eBay

indycals · ‎01-09-2020

I'm a longtime eBay seller with a feedback over 3000 - I have two negs in my 20 some years. Both in the last year. Both from buyers who never contacted me. In one case the buyer said the item was bad quality (my feedback refutes the notion of bad quality on my products, but if he did get a bad item I would have been happy to replace it and the buyer had a history of giving questionable feedback). The other the buyer negged me because the item never arrived. Again, never a message or item not received claim. I do not think it is unreasonable to implement a requirement for a buyer wishing to leave a negative feedback to contact the seller first to give them the opportunity to resolve the situation. Negative feedback should not be allowed as a 'first resort' to express a problem.

bigdeals.etc · ‎01-09-2020

@luckythewinner wrote:
These buyers' first instinct was to leave a negative and move on.
IMHO forcing this sort of buyer to contact the seller would not give the seller an opportunity to resolve the situation. It would just tick them off further.
Speaking purely about feedback protection and not the actual value of feedback itself (like whether it's worth it to fight), I would have to side with the OP here and agree that some prior communication attempt should be made. Honestly if it ticks the buyer off further (and I'm sure some will), you might end up finding out some sort of documented statement that you will be able to use to get the potential negative removed.

In other words, it would simply mean that a SNAD case and a refund would preceed the negative.
I also feel that buyers of low priced items just want a seamless transaction. Unlike the seller, they have no incentive to invest time and energy and emotion into a $10 purchase.
That won't always be the case. I've reached out to few buyers who left me a quick neg and fixed their issue that resulted in them revising the neg. I feel those buyers would not leave a neg afterwards had they messaged me and I offered the return to begin with. And the buyers with no time and energy would contact you and just leave a quick neg anyway... and probably not have the time/energy to go thru a troublesome SNAD filing. So I'd take my chances forcing the buyer to communicate.

If leaving feedback requires the person leaving the feedback to jump through hoops, it stops being feedback and does not give a true representation of the buying experience.
This is true what you are saying. But isn't it already that way for TRS sellers like me? Ebay forces the buyer to wait 7 days in order to leave a neg. That in itself is already manipulating the representation of the buying experience.

the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth · ‎01-10-2020

I think you’ll find that most buyers who leave without contact are one of two things. Either they don’t know they can OR they’ve done it before and dealt with an abusive seller.

Also if you read on the boards there are two groups of angry difficult sellers. One group thinks if the buyer files a dispute with their issue instead of emailing then they’re a scammer trying to hurt the seller. Another group thinks if the buyer emails the seller without filing a dispute that they’re a scammer trying to get around limits on the MBG.

amydo18 · ‎01-10-2020

Sometimes buyers don't want a fix, they just want to express their opinion, toss the garbage and move on.

As for being blamed for items lost in the mail...you picked the carrier, it is your responsibility to make sure the item arrives

turquoisetulips · ‎01-10-2020

Sometimes the invalid address is just bad formatting. I print my labels through PayPal and sometimes it's just too many characters on a single line. I've learned that I can reformat the address (without changing the information) to get it to produce a label. OP

I've done that too . Like the time I had to remove ''' Third house on the left'' that was mixed in with the buyers address . After that the label printed just fine . Tulips

gporpc · ‎01-10-2020

RE: I've learned that I can reformat the address (without changing the information) to get it to produce a label. "

>> I just do it myself, this is usually only on item to Puerto Rica and using USPS.

To ask the buyer to do it is a waste of time. Remember some buyers do not check eMails daily. Some maybe once a week

indycals · ‎01-10-2020

@amydo18 wrote:
Sometimes buyers don't want a fix, they just want to express their opinion, toss the garbage and move on.

As for being blamed for items lost in the mail...you picked the carrier, it is your responsibility to make sure the item arrives

Absolutely - which is why I would resend the order without hesitation. But I still have no control over what happens once it's out of my hands - I would never blame a seller for something like that. Now if they sat on it a long time before sending it out, that's a different story.

2015mhfashions · ‎01-10-2020

Totally agree, you packaged / shipped on time with the correct shipping method, when a buyer buys they are actually agreeing to you using a 3rd party to deliver the product, if that carrier then fails to carry out the process they have been paid for how is that the fault of any seller ?

Of course any seller worth their salt would seek to rectify the issue - if they are informed.

But to blame a seller with a Negative for something totally out of their control is just wrong and feedback of this nature should be removed every time, I personally had 2 Negs in previous years relating to Customs charges, E bay policies state these will be removed - but i'll tell you this, only if you actually call in.

As i've stated before, i believe the feedback system is flawed and totally one sided and should be abolished, far to many buyers have no idea what the feedback relates to - the transaction, anything outside that the seller has no control over, INR seller replaces or refunds, not the sellers fault but they love leaving that Negative.

Far to many sellers doing partial / full refunds for fear of the big red doughnut, it was never intended for that purpose.

And the amount of posters that use any account other than their selling account for what reason ? For fear of that retaliatory big red doughnut targeting their account because someone didn't like what they say.

Still think the feedback is a good thing ? It's being used as a threat time and again. I for one will never give in to threats of any kind, i will offer a return on anything but i'm not in the business of giving out free money.