Cooldown before replying to negative feedback....Not a good idea according to Ebay!

[berubegirl]

Take a look at our so-called 100% positive feedback and you will notice that it still displays one negative feedback from 14 months ago and our feedback percentage is still 100% however.

Ebay explanation is somewhat ridiculous. About a year ago we had issues with one of our customers and even after many attempts on our part to resolve the issue the customer was adamant that all he would accept was a full refund and he would keep the item. The item purchased had no visible problems and was receive by buyer with no damage whatsoever. So naturally this situation made us here at the store hot under the collar. Ebay ruled in our favor saying item was as described and that buyer must return item to us before refund. Buyer never returned item and left negative feedback.

Therefore we waited around a full month before replying to feedback in order to make sure we stated an accurate and anger free reply to the negative feedback received.

Now Ebay tells us that this negative will remain shown to potential buyers along with our reply until 12 full months have expired since the reply to negative feedback was left,

Really! What a dumb and stupid policy. So in essence ebay is saying that their sellers will be punished whenever they take time to asses a situation and then come with a plan of action.

The morale is that Ebay figures that since they run their online business platform on a any CEO's whim and temper for that day and their sellers should do the same? Simply crazy! We have time added to our punishment simply because we tried our best to act as mature and concerned seller and used time to ponder a situation that was a true conundrum for us at the time.

Gotta luv how ebay is committed to helping their sellers achieve success. With friends like that who needs enemies.

Just plain nuts!

[pierrelebel]

Your reply was: Reply by berubegirl (29-Aug-14 21:44)

So the negative feedback which is not included in the calculation should come off in September.

[berubegirl]

The feedback left by buyer and transaction were in middle of July, prior to July 15th 2014!

Our point is that we get penalized by at least one full month for simply trying to act more mature and intelligently than our buyer.

[cumos55]

Be careful of how you respond to a buyer's negative or neutral feedback.

Potential buyers will look at your feedback profile.

and they will see your response.

What you say... and how you word it ..... gives potential buyers an understanding of your character as a person and as a seller...

My response to the negative would have been...

"Item not returned... Lid not cracked...."

Simple ......and it says the same without any accusatory comments.

[rose-dee]

This may not do you any good now (I'm not sure if it's too late to phone eBay to request it), but I believe that buyer's negative FB should have been removed as soon as you won the case: 

Feedback from a buyer is removed or adjusted automatically in the following situations:

• A buyer is suspended for behaviour we find warrants removing all negative, or neutral Feedback or low DSRs left for sellers. If any member is suspended within 90 days of registration, all Feedback left by that member is removed.

• A case is decided in a seller's favour.

I think if I were in your situation, I'd try contacting CS, point out this policy and show them that the buyer's FB was in fact never removed.  You won't get an apology for all the exposure of that negative FB in the meantime, but at least you might get it removed now (along with, hopefully, any nasty DSRs the buyer left) rather than having to wait another month or two for the 12 months to expire. 

Here's the link to the whole policy, for reference:  http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/feedback-removal.html

(The section on automatic removal is down near the bottom of the page under "Feedback and Detailed Seller Ratings are removed or adjusted through an automated system".  

As we all know, things often don't work the way they should on eBay, or the way eBay says they will. 

[pierrelebel]

"will remain shown to potential buyers along with our reply until 12 full months have expired"

This is what I do not get.  That negative feedback has been there for slightly more than a year.  According to eBay it will come off in two weeks or so.

Why wait until now to complain publicly about it?

[pjcdn2005]

Our point is that we get penalized by at least one full month for simply trying to act more mature and intelligently than our buyer.

Calling your buyer a scammer is acting more maturely?

I am surprised that they wait a year until after comments have been given but it isn't counting against you and will be off soon so if I were you I wouldn't expend any energy on this.

[pjcdn2005]

That link is outdated. It was replace on .com by http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/defect-removal.html

They may still remove a defect if a case was ruled in the sellers favor but it has to be appealed within 120 days.

[mr.elmwood]

Leave professional, business like feedback, or none at all.

Regardless, feedback is rapidly becoming meaningless and eBay is marginalizing it.

100% pos FB for a seller, is as meaningful as 100% for a buyer. Both are not possible.

[rose-dee]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

That link is outdated. It was replace on .com by http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/defect-removal.html

---

Thanks for pointing that out.  I should learn never to look at policy pages on eBay.ca -- they are so often out of date.  Case in point: earlier this week when we all thought the rules around TRS had changed.  

I really wish eBay.ca would just remove outdated policy information or perhaps have nothing on the page but a link to the same policy on .com (I do realize some policies are somewhat different on .com, but at least they seem to keep them fairly current).  

And yes, I expected the OP's time to request removal would be long expired.  Still, eBay may have made a mistake in leaving it visible if the OP really did win the case.  I would still try calling if I were the OP.  Or just wait the month, since 90% of any damage is already done anyway. 

I agree with 'Mr. Elmwood' that the response left by the OP was not calm, factual and professional.  Why would a seller want potential buyers to see such comments?  Better to say nothing at all and let the buyer's outrageous remarks say something about them, rather than the seller. 

[mr.elmwood]

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@rose-dee wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

That link is outdated. It was replace on .com by http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/defect-removal.html

---

Thanks for pointing that out.  I should learn never to look at policy pages on eBay.ca -- they are so often out of date.  Case in point: earlier this week when we all thought the rules around TRS had changed.  

I really wish eBay.ca would just remove outdated policy information or perhaps have nothing on the page but a link to the same policy on .com (I do realize some policies are somewhat different on .com, but at least they seem to keep them fairly current).  

And yes, I expected the OP's time to request removal would be long expired.  Still, eBay may have made a mistake in leaving it visible if the OP really did win the case.  I would still try calling if I were the OP.  Or just wait the month, since 90% of any damage is already done anyway. 

I agree with 'Mr. Elmwood' that the response left by the OP was not calm, factual and professional.  Why would a seller want potential buyers to see such comments?  Better to say nothing at all and let the buyer's outrageous remarks say something about them, rather than the seller. 

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Cooldown before replying to negative feedback....

Better to say nothing at all and let the buyer's outrageous remarks say something about them, rather than the seller. 

[nuvistors]

From the buyers feedback it would appear that the buyer only wanted what he had purchased:  A lid with no crack.

Possibly it was  cracked during shipping or had a fault that the seller was unaware of.