No eBay action about reported buyer

[dadsdumbbrains]

I received a negative feedback ("Did not receive....") from a buyer, evidently just before USPS dropped it on his doorstep. No attempt to contact us first. No attempt to get a refund (which is odd) even though we have a guaranteed refund policy.
Item was shipped in one business day, as per our policy, and delivered within USPS's estimated window. A request to change the feedback went unanswered.
Since eBay considers claiming an item was not received when there is proof of delivery is abusive buyer behavior, I reported the buyer. The emailed acknowledgement from eBay said as long as I have tracking that shows delivery, there should be no problem.
It's been about a week and I haven't received further response and the feedback is still there.
Is there anything else I can do?

[inhawaii]

It is NOT unusual for a buyer to leave you a negative feedback without contacting the seller first. 

It's rude and not very smart, but buyers do it all the time.   

You said the feedback was left just before the item was delivered. 

Was it delivered before ebay's estimated delivery date?

So claiming the item was not received before it was received is not abusive.

If it was delivered before ebay's estimated delivery date, there is a chance ebay would remove that feedback.  

[luckythewinner]

Since eBay considers claiming an item was not received when there is proof of delivery is abusive buyer behavior

Can you point us to someplace where eBay calls this "abusive behavior"?

[stainlessenginecovers]

Who did you see the 'feedback revision' to? The buyer? They can ignore you or they haven't been on ebay again. You only get 5 of these, changed or not so do NOT send them in the future unless you've had a conversation with the buyer and they agree to 'change' it.

Otherwise google 'ebay feedback removal' and it will give you the link to the page; then you can request its removal the correct way (assuming you shipped that $1.50 item with Tracking?)

[dadsdumbbrains]

Not sure where to find eBay's estimated delivery date once I have printed out the label. Can you help with that? I can tell you that the item was purchased on Friday afternoon and mailed within 1 business day on Monday afternoon. We are top rated sellers because we follow this policy. I feel like we did our part, and after that it is out of our hands, although I also think the post office did a great job considering it was during the Christmas rush. We always carry every package, no matter how small, to the counter at the post office to be scanned in to get the tracking started.  Here is the tracking information. 9400108105463246350616. 

[gone.c-33]

Reporting the buyer (for breaking what policy exactly) isn’t the same thing as asking for feedback removal.

[12345jamesstamps]

'estimated date of delivery' is in "Delivery" of the item that was sold. Should be on the item.

[dadsdumbbrains]

Thanks for responding. On the feedback page which shows our negative feedback, there are two options that we responded to. First, "request revision." We did that, pointing the buyer to the USPS tracking information showing that the item had been delivered. We waited the 10 days for the revision which never came and eBay sent us a message saying that it was now closed. We understood that the buyer was under no obligation to respond. In the meantime, we weren't certain about when to hit the "report buyer" button, so about halfway through the 10 days, we did that also. Ebay responded that they had received our report, they quoted our report back to us, and ended with "As long as you have uploaded valid tracking that proves the item was delivered, you have nothing to worry about. You can find what we accept as valid proof of delivery here."  This is our tracking information. 9400108105463246350616. We take every package, no matter how small, to the USPS counter to get the scan. It's so frustrating because we have been powersellers or top rated sellers for the better part of 25 years. We have never received a negative feedback, so we have never asked for a feedback revision.

[dadsdumbbrains]

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/abusive-buyer-policy?id=4374

Behaviors we don't allow

Don't make false claims

 Not allowed 

Claiming an item was not received when there is proof of delivery to the address on the Order details page

[luckythewinner]

Wow!

I never knew - or would have guessed - that eBay had that written in policy.

I knew the seller would win easily the dispute, but to make it a policy violation to claim item not received seems a bit excessive. It's like eBay assumes the USPS is perfect and porch pirates do not exist! 

I once won an INR dispute because I had delivery confirmation to the buyer's address. A month later the package came back marked "undeliverable due to insufficient address". So the buyer did not make a false claim. 

But all that aside ... 

I do not believe eBay states they will remove feedback from buyers who violate policy. And also don't forget everything on the eBay site is subject to this disclaimer in the eBay User Agreement: 

"we reserve the right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone for any reason at our discretion"

[stainlessenginecovers]

---

@dadsdumbbrains wrote:

Thanks for responding. On the feedback page which shows our negative feedback, there are two options that we responded to. First, "request revision." We did that, pointing the buyer to the USPS tracking information showing that the item had been delivered. We waited the 10 days for the revision which never came and eBay sent us a message saying that it was now closed. We understood that the buyer was under no obligation to respond. In the meantime, we weren't certain about when to hit the "report buyer" button, so about halfway through the 10 days, we did that also. Ebay responded that they had received our report, they quoted our report back to us, and ended with "As long as you have uploaded valid tracking that proves the item was delivered, you have nothing to worry about. You can find what we accept as valid proof of delivery here."  This is our tracking information. 9400108105463246350616. We take every package, no matter how small, to the USPS counter to get the scan. It's so frustrating because we have been powersellers or top rated sellers for the better part of 25 years. We have never received a negative feedback, so we have never asked for a feedback revision.

---

As I said; the 'request revision' is YOU asking the BUYER to CHANGE their feedback. 

Anyway; I didn't read all that- but do as I said; use the 'Request to Have Feedback Removed'

Go to 'community' at the bottom of most pages

it will show your most recent transactions (pictures)

Find the one that the neg was done

request removal (tracking shows delivered) 

[fashunu4eeuh]

To survive retailing, and dealing with the general public, it is beneficial to grow a tougher skin. Then such a hiccup as this does not entirely upend one’s perspective (which is what i believe has occurred in this situation).

I tend to give buyers the benefit of the doubt, especially for an item worth only $1.50. It is understandable that he has moved on from a small loss without contact. It was obviously not worth his while to go to the bother of a refund. And in your present state of outrage,  it doesn't appear you tried to resolve that he did not get what he paid for even tho that is your obligation to rectify.

And what of your follow up comment? You show no concern for his saying his purchase did not reach him but instead went immediately to questioning his character.

There are multiple reasons his feedback could be a factual report, including an erroneous scan, failure to enclose the item before mailing,  or outright theft of his package. But you’re essentially calling them out as a liar in your response. It is never a good idea to devolve into name-calling. You could simply have shared the tracking number proving delivery without the need to brand him as deliberately untruthful.

It is important to handle reported buyer issues with kid gloves. That is not happening here so far. Your job does not end at the post office handover. I would have immediately sent a second item and investigated the cause of the failure in getting my item to my buyer.

[direct*sales*store]

It is listed in the ABUSIVE BUYER POLICY as a violation. It is not called abusive behavior, but is violation of the abusive buyer policy.

The problem is now that the new tool for reporting a buyer only covers 3 of the 6 listed violations which lets buyers "slide between the drops" ....

[direct*sales*store]

This is my point too, however recently ebay changed the reporting tool, and you can no longer report this violation. The policy lists 6 types of violations but the reporting tool only covers 3 of them. It's been 2 weeks I am trying to get someone to check and fix that as it makes no sense. There are 6 violations but you can only report a buyer for 3 of those and for the rest he can just do them for free. 🙂

Anyone else seen that and reported it to eBay?

[mam98031]

@dadsdumbbrains 

I think you just misunderstood Ebay's email.  You might visit it again.  There would not have been any statement by Ebay that said they would report back to you for any sanction or action they took against the buyer.  It simply didn't say that.  That would be Private Account information.

When a buyer files a complaint against a seller, Ebay doesn't ever report back to that buyer any sanction or action they took against the seller.  That is just not info that gets shared by Ebay for either party.

So you are just upset that they didn't tell you if they did anything or not.  That you won't know and you also won't be able to tell my looking at an account what, if any action was taken as most actions are not visible for everyone one to see.  The only obvious one would be is if the account were to be closed.