Negative feedback for package still on the way...

[packratville]

I received an order at 4:37 pm on December 4 and took it to the post office on December 5. It took two days for USPS to get it to the regional center, then it apparently got hung up in Memphis. It's still enroute to the buyer.

I just got home a short time ago and had a message from the buyer, simply "Still has not arrived," and apparently he immediately left me a negative feedback, "Has not arrived."

I don't know if he's checked tracking or just assumes a seller has some kind of magic they can wave to move a package along. I understand his disappointment, I'm not happy about the status either, but it would be nice if people would at least have the courtesy to contact me first and give me time to respond before leaving a negative.

Anyway, sorry for the little bit of a rant. I'll respond to the negative feedback politely and professionally. But what should I do about the feedback? Can I contact eBay yet to have it removed or does it need to be delivered first? What's the best course of action? 

Thanks!

[robbie31415]

I sent you something on direct, also, is there a way to not have them automatically approved?

I would love to do that. Lol 

[gurlcat]

Thank you for the heads up on Kyle's reply.  It's certainly encouraging to see the part where he said this topic has "more eyes on it than ever."  And since he doesnt' mind the pokes, I will do so whenever I see this conundrum arise. 

[mam98031]

Beyond what Kyle acknowledged, there have been other sellers that have been pushing on this subject too.  It was very good to hear that Kyle is telling us it is working or at least we have someone's attention.  Hopefully it is the someone with authority to change it back.

[kyle@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@robbie31415 wrote:

Bit more clarification. When they say 'Case', I believe it's specific to non escalated INR's?

I know for a fact you can leave messages on open INR's when they aren't escalated.

The buyer can see the messages left in it.

How do you leave messages for an escalated case, or a return? Seems like no option for that to me. 🤔

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kyle@ebay 

Please clarify a statement you made in your earlier post "The only exception is when there is a case open, members can communicate through the case itself while it is opened. "  Define what you mean by "case".

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Hey @mam98031 in this situation, a case would be a return that hasn't been accepted yet, or an INR that hasn't been escalated.  So the exceptions are pretty few and far between right now.  

[robbie31415]

Realistically the only way to communicate with a BBL buyer is if they do an INR.

You can't communicate on returns for 99.99% of the time, because eBay automatically approves almost all of them.

It's very rare that a return isn't automatically approved, higher likihood if the buyer does 'No returns', but that doesn't help us who have 'Free Returns'.

We get punished by eBay automatically approving returns instantly, so no way to communicate via a return.

[iamalwaysright]

I blame a lot of this confusion on ebay's verbiage in that function to allow blocked buyers to message you. Ebay is not clear in saying the "blocked buyers" excludes buyers in your Blocked Buyers List. The BBL is more or less an entirely different entity but is often grouped with "blocked buyers" because they both have the word "blocked" in it. I fell for that "verbiage deception" too when we first discovered about the BBL message freeze out. 

So to sum up, Fix yo verbiage ebay!

Oh yea, that and stop this BBL message freeze out business. It's ridiculous.

[iamalwaysright]

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kyle@ebay wrote:

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More than following it - I've been "leading the charge" so to speak and annoying the crap out of kyle@ebay by tagging him every week with use cases. Sorry, Kyle, and thanks for being a good sport (even if it is part of your job description). 😁 Could you pass on this original post as another use case? Seller would prefer to block the member from making another purchase, but keep communications open as they deal with the current transaction and delayed package?

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Hey @wastingtime101 no need to apologize at all!  It doesn't bother me one bit.  (it IS part of the job, too, but really, it doesn't bug me at all anyway!)
We've actually gotten more eyes than ever on this subject recently, so I'd encourage you to continue sending these examples my way.  I'll continue passing them on!

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The lack of involvement or reluctancy from ebay to make this adjustment baffles me. In the total span of time since this issue was first introduced here, I don't think I saw anyone give an actual reason as to why having the BBL message freeze out is a good idea. Like, literally everyone is against it... everyone.

This will go down in ebay history as the weirdest issue that ebay didn't have to make a mountain out of. My brain hurts just thinking of what could be the reason ebay refuses to do anything about this. They've complied in making other adjustments in the past with far less complaints. Maybe ebay is just being a troll like Heath Ledger's joker.

[iamalwaysright]

Yes I think in a recent similar issue I saw you mention something about auto approve vs manually approve returns. I've had auto-approve for so long that I totally forgot it was even an option for sellers to toggle on/off. So safe to say I have no experience anymore on how it looks when you have manually approved returns and your return is in the pre-approve/reject state. It's possible communication lines are open during this time and I simply just don't see it because it got bypassed. A blue would have to chime in and confirm this to be true or not.

[robbie31415]

How do you toggle off auto approve?

I don't think that's possible.

RMA is the only block to prevent labels, however the return is still automatically approved.

If you are refering to this image, it means nothing... The returns are automatically approved by eBay policy, not your policy. I have both of them off, still all automatically approved.

[iamalwaysright]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

How do you toggle off auto approve?

I don't think that's possible.

RMA is the only block to prevent labels, however the return is still automatically approved.

If you are refering to this image, it means nothing... The returns are automatically approved by eBay policy, not your policy. I have both of them off, still all automatically approved.

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 I'll have to check and get back on you with this. As mentioned, I've had auto-approve for eons now and I totally forgot there is (or maybe now used to be) another option to manually approve. Ebay has changed so many times it's possible they forced auto-approve to be mandatory for sellers who want to accept returns. As I type I might vaguely remember this about ebay making sellers go to auto-approve on SNADs and not remorse or something. Again my memory is really fuzzy and I'll likely have to retract some of these statements.

[robbie31415]

In 2020, eBay made changes where they auto approve, regardless of seller settings.

If you offer free returns then all returns will be automatically approved.

You can not have auto approve if you have 'No returns' and it isn't a MBG.

There are a few exceptions, but now as of 2020, almost all returns are automatically approved via eBay policy, not seller settings.

[wastingtime101]

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@iamalwaysright wrote:
In the total span of time since this issue was first introduced here, I don't think I saw anyone give an actual reason as to why having the BBL message freeze out is a good idea.

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Unless I'm mistaken, I think Kyle initially said something about a lot of seller complaints were involved because they blocked the buyer and couldn't figure out why they were still getting messages. 🙄

In my mind, the solution should have been simple.

The setting that controls whether blocked buyers can message you should have:

1. Remained linked to the BBL

2. Checked by default instead of unchecked

And if eBay wanted to mass change the setting (like they did with shipping discounts) they could have sent a message to tell all sellers it will change to checked on X date and here's an opt out link if you want to remain unchecked (allow messages).

But I'm logical and eBay and logical don't always work together in the same sentence.

So instead they took control away from professional sellers because of some whiners.

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Edit to add: found it.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Cant-receive-messages-from-Blocked-Buyers-Anymore/m-p/33976486...

Kyle said, "This was changed due to overwhelming feedback over the years that blocking a buyer and then needing an extra step to block their messages was redundant."

So yeah, my above comments stand. They should have changed the default setting to block messages and left it in sellers' control to unblock if desired.

[robbie31415]

Kyle said, "This was changed due to overwhelming feedback over the years that blocking a buyer and then needing an extra step to block their messages was redundant."

What Kyle said is very true.

I remember all the whining about it and how the BBL should just automatically block everyone.

So what does eBay need to learn? Ignore the chronic whiners on the forum.

[wastingtime101]

At this stage I am starting to think they should keep it separate and instead add a new setting.

Add a check box on the actual BBL page above the BBL list, checked by default, but with the option to uncheck.

That way sellers wanting to block comms from BBL but wanting to allow comms from, say, purchased too many items in 10 days, the seller can do that.

The setting is checked by default for those who think it's redundant, but can be unchecked for those who want to allow comms.

Of course you'll get some sellers saying it's redundant to have to uncheck a message block setting in 2 places. Seriously, you can't please everyone, but the current process where choice was removed from sellers entirely is not working.

I don't know if Kyle is going to keep following this discussion without a ping to draw him to this feedback: kyle@ebay 

[robbie31415]

I just think it should be completely separate.

Make the BBL have no impact on blocking communication.

Inside eBay messaging system have a communication block like you have in so many messaging apps.

If you don't want to see their messages, you block their communication there.

I don't get why the message block can't just be like you see in virtually all the messaging apps going back to ICQ.