I got an 'informal notice' from eBay basically saying that they reckon I might have "threaten[ed] to use Feedback or detailed seller ratings in an attempt to force a seller into providing:
-- Goods or services that weren't included in the original item's description or purchase price
-- A refund
-- A return"
What had happened was something didn't arrive for WEEKS after the seller had lied about having dispatched the item earlier. It was for a birthday and arrived basically at the zero hour (basically when I said I'd have to request a refund if it didn't turn up) and it meant I had to pay extra postage to send it on to the recipient (I had seen them over xmas, the gift was ordered in time for me to leave it with them in time for their birthday in early Jan).
The seller pleaded "please leave good feedback" to which I replied that, if they refunded my p&p costs, I would be satisfied that they had 'dealt with the problem' enough to leave them good feedback and then never think about it again. That isn't what I call 'extortion' and, relevant or otherwise, no refund ever surfaced and they got a fat red minus from me anyway. The money involved isn't enough for me to care any more.
My point is, I feel a bit like an innocent sea mammal caught in eBay's anti-revenue loss algorithm net. I know it's happened to people on here recently in terms of arranging off-eBay deals, it all seems a bit unjust. I'm actually having a harder time buying on eBay than selling lately, which is contrary to a lot of others' experience from what I read on gear forums.
Comments
I got a pleading message from the seller straight away, a real sob story about he was an established business and he valued his high feedback rating etc, offering me a discount if I agreed to pull the negative feedback and re-submit a more favourable one. Track 2 was the song I was really interested in, so he agreed on the discount I suggested (I think it was about 30-40%).
Im not saying eBay are 100% in the right, they've certainly fucked me over previously but I can't help but think you didn't really help yourself in this instance.
If you were insistent on recouping your postage costs then you could have raised a case with eBay. Being the buyer you would ABSOLUTELY have been the winning party!!!
Oh.
What I should have done was haggled for the discount... and left negative feedback anyway.
Not sure what he meant because he didn't even contact me about it.
As a business seller on eBay, I've only ever had 3 negative feedbacks in over 2500 sales.
2 of those were as a result of items get lost in international post, and one was a buyer who claimed the bits I sold wore out far too soon, yet he failed to respond to my message asking for more details, and highlighting possible causes. He simply left negative feedback and I never heard from him again.
Buyers want two basic things. Honest listings, and items posted when you say they will. Get those two things right, and you'll rarely have any problems as a seller.
Business sellers get access to a fair bit of sales stats, so they know exactly how they're performing, and what they need to do to meet eBay's required standards. I've had the Top Rated status for the past 5 months, having lost it when eBay introduced their new late delivery* stats for a few months.
I've had far more problems as an infrequent buyer, than a seller.
Certainly as a buyer, if the seller can't deliver what they've promised, I'll either not leave feedback, or if they've taken the p***, I'll leave negative/neutral, but hammer them on the feedback metrics, as they have a bigger impact on seller ratings than just negative feedback.
*the late delivery stat only includes feedback where the buyer has marked the item as on time or late, so if the buyer doesn't answer the question, that sale gets excluded from the stats. For me, I had 6 late deliveries over 400+ sales, but because only 140 buyers answered the question, it put me above the 4% threshold for Top-Rated.
They never email me a third time. Funny that.
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I like to think my money goes straight into the pockets of the littler people and often discover small businesses directly from their Ebay Stores and as said am reluctant to give bad feedback unless it's obviously and deliberately a really bad service..
I can understand how feedback is important for small businesses and morally you should give it, if they step up as so many people judge them on it and it's their business, or fuck off and get something from Amazon or your High Street..