eBay

djtchort · ‎06-26-2023

So, I am not a major seller, but I’ve been selling vintage audio and weird gadgets lately.

Overall, I my account has been active since August of 1999. My total feed back as a seller and a buyer is 309 at the moment (yeah, I know it’s not much for almost 24 years), but I’ve been selling local mostly. Only the stuff that does not have any local demand gets put up here. I have minuscule seller feedback of 27. I know for a fact I did more sales, but some buyers just never leave feedback. Whatever.

Up until last month, i have not has a single feedback less than 5 stars as a seller and as a buyer. And I go out of the way to always ship the same business day, plus I send buyers photos of the packaging before the box is taped shut. I am an honest person and I think 100% positive feedback is a reflection of that. It also makes people feel better then they buy a 40-50 year-old audio component for $2,000. And I don’t have to deal with endless questions if i pack things properly or not. So they know it’s coming and it is coming undamaged.

Anyway, last month I sold a $75 gadget, “as is/parts only/no returns”. Stated that it is untested other than the fact that it does power on. Shipped it to a guy in AK. He received it, writes me and tells me it does not work. Ok, fine. I reply that i will issue full refund and he can keep it. Though it said the item is parts only and untested. Well, before I could issue his refund, someone T-boned a car I was passenger in. Nothing too serious but my shoulder got banged up and i was out of commission for a few days taking painkillers. Obviously away from the computer, and forgot issue this guys refund.

Few days later I get notification that he left negative feedback, I am now at only 98.1% positive! so I immediately contact him explain the situation and issue full refund. He replies, “no problem, thanks for resolving, i will remove the negative feedback”. I don’t know what happened, but instead of removing it he left the comment on his original negative feedback saying the issue has been resolved and he is happy.

The thing is my feedback is still 98.1%, so that does not help me even a little. If i completely ignored him and did not issue the refund it would still be 98.1% and I would be $75 richer.

Sellers dashboard says “5 curtesy feedback removals per month”. Sweet! I contact ebay, explaining the situation and ask the to remove it, because the issue has been resolved. Mind you, this is one and ONLY time in almost 24 years that I requested a curtesy feedback removal. To which I receive a reply that “Feedback does not violate policies and will not be removed”.

I got pretty upset about it. Yes, it is my fault I got negative feedback, but it has been promptly resolved, It happened due to medical reasons, i did not have to issue the refund at all, and I have been a member for so may years, so it would be nice to see just a little bit appreciation from eBay. I did 10K in sales in the past 60 days, and all my sales are advertised, so eBay gets enough out of me in fees to throw me a bone just one time, especially something THAT insignificant.

Has anyone of nobody status, like me, ever managed to have feedback removed?

But, this is a second “f u” i got from eBay since the beginning of this year.

I bought a MacBook pro in November of last year, from a reputable seller, it seemed, well, in January it turned out that the MacBook was stolen form a <Large Corporation> and I found that out by turning it on one bay and being greeted with a 6 digit pin informing me that the device is a corporate asset of so and so <Large Corporation> and I need to contact their IT department. Which I did. They told me to return to seller and they will get it from him. I tried returning it, the seller would not provide a shipping label and then I was able to extract clear evidence that the seller knew laptop was stolen, because there were Google searches on how to “unlock MDM locked laptop”. After I told him that he stopped responding. I contacted eBay, they read my interaction with the seller where he was EXTREMELY rude to me, read my communication with IT Department of <Large Corporation> and then said “Well, its been over 30 days, so we can not do anything for you. Sorry”. So I am sitting on a $2800 brick.

Thanks eBay, you making me feel so welcome.

inhawaii · ‎06-27-2023

Oh I see you sent that message to the buyer and his way of "fixing it" was to reply to it rather than change/revise it.

There used to be an official "feedback revision request" that a seller could make to a buyer. I can't find it now. Hopefully someone smarter than me will be along with more information. Good luck!

Sea Of Love - The Honeydrippers

lacemaker3 · ‎06-27-2023

@djtchort wrote:
Look. I am not stupid. I can follow the links and click on buttons. It takes me to this page right here.
I am, for the 5th time, asking WHAT CONSTITUTES THE FEEDBACK REMOVAL REQUEST.
I see absolutely NOTHING that directs me to a place or tells me what i need to do to request feedback removal. I asked number of times, DO I NEED TO REPLY TO BUYER AND ASK THEM TO REMOVE FEEDBACK?? OR AM I SUPPOSED TO SEE A FORM OR A LINK OF SOME SORT???

DO I NEED TO REPLY TO BUYER AND ASK THEM TO REMOVE FEEDBACK??

No.

OR AM I SUPPOSED TO SEE A FORM OR A LINK OF SOME SORT???

Yes.

That feedback was left more than a month ago (it says it was left in the "past 6 months") so it is not eligible for you to send a feedback revision request. The buyer can't remove the feedback, they can only revise it under certain circumstances, as has been explained.

The instructions explain this:

"You can only request a revision for feedback that is less than 30 days old."

If you had any feedback that was eligible for revision, you would be able to see a link in the right channel to request the revision. It would look like this:

inhawaii · ‎06-27-2023

Thanks for clearing that up.

I knew someone smarter than me would be along. 😉

Sea Of Love - The Honeydrippers

house*of*paws · ‎06-27-2023

Hi @djtchort

All of the information you received here was correct ... BUT until you showed us the screenshot, we didn't know that the negative feedback was left more than 30 days ago.

You can only send a Feedback Revision Request within 30 days from when the feedback was left. It is too late now. I'm very sorry this happened.

EDITTED TO ADD:

The information you provided us is incorrect. You did NOT list the item as “as is/parts only/no returns”. Nor did you say it was untested and that it 'powered on'. Perhaps you are thinking of another item you had listed.

The item for which you received the negative feedback was listed as 'Used' ... which means that it is 'fully operational and functions as intended'. This is what you said in the Description:

Broadcast Vision BV900 Fitness Cinema FM Stereo Transmitter.

NO POWER SUPPLY

Again, I'm very sorry this happened ... but you did make a mistake in describing the item. Anything listed as 'Used' must work accurately.

djtchort · ‎06-27-2023

@house*of*paws wrote:
Hi @djtchort

All of the information you received here was correct ... BUT until you showed us the screenshot, we didn't know that the negative feedback was left more than 30 days ago.

You can only send a Feedback Revision Request within 30 days from when the feedback was left. It is too late now. I'm very sorry this happened.

EDITTED TO ADD:
The information you provided us is incorrect. You did NOT list the item as “as is/parts only/no returns”. Nor did you say it was untested and that it 'powered on'. Perhaps you are thinking of another item you had listed.

The item for which you received the negative feedback was listed as 'Used' ... which means that it is 'fully operational and functions as intended'. This is what you said in the Description:

Broadcast Vision BV900 Fitness Cinema FM Stereo Transmitter.

NO POWER SUPPLY

Again, I'm very sorry this happened ... but you did make a mistake in describing the item. Anything listed as 'Used' must work accurately.

Yes, thank you, I realized just this morning that it was something else that I listed parts only. I sell on OfferUp and Reverb as well, so it may have been listed as parts only there. I did not really lie here on purpose. That item is open to everyone to see. The point is the same. I refunded the customer, customer is happy, eBay would not remove bad feedback. I do not understand that artificial restriction of 30 days. There are people at sea who stay there for extended period of time, people in the military, people traveling who do not use eBay on regular basis. What is the purpose of the 30 day limit?

mam98031 · ‎06-27-2023

@inhawaii wrote:
About that feedback.
It looks like everything is cool with the buyer.
It was nice of them to leave that follow up but a revision would have been better.
Are you able to ask them if you send the feedback revision request if they would comply?

If it is older than 60 days, revision forms would not be available.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

mam98031 · ‎06-27-2023

@wilsonharborsales wrote:
eBay no longer removes feedback unless there is a major policy violation. I believe that top rated seller return/refund feedback protections have also ended. I spoke with eBay customer service today and the agent said that feedback protections for sellers have been removed (I had my own issue with a buyer extorting for money). Nothing to do but move on.

@wilsonharborsales

What? What is a "major policy violation"? If the FB violates policy and is less than 60 days old, sellers can typically get it removed.

IDK who you talked to, but they are wrong.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

mam98031 · ‎06-27-2023

@djtchort wrote:
Look. I am not stupid. I can follow the links and click on buttons. It takes me to this page right here.
I am, for the 5th time, asking WHAT CONSTITUTES THE FEEDBACK REMOVAL REQUEST.
I see absolutely NOTHING that directs me to a place or tells me what i need to do to request feedback removal. I asked number of times, DO I NEED TO REPLY TO BUYER AND ASK THEM TO REMOVE FEEDBACK?? OR AM I SUPPOSED TO SEE A FORM OR A LINK OF SOME SORT???

Sadly it is because you waited too long. It has to be done in under 60 days.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

house*of*paws · ‎06-27-2023

@djtchort wrote:
Yes, thank you, I realized just this morning that it was something else that I listed parts only. I sell on OfferUp and Reverb as well, so it may have been listed as parts only there. I did not really lie here on purpose. That item is open to everyone to see. The point is the same. I refunded the customer, customer is happy, eBay would not remove bad feedback. I do not understand that artificial restriction of 30 days. There are people at sea who stay there for extended period of time, people in the military, people traveling who do not use eBay on regular basis. What is the purpose of the 30 day limit?

@djtchort

I didn't think you lied. I thought you probably were thinking about another listing. We all make mistakes.

I don't know why eBay has a 30-day limit for sending buyer a FRR. I think it might be to limit the amount of time sellers had to badger buyers into revising the feedback. [Many buyers post here that the seller they left bad feedback won't stop messaging them to revise it.]

This is similar to our currently having only 60 days to leave feedback ... instead of the 90 days we used to have. Although many buyers complain that they don't have enough time to leave feedback on international orders ... the shortened period helps out sellers. It allows them to relax earlier ... knowing that the buyer can't leave a neg because an item broke after 60 days.

There doesn't seem to be any eBay policy that satisfies both buyers and sellers equally. ☹️