Reciving a negative from a bitter customer

[austree7]

I have been a seller on ebay since 2003. I received my first negative over a guy that told me he was planning on giving me a negative from the start. Ebay always rules in the buyers favor when it comes to feedback. I tried to contact ebay to tell them my side of the story but no way could I ever get through. What I am surprised about is the fact a guy thats only bought a few items can give a negative and affect my feedback rating just before the holidays as if it were planned. The guy got a full refund as well. 

[ebooksdiva]

Have you tried the feedback removal tool? I’ve successfully had feedback removed recently.  https://www.ebay.com/sellerhelp/feedback 

[jerseyboymusic]

The buyer seems to have felt the knife wasn't up to his expectations and wanted to return for refund. From what he wrote in feedback, you resisted and made him return on his dime (when on the listing it looks like you offer free returns withing 14 days of buyer receipt)

So the feedback looks valid in that he is expressing his experience buying from you. 

Why would you try telling Ebay "your side of the story"?

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Although you had multiple photos I did not see one of the back of the sheath. If it had ink marks that was a serious flaw. 

Why do you think that you did not deserve the negative?

Why did you not refund the shipping? Even if the buyer chose the wrong return reason, that was going to make for an unhappy buyer and negative FB.

You and this buyer may have rubbed each other the wrong way, but your transaction was a customer service failure.

[ebooksdiva]

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@jerseyboymusic wrote:

The buyer seems to have felt the knife wasn't up to his expectations and wanted to return for refund. From what he wrote in feedback, you resisted and made him return on his dime (when on the listing it looks like you offer free returns withing 14 days of buyer receipt)

So the feedback looks valid in that he is expressing his experience buying from you. 

Why would you try telling Ebay "your side of the story"?

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Where do you see free returns ? It clearly says 14 day returns buyer pays. 

[hotwheelsbum]

First, the writing on the sheath was only put in the Sellers Notes area, an area that hardly pops up in the listing unless you click on "Read More" to see the full Seller Note, something Buyers rarely click on. Information that should have been down in the Description. Second, you went full AI with your description. AI is not going to know that knife had writing on its sheath. From reading his Negative, I kind of agree with him, you SHOULD have included pictures of the writing on the sheath. You did not. Plus, the "Sellers Note", which obviously was not seen by Buyer, it was In Your Opinion that that writing would wear off over time. Well. it was given as a "gift" for Christmas over 40 years as per the writing on the sheath, why hasn't the writing worn off that sheath within these past 40 years? Was Buyer expected to wait another 40 years to see if that writing would wear off or not as you claimed it would in your opinion?

I don't get where Buyer says you marked it as "Collection Grade" as mentioned in the Negative, but Honestly, the Sheath is part of the Set, and No, it is not Collection Grade with the writing on sheath. Writing that's been on it for 40 years now. I don't think he set out to buy it to planning on leaving you a Negative. Not at all. Negative probably came from the back and forth where you were going to force him to pay return shipping to send knife back, AND keep his $6.50 for shipping the knife to him. My opinion, this was a Macho A Macho back and forth with you 2 after the sale, when Buyer received knife and seeing the writing on the sheath. Should've just taken the Return, paid for the Return, and Refunded in full. A simple $13 loss on this $85 sale would have saved that Feedback. Feedback was earned. That was the experience this Buyer had with you. Go on about your day. 

[chapeau-noir]

Macho A Macho

'mano a mano' but I guess 'macho' works, too. 

GENERAL: The only problem I see with this is that the writing on the knife was not shown - yes, it was in the condition description which is front and center, but it needs to be photo'd as this was considered a collectible piece, and collectors are understandably choosy about condition. It's an oversight on your part and the buyer didn't like it, then disliked how you handled it. I would have sent a label and refunded on receipt because of my oversight.

[profitweb]

It can be very frustrating. Sometimes, CS will remove the feedback if you accepted the return. They used to do that, but they may have changed that policy.

I do have some GOOD NEWS!  A study came out that buyers don't trust sellers with 100% positive feedback as much as slightly lower... why? Because they think it's fake. So, you're 1 negative might be a good thing for sales!!!

Wishing you the best! Let's make eBay Community a positive, supportive, place!! 🙂

[hotwheelsbum]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Macho A Macho

'mano a mano' but I guess 'macho' works, too. 

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The People's Court, Judge Marilyn Milian came up with Macho A Macho, uses it a lot herself too. 😄

[kensgiftshop]

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@profitweb wrote:

A study came out that buyers don't trust sellers with 100% positive feedback as much as slightly lower... why? Because they think it's fake. So, you're 1 negative might be a good thing for sales!!!

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Especially when you see the revised feedback count.

Kind of makes you wonder what the revised feedback was.

[powell-collectibles]

Buyer seems like a reasonable guy - I doubt this was premeditated or designed to hurt your holiday sales.

I doubt that the neg will have a noticeable impact - you have plenty of positives to bring up your feedback score.

i also have one negative feedback - something to do with a shipment getting lost.  Hasn’t been a big thing for me - no need to tell my side of the story, other than a positive reply so that potential buyers can see that I’m a decent seller.

the way I look at is that I didn’t deserve the negative for that transaction, but i probably did for some earlier one where a buyer should have left a negative but didn’t.  It all evens out.

[tinsoldierunderground]

A few years back, I purchased an early 6" blade Camillus Jet Pilot Survival knife from a seller on here.

Plenty of pics, appearing in fairly high condition, along with a Vietnam history.

Upon receiving the knife, I immediately noticed it had a tip dent (where the very end of the tip is curled over from impact).  This was cleverly concealed in the pics, with no mention in the description.  Seller claimed they never saw it, I explained that as a collector I really didn't enjoy having to 'fix' things like this.  Seller asked what I wanted to do about it.  I told him I'd fix the knife and never buy from him again, and I haven't.

I seriously doubt that the buyer's intention was to neg you from the beginning, but when you get  an item you really wanted, only to find a surprise upon examination, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.  

[meme6253]

You have to make sure all flaws & damage are shown as well as described!, You did not do that, Why you did not do that is beyond me, If you have been selling since 2003 you should know this.

[jerseyboymusic]

Oops... I thought I read 14 days free returns, thanks for the catch

[mam98031]

@austree7 

The first thing to do is go to the Feedback Policy and find the part of the policy that addresses that the buyer's feedback breached policy.  

Now go to the online version of requesting the feedback to be removed.  Make sure in the comment field that you note the part of the Feedback policy that they breached.

Go to the Seller Help page. Towards the bottom of the screen you will see a place to click on to submit the feedback for removal.

https://www.ebay.com/sellerhelp/feedback?id=5566

You will get an email from Ebay telling you their decision.  If they say no, then you need to contact Ebay directly and offer them the information on the transaction and the part of the policy the buyer broke when posting the feedback.  I hope everything works out for you.

On each Ebay page there is a link to contact Customer Service at the top of the page and again at the bottom of the page.

I would suggest that you contact Ebay for Business on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for the better trained CSRs.

Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service. Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is. Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message. It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.

https://twitter.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/ebay

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

Your options will be on the left. If you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant or Chat box type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options. Not all options are available 24/7. It will depend on staffing available. So sometimes you can request a call back and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you have the Chat option available and other times it won't me. If it is important to you to use one of those options, just try back later.

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If you are a seller outside of the US or Canada, you will need to use the Chat Option.

https://www.ebay.com/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

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