Help With a Bad Situation

[stewill_9161]

Hello eBay forum,

Long time lurker here, glad I can finally contribute  though I wish it were under better pretenses.

I’ve been an eBay seller for almost 5 years now. I’ve had almost all great experiences, both buying and selling, with 100% positive feedback and top-rated seller status at one point.

I slowed down a bit on eBay and didn’t really post much until last month. I posted a few Hot Wheels cars that were a special release from November. They were brand new in the box.

A buyer offered me a discounted price for all four which made me a net profit of around $15. If I could give this back, I would send the buyer $30 to undo this whole transaction.

I promptly packaged the order and included a handful of free stickers and a handwritten “thank you” note.

Fast forward a few weeks after delivery, the individual messages me saying there is a “paint error” on one of the cars. To me it looked like it happened in the process of shipping, but I advised the customer I would do a return anyways. The customer wasn’t agreeable and was quite frustrated. I told him I wanted to make sure he was happy and would work with him until he was.

The customer insisted he is overseas and can’t return the item to me for two months and wants a refund. I contacted eBay and they advised me to have him initiate the return process through eBay. The customer insisted I send him a refund outside of the return process. He then left me a bad review.

This sucks because I have a 100% track record selling on this platform. I have tons of inventory to post but will have to post it elsewhere. With my current rating, I wouldn’t buy from me.

I have reported the buyers’ requests for me to send refund money without using EBay’s return process to eBay in messenger. I also asked eBay to review his feedback.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or have any advice for this?

[gagnon234]

If it were me, I would leave a factual non-emotional reply to the buyer's feedback . . as in: 

Offered a full refund once he returned the product to me. Buyer chose not to do this.  (or words to that effect)

[stewill_9161]

Yes I’ll definitely have to do that. Thank you for the tip

[stainlessenginecovers]

1st; if you have an item someone wants; they will get it from you REGARDLESS of what 1 person says

2nd: most of the people I stated 'above' don't even know to 'read' feedback

So, do NOT stop listing or selling.

Lastly, as stated by @gagnon234 a short/sweet 'reply would be the way to go- shows OTHER buyers that MIGHT read your feedback, that you will 'Take Care of Customers' should they follow the simple "return for refund' policy. 

[stewill_9161]

Thank you stainless, hearing that from community members with history like yours means a lot.

I appreciate the input, I’ll definitely be leaving a short reply to their feedback.

[12345jamesstamps]

Wouldn't something such as a "paint error" still unopened in the box" be worth a lot?

For feedback I would say something like " buyer obtained a rare error paint job...model not opened"....something to that effect. Need to turn the feedback around to your benefit.

You have to sell a lot to get the feedback rating up...it's not impossible. It takes time of course.

Hot Wheels do sell. Maybe list inexpensive ones to get it going again.

[chapeau-noir]

@stewill_9161  I think if most people see your low FB number and that percentage, they'll actually look and see that one bad FB, with your professional answer stating that you stand behind everything you sell and had offered a return (showing your good CS AND reassuring future buyers). My advice is to just keep going and try to dilute that single neg.  That buyer just wanted their money AND the item, I think.

[bashort]

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@stewill_9161 wrote:

Hello eBay forum,

Long time lurker here, glad I can finally contribute  though I wish it were under better pretenses.

I’ve been an eBay seller for almost 5 years now. I’ve had almost all great experiences, both buying and selling, with 100% positive feedback and top-rated seller status at one point.

I slowed down a bit on eBay and didn’t really post much until last month. I posted a few Hot Wheels cars that were a special release from November. They were brand new in the box.

A buyer offered me a discounted price for all four which made me a net profit of around $15. If I could give this back, I would send the buyer $30 to undo this whole transaction.

I promptly packaged the order and included a handful of free stickers and a handwritten “thank you” note.

Fast forward a few weeks after delivery, the individual messages me saying there is a “paint error” on one of the cars. To me it looked like it happened in the process of shipping, but I advised the customer I would do a return anyways. The customer wasn’t agreeable and was quite frustrated. I told him I wanted to make sure he was happy and would work with him until he was.

The customer insisted he is overseas and can’t return the item to me for two months and wants a refund. I contacted eBay and they advised me to have him initiate the return process through eBay. The customer insisted I send him a refund outside of the return process. He then left me a bad review.

This sucks because I have a 100% track record selling on this platform. I have tons of inventory to post but will have to post it elsewhere. With my current rating, I wouldn’t buy from me.

I have reported the buyers’ requests for me to send refund money without using EBay’s return process to eBay in messenger. I also asked eBay to review his feedback.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or have any advice for this?

---

You made a good reply to the bad FB, I do not believe this will cause any buyer to not want to buy from you

[coastaltechsolution]

Chin up and move forward 😁

Don't let one bad customer stop you from doing business on eBay.

Yes it stings to get that Neg. but you can bounce back.

[a_c_green]

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@stewill_9161 wrote:

I appreciate the input, I’ll definitely be leaving a short reply to their feedback.

---

Well handled. That ninny of a buyer doesn't even make sense: a factory-sealed error example can be worth more, not less. 

Just out of curiosity, what does his Feedback Left for Others look like? My suspicion was that he pulls that same stunt on other sellers, then waits for an unjustified refund followed by a feedback revision request.

If you have messages from him trying to push you into a refund for a promised feedback revision, see if you can get that removed for Feedback Extortion. Good luck.

[gb58]

First block the bidder. 

Next regarding your feedback. It won't take that long to get the numbers up. right now you are at 2 positives and 1 negative. If you can add 8 positive feedbacks that would get you back up to 91% (10 positives 1 negative)

if you can get 18 new positives that would get your feedback back up to 95% (20 positives 1 negative).

So keep listing and it won't be long before the negative rolls to the second page and your percentage starts to go back up.

[az93]

I read your negative. Your buyer is not happy with a brand new item in a sealed ipackage. You can't please everyone, and I would think any potential buyer who read that feedback would ignore it. The time will pass, it's only visible for one year. Buy lots of stuff on ebay such as pens, toothpaste, any small thing you need. Ebay sellers are great at leaving positives and you can minimize that negative. 

[broto_64]

A lot can be learned...
I would've stated it thusly:

I am truly sorry the purchase did not meet expectations. I always offer a full refund upon the return of the merchandise. Please open a return case by finding the item in your purchase history and follow the process, so that I can enable the refund, thank you very much for your understanding.

Or something to that effect...

The reply that was left wasn't bad, but I feel it did point the finger.

[dbfolks166mt]

     At this point you have done as much as you can do and handled the situation very professionally. You stated the customer was overseas so I am guessing this shipment went through a freight forwarder since you do not ship internationally. 

     The one thing the customer may try is to initiate a chargeback through their CC company. If that happens return to this forum for advice. You mentioned contacting eBay and it appears they provided some good direction but be aware that the current customer support can be less than reliable. They have been known to simply tell people what they want to hear to get them off the phone regardless of how accurate their information is. 

[booji_girl]

IMHO it did the exact right amount of finger pointing. If the negative comment was left before the return policy period ended, I might have added something along the lines of "as we are still within my [X ]days return policy period, you can still return this item [lay out steps as you did above]". Otherwise it implies that the seller never explained the return policy at all and was unresponsive, which is plausible because some sellers are like that.

While OP shouldn't go over board pointing the finger at the buyer, they shouldn't unnecessarily point it at themselves.