the benefit of future buyers—they are the most important audience here. It is not an open mike for the seller to vent his anger to the current buyer, warn future sellers (who won’t see it anyway), or to tell the buyer off, however justified.

This is business, not personal. It is imperative to develop a thick skin when dealing with the buying public. Though your buyer’s behavior sounds reprehensible, which is wrong, it is your job to remain professional at all times. 

Future buyers read seller comments to poor feedback, mostly ignoring the positive remarks, because they want to know how a seller behaves when there is a customer issue or problem. Being cool and calm in the face of unfair criticism, without adding hyperbole or vitriol to the feedback response, will always serve a seller’s better interests well.

Conversely, anything angry, insulting, defensive, or blaming from the seller only serves to increase the unhappy buyer’s credibility, while simultaneously decreasing the angry seller’s.

In the future, don’t waste a valuable revision request on a buyer who has not been debriefed beforehand and agreed to change the feedback. Revision requests are limited to just a few a year.

Enough said.

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

I have learned from creating listings and multiple edits when presenting your items to such a large audience, billions of people around the world. It may not be that a buyer is unintelligent or a defrauder, but they may not understand English, they may not understand the dropdown menus, they may be blind, there are many things they may be.  Also, there's quite a difference between the desktop version of shopping on eBay and using the mobile app. Not everyone knows how to navigate/shop on their devices.

[m60driver]

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@mementomoria wrote:

While you feel that your listing is perfectly clear, you need to remember that half of the population has below average intelligence. I think that when you do professional writing you need to make it easy enough for a 5th or 6th grader to comprehend. 

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I dare say you are aiming too high.  Many people don't or can't read and just look at photos, partially due the sea of mediocrity that is the US public education system, especially when combined with the amateur home schooling movement that often teaches pure unadulterated science denying nonsense like "intelligent design".  

[jerseyboymusic]

@wire.barn - THIS was your reply to your CUSTOMER'S feedback???

"You would have to be a complete imbecile to think you were buying more than one color. To buy the wire you had to choose the COLOR from a PULLDOWN menu and the LENGTH from a PULLDOWN menu. There's no way you could be that stupid. You're just trying to lie about the product so you can get a free return. You're a total sleaze. We get losers like you every 4 or 5 months and it's just sad. It also states "You are choosing one color". So you're either illiterate or an imbecile or both."

Over a $10 transaction?!?!? Whatever happened to "the customer is always right"? I would have just refunded them. It's feedback replies like that I look at if I want to buy something... I stay away.

I have found people don't always read listings, but look at pictures. I once sold a bass guitar combo amplifier and the person who bought it thought they were getting the bass guitar that was in one picture as well. They plead ignorance thinking they were getting the guitar AND amp. I just had to accept the return and learn from it.