That's it! I'm leaving eBay.

[jc_montero]

Tonight it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Long story short: I sold an item, buyer said it was broken, "not as described" (it wasn't) and wanted to return.

I got the item back (I paid the shipping, of course), the item worked perfectly, he left negative feedback.

I appealed saying that he lied because the item worked -in fact it was relisted with pics of it turned on.

eBay says they can't delete the negative feedback... They stood with the buyer. 

I ended all the remaining few items and I'm done with eBay.

I've been a customer for 11 years, paid hundred of dollars in fees and this is how I'm treated?

Bye bye eBay, welcome anything else.

[telecom75]

Every Ebay seller has likely dealt with something like this at some point, Amazon is far worse for sellers getting taken advantage of. If you think ebay is going to care about your opinion, you are mistaken. Ebay doesn't give much thought into what their sellers think. They make massive changes and even when sellers are proven right with declining sales across entire categories, they still don't care and don't reverse the change.

[gwzcomps]

The joys of selling used electronics.

[fashunu4eeuh]

I'm very sorry you had this bad experience.

These things happen every day on eBay--online selling requires a pretty thick skin, but you said this was the straw that broke you, were there other bad experiences? Most first-time negative feedbacks can sting. However, the seller gets to respond and how one responds to a buyer issue is far more important than the negative. A calm professional tone can utterly disarm the buyer's assertion and future buyers will overlook one neg in a sea of green. After all, if you sell long enough, getting a neg is almost a given.

Add to this that negative feedback will not affect your seller metrics, and the neg has no power to hurt you. Unless, the response left by the seller is unprofessional in some way. It is best to wait until the emotions come down before writing a response, and there are folks on the board that can assist with writing the most appropriate answer. Ideally, it needs to address the buyer's issue while maintaining the seller's integrity. Avoiding name calling or blaming is critical as the audience will be future buyers.

So hang in there, and wish you all the best in whatever you decide to do. You may find things will look a little differently after a little time passes. Ecommerce can be tough, as we all know. Hate to see a good seller leave.

[reallynicestamps]

Add to this that negative feedback will not affect your seller metrics,

True, but the negs and false positives left for both buyers and sellers may affect the decisions of future buyers.

[7606dennis]

I probably would have left the comment you did.  Doesn't look very professional and advising potential buyers that an item returned because the buyer said it didn't work is back on the shelf doesn't seem a wise thing to do.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

Amazon fba is not worse. Someone returns a working item it goes right back on sale. Someone returns a rock instead of item and im paid back without even asking. Buyers who scam are dealt with.

[carbonart0]

This is one of the primary reasons Amazon is destroying Ebay.

Amazon treats it's customers (the sellers) as the most important part of their business...which they are.

Ebay vomits all over their customers (the sellers) and then wonders why sales revenues and traffic to their site are down...

[lamber9347]

Big sigh.... You've been on eBay for 11 years but you are a relatively new seller. You got your item back and can sell it again to someone else so you should just move along. Selling online isn't for everyone. That one neg would not harm you at all but because you responded out of emotion your comment back will actually be what causes buyers to avoid you- so you did it to yourself. You should never call one of your customers a liar. You cannot describe an item as being in "mint condition" once it's been opened and used yet you continue to do so. Look up the definition of mint condition. You are setting yourself up for an INAD case which you will lose and will count against your selling account. You cannot leave a negative comment under a positive which you've done to others. You've also left both negative and neutral comments for other sellers yet when someone leaves a neg for you than they are wrong in your eyes. 

Probably best for you to close up shop until you familiarize yourself with the TOS for selling on eBay, and develop a thicker skin.  Best of luck to you....

[carbonart0]

Really big sigh.

This is not good advice at all.  Many buyers on Ebay are liars, and there's nothing wrong (and everything right) about pointing it out.  Furthermore, Ebay treats their own sellers (their customers) as if they'r liars.  Their excellent feedback ratings clearly mean nothing to Ebay management because they've created policies that place no value of any kind in a seller's feedback ratings.

2ndly, the negative feedback is undeserved and you show this person a lot of disrespect for suggesting that it's their own fault.

And I've sold many mint condition items that were no longer in their original packaging.

I've read many posts like yours from other regular contributors to this forum.  The Ebay apologists on this forum aren't doing Ebay any favors here - The opposite is more true I think.

[dhbookds]

A couple of things:

Previous poster said a seller should not claim mint, if the item was used.....

I don't think any of us would dispute that there are buyer liars......many?  I would say some.....point is tho........it's NOT GOOD to call them liars in feedback.  Other buyers have no basis on which to judge who is the "liar"....and they may tend to skip the seller because they can't judge.  Far better to state the facts: "Buyer returned for not working, but item did work when returned".  The buyer can/should be reported for claiming it did not work......

[clearsphere]

Sounds like a remorse return that the buyer didn't want to pay to ship back.

[fern*wood]

---

@carbonart0 wrote:

Really big sigh.

This is not good advice at all.  Many buyers on Ebay are liars, and there's nothing wrong (and everything right) about pointing it out.  Furthermore, Ebay treats their own sellers (their customers) as if they'r liars.  Their excellent feedback ratings clearly mean nothing to Ebay management because they've created policies that place no value of any kind in a seller's feedback ratings.

2ndly, the negative feedback is undeserved and you show this person a lot of disrespect for suggesting that it's their own fault.

And I've sold many mint condition items that were no longer in their original packaging.

I've read many posts like yours from other regular contributors to this forum.  The Ebay apologists on this forum aren't doing Ebay any favors here - The opposite is more true I think.

---

Bigger sigh here.

Trying to hurt the buyer with insults only makes yourself look bad.  I try to do what helps me in these situations, and show my annoyance at a buyer in other ways -- eating cookies when I shouldn't comes to mind. 

Yes, selling electronics has added a few pounds on me.  We also have gotten not as described returns for a perfectly working item.  Just yesterday it hit me why an ID looked familar to me on an electronic item that we shipped a couple days ago.   I looked back and found they bought the same item last summer and filed not as described because they couldn't figure out how to use it. We even sent them a video.  Well, I neglected to block them and now it is on the way to them again.  Cookies are on stand by. 

[webwanna]

I too call out the thieves and liars if they dare leave me false feedback. 

You have to be a real psycho to pull a scam on an individual and then additionally use the feedback system to try to destroy your victim's reputation.  Psychos need to be kicked off Ebay.   That's one of my missions in life.

It would be one thing if I had confidence that Ebay was actually using seller reports to kick bad buyers off Ebay.  I have no faith in Ebay actually protecting sellers from scammers.  None. 

Their solution is to offer sellers the ability do partial refunds for faulty returns.   That's a lame approach to dealing with scammers if they aren't willing to kick even admitted thieves to the curb.  They like that approach because they continue to collect their fees and it sounds like they are doing something to help sellers out.  Meanwhile they have basically conspired with the known scammer because they have already received a dozen reports about the bad buyer and failed to take action to shut them down.

If you are a seller that is lucky enough to have a scammer leave you false feedback, you are obligated to respond to that feedback calling the scammer out IMO.  If you don't, you have become part of the problem.  You're just as bad as Ebay....

[carbonart0]

dhbookds wrote:

"and they may tend to skip the seller because they can't judge.  Far better to state the facts: "Buyer returned for not working, but item did work when returned".  The buyer can/should be reported for claiming it did not work......"

This is simply not correct.  It's wrong for a number of reasons.

For starters, there are an increasing number of scam buyers now thanks  to Ebay's many and frequent bonehead policies and restrictions on sellers over the last few years.  It's absolutely critical - CRITICAL - that these scam buyers be weeded out.  And since Ebay does little to weed them out, it's up to sellers to do so themselves.  Sellers who encounter buyers who lie and abuse Ebay sellers in this fashion should be pointed out aggressively and often as the liars and cheaters that they are.  This should be done so that other sellers can receive notice and protect themselves from these buyers.  

Many buyers are also sellers as well.  This seller's statement about the buyer being a liar will have little to no impact on most buyers who are considering the seller's items for sale.  Buyers who also sell are more likely to appreciate a seller who is trying to protect themselves (and other sellers) from scam buyers.

And then there's buyers who sell while buying or selling other sellers' items that were purchased by buyers who are full or part time sellers while simultaneously buying and selling other sellers' items continuously or periodically.  lol.