First Negative Review In 25 Years

[activated-charcoal]

I've been selling on eBay since 1998. Have sold hundreds of items over the 25-year period. My feedback was 100%. I sent a buyer an item that contained a battery, and apparently the battery was not up to snuff. They immediately left negative feedback without contacting me. This dropped my feedback from 100% to 90%; I cannot see how eBay could figure a 10% drop after my selling hundreds of items, but whatever. At any rate, I tried contacting the buyer, offering to refund all the money in addition to letting him keep the item. The buyer has not replied. Any advice on how to proceed from here?

[chapeau-noir]

First, your score was dropped to 90% because you've only sold 10 items over the past year and for people with such few sales it really makes an impact - it's just percentage. 

You can ask your buyer to change the feedback but if they won't, there's nothing to be done about it. It's unfortunate that they didn't give you a chance to offer a resolution to this.

If I looked at your percentage and saw your relatively low feedback number to begin with, then saw that you'd only sold a few items in the past year, I would not be put off.

My advice, if the buyer won't change it, is to leave a reasoned, non-emotional reply to reassure your future buyers that you are a good seller. Something like "Was not informed that there was a problem - I stand behind what I sell and would have offered a resolution" or something like that."

[inhawaii]

As @chapeau-noir said, other than getting the buyer to revise it, there's not much you can do.

Here is a suggested reply:

Buyer left this negative feedback without letting me know there was a problem. I would have (and still will) give them a full refund. 

[activated-charcoal]

Thanks for the excellent explanation and suggestions. So apparently, eBay does not take into account 100% satisfaction with hundreds of items over 25 years, choosing only to look at the last year of sales. Most of my sales were pre-2022 because I had some personal problems that year. Unfortunately, I think most buyers will now look at my 90% score, and will not choose to go any further with their investigations. I know I personally weed out sellers with feedback less than 98%. I am still hoping the buyer will respond. I see the feature called "feedback reversal" or something like that. Can you explain a little about how that might work? Thank you.

[activated-charcoal]

Thank you. Very helpful answer.

[buyselljack2016]

@activated-charcoal 

Replying to feedback is good when all else fails but be sure not to put "I would refund without return" there in feedback where "scammers" might be alerted to a seller willing to give things away.

[activated-charcoal]

Excellent answer. I have not had to deal with any scammers, thank goodness, but I certainly have noticed that people are much more liable to be very quick to be unreasonable these days. Thank you.

[fashunu4eeuh]

That first feedback can sting, but it does not affect your seller performance metrics. Nor is it likely to put off any future buyers who can see that you have always taken good care of your many buyers. I am sure your buyer will get back to you. Below is the policy on how to send a buyer a Feedback Revision Request.

I don’t know what the destination for your item was, but with the heat we are experiencing this summer, it could be the battery succumbed. Things can happen in transit we cannot foresee. Sorry this happened to you.

Just a final note, make sure to deal with the customer before requesting the revision. Make him satisfied, then bring up the possibility of him revising the neg. We only get so many revision requests per year—don’t want to waste it on someone who is not satisfied or uncooperative.

Best of luck to you.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/leaving-feedback-buyers/replying-feedback-received-item-sold?id=41...

[activated-charcoal]

I had not considered the effect of heat on the battery. Since I tested it to the best of my ability beforehand, that may well be what happened. At any rate, I now see why sellers put the "CONTACT ME BEFORE LEAVING NEGATIVE FEEDBACK" at the bottom of their listings.

[slippinjimmy]

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@activated-charcoal wrote:

Thanks for the excellent explanation and suggestions. So apparently, eBay does not take into account 100% satisfaction with hundreds of items over 25 years, choosing only to look at the last year of sales.

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That is correct and I agree with eBay on this,  what a seller did or how they dealt with buyers 20 years ago or even 2 or 3 years ago is not representative of how the act TODAY.

There are thousands of examples of sellers (and buyers) who were upstanding for years and then went off the deep end and this is definitely not exclusive to eBay or online sellers. Ever go to a business based on great reviews from 5 or 10 years ago only to find that was then and this is now, something has changed and the place now provides mediocre service.

[activated-charcoal]

Yes, it obviously can go both ways. Thanks for your comment.

[buyselljack2016]

A bad feedback with no contact is rough.

 I know this does not help, but the 12 month rating %age is way better that it might be. If the 12 month feedback %age was based upon "seller" feedback (the way I think it should be) it would be way lower with only 3 feedbacks.

[reallynicestamps]

Feedback ratings are based on the past 365 days, not your full time on the site.

So you have 766 FB because you have been here since 1999, but only 90% of your customers since July 2022 have been happy.

Smart buyers will look at the 766 and buy happily, not the 90%.

Less intelligent buyers might think that 90% is an A, though not an A+.

[activated-charcoal]

Well, that's another thing I have noticed over my 25-year tenure. I used to get feedback on 75% of sales. Now it's more like 10%.

[slippinjimmy]

I wanted to add........

On the fairly rare occasions when I get this type of neg (never hear from the buyer) I always take some consolation from the fact that at least I got to keep the money!

Of course 1 neg for me and I'm still 99.8 or 99.9 (sometimes still 100) so the visual impact is much lower. Remember that your buying activity  will also improve your percentage score, every time you get a positive as a buyer your percentage will go up, if you buy 10 items from sellers that always leave feedback you could be up to 99% by the end of the week!