Neutral Feedback

[faerywishes]

I'm very upset about recent neutral left by a seller/buyer today. The seller and I live in the same town and have at times purchased items through each others stores. A few weeks the seller had several auctions starting at $.01, which I bid on several and maybe winning about 15, not all of which went for $0.01 but I don't think anything went for more than $1.00. I paid for them and picked them up. A few days later I noticed the seller had left feed back. I thought it was strange as this seller normally takes 2-3 weeks sometimes longer. I went to look at it and noticed my DSR's had dropped drastically, I suspected she left low DSR's but thought I have lots of time to get them back up. Shipping Handling Fees went from 4.73 to 4.52 was one I really noticed.

A few days later I checked her site to see if she had any more good auctions and found that as a buyer that picks up her orders I would have to pay the same shipping as anyone else. $2.00 for first item $0.50 for each additional. Unless I spent $25.00 then it would be free. So it was quite clear to me that she didn't want me to buy from her anymore. No big deal.

A couple of weeks later I had checked my feed back as one of my fav buyers left some. DSR's were great at that time. A few hours later they took a big dive again. She was the only one that left feedback. This buyer doesn't just buy a couple of things it's many things so it could drop my DSR's scores. I was puzzled as to why this would happen and I contacted the PS number and asked if it is possible. They stated absolutely it is. Even though it is anonymous you can at times figure out who has done what. I was told that I would have had to receive 1 or 2's for DSR's for this to happen.

So I emailed the buyer and asked if there was a problem. She wouldn't give me a straight answer and to be honest she wasn't as friendly as she had been in the past.

So I felt the only thing I could do was block her which I did. She was very upset. I felt it was best not to purchase from each other and I was sorry she was hurt but my decision was about protecting my account. I also mentioned that me blocking her doesn't effect her business.

Yesterday she opened a claim saying she didn't receive her last order. Having no way to prove that as I just drop her orders off to her. I apologised for her not receiving her order and issued full credit right away.

Today when I came in she had given me 30 neutrals because she felt I blocked her because she didn't give me 5's for DSR's. I emailed and asked why she would do that as my decision never affected her business while her giving me the neutrals definitely will.

She then accused me of outbidding her at other auctions. I have no idea what she is talking about. I bid because I want something not because she bid. Also the bidders are anonymous so how could she tell it was me.

I know Ebay probably won't do anything, but how do I go about disputing this. I have searched in the help but can't find it. All her f/b has nothing to do with the purchases at all. The f/b she left is not true nor does it have anything to do with me blocking her. Some of the transactions were from mid July I never blocked her until the end of July early Aug. I followed through on every transaction. This is going to hurt my business so much.

[lovebuguniverse]

I'm SO sorry to hear about this situation. As you know I am a new seller so I can't give much advice but just to wish you the best and I pray this will get resolved. I'm very disappointed by what she has done to you and I really hope eBay steps in here.

Wishing you well!
Justine

[lovebuguniverse]

Hey Colleen, I just went to look at your feedback and I am extremely disgusted here.

I understand you have been buying from eachother but I wonder if she has been buying from you so she could secretly sabotage you. Maybe you didn't pick up on it before but the whole time she was knocking the DSRs slowly since you are technically a competitor.

I just looked at the DSRs of other seller's she has bought from and their DSRs aren't great at all... I doubt it's a coincidence!

I have blocked her just in case as we use the same supplier.

Sorry you are going through this!

[faerywishes]

Thank you Justine for your support.:-x It means a lot to me. I am just sick over this.

It is clearly retaliation feed back. I never clued in that she might be sabotaging me, but you might be onto something. It is not right that we block a buyer to protect our accounts only then to end up with this type of feed back. I didn't take the time to see what she leaves for others. It made me very uncomfortable when she would analyze my feed back and then tell me what I am spending too much money on.

I'm not sure why she did this but it may very well put me out of business. I am just in the process of ordering templates for my store because I liked yours and Susans so much. I just put in a big order with my wholesaler and was going to put another one next week. I was getting so excited planning out my store for Sept. She does well in her store and in no way am I a threat.

I never feel that Susan and you are competitors. We all can do well in here and support each other. I purchase from many scrap booking buyers especially Canadian Ebayers as my loyalty is with them 1st. I have never felt they were my competitor and feel honoured when they purchase from me.

I just don’t know what I can do about this. But at least you are protected now.

Anyways I appreciate you listening and the support.

Colleen 😞

[lovebuguniverse]

Colleen,

I see a lot of powersellers on eBay with terrible DSRs and 20 negatives in 1 month who are still in business without problem.

As a buyer on eBay as well I always wonder why so I will go through feedback and to me this will make or break it for me:

- Are the negs from 1 person or many
- What does it say (i hate seeing "really slow shipping or didnt have item in stock"
- Did the seller respond to the feedback?

I honestly feel you are going to be ok and I'm glad you are going to have a big restocking and have a new look because it will make more buyers come who will just keep boosting your feedback up.

I 100% agree with your thoughts on how we view eachother. I actually emailed Susan for advice the other day and the response I got was overwhelming! She took the time to really help me and didn't think twice about it.

For some reason, when I would find MBTs items listed and look through her pages and about me, I got chilly vibes and now I know why.

I will also do what I can to help

Justine

[lovebuguniverse]

Oh so in regards to the feedback -> the feedback is from 1 person,what she left is lame - "seller blocked me because I didn't leave 5 star DSRs" (shows she's being personal, not talking about your items or your service), you responded to every single one 🙂

[faerywishes]

Justine
Hi, yep I'm still up trying not to be upset and let this go. I don't understand someone being so mean. I never would have done that to anyone. Even when I suspected what she was doing I wouldn't harm her business. I feel sellers can do that all on their own. Thank you so much for your support. It does really mean a lot and takes some of the bite away. Thanks for the boost about feeling I will be OK. It's amazing how much that has helped.

Susan is wonderful I agree and I believe she would help anyone. And she always does it so nicely and not put the other person down. I think it is so wonderful that we all have each other and you should know I will always help as well. I'm fairly new as well, I have 9 mths as a seller now. I have often sent buyers to some of my fav scrappers when I don't have what they want. My buyers have appreciated that and continue to buy from me as well as the other sellers.

So I will take your advice and keep trying and working hard and see what happens. I am quite excited about the things I have coming and what I still have to order. As well as all my pre-orders. I love doing this as you both do, so I shouldn't let someone like her take it away!

I'm so glad we have these boards. You have really helped me out immensley and I really appreciate your time and you listening and making me feel better!

I'm glad you also understood that I wasn't ever competing with either of you. I just really liked what I saw and thought this was a good time to do this.

Anyways I'm off to bed now, so I can list like crazy tomorrow.

Have a Wonderful Day Justine!:-x

[dagr8_renaud]

faerywishes ,
this is really bad , your DSR and FB are still pretty good after all that , it shows how good of a job you really do, hang in there ..

I know I shouldnt say this , but eBay had it comin, sellers like you and me pay for this, now everytime a 'new customer buys more then one item from me I get worried, maybe we should all buy from each other and screw our DSR anf FB so eBay sees the non sense here... ( of course I am not serious but you get the idea).

Renaud

[eureka9988]

I am certainly disgusted that a fellow EBayer would do this to you. Not very ethical at all. You have my support & you still have a pretty good rating. I would just ignore what has happened & continue on with your good work. Your rating will climb again.
Good Luck to you!
Renee

[recped]

I'm very upset about recent neutral left by a seller/buyer today. The seller and I live in the same town and have at times purchased items through each others stores. A few weeks the seller had several auctions starting at $.01, which I bid on several and maybe winning about 15

It is just me who is confused by your post? I read it that YOU purchased items, if that's the case why are you prattling on about dsr's? Sellers don't/can't leave dsr ratings for buyers.

If you're dsr numbers are wonky it's more likely due to this:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/ca/200808.shtml#2008-08-07160659

[faerywishes]

Thank you so much dagr8_renaud & eureka9988 for your support, it's means a lot to me. Along with Justine's support I will carry on and try to move past this.

recped, sorry I was so upset and I guess I wasn't telling the whole story.

The seller/buyer and I had been for the past 9 months purchasing items from each other. She purchased many more items than I did from her.

Some things she was saying to me made me feel uncomfortable but I thought maybe she was just trying to help. She would go through my feedback all the time and tell me what I needed to do to improve things.

She convinced me to take a lot of my info out of my listings and have bare bones info. Well my sales dropped, luckily an Ebay Consultant was working with me and he suggested I put some of it back in and of course to do other things, well my sales increased a lot with his help. She was basically telling me to do the opposite. She kept telling me I spent too much on my items and I wouldn't be making a very good profit. So eventually I kept telling her Thanks for the info but I seem to be doing well as is and Ebay is helping me.

I hadn't been purchasing things from her for awhile and then last month she had a bunch of auctions for $0.01 for a bunch of very popular selling embellishments. I bid on everything and won about 15. I should say every week when I list my auctions she comes in and bids on everything right away. So that shouldn't have upset her that I did. I paid right away and because she had already won some items from me and was bidding on more I suggested we wait til those were done to exchange. She agreed and thanked me for extending my 7 day rule. When those were done I dropped hers off and and picked up mine.

Ever since then things seemed to change. I had not received 2 items from her so I emailed her she normally answers at the latest that day, I didn't hear from her for a few days and thought she might have been away. Then she said she would credit me.

Then I noticed she left the f/b and my dsr's dropped, I normally don't follow them anymore and if I glance at the stars I can see I'm doing well. But I thought it can't be her that did that cuz I thought we were friends. She wasn't answering my emails like she used to and her tone was different.

Then she left the f/b near the end of the month & as I said above I did notice this time and they dropped drastically again. After talking to Ebay I decided to block her to protect my account.

So after that I guess she decided to get even. She has never admitted that she gave me 1's or 2's but did say in an email that she was upset about my handling fee. When I changed my policy about my handling fee it was because of her. She would bid only $0.99 and I was loosing money from her as I need to recoup Ebay fees and Paypal fees. I had asked her from the start to pay cash and she did up until 1-2 months ago and she started paying by Paypal that is when I changed my policy.

I know she's very upset I blocked her. I explained several times though my decision didn't hurt her business as she has hurt mine by lower dsr's and the neutral f/b.

I really have no idea what she is talking about me bidding higher than her. Most of my bids wer done prior to Friday and those that I bid on Fri & Sat are sellers I have bought from before. The bidders names are anonymous and frankly I have never paid attention to whon is bidding. If I want the item I bid, why would I care who else has bid.

I was wanting to know what could I do through Ebay so they could look into this? I can't call the PS line, I am a Silver PS and I have access only M-F. I will call them tomorrow. I emailed Ebay yesterday and have not heard back yet. Normally I hear back from Ebay in a few hours. So I don't think it is looking good for me.

If this makes things more understandable recped do you know of anything I can do.

I have read that thread but I don't think it pertains to me as the dsr's dropping wasn't in this timeframe.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Colleen

[faerywishes]

Well I have heard back from Ebay and they say they won't do anything because it doesn't meet one of the reasons.

They attached a link 1 of which was this one.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-abuse-withdrawal.html

in that link it says:

Links or scripts.

References to eBay or PayPal investigations

Negative statements that conflict with a positive rating

Personally identifying information about another member, including real name, address, phone number, or e-mail address

Political, religious or social commentary rather than a genuine comment about the transaction

The comment, reply or follow-up references a completely separate transaction or unrelated experience

Does my situation not meet that? Neutrals given because I blocked her. It has nothing to do with these transactions, as she bought them 2-3 weeks before I blocked her and had the items in hand before I blocked her.

Profane, vulgar, obscene, or racist language or adult material

Inflammatory language, such as "fraud, liar, cheater, scam artist, con man" etc., while strongly discouraged, will not be removed.

Even with everyone's support I am going to re-think this. I have invested a lot of money this week for Sept selling and if I can cancel the orders I will close my shop. She won!!

Bye Everyone

[coxengines]

faerywishes,

I genuinely hate to tell you this but, judging alone by what you have posted, you have brought this upon yourself.

"Push" creates "push" and every action will generate a reaction.

She would bid only $0.99 and I was loosing money from her as I need to recoup Ebay fees and Paypal fees.

That is not the buyer's fault. In the absence of her bid, your item would either not have sold or sold for the same amount to someone else.

Again, judging by your post this was a "tit for tat" spat, that you could and should have broken off way earlier.

Not that leaving disparaging FB solves anything and likely sets her up for retaliation but when the 2 of you have finished hurting each other, reflect on where your relationship soured and avoid a like scenario in the future.

B.T.W, your neutrals will no longer affect your FB score at the end of the month.

Good luck!
Xena

[billiegirl200]

faerywishes,

I'm sorry for what you are feeling and going through. We tend to take things personally and get caught up in the emotion of things.

Focus on your own ebay store. Buy your stock, set your own store policies and focus on your own business. Nevermind what's her name and what she is doing or not doing.

We have to have a thick skin in this business and not take things personally, but reflect on what we could have done better, differently, etc. and literally move on.

I've had many people email me about my listings. Some have been very rude and I politely, but firmly tell them to mind their own business and block them. I'm sure almost all of us have dealt with ebayers who could drive you over the edge, but who cares. People who are looking at your feedback will see that 1 person left crap comments and make a decision about whether to buy from you or not. We are so afraid of that neutral or negative feedback. If you are ok with how you have conducted your business, then forget about it and continue with your business.

If you want advice on your listings, or whatever, post on the discussion board, like you are doing, or get any one of the terrific ebay books out there. Or, do your own trial and error. It's a learning process.

Good luck and don't let this get you down anymore. Put this person out of your head and order and list your stuff.

billie

[faerywishes]

Hiya Xena
I understand that it is not the buyers fault about the fees. I had gone to her and asked her what does she do about buyers purchasing items at the break even point? She told me she charges her shipping $2.00 for 1st item and then $0.50 for each additional. That way your fees are covered in the shipping. Being new I accepted her advice.

I have no problem her buying my items at all. I've said to her many times, that they obviously don't sell in my store maybe they will in yours.

I also had a couple of other buyers in town that I delivered to and to help cover the cost of packaging I started to charge $.25 for each item. I have always packaged my items the same way for my drop offs as I do for my mailings.

I asked her advice on that as well as she told me I worry too much about everything. She continued to buy from me for many months. It wasn't until she had her auctions last month that things seemed to go down hill. To be honest I don't really know what happened.

I honestly didn't clue in then that something was wrong and I'm only surmising what may have started this. But I had been billing her the $0.25 per item for months before that.

I just felt it was best we didn't continue to buy from each and part ways. I made sure I took the same care with her orders I always did.

There was no spat that I was aware of until I blocked her. I blocked her weeks after those transactions and weeks after she had her items.

You're right though I should have handled it better. Thinking now I should have just not had any more auctions until her feed back expired or something like that.

It has been a huge shock and I will learn from this. It has been an emotional couple of days and I shouldn't make decisions when I'm upset.

I know the neutral won't harm my feed back score, but when people go and look at the feed back chart they will see 47 neutral with 30 of them this month.

Am I allowed to leave a paragraph in my store asking people to look at my overall feed back?

Anyways I need to go a figure this out what I will do.

Thanks for all the feed back on this.

Colleen

[pierrelebel]

"Am I allowed to leave a paragraph in my store asking people to look at my overall feed back?"

Allowed? Yes

Is it wise? I am not so sure. Why draw attention to your feedback? Most buyers do not care as clearly evidenced by the top 10 sellers on eBay who all have thousands of neutral and negative.

It is time to move on. .

[coxengines]

You know, Colleen, you just need to move on and concentrate on what you do best and don't let one person affect the enthusiasm for your business.

I can see where this went wrong but it certainly does not justify your buyer's behavior. She obviously has some "issues" she is dealing with. People can be funny creatures.

The neutrals will likely not affect your business. If anyone even cares to look, they will see that they are from one person. And, as Pierre recommends, don't draw attention to this little glitch.

Also, don't try to get even. Doing so makes you dwell even longer on this issue.

Put your energy into revitalizing your listings, coming up with fresh ideas and going the extra mile for your buyers and this incident will soon be forgotten and your business will thrive.

Good luck with all your endeavours!

Xena