The feedback system really needs revision.

[theperfectcircle1]

Buyers can leave negative feedback but sellers can't. Ok, fine. 

But you know, when you bust your butt to maintain 100% positive feedback, and then out of the blue get a negative from a buyer who didn't bother to give you a chance to rectify his issue, it just makes this all seem like a waste of time. I mean, where's my incentive to provide great customer service if it can all just be dashed by a single vindictive buyer. Buyers should be restricted from leaving negative feedback until they've given the seller a chance to resolve their issue. That's only fair. Yeah, we sell vintage items. Sometimes they don't make it through the shipping process unscathed. Sometimes we might miss a flaw, or a scratch, or some other defect. We're happy to make good on any error we make, and we're happy to help mitigate USPS abuse. All you have to do is contact us.  

[buyselljack2016]

Feedback system has already been revised to eliminate the ability to leave a red donut for buyers.  I foresee no change back.

[ten_o_nine]

Some buyers just don't want to bother and will just record their experience with the purchase. Why would ebay restrict me from posting my experience until I contact the seller?

[theperfectcircle1]

I don't want to leave negative feedback for a buyer, ever. All I want is a safeguard in place that gives us a chance to resolve issues with buyers before they can leave negative feedback. Doesn't that sound fair and reasonable. If I don't respond, or refuse to resolve the issue, then I deserve negative feedback, not before.

[onefootflipper]

Block the person move on with your life. Let your competition deal with them. Not worth possibly dinging your service or getting some maniac after you with a soft positive.

Once they are blocked they are your competition's problem, not yours. You seem to have a narrow niche, block enough people and you will find that your number of problems will get much smaller over time.

[theperfectcircle1]

Because it's only right that you give sellers a chance to resolve issues. But yeah, that's ultimately the problem. Some buyers just don't give a ****. Also, Ebay already restricts sellers from leaving anything but positive feedback for buyers, so what's with the double standard?

[ten_o_nine]

@theperfectcircle1 

so what's with the double standard?

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Well, the double standard is ebay needs buyer's money and not seller's products, hard to bring buyers to the site without friendly policies, and sellers are dime a dozen.

[stainlessenginecovers]

When feedback became a NON measurable, it also became a 'who cares'.  Leave appropriate, professional, very short (you don't want that red donut to become any physically bigger) response to the feedback..something like:

"We will answer all requests and accept any returns as long as we are notified"

That tells any 'future' buyers that look at your feedback that you are there and will take care. 

Also, if it's 1 on the first page with no others- it will a.) get buried soon and b.) most buyers can see the big picture and c.) Most buyers don't even bother to look. Good price is king. 

[buyselljack2016 · Accepted solution]

Oh, I agree that we should have that opportunity. Sometimes a buyer has been conditioned by poor past responses.

eBay suggests contacting the seller, but just that. A suggestion.

  I got negged (my error) by a 1st time buyer. Apparently they thought that was the way to pressure a solution.

[spark-chaser1]

I am a buyer here. I agree 100.95 per cent that if there is going to be feedback at all, it should be fair. Sellers not being able to neg... NOT fair.

Buyers destroying a seller's 100 percent positive rating because they didn't pay attention to the listing and bought something they decided they didn't like, or something happened in transit, not seller's fault, NOT fair. 

I buy regularly from a few sellers who give consistently good service, and when there is a hiccup, even out of their control, they do the best they can. And these same sellers get hit by a buyer of the type who hasn't even waited for the last date of delivery only to post negs like this..." I better get this on time, and it better be BLUE, because it looked GREEN in the pictures!!!! I mean, you just can NOT make this up.   

There is one great seller I watched this happen to, I ramped up business with him just hoping to put him back to 100.

I often come on here and see post after post where it looks like a perpetual us-vs.- them battle between buyers, sellers and the powers-that-be. That is NOT always the case, you sellers have plenty of people who are on your side. 

[m60driver]

Your feedback is fine and your response was good.  Just forget about it and move on as Ebay won't change anything.

[spark-chaser1]

I meant to mention that... The OPs reply to that negative feedback was perfect. Straight to the point and professional. Probably better than I would have been.

On the other end, I do remember from the good old days looking at replies to negatives where a seller would go nuclear on a buyer's negative and actually look the fool. A few times, I would walk away from buying from a seller just based on that. If I were to have a problem with my purchase, I could already tell it would most likely go badly.

Probably why the policy was changed, but then, why bother if its not a level playing ground? Plenty of buyers should be steered clear of too.

[theperfectcircle1]

Thank you!

[tdrake]

The minute I have to start dealing with the seller, the transaction for me has gone foul.  That don't mean a neg but I'd be thinking about it.  I

Meanwhile I trying to figure out how to neg 2 different sellers that canceled my orders as "out of stock". One was this past weekend for a $400 used handbag - how do you go "out of stock"? I say **bleep**.  Took 3 days for the refund to show back in my account.  The other  was a couple weeks ago bought some Elizabeth Arden something or other. There was "6 left" when I bought 1 at $35, I get a cancelation "out of stock. A week later the seller has another listing for them at $55 each. Out of stock my a $$.  If I can figure out how to neg these sellers I'm going to.

[maxine*j]

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@theperfectcircle1 wrote:

Because it's only right that you give sellers a chance to resolve issues...

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Resolving an issue does not guarantee a positive feedback.    The feedback is the buyer's opinion about the transaction and that opinion may remain negative even if he's refunded in full or in part, or sent a replacement.

Sensible buyers (and who wants any other kind?) know that all sellers will occasionally have a transaction go awry, sometimes the seller's fault and sometimes not.  These sensible buyers look at the seller's response to the neg:  Was it professional, measured, brief, reasonable?  If so, they're satisified the seller will be fine to do business with. 

So, you are good to go, I say, and should just put this out of your mind.  You got a neg.  You responded in a professional manner.  In time, that neg will roll right off the page.

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