My little rant about undeserved negatives...

bulletproofsoul

bulletproofsoul

Always on the hunt
O.G.
Jan 18, 2007
4,692
43
#1
I just wanted to vent my frustrations somewhere about the fact that negative feedback can be left and is permanent, even if you aren't at fault. I have worked very hard for the feedback I've received and am both a buyer and seller, so I've been on both sides of the fence, so to speak. My particular source of fury at this moment is the fact that I was left with a negative from a buyer which read "Item is damaged. Not as described" or something to that effect. This is incredibly maddening because I went through a lot of trouble to try to get pictures of the item in outdoor light so that the flaws showed up better and I listed each and every single flaw that bag had right in the description. It is a bag from several seasons ago that seems to be pretty popular (as it is widely faked, and the actual authentic ones are hard to come by) and the bag sold for retail at $200.00. I started the listing at $9.99 because of the damage. Now, because this person did not take the time to read the description, nor did she even bother to contact me upon receipt of the bag. My only contact with this buyer was the big fat negative she left. I know there is nothing I can do but to suck it up and accept it, I just wanted to vent somewhere. I am a very careful seller and it just burns me up that this is going to hurt my record. :hysteric:
 
#2
Sorry that happened to you. I don't understand why the buyer wouldn't at least contact you first to try and work something out.
Is the buyer new to ebay?
Maybe you can contact her and ask her to remove it, maybe a partial refund or something? If that fails then just neg her back and add ''failed to read description".
Don't forget to leave your comments underneath her negative.
Keep us posted.
 
#3
did you leave her feedback first? NEVER leave feedback for your buyers or sellers until they leave it for you.

In rare cases feedback can be mutually removed thru the proper channels with ebay.
 
#4
Thanks for being my sounding board, ladies. I really appreciate it. The buyer wasn't new but didn't have a lot of experience (I think 13 total feedbacks). I did send her a message to ask her why she didn't contact me before leaving a feedback like that and didn't get a response. So, no, I did not leave a feedback first. She paid, I sent the item (well packed, I might add) and the only contact I got whatsoever was that glaring negative. I did note underneath that the flaws were clearly stated in the auction and the buyer obviously did not read it. (These flaws were also pictured, but I think my description was much harsher even than the pictures!) There should have been no misunderstanding. I did leave her a negative, but not purely for retaliatory reasons. She deserved it for leaving one for me when clearly she got exactly what I described, and also for not even bothering to contact me before leaving the negative, which is just standard ebay etiquette. Again, I started the bidding very low ($9.99) because of the flaws. I don't believe she would have been entitled to a refund anyway because the item was exactly as stated. But in any case I have received no contact from this buyer either before the transaction or after I asked why she left such a feedback and letting her know that I did not deserve it and asked it to be removed. I think it's kind of obvious she knows that she should have read the description and she should have looked at the pictures, all of which were clearly visible and not linked. :sad:
 
#5
Sorry this happened to you. Some buyers just don't read or they think that they bid too much when they receive the item. Pull her contact information and try calling her, if there is no answer or you notice her contact information is inaccurate, such as wrong zip code, you can contact ebay and request that the feedback be removed because the buyer has invalid contact info. That's the only way of getting the neg removed by ebay as far as I know.

You can also do a mutual withdraw with the buyer. Otherwise, leave a factual and calm response to her neg and wear your red badge with pride. You can't satisfy everyone all the time
 
#6
I feel ya! I got a neutral from someone who felt they paid too much and basically acused me of having my friends bid up the auction. I invited them to report me to eBay to have eBay review the auction. I left them a negative for being so rude!

I recently got my FIRST ever negative from an unexperienced eBayer who was upset she had to pay customs fees. She tried to extort her customs fees from me by threatening a negative. I tried to reason with her and explain that customs fees are levied by the country of the person receiving the item, but she didn't care and left me the negative anyway.:cursing:
 
#8
Oh dear!! It gets WORSE! This person has now contacted me and stated this:

"Well, the photos were not as clear as when I got the purse. It was in far worse repair and bad shape. I am sending it back to you. I had no way of reaching you otherwise and was not intending to impede further business I was astonished at the poor condition the purse was in. I am sorry if you were offended, but I overpaid for what the condition was, and I will be returning it tomorrow. I am requesting a credit from you otherwise, I will dispute it on my credit card. Thank you and good luck in the future."

I didn't just list photos. I VERY CLEARLY stated all flaws in the description! Can she do this? She never even tried to contact me. How very, very maddening! Anyone here got any advice to try to deal with this mess? She didn't read, she bid, she left me a negative and now she's going to dispute it? I'm sorry, but I've never encountered such conduct.
 
#9
I would call PayPal and see if this person even has a leg to stand on. If the description in your auction was painstakingly detailed then I would say she will lose with PayPal.
 
#10
ugh. I'm so mad that I'm shaking! Can I put the link here? I wouldn't mind getting your opinions. I think I'll definitely call paypal, but if she disputes with her cc and not directly with paypal am I guaranteed to lose? I find that awful, if that's the case.
 
#11
bulletproofsoul said:
ugh. I'm so mad that I'm shaking! Can I put the link here? I wouldn't mind getting your opinions. I think I'll definitely call paypal, but if she disputes with her cc and not directly with paypal am I guaranteed to lose? I find that awful, if that's the case.
Click to expand...

No I don't think you are guaranteed to lose. Not if you can prove that the wallet is in the condition you stated in the auction.
 
#12
bulletproofsoul said:
Oh dear!! It gets WORSE! This person has now contacted me and stated this:

"Well, the photos were not as clear as when I got the purse. It was in far worse repair and bad shape. I am sending it back to you. I had no way of reaching you otherwise and was not intending to impede further business I was astonished at the poor condition the purse was in. I am sorry if you were offended, but I overpaid for what the condition was, and I will be returning it tomorrow. I am requesting a credit from you otherwise, I will dispute it on my credit card. Thank you and good luck in the future."

I didn't just list photos. I VERY CLEARLY stated all flaws in the description! Can she do this? She never even tried to contact me. How very, very maddening! Anyone here got any advice to try to deal with this mess? She didn't read, she bid, she left me a negative and now she's going to dispute it? I'm sorry, but I've never encountered such conduct.
Click to expand...

OMG a real nightmare buyer by the sound of things, horrible. I hate aggressive people who will do a bad deed before they try to sort things out. My best advice to you is to offer her a refund if she will withdraw the feedback & complete a mutual agreement form to cancel the auction so you get your fees back. People like this are not worth fighting with & you are really better to get rid of her & try to get the feedback rating withdrawn.
If you proceed to paypal you will have the money tied up for ages anyway while they investigate & they may not come down on your side, they can be very unfair, a buyer once did a chargeback on me they had received the goods but said it was fraudulent use of credit card, they took the money from me so I lost goods & money, I would never trust them to be fair, so get your bag back & you can resell but tell her you will not refund until she withdraws the feedback! Good luck!
 
#13
Sounds like she will be returning the bag to you, but let her make a claim and if paypal sides with her then at least you have your item back already.
Sounds like a case of buyers remorse to me.

You can post the link and we can take a look.
 
#14
Nightmare auction here

Honestly, I've had some tough transactions, but nothing like this. It's funny because when I was listing it, my bf was watching over my shoulder (and that's always fun! :P), and kind of laughed at the description and said "geez, aren't you supposed to make people WANT it?"! Oh man. I never expected this, but I guess when you deal with people on ebay, you should be prepared for anything. :yucky:
 
#15
I've also contacted paypal with the situation to maybe get a feel for what to expect, but they are generally a nightmare to deal with and I'm not expecting much there. Depending on what (if) I hear back from them within the next day or 2, then I may end up just doing what Roz says and offering a refund if she removes that negative feedback, but I kind of feel like that would be compromising my beliefs here. I, on a handful of occasions, have not thoroughly read auctions and after some intial surprise upon receiving the item, always go back and re-read the full item description and payment/shipping details. Once, it turned out I didn't notice some minor mention of a flaw and you know what? It was all my own fault. I would never do this to someone when it was my own mistake to begin with. My conscience wouldn't allow it. :sad:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Back