My first neg feedback! Arghhhh!

[mapleleaf-collectibles]

After more than a decade and 1200+ Positive feedback, I have received my first negative! Over a $5.00cd! The dude is so unreasonable I am not even making a attempt to reconcile the situation! I would have gladly refunded all of his money to avoid it, but have decided to take a stand and accept the negative feedback and not cower and suck up to this POS to get it erased. This is what Ebay has come to, being held hostage and extorted by ignorant buyers looking for a freebie  just by threatening to leave negative feedback. This is why Ebay sucks. I have sold over $2000 in the last 3 months on a auction Facebook page, with no fees, and no extortion by buyers, with out any problems. This has certainly changed the way I feel about selling on Ebay in the future, and even though I have had a lot of success over the years, every time I mail something I have to prepare to get screwed by the multitude of **bleep**py buyers who can extort sellers with the ebay feedback system. Maybe I should just be a buyer from now on, so I can take advantage of the feedback system and get stuff for free. 

[momcqueen]

Are there any grounds under which you can appeal to Customer Service to have it removed? 

Like, were you extorted in any way? Or...?  Did he say at any point, 'Gimme my money back or I'll leave you a neg!' http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/feedback-removal.html

I totally feel your pain. When I had a buyer leave me negative without warning because he didn't feel the product met his expectations (because he bought something that was only vaguely related to what he actually wanted) I hit the roof. Also, I had a big fight with the CSR after that because they couldn't be bothered to take the time* to even read the feedback comment in context to my item description to see what I was talking about.

As annoying as it may be, if you contact the buyer now it may still be possible that that he will say something which could make the feedback removal easier for you. Or that might be merely wishful thinking on my part for you. 

Good luck. 

*It's also possible that limitations on available call centre equipment don't let them investigate further. I once heard that from them as well.

[pierrelebel]

"if you contact the buyer now"

I would wait at least a week.

Looking at the feedback comment, it appears the buyer is unhappy because he has NOT received the item he purchased and no tracking was provided (Americans get cheap tracking, we do not) confirming it had been mailed.

A week from now, you may contact him to confirm that the CD did in fact arrive.  Once you get confirmation that the CD was received, then you can contact the buyer again, explain Canada Post does not provide tracking for such service and ask to please remove the negative feedback through:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/feedback/questions/remove.html

Good Luck.

[momcqueen]

Also good advice, pierre. Let things cool for now. 

[mapleleaf-collectibles]

He has received the item,  he told me he did. But it took too long for his liking to receive, so he said 2 songs on the cd had "rot"? I never heard of CD rot before, but I guess its possible? I mailed the item 48 hours after I got paid. I could suck up to the guy and beg his forgiveness and refund all his money and go to church and confess my sins, and maybe he will retract it if I beg? I am no longer going to do that, giving something away for free to avoid negatives.  I think I will just take the negative instead of bowing down to this guy, I have had a thousand sales with no negatives, so one out of a thousand is not so bad.  I'll put on my big boy undies and just move on, because that's what I do.

[momcqueen · Accepted solution]

I think you should be able to appeal it under the grounds he admit he had possession of the item in a message to you but claimed otherwise in the feedback, no? 

Like to Customer Service first. You could try that before you ask him for a revision which I would not at this point do just yet. Like Pierre says.

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

Y'know those creepy greeters that say hello at the door of WalMart?

They are not there to make you feel welcome, they are there to subliminally tell potential shoplifters they are being observed.

Every retailer gets shoplifters. Yours is just a little more personal and rude.

If he had told you he had not received the CD, there is a pretty good chance that a good seller like you would have refunded without questioning. (Perhaps asking politely that the refund be returned using PP's Send Money service when it did arrive.)

You can leave a Response to any feedback indefinitely.

Like FB, the most effective Responses are calm and factual.

CD sent 10/8/16 Confirmed arrival 20/8/16 disliked music.  for example

But wait.

Actually if you can wait until you have another 20 odd FB, both the neg and any response will be on Page 2, further than most buyers would look.

Ah well, at least eBay no longer looks at FB and DSRs for our accounts.

looking for a freebie  just by threatening to leave negative feedback.

As others have said, this could be grounds for removal if it was this blatant.

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

I can't tell you how many things are wrong with the Response you did leave.

[mapleleaf-collectibles · Accepted solution]

I could not care less, it changes nothing.

[momcqueen · Accepted solution]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

I can't tell you how many things are wrong with the Response you did leave.

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Well... yes. Now that you mention it, calling ebay Customer Service will bring that to their attention as well. And not in a good way for the Original Poster.

[mapleleaf-collectibles · Accepted solution]

Like Really nice stamps said, in a few weeks the feedback will be buried behind all the positive feedback I get.  No problem, I am done worrying about one negative. I doubt it will affect my sales in anyway, since I don't sell much on Ebay anymore anyway.  Luckily for me I have a  real job I go to everyday and ebay is just my play thing for extra fun money.

[i.am.vivian · Accepted solution]

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@mapleleaf-collectibles wrote:

After more than a decade and 1200+ Positive feedback, I have received my first negative! Over a $5.00cd! The dude is so unreasonable I am not even making a attempt to reconcile the situation! I would have gladly refunded all of his money to avoid it, but have decided to take a stand and accept the negative feedback and not cower and suck up to this POS to get it erased. This is what Ebay has come to, being held hostage and extorted by ignorant buyers looking for a freebie  just by threatening to leave negative feedback. 

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Feedback no longer counts against a seller so even though you think getting that negative is terribly insulting it won't hurt your selling record and should have no impact on future sales.  Whether or not your response deters future sales is something else again.  

Is there any truth in that FB? That buyer rarely leaves anything other than positive so it is not likely they are trying to scam a freebie out of you.  It is more likely another impatient American.  They get fast shipping tracked and don't always understand that things are different in other countries.  

Reading your response and also your posts here, are you absolutely sure that FB has nothing to do with your performance as a seller and did you really treat the customer with all the professionalism that is expected of a first rate seller?  If you are still bothered by that FB take a few days to chill and then calmly ask the buyer what will make them happy.  You say you are sorry things went badly but that the whole neg thing does not help either of you.  CALMY and POLITELY ask the buyer what will make them happy because you think you would both be better off if it was changed to positive.  You say, "I'd like that off my record, wouldn't you?"

If, on the other hand, you are 'too good' to work with a disagreeable buyer then a CS call is your only hope but they might also ask you if you tried to work with your buyer.  

[mapleleaf-collectibles · Accepted solution]

I think I will do nothing. The only reason  I  list on ebay is because  all  of  my  listings are free . I would rather  just forget  about  it, and work  on selling on Facebook,

[momcqueen · Accepted solution]

Er, we're not allowed to promote off-ebay selling on ebay Discussion Boards.

I see your point but the moderators will be around to edit your comments as I'm quite sure they do contravene the usage policy. It's not personal, it's the rules. 

[mapleleaf-collectibles · Accepted solution]

I will  take  my chances. I am not promoting anything, just a simple statement  that there a hundreds of other  selling venues available  now, not like 10 years ago when Ebay ruled all, and if you  look  around lots have zero fees except for the PayPal fee. Ebay is great for buyers, but the feedback system holds sellers hostage, and always  has.  

[momcqueen · Accepted solution]

Er, marking your own answers as Solutions to your own questions is the same thing as liking your own photos and status updates on Facebook.

[mapleleaf-collectibles · Accepted solution]

I came up with  my  own  solution, and I  liked it. Problem solved . 

[momcqueen]

I'm pleased to see you have still maintained your sense of humour throughout this trying day. Now, everyone is a winner! Good show. 

[i.am.vivian]

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@mapleleaf-collectibles wrote:

I came up with  my  own  solution, and I  liked it. Problem solved . 

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LOL!!  That's the spirit!    🙂 

[mapleleaf-collectibles]

After selling on here for 13 years, I have been preparing for this for a long time. Just the odds of not getting a negative out of over 1000 sales is amazing in itself, since I never used tracking when shipping ever, unless the item was more than 50 bucks. Most sellers probably don't get over 1000 feedback (well, maybe Pierre) without one negative , I have been fortunate and lucky to get away with it for so long!