I mistakenly believed that a buyer was supposed to give the seller a chance to respond or make things right before leaving bad feedback. But I learned from eBay today that the buyer does not have to give a seller a chance to respond.
A few weeks ago I learned that a buyer was not happy by way of seeing the feedback. He had sent me an email but I had not seen that email.
I called ebay to see about getting it removed because I had not had a chance to respond. eBay told me that the buyer did not have to give me a chance to respond.
I asked, "Is it because I missed his email?" I believed that maybe eBay would use that as the reason, as in, I was negligent in not seeing the email. I mean, there was negligence on my part for that. If eBay had told me that were not going to change it for that reason I would not be typing this. But they told me that they were denying my request because the buyer claimed the shipment was incomplete.
The buyer claimed he received only 17 of the 20 poker chips from the auction he had one.. Even though I am absolutely positive the shipment (of 20 LeCove poker chips) was complete, I would certainly have sent the chips if I had had the opportunity to. Regarding his claim, my guess is that he needed 3 more chips to make 100 or something. LeCove chips are highly collectible and hard to find. I would have sent 3 more before I got that feedback even though I am absolutely positive beyond any doubt I sent 20.
After he left the feedback he told me he would change the feedback if I sent the three chips. I declined to send the chips because my experience with people who make false claims is that they don't keep their word. eBay didn't see it that way, saying that the buyer was willing to resolve the dispute and suggested I send the chips. I am going to do as eBay suggested but I don't expect the feedback to this character to change the feedback. eBay acknowledged that he might not change it--it's up to him.
i didn't know until today that buyers can give immediate badly feedback without even contacting the seller at all. (This particular buyer, as I said, did contact me, but he didn't have to contact me at all in order to leave bad feedback, according to eBay.) I told the person I talked to that I was going to start leaving immediate bad feedback for seller unless i was 100% happy with the item, but I am absolutely not gonna do that. What I do think I am going to do is reduce my activity on eBay.
I was really disappointed by what eBay told me. I believed I had some type of protection against totally unreasonable buyers. Actually, I didn't think that, but I have believed I could deal with unreasonable buyers. As in this instance I offered to give this guy a full refund and let him just keep the chips and I would send him 3 more or 10 more. But even if I did that, according to eBay, this guy has the right to leave the feedback unchanged. I have not heard anything this absurd in a long time.
In the meantime PayPal is keeping the funds on hold because they aren't sure the buyer is satisfied and he may want to return the goods, which the buyer has not mentioned and which I am certain he would not want to do.
i needed a good laugh today. I mean. all I can do is laugh at this and I certainly have.
