mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@bisbeeminerals wrote:Welcome to the Draconian world of eBay, where a buyer can sabotage your account right before the holidays. This also happened to me, and is one reason I sell on multiple platforms. I hate Ebay for allowing this to happen. There are bad sellers who continually rip people off by selling fake or misleading items who need to be removed but never are, and there are honest sellers who work very hard to gain trust, only to be punished because some hot head leaves negative feedback because they had a bad day. I recently received negative feedback because the buyer was not happy about how long it took Ebay (not me) to transfer his funds back into his account. I have zero control over Ebay accounting but I still received negative feedback, destroying holiday sales. I'm moving more and more items back over to Etsy where at least the criminal, hate-generated negative feedbacks are absorbed into the overall picture and a single negative feedback does not lower your score from 100% to 91%.
That is such an HUGE overstatement about how much of an impact the negative feedback you received has on your account. Now your response isn't likely to help matters however. Trying to make this the problem of the buyer is NEVER a good idea. It makes you as a seller look bad in the eyes of potential buyers that may review your feedback page. A polite and professional response is the ONLY way sellers should respond. It is not the place for your personal feelings.
"I recently received negative feedback because the buyer was not happy about how long it took Ebay (not me) to transfer his funds back into his account." This is NOT the reason you got the negative. It is what you are hanging on to as the reason but the actual reason is different and it is NOT Ebay's fault, it is yours. You need to understand that an own it.
This buyer is upset because you had to cancel the transaction because you could not locate the product. Not only that it took you 3 days to do that. You should have been able to do that on day 1 and issued an apology to the buyer as well as it was your fault you were either OOS or simply couldn't find the item. This is hugely disappointing to a buyer. It is a little easier on them to know about the issue right away, but you took 3 days to even notify them. That is likely a huge reason for how the buyer responded.
When you filed your Cancellation of the transaction, did you select the correct reason, that you were out of stock? If not what reason did you select?
What is likely lowering you in the search returns is your 6 day handling time. For sellers with a 5+ day handling time, Ebay lowers them in the search returns, allowing sellers with shorter handling times to place higher.
@bisbeeminerals wrote:Thanks so much Mr. know it all. If you would read the complete post, you would see that the buyer understood and accepted that the item could not be found. He allowed me extra time to look. In addition I have a 3-day handling time. Our conversations were friendly. His problem was with eBay's refund process not me.
Not a Mr. and not a "know it all". I get it that because I didn't agree with your point of view that the reaction is to push back on what I said. But that doesn't change anything. I provided you with correct information. It is up to you to use it or disregard it.
And NO I did not see that the buyer understood and was fine with the fact that you couldn't find their product. There first statement in the feedback was saying you couldn't find it after 3 days. I read it differently than you do. You seem to think that means they were fine with it. I do not. As I stated before, 3 days is really excessive and only increases upsetting the buyer.
Yes, they were looking for their refund in their account. You could have simply explained this to the buyer instead of blaming Ebay. Refunds are not instant, even though some buyers think they are. Ebay refunds back to whatever funding source the buyer used to purchase the item. The process can take a few days. The buyer should have received an email from Ebay notifying them that the refund was on it's way. But instead your choice was to blame Ebay and not just tell them how it works. All that did was make the buyer even more upset.
You didn't do yourself any favors in how you handled this transaction.
Sorry, on the listings of yours I looked at, they have 6 day handling times. FYI your handling time does not mean if you have an inventory problem you can take that time to try and locate it. That is not what the handling time is for.
Earlier in the year when we had some changes done to feedback removal by Ebay that were hurting sellers. I fought along side some other good members to get things changed. We were successful and we did have changes made to the removal policy of feedback.
The policy has been updated and allows more reasons that a feedback can be removed. And we gained back the ability to appeal feedback removal if the automated version of removal is denied.
Sellers need to understand that their personal opinions are important but do not have any relevance to this process. If the feedback you want removed does not meet any of the removable reasons in the policy, it is unlikely the feedback will be removed. Just because a seller wants a negative removed does not mean it automatically qualifies.
If you firmly believe your negative feedback needs to be remove. Do a little homework. Find the policy that states what the buyer said in the feedback breaches one of the rules. When you appeal the removal of the feedback, quote the policy.
You have to go by the words the buyer actually says in the posted feedback, not your interpretation of them, but exactly what the buyer has stated.
Also remember there is a time limit on getting feedback removed. You have to take action in a reasonable amount of time. Usually within 30 days of receiving the feedback, but I think they will go up to 60 days.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-policies?id=4208
You aren't seeing any change because your negative feedback does not break ANY of the rules in which to get it removed. I realize you don't agree, but it is the truth.
You are welcome to look at the policy for yourself and find where it breaches the rules. If you can prove that to Ebay, maybe they will remove it.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-policies?id=4208
I understand you don't like what I've said trying to explain why the feedback you got isn't removable. I get it. It is frustrating that Ebay doesn't see it the way you do.
"All the seller can do is issue a refund..." I also disagree with this part of your post. When your buyer expressed concern in a message that they had not received their refund, as I stated in an earlier post, you could have taken a moment to explain the process to them instead of just ignoring their concern. If you had done that, the buyer would have likely understood why they didn't see the refund instantly.
Yes, I agree that buyers often don't understand how their money gets processed. However the sellers should. And you could have explained it nicely to them, but you chose not to do that, which added to your buyer's frustration with this transaction.
Your response is inaccurate too. Cancelling and refunding the buyer because you were OOS does NOT have a 3 day window to do so. You said "I issued a full refund within the required time".
