Why would buyer leave a negative immediately over an allegeged broken zipper w/o asking to return?

[maubrn]

Also why does this buyer's feedback profile only show feedback sellers left him, but have nothing to show for what he left sellers? He has bought a lot. Can they hide what they have left but show what sellers left them? 

Why leave an immediate negative without even contacting me? Why would he keep an item with a "faulty" zipper, wouldn't he rather return it? I test all zippers carefully before listing, and this item looked like it had been worn only a couple times. Arc'teryx doesn't use cheap zippers. Buyer lied about a faulty zipper. Why? Also dinged me on shipping badly! When I've lowered shipping to flat low amounts. I went down 9/10's a % from the neg. With 400 sales one neg takes you from 100% to 99.1% Shipping down from 4.9 to 4.8 after staying at 4.9 for 2 years, and I recently changed to lower flat rates.

I think buyer was acting vindictively. Lives in D.C. that says a lot. 😁

[mam98031]

There are lots of great people in DC, so don't get carried away.

Some buyer simply don't.  Ebay did ask them to contact you first before they were able to leave the negative fb, but clearly they felt it was more important to leave the FB.  

Now there is nothing in the brief fb that breaks any rule, so for that reason you can't get it removed.  But you should look at the buyers feedback LEFT FOR OTHERS.  Sometimes you can tell this is a regular thing for them and that means feedback abuse, which is against the rules.

Careful when leaving a response to feedback left for you.  Keep your emotions and feeling out of it.  Be professional and polite.  Yours is kind of border line.  Sellers that respond to feedback often do more harm by what they say in the response than the buyer did in the feedback.

[chapeau-noir]

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@maubrn wrote:

Also why does this buyer's feedback profile only show feedback sellers left him, but have nothing to show for what he left sellers? He has bought a lot. Can they hide what they have left but show what sellers left them? 

Why leave an immediate negative without even contacting me? Why would he keep an item with a "faulty" zipper, wouldn't he rather return it? I test all zippers carefully before listing, and this item looked like it had been worn only a couple times. Arc'teryx doesn't use cheap zippers. Buyer lied about a faulty zipper. Why? Also dinged me on shipping badly! When I've lowered shipping to flat low amounts. I went down 9/10's a % from the neg. With 400 sales one neg takes you from 100% to 99.1% Shipping down from 4.9 to 4.8 after staying at 4.9 for 2 years, and I recently changed to lower flat rates.

I think buyer was acting vindictively. Lives in D.C. that says a lot. 😁

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The grinny face doesn't counteract that turd of an assumption.

It's unfortunate that the buyer didn't contact you about the broken zipper, I agree (I've had that kind of thing happen, too), but what may have been an opportunity to display your stellar customer service skills (for future buyers - this transaction is done) was all but squandered. Think next time, before you leave a response - this kind of thing can be turned up sweet by a skilful seller.

[annadryl]

Why would they not ask for a return? Perhaps they thought they couldn't. Your listing states that you don't accept returns. Seeing this they might have thought they were stuck with a broken zipper and felt feedback was their only appropriate action.

[adamcartwright]

Maybe? But eBay's MBG language is stated in bold next to the no returns policy, so I agree with OP that it is puzzling. A broken zipper is something the MBG would cover.

[lgl11]

Looking at your feedback you look like a good seller. I wouldn't worry about the negative.  If you had something I wanted,  I wouldn't hesitate to buy an item from you. 

[soh.maryl]

You are, of course, aware that FB is not required/mandatory, but is optional for both partners in a transaction, right?

What I am saying is that perhaps this buyer is one of those buyers who never bother leaving FB unless/until he has an unsatisfactory (to him) transaction.  

[iamalwaysright]

I still would’ve purchased from you after you received that negative. But now after reading your reply to that feedback, I wouldn’t buy from you.

It’s easy to be a good seller when things are going fine. It’s harder to be a good seller when you run into difficult obstacles.

[logrey87]

The buyer doesn't have to notify you if they have an issue with a purchase.  Some people would rather leave a negative than file/return a purchase.

[jg.mason]

How true. I like to read the negative feedbacks just to see the response of the seller because that will tell you a lot. 

[mam98031]

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@adamcartwright wrote:

Maybe? But eBay's MBG language is stated in bold next to the no returns policy, so I agree with OP that it is puzzling. A broken zipper is something the MBG would cover.

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There are lots of buyers that have never read the MBG.

[valleycharities]

I had a buyer do the same thing to me. They left negative feedback about the item that they bought saying that they were unhappy with the product and that it was not close to what had been advertised. I sent the buyer a message asking them how it did not fit the description as I was very clear that the item was preowned and had some condition issues. The buyer came back and said that it was probably their fault for not paying attention and that they had missed some things in the description. I asked for the negative feedback to be removed and both eBay and the buyer refused to remove it because it did not go against their policy.   

[onefootflippers]

I know from experience that the end result of fighting things like that is me wasting a bunch of time, likely giving both a full refund while the customer keeps the item and me still keeping the negative feedback. 

Never again, now I just assume that dumping that negative feedback was the end of the transaction in the eyes of the customer and I don't try to reopen it.

Let sleeping dogs lie, even if they pooped in your bed before they fell asleep.

[mam98031]

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@onefootflippers wrote:

I know from experience that the end result of fighting things like that is me wasting a bunch of time, likely giving both a full refund while the customer keeps the item and me still keeping the negative feedback. 

Never again, now I just assume that dumping that negative feedback was the end of the transaction in the eyes of the customer and I don't try to reopen it.

Let sleeping dogs lie, even if they pooped in your bed before they fell asleep.

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I would never recommend offering a refund to the buyer in the hopes they would revise the feedback.  For some buyers, that is why they take this approach, they are hoping the seller will extend them a partial or full refund.

I suggest being more detailed about this.  First check the buyers Feedback Left For Others.  See if you can tell if there is a pattern of this behavior.  If there is, contact Ebay and report the buyer for feedback abuse and get them to review the feedback they left for you.

If you want to work with the buyer in an effort to get the feedback revised.  Remember these steps.

1. Seller has a limited number of these revision forms available each year.

2. Without prior communication with the buyer and an agreement that they are willing to change the FB, they aren't likely to pay any attention to the email. The buyer would also need to be told that the Revision form comes in an Ebay email, not an email from the seller.

3. The Revision form has a 10 day life. So if the buyer doesn't know it is coming and doesn't know it will be in the form of an email from Ebay, it is unlikely that they buyer will pay any attention to the email. Possibly assume it is junk and just delete it.

4. If after this you do communicate with the buyer and they want to change their FB, you can't send another revision form on the same transaction.

It is in the seller's best interest to ALWAYS be in communication with the buyer before sending a feedback revision form.

[onefootflippers]

Looking further into this, I would definitely let this sleeping dog lie. Lets assume the zipper did break on the customer, maybe the first time they tried to use it. That customer decided to let you keep your $65 and instead just left a bad feedback that will mean nothing in the long term because.

Pursue the problem, you are for sure out 1-2 hours of your time, whatever that is worth. Will probably lose the $65 and there is still no guarantee that the feedback would be changed or removed.