Shame this is my first post on eBay forums but here 'goes.
I purchased an item on October 20th from a supposedly reputable seller on eBay with zero negative feedback. The item was listed as brand new in both the description and condition. Much to my chagrin, upon receiving the item on October 25th, the item was in fact damaged, and pieces were missing. I immediately put in for a return, which the seller granted, with no explanation for the discrepancy between the listing and the item itself. I left negative feedback as a result.
The deadline to ship the item out was November 1st, and I shipped the item out on October 30th (which I took video evidence of in case of the seller trying to be even more shady) and immediately put the tracking number into eBay. The item was listed as delivered on October 31st. All good right? Wrong.
On November 2nd (yesterday) I received an email from eBay stating that the seller asked eBay to step in because the item was not delivered within the time frame given. Inexplicably, eBay granted the seller's request, and the case was closed, despite the tracking information for the return having been entered into eBay.
I was understandably furious, and immediately contacted eBay. Upon explaining to two of the customer service reps over the phone what happened, they immediately reversed the decision and refunded me the money. Additionally, they walked me through steps to report the account, which I did.
Come to find today, the negative feedback on the seller's account has disappeared. After contacting eBay customer service again in order to resolve the issue and reinstate the negative feedback, and escalating it to a manager, I was told that the system had deleted my feedback automatically when the case was decided initially (and incorrectly) in the sellers favor. I was told that there is nothing they can do, and that feedback is now permanently deleted.
I'm at a complete loss as to what to do from here, because at the time of this posting, my legitimate review of this unscrupulous individual who engaged in a fraudulent business practice has been deleted, with no way of future buyers being warned that this seller is in fact, listing items fraudulently. In fact, a quick search of this buyer's profile reveals that they are currently listing items similar to the broken one they sold me, while listing the condition as "New" and then stating "Used" in the description (which the seller did NOT do for my listing).
I'm not certain the level of engagement that eBay has with it's forum members, but this was my last resort for trying to get my negative feedback reinstated. For long time community members; was there anything I could have done differently?
If in fact eBay is unable to reinstate that negative feedback, larger questions about the feedback system itself are raised in my mind. Is this a well known loophole that shady sellers/buyers exploit?
disneyshopper
