eBay Negative Feedback Plus For Sellers

eBay Negative Feedback Plus For Sellers

I have sold items on eBay now for over 6 years. Things on eBay have changed over that time, mainly the feedback system. Sellers cannot leave buyers negative feedback anymore, but buyers can still leave sellers negative feedback. When this new policy was put in place I stopped selling on eBay for about a year. But because I have always been a "buyer and seller" in one way or another, way before eBay came along, I went back to eBay. The main reason was that by selling online, I could reach a far greater audience of potential buyers of my stock. Selling online reaches many more people then putting ads in local newspapers or selling to people I know that live locally.

Even though I wasn't happy about this feedback rule change, I thought it would be beneficial to me if I just accepted this new rule and got busy selling online again. I did just that, and things were going well. I have been selling a fair few items on eBay and my feedback is still 100%. That was until a few weeks ago. I knew I was going to have a problem with this buyer instantly, maybe from so many online transactions, you just "know" inside that there's going to be a problem.

This buyer was new to eBay. In my listing, which was for a pair of trainers, I clearly state the size of the trainers. I even measured them before putting them up for sale, and have the trainer length on the listing in centimetres (CM), next to the actual size in big RED writing. Now most people would be aware of this, and would know what size they are, or what size they need to buy before they bid. Bear in mind that I have sold many pairs of these same trainers with not a single complaint. These trainers are a normal size 4, it says so in the tongue, and they are the exact same size as other size 4 trainers of different brands that I have in stock.

So the buyer wins the trainers at about 9pm. I send the buyer my usual two messages that i send everyone that buys any item from me. The first one telling them that I have received their payment, and the second email telling them when their item will be dispatched, in this case it was the next day because the buyer won the trainers at 9pm. So the next day arrives and I’m getting all the items i have sold wrapped up and ready to go. Before I set off to post the items I always check my eBay account and email account that I use for eBay, just to check I haven't sold anything else in the mean time. Upon checking my email, I am met with a message from this buyer asking me "where the trainer are", and why have they not received any "your item has been dispatched" message. Please bear in mind, its 9am! The next day! I replied to their message very politely and explained, all the items are sent out before 12pm, and you will get the "message dispatched" email anytime after that. I even sent the buyer another message, telling them that if they have any other concerns please don't hesitate to contact me. Even though, to myself I thought "Here we go a problem eBayer".

And I was right. A few weeks after the item had been delivered, I was greeted with negative feedback when I signed into my eBay account, and it was from this buyer. They claimed the trainers were massive, but I knew this was totally false because I checked that item before it was dispatched, and it was the exact size it was meant to be. Hell, I even measured them with a measuring tape before listing them for sale, and then put the measurements on the listing! This buyer had either bought the wrong size, and not reading the listing, or just left me negative feedback out of spite. I truly feel it was out of spite, to ruin my 100% positive feedback.

My first feelings were anger. I had described the item perfectly, sent the item the next day, gave them free recorded delivery postage, even sent them follow up emails reminding them to contact me if they had any concerns. But still, with no attempt was made to contact me, they just left negative feedback. Extremely unfair.

I made contact with eBay about this, telling them I had received negative feedback unfairly. They replied, telling me I could send the buyer a request, asking them to revise the feedback, so I did that, explaining to the buyer that if they wanted their money back I would give them a refund straight away. I even said they could still keep the trainers as well as the money, just as long as the negative feedback was removed. But they declined the offer. I sent a message after this through eBay, asking the buyer that, surely if the item is too big then you can't wear it? Don't you just want your money back? I got no response. I knew they were lying about the item being too big.

After this, even though sellers cannot leave negative feedback for buyers, I still left the buyer feedback, which had to be positive. But in the feedback I wrote in CAPS and left a bad comment, saying VERY BAD EBAYER, amongst other things, and I left it at that. Then, after about a week I had an email from eBay telling me I had broken the rules of their feedback system. I used positive to leave a negative comment, and the feedback was removed. I wasn't aware of this feedback rule.

After this I was angry again! That buyer left me negative feedback, for no reason at all, and I can't even leave them a negative comment on a positive feedback! But the negative feedback I had received stays firmly in place, visible for all to see. I wasn't having that. I sent eBay a very well worded email, explaining everything about the transaction, and also telling them that buying and selling is a two way process, so why the hell are they giving buyers more power then sellers, making them immune from any punishment. I went on and on. I told them that I wanted this feedback removed because I had done nothing wrong.

Within a few days I had an email back from eBay telling me that after full review they have decided to remove the negative feedback! I was very happy. I wanted to email the buyer who left the negative feedback just to say HAHAHAHAHA, but I didn't.

I didn't realise that when eBay changed the feedback system in favour of the buyers, they had also put rules in place to protect sellers from receiving negative feedback unfairly, which was the right thing to do. There are a few categories, so that if you receive negative feedback, but it falls into one of eBay’s seller protection categories, eBay remove the negative feedback! They did so for me. I’m not 100% sure on all the category reasons, but I know for certain that one of them is in place for buyers that buy an item and just don't pay for it. If they do this, and then leave you negative feedback, eBay will remove that feedback. Go to eBay and read the feedback rules for the full lowdown on what will be removed and what won't.

So it's not as bad as it sounds when you hear that eBay sellers can't leave negative feedback for buyers anymore. There are some very helpful rules that have been put in place to protect sellers from receiving unfair feedback. I’m not saying that all negative feedback you receive will be removed because of these new rules, but if you read and understand the rules of this change, you will know if any negative feedback you receive is fit for removal. Or, like in my case, you email eBay a number of times, tell them you’re not happy, and want something done; they will probably review the situation and get back to you with a yes or no. What have you got to lose? You might just manage to get the feedback removed like I did!

My eBay feedback is now at 100% again.


http://cashsearcher.blogspot.com/

6 Comments

toya said...

ebay are on the right track with this unfair feedback clampdown.

Anonymous said...

can sellers leave negative comments for buyers on amazon?

Anonymous said...

Happy days!!! 1-0 for the ebay sellers!

carfy said...

i like ebay

oguv said...

ebay has lost thousands of sellers

i9 said...

Hate it when buyers dont even try to resolve the issue.