Help!! Ebay neg. feedback question? (somewhat of a rant)

[wellesleyprincess]

So I've been doing Ebay for just over a year. I recently sold a cd on half.com. I only sell items on half that didn't sell on ebay and I think are a in better condition than to just give away/put in yard sale/etc. SO I always check it very carefully before I list anything. I listed a cd that had only been played twice with no damage as like new. The buyer has now left me negative feedback saying it was severely damaged. I was NEVER contacted prior to this. I would have happily issued a refund had they contacted me and returned the cd. I'm really hurt because this is the only negative feedback I've ever received and I know I didn't deserve it. Also right now it is the one at the top of my feedback list where everyone can see. Is there anything I can do to get this known that I didn't deserve it? I know it sounds silly but I'm worried about my ebay reputation as I know I try to only buy from sellers with 100% feedback. Thanks guys.

 

[vellamint]

I feel your pain.....I had 100% positive feedback and over 150 sales. Then someone wrote that I purposely sent them something broken in the box and it was just not true. This buyer did not pay me for over three weeks after it was due and kept giving me excuses about why she hadnt paid. Finally - I VERY POLITELY stated in an email that I would need to recoup my seller fees and to do that I would have to let Ebay know that she had not paid. She DID pay then but in retaliation she gave me bad feedback. After over 350 sales now and it is the ONLY negative I have but there is nothing I can do about it.

Keep selling to get that negative down your list AND respond to her negative in the area they provide stating that the CD was like new when you sent it and that she did NOT contact you before giving the negative.

 

[momm2four]

I wouldn't worry too much about having one neg. I look for sellers who have 98-99% pos. I figure that every seller will run up against one or two idiots.

My one negative (489 positives) was from a young boy who brought jeans from me and thought they didn't match the description. He wrote to me, but I was on the way back from vacation at the time. I answered him within two days of his complaint, but he had already written the negative. He apologized for doing it so quickly, and I told him that if he sees someone with 100% positives, he might want to give them more than 1 1/2 days to answer his complaint. I did send his money back, but the neg. is still there.

Lori P.

 

[AnninIowa]

Don't let it get you down - it's almost impossible to maintain 100% positive feedback as there is always some jerk out there who will ruin it for you. I had some crazy lady leave me 3 negs early on in my selling; and I actually saw it as a bit of relief as I didn't have to worry about being "perfect" anymore. You can reply to the negative comment - just do so in a professional manner...something like "CD was mailed in like-new condition. Buyer never contacted me to report problem. Would have offered refund."

 

[mking624]

Definitely leave a response to the feedback stating what happened (no communication from buyer, item shipped in condition as described, etc). Not that this is much protection for future auctions, but one thing I do is that I state at least twicee in anything I list that I am not responsible for the package the second it leaves my hands once it ships. Did the buyer purchase any type of shipping insurance?

Have you left feedback for the buyer yet? I'd be very tempted to leave a negative myself after that. If you already did leave feedback, I believe you can leave a response to that feedback as well...I would do so and once again leave a note about the aftermath.

 

[wellesleyprincess]

I replied to the feedback. I also sent the buyer an ebay message basicly stating that I was upset, because by my judgement the item was perfectly fine and had she been disappointed/felt it misadvertised she should have contacted me prior to feedback and we would have worked out a refund/return. I also left her negative feedback. When I looked at her feedback, I noticed her just previous feedback was also negative and she had left the exact same feedback for her directly previous seller. This makes think more and more that this is someone trying to get something or someone who's just plain mean.
And no she did not insure the item and I state in my shipping instructions I am not responsible for damage that occurs in the mail.

ETA: The buyer responded to my message that there was no need for them to have acknowledged a problem before leaving feedback, that I was a liar and an unexperienced (I have almost 90 positive feedbacks before this). I know I shouldn't take this personally but I've always taken extra care on ebay so things like that hurt. It annoys me because it's people like this that make others not trust feedback, as it's hard to know when negative feedback was rightfully deserved. Oh well, it's over, it's done and I've blocked the person from buying/bidding on me again. (I don't want to deal with them). Thanks guys for your kind responses and being a listening board. Any more advice would be greatfully appreciated.

 

[cats mom]

It sounds like you've done everything right.
The only other advice I have is to just let it go and not even worry about it.
Easier said than done I know, but that one lousy neg won't hurt you much, if at all.

I've never quite understood folks who ONLY bid if the seller has 100% positive feedback. There are some really great e-bayers out there who have been slammed with questionable or retaliatory negs. Certainly does not stop me from dealing with them. Now if someone gets really nasty in their feedback or responses I steer clear, but otherwise a neg here or there among many positives is certainly not a deal breaker.

BTW, my one neg was pretty lame too!

 

[Imzadi]

I feel your pain. I have 3 negs and all were from Non-paying bidders. Luckily for me, each one of them had MANY negs stating the same thing, so in my response under their negs to me, I was able to state (very unemotionally - which is important in feedback,) that "they already had 5 Non-paying bidder feedbacks, need say more?"

Check your buyer's other feedbacks. They may have a pattern of scamming people. You can then list it in your response.

And don't worry about the neg. I was devastated too when I got my first one & it was undeserved. But I still found people with higher pos feedback than me still bid & bought from me! They can read & tell when something was not right about the neg feedback.

 

[terri01p]

Don't worry about it 98% of people know how crazy other people are, my sister got negative feedback because the dude didn't like the movie that was sent, my GOD what does that have to do with anything, if you pay for tomb raider and you get it , if you like it or not doesn't have anything to do with the seller. Idiots , I always look at feedback and won't buy if people say slow shipping, did not come ,or things of that nature.

 

[my3kids]

Don't worry about. Make sure you put your explantion in clear calm words as a reply to the negative. When people read it they can see the situation. Eventually it moves from the top spot and gets burried on the second page.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Sorry that happened to you. It just seems like the longer you sell, you will eventually come up against someone like this. I read the feedback and responses. If it's an item I really like, I'll read the feedback on the people that left negatives too. Often times it's the people that have a really low percentage that leave negatives. That tells you a lot right there.

Sometimes it makes you wonder if the people with low a feedback score just want to bring down others (mean or for fun?).

It would bother me too. But you did everything you can. Don't worry about it. It shouldn't effect your sales.

 

[disneysnowflake]

That's too bad when buyers do that.

I have one negative. It was several years back. A lady won hundreds of auctions, didn't pay, and left negatives for as many as she could before ebay listed her as no longer registered.

I have a 99.9% because of that negative. You'll find it way far back on my feedback list. You'd think ebay would take off negative feedback from non-registered users, but they don't.

Back in the 90s if you had positive feedback from a buyer and that person became a non-registered user ebay would automatically change the positive feedback to neutral. I have 2 neutrals that used to be positives, too.