How long do you wait for a buyer to voluntarily remove negative feedback before responding?

[inhawaii]

Buyer left me a negatove feedback for an expired product.

It was not expired. Maybe a little to close for his liking but still within ebay standards. I apologized and gave him a full refund anyway and asked if he would consider revising his feedback.

How long should i wait for him to voluntarily revise/remove the negative feedback before i respond to the feedback (which could upset him)?

My planned response: "Item received before expiration date clearly on the listing. Full refund given."  

I already contated ebay about this.  I'm pretty sure they will remove this ... but with ebay you never know.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

If it wasnt expired and the complaint was expired then why are you apologizing and refunding? Were the expiry dates you gave wrong?

[inhawaii]

Because if i had said...

"You moron, the expiration date is clearly on the listing. If you weren't happy with it you shouldn't have bought it.  Also, tracking shows you did receive it before the expiration date which according to ebay is all i am required to do. Maybe it expired before you "got around" to drinking it.  That's not my problem. Now remove that negative feedback!"

...that probably wouldn't have gone over so well with the buyer. 

[bigdeals.etc]

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@inhawaii wrote:

Because if i had said...

"You moron, the expiration date is clearly on the listing. If you weren't happy with it you shouldn't have bought it.  Also, tracking shows you did receive it before the expiration date which according to ebay is all i am required to do. Maybe it expired before you "got around" to drinking it.  That's not my problem. Now remove that negative feedback!"

...that probably wouldn't have gone over so well with the buyer. 

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That sounds like you copy/pasted my feedback response.

So now that it’s a neutral, you can reply to that one and say “it was my understanding that I’d bend over and pay you off so you can revise feedback to POSITIVE, not neutral.”

Feel free to trim it as needed to fit the character limit.

[bigdeals.etc]

Years ago, I recall I worked something out with the buyer and they offered to remove the negative they left me. So I said, cool, and opened a feedback revision request. The buyer never got to it, I sent a message to them letting know I just opened it and it’s ready for revision (10 day expiration), and sent 1 more reminder on day 8. 

Buyer never got to it and it expired. So I contacted ebay about this and the CS rep was oddly standoffish and very suspicious of me. First she refused to help, saying she can’t do anything. Then said that had the buyer “actually” agreed to do it, they would’ve complied within the 10 days. She asked a rhetorical, “why would anyone agree to this then suddenly back out huh?? It’s probably because they really don’t want to.”

I told her I have no idea... there are many reasons why. But you can clearly see in the messages that the buyer simply offered and I agreed. She suspiciously said it didn’t add up because the buyer didn’t follow thru and said it was because I most likely pressured the buyer into saying this in the messages. I asked where in my messages does it show me pressuring the buyer. CS says I most likely pressured the buyer in other means not within the messages, like in phone calls or email to force her to give me the offer within the ebay messages. Then she told me maybe next time I should treat buyers better initially.

I knew I was getting nowhere with this CS, and said you have a vivid imagination to think I would go thru all that trouble... never giving me any benefit of doubt. You should lay off the crazy complex conspiracy movies.

And that was the end of it. 

[7606dennis]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@rustydalmatian wrote:

Buyers can't remove or alter feedback once it is given.  You need to contact ebay and file a feedback revision request.

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Is this something new?

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No

[inhawaii]

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@7606dennis wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@rustydalmatian wrote:

Buyers can't remove or alter feedback once it is given.  You need to contact ebay and file a feedback revision request.

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Is this something new?

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No

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But the buyer just altered his feedback.

[chapeau-noir]

I would just leave it and not respond or do anything.  A neutral won't hurt you and anyone who reads it will just shrug their shoulders and way 'whatever.'  It'll roll of the page.

[inhawaii]

Yeah i'm cool with a neutral.

But i was a little confused because people are telling me the buyer can't change his feedback .... but he just changed it from negative to a neutral.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@7606dennis wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@rustydalmatian wrote:

Buyers can't remove or alter feedback once it is given.  You need to contact ebay and file a feedback revision request.

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Is this something new?

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No

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But the buyer just altered his feedback.

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They are mistaken. You don’t need to contact ebay to file a feedback revision request. It’s done directly online like you’ve already done.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@inhawaii wrote:

Yeah i'm cool with a neutral.

But i was a little confused because people are telling me the buyer can't change his feedback .... but he just changed it from negative to a neutral.

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They are also mistaken. That’s the whole point of the “feedback revision requests.” So buyers can change their feedback within 10 days of the revision request filed. The only time it doesn’t work is if the buyer already left a positive feedback. It only works on negatives and neutrals. The buyer is allowed to revise the feedback type to positive or neutral (if it’s originally negative) or actually to negative (if it’s already a neutral). And they are allowed to change their feedback comment.

For those who are unfamiliar about this, the link is at the bottom right corner of every feedback page. You are only allowed a limited amount of requests per 30 days (based on the volume of your monthly sales) and you aren’t allowed to send another request for a buyer when the first one you send has expired. So ebay says “make sure it counts and maximize your chances of the buyer accepting it” when you send one out.

[wastingtime101]

The number of revised FB on a seller's FB page is a lifetime total, but a lot of people think it's a 12 month total because the FB received numbers in the upper box only go back a year.

It'd be great if eBay would add text to the info box that says it's based on the lifetime of the account.

 

[elchwass-0]

Let ebay remove it

[elchwass-0]

ist ther something called requesta feddback resvion

[bigdeals.etc]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

The number of revised FB on a seller's FB page is a lifetime total, but a lot of people think it's a 12 month total because the FB received numbers in the upper box only go back a year.

It'd be great if eBay would add text to the info box that says it's based on the lifetime of the account.

 

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Hm, I didn’t realize that this thing is still here. Makes me think twice about insisting that eBay just scrub feedbacks for me vs the ebay CS telling me to try asking the buyer for a revision request first. I’ve had that happen to me before, not sure if the CS then was lazy or what. But yea, from now on if it’s eligible, I’m just gonna insist ebay remove it for me so this number doesn’t go up for me. Plus it’ll be less work for me.

[fern*wood]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

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The buyer is allowed to revise the feedback type to positive or neutral (if it’s originally negative) or actually to negative (if it’s already a neutral).

I've never heard of being able to revise a feedback downward---your example of from a neutral to a negative.