Running a little ebay business for my bosses. Things going well. Power seller and Top Rated Seller, which means a discount in ebay fees.
Our first negative feedback was an inventory mistake. We had one less available than was listed , and when we discovered the mistake after the sale we sent a polite apologetic email , explaining and issued a full refund right away. The customer still chose to leave a negative. Now, IMO, if a mistake is made but is handled promptly, and fairly, negative feedback is uncalled for. In fact I’ve had ebay customers thank me for my attention to customer service and problem solving, one even calling the storte to say he’s run his own business and appreciates that kind of service.
The more recent one pisses me off even more. Customer buys item and we ship right away. recieves it on the 13th. It’s a power amp. On the 15th, Sunday, nobody in the store, he sends a message, “DEAD ON ARRIVAL” and on Monday morning , before I sit down at the computer to check emails he opens a case and leaves negative feedback referring to his purchase as a total scam.
I respond and offer to pay return shipping and give a full refund. So it’s been less than 24 hours since the original email , {which was sent on Sunday} and before I’ve had any reasonable chance to respond he opens a case and leaves negative feedback. Then as I investigate it turns out this person has their own ebay business going , and another online business dealing with electronics, as well as the shipping address being an electronics business iwth a different name.
So, may I say, FUCK YOU jerkwad. You’d think anyone who has run any kind of business would give others a fair shot at making it right before leaping to negative feedback. You’d think anyone would realize that occasionaly things are damaged in shipping, and it being DOA, is not out fault. It was checked here by our tech, just as the add said.
So again, fuck you asswipe. I looked at your feedback and the negative you recieved was because you delayed shipping for ten days and never bothered to communicate with the buyer. You tried to defend that in your response. You are indeed an asshole and I hope a negative feedback will cost you some money the way yours just did for my bosses.
The only positive is that I immediately blocked you as a buyer so I never have to deal with you shitty attitude again.
Okay, so I’m the kind of jerk who gets pissed at inventory errors. Sorry! However, what kind of asswad is angry because his customer service problem wasn’t resolved on Sunday? What percentage of your feedback is this negative commentary, anyway? From the sounds of your OP, you’ve only had 2 negative reviews at all. Assuming you’ve had more than 40 reviews total (which I will assume considering Power Seller and all of that), I say you’re doing all right. Most people just look at your overall positive feedback performance, and if it’s in the mid-to-high 90s, are good to go. For the anal retentive who like to read reviews, the good thing about eBay is they can, and can see seller responses as well. No one who bothers reading reviews is going to be turned away because a complaint wasn’t addressed while the business is closed.
I know this doesn’t make the reviewer any less of a jackass, but hopefully you’ll be less annoyed by it after a breather. I mean seriously, considering the amount of shitheads in the universe, you’re bound to get negative reviews even if you turn water into wine, so two negative reviews…
That second one is a real jerk for sure. I can’t imagine how someone feels right about issuing negative feedback before even giving the seller the chance to make it right.
Although I probably wouldn’t give negative feedback about the inventory error, I can certainly understand why someone would. The customer searched for an item and found that you were offering one. The customer sent the money for the item fully expecting he or she would receive it only to get an email from you saying that your company made an error and they are back to square one finding the item they want. The customer is rightfully disappointed and felt it could have been avoided. I think their feedback is fair.
I agree that the first was obviously our mistake and a judgement call. Personally, I understand mistakes happen and wouldn’t leave a negative if it was handled well, but it is a judgement call. Our overall feedback is very positive and the only real downside is that one negative costs you Top rated seller and you lose the discount on fees that goes with it, which considering our volume , translates into a few hundred dollars . Yes I realize that you can’t sell to the general public without running into a jerk now and again. Life and business goes on. I just wanted to vent.
I’d probably neutral on a “not-in-inventory” issue, as Sleeps said it’s a PITA to find something you want or need, to pay for it then to be told “Sorry, uh, we don’t actually have that. Here’s your money back”
But second dude is an assbasket. Is there no way to appeal a negative rating for a seller?
So you posted an auction for something you didn’t even have, but you were good about fixing it by refunding money? And you think you shouldn’t have gotten negative feedback?
Gosh, as a buyer, it seems like I’d be glad to have a clue that a seller is liable to list things they don’t have and then apologize later, therefore inconveniencing me. I certainly would hope other buyers would care enough to leave negative feedback in that case. But maybe I’m off-base. Having to worry about crap like your business does is perhaps why I don’t ever use eBay.
I dunno, if there’s no repeat history of buyers complaining about the seller never having any invoice in stock, I’m willing to buy that it was a one-off inventory error and that’s why I said I’d err on the side of a neutral rather than a negative.
If the seller’s history was replete with stories of “they had none in stock but…” then I’d be a little less forgiving.
Also, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve never given negative feedback over inventory mistakes, because yeah, mistakes do happen. So long as I’m notified of the error in a timely fashion, I leave it alone, but I get really freaking pissy about it to myself.
Anyway, I say you find that second guy and burn his house down.
The thing is, someone has to be the first to complain about something.
Now, I do think that eBay could allow a certain percentage of negatives before dinging the rating, but there’s a lot of stuff that eBay does wrong, IMO.
As for Impatient Buyer, I think that he’s completely unreasonable.
I’ve worked in retail a long time and everybody occasionally has inventory mistakes. It is a pain when you’re the one that is affected but it doesn’t mean it’s a common occurance. As I said, when issues arise IMHO the difference is how that issue is handled. On an ebay purchase nobody drove anywhere to get something only to find out it was out of stock so the inconvenience is minimal. We’re also willing to do things like offer a discount on a substitute item etc if the communication is amicable. Everyone makes mistakes, but we do what we can to correct it and make up for the inconvenience.
It’s also possible to mention there was a problem that was resolved when leaving positive or neutral
Again, it’s just a judgement call and having been in business I guess I can overlook human error if it’s handled prfessionaly and it’s not a pattern.
Her has his own ebay business so you can imagine what I’ve been thinking about. Probably the venting and blocking him is enough. We can also leave a comment with his negative explained that we handled it quickly and paid for return shipping.
Ebay heavily favors buyers as part of thier business model. Reading the forums you see other estavlished sellers recounting this over and over.
We had one buyer claim we sent him the wrong item, and sent us back his old defective unit. Since we couldn’t prove it we wound up eating it. You can’t even leave negative feedback for buyers anymore. It’s positive or nothing.
It would be great if Ebay allowed 1 negative in every hundred because they know some buyers are quick to rush to negative but it is much more profitable for them to favor the buyers. Hinestly, there are scammers and jackasses among buyers and sellers.
Feedback can be appealed so I may try that.
And I strongly disagree with this policy, I think it’s stupid. Yeah, a lot of sellers were doing the feedback hostage thing. However, I think that this fix of eBay’s was wrong.
But ebay lets you leave feedback on your feedback, right? I’m sure I’ve seen that before. So reply to the first negative saying it was an inventory issue and apologize profusely. For the second, reply apologizing for a delay because it was the weekend.
Most people won’t throw a fit over a power seller having two negatives, especially if they’ve replied nicely with their side of the story.
This is the problem with eBay feedback. It’s expected that a decent seller will be 99+% positive, when the reality is that people make mistakes. The only time a negative is justified is if the seller is trying to defraud the buyer, or is hilariously incompetent.
At best an inventory mistake deserves a neutral rating, you don’t deserve a pat on the back for issuing a refund on a transaction you were unable to complete. Is it only negative if the seller says “sorry, I ran out of inventory, oh and I’m keeping your money”?
Responding to the other side (figuratively) of the question…
I bid and won a used iPod Touch from this guy. I promptly paid on March 25, only to have several days go by with no indication that he has shipped it to me. I had sent a couple of messages in the interim with no response.
Finally, going through Paypal, I get his email address and send him a message directly on March 30. He responds that day that he will ship it out on April 1 (which was a Sunday :dubious:, so I figure he’ll send it the next day.)
An entire week goes by. No iPod, and no indication via eBay that he’s shipped it (e.g. tracking number). I open a case with eBay’s Resolution Center, hoping that they will contact him and spur him along.
Another week goes by. Nothing. eBay asks if I want to escalate this to Customer Service. Yes, I do, figuring at this point, it would be better to get my money back, which I did; eBay refunded it to my Paypal account.
I then left a fairly scathing negative feedback for this dude, who BTW had put up other items for sale in the interim (so there is no way he can claim Death In The Family/In The Hospital/Emergency Trip to Antarctica). The first negative feedback I have left, ever.
So what happens? I get a notification that he shipped the iPod the next day. Three weeks after I paid for it. :smack:
Hey this is great, I was thinking of pitting a seller from Amazon. It was the first time we left negative feedback. My wife bought a new bike, and not only did they send it to the wrong address and we had to go pick it up, but they sent the wrong bike (it was even a men’s bike). She sent them a message and the next day got an email that they had one of the correct one left and she could still get it . . . because they were putting it back up for sale. It was gone by the time she got on the site.
After a week of more back and forth my wife finally said “I just want a bike. How about we will keep the bike you sent us [it cost at least $50 more than we paid] and you keep the money we sent you.” She found it somewhere else for $9 more and now I have a new bike too.
When we left the negative review they sent us a message wanting to know what they did wrong. :smack:
As someone who sold online in the past I totally endorse this^ It happened to me too and I told them I’d be happy to do a full refund or if they would like to wait a few days up to them.
I had a lot of customers who were flat unreasonable and thought I was amazon or something, getting pissed no one answered the phone or email at FOUR AM local time. Customers who wanted a full refund for the trouble AND a free reship of the product because Elbownianistan customs seized their order, you gotta be kidding me!(it was clearly evident in my terms foreign customs was not my problem).
Wanting me to pay the customs fees they were charged by their country!
The customer who was OUTRAGED! :mad: after they were charged five dollars in shipping and handling and their order was shipped priority mail, why for five dollars it should have been overnight you scammer!:smack:
Technically that ius against Ebay policy too, so buyers tend to be more suntle. Few will simply say, I want a partial refund or I will leave negative feedback, but they might say, There is problem X. I will see how we resolve this before I leave feedback. I treat every problem as if it’s legit, because most are, and usually can tell along the way if it’s not. For example , Customer recieves gear and says it’s not working , but they can have it fixed locally. OKay, unusual but not out of the question. When I ask for a number it’s nearly a third of the price. Still okay if it’s legit. Sometimes that happens. So I say that might work, all I need is the number of the repair shop so I can call and verify.
So far, no response but it’s only been a couple of days.