Got my first neg. :( Totally undeserved too.

[kriky]

The woman didn't even contact me, just left neg about a parcel being "two weeks late" which it isn't. She sent a echeck and then it had to be shipped Expedited. It's only been 8 business days.
Anyway, she's a complete newbie. I was her first buy.
I'm going to neg her in hopes of a mutual withdrawal.
In the meantime... how do I respond to the feedback?
I've never figured out how to respond back so that it appears and that prospective buyers can read it? I want to write something like - shipped 10/03 from Canada - kwim? What would you do?

I'm just so sad. I knew i'd get negged, and I was waiting for it, but I am just sooo bummed that it was so darn undeserved.

[coastwindchimes]

Sorry for you kriky~ I still remember how bad the first one was for me. You have to know, though, that you are dealing with lots of people, and a certain small percentage are going to be nuts. You have done very, very well to reach over 600 without a neg.

My advice is to proceed with care. I was so upset I accidentally sent my response through as a positive (!). That made it even worse. Have you already sent an email to her expressing your feelings? Many newbies have no idea how important feedback is to sellers. I'd start with that, see what she says, and then neg her stating the facts. Then let her know you want a mutual withdrawal. Good luck.

[gloriaguides]

You left an excellent response. I suggest you neg her, offer mutual withdrawal and then move on. The first one hurts (alot!) but will have no effect on your sales. Anyone who's been at ebay knows you run into some idiots, and the new ones don't know how to find your negs once they are a page or 2 back. And many of them think 97% positive is good. I've gotten a few negs from newbies--totally undeserved, but what can you do! Good luck, GLoria

[koolkitchens]

Oh that first one is still fresh with me and boy does it burn! The other responses are completely correct. It hurt my sales (or at least I attributed my lack luster sales to it) for a week or two but my past 2 weeks have been better then any entire month since I started selling on Ebay. I was actually thinking of closing up it seemed so bad.

It's definately a blip and will be meaningless eventually. You can try to be nice and get it mutually withdrawn but the others are right. There is a small, very small, %age of nuts out there who won't change no matter what. But for the most part, people are surprisingly fantastic to deal with!

[snoopwiz]

Most importantly, be professional and straight to the facts. Such as....Item shipped with 24 hours of payment clearing, no contact from buyer. Then contact your buyer and gently ask/suggest for a mutual withdrawal.

[zarzuella]

Really, kriky, you should neg her back - if only to warn other sellers.

[cello10]

Occasional negatives don't hurt your business, especially if you're racking up 100 plus positives a month like you've done this month. If your sales went down it's due to simply a slow period, not due to the negative.

Anyone one who plans to sell on ebay for a while shouldn't waste a second worrying about negatives...if you're honest, provide good products and offer top notch customer service, the aim of any professional business person, you'll be just fine. Just be sure to neg her back and reply explaining why she's out of line. Just be mature, sincere and absolutely don't use any insulting words. That'll cancel out the negative in the mind of buyers.

Here's another thing to keep in mind...it doesn't take buyers long to realize that they can't lose on ebay if they use paypal. If the item doesn't turn up or if it's not as it was described they simply file with paypal and they get their money back...sometimes they even get to keep the item anyway. If you've got items people want, occasional negatives mean nothing. So if the buyers out there could care less about your negatives why should you lose any sleep over them?? I know I don't!

[kriky]

A little update: I haven't negged her back yet, I forgot she bought two different items from me and I'm afraid if I neg her, she'll neg me with the other one as retaliation.
She hasn't responded to my polite emails in question about the neg and that the tracking shows she received it the item even before she left the neg (which really burns me!)
I haven't heard back from her at all and I think my reply to the neg will cancel out any doubt in buyer's minds.
I think I'm pretty lucky to have only dealt with a few nutcases, this is the only nutcase that's left negative though.
I love it that she has spelling errors in her feedback, shows she is a nutcase and acts impulsively. 😄 LOL!
Thank you for all the support, I really appreciate it.
Kristy