eBay

rivingston41 · ‎07-07-2020

I had a recent transaction in which I had to cancel the sale and fully refund the item. The buyer leaves me negative feedback. Why would this even be allowed by ebay in the first place? The item was not available and buyer was informed, fully refunded. He then goes about disgruntled and ebay allows negative feedback for this situation.

Whether it is human error or on ebay's inventory database, i a sale is cancelled and fully refunded, why allow this? Make no sense ebay. Tell me your justification for this to be allowed.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-07-2020

Buying or winning an item and then having it cancelled is one of the major complaints by buyers on ebay. Although they have been refunded, it isn't a positive transaction because they took time to find the item they wanted and the seller can't or won't send it. There are also cases where the seller starts an auction too slow and refuses to send the item to the highest bidder because they want more money. That also deserves a negative in some people's eyes.

eBay also penalizes sellers who cancel a transaction because the item is out of stock or damaged by giving them a defect. More than 2 defects can result in a suspension from selling.

Calling a buyer an idiot in feedback only hurts you. Keep in mind that future buyers are the ones that are looking at your feedback. How you deal with problems is an important consideration when choosing who to buy from.

In what why did ebay have the item listed 'incorrectly'?

zee-chan · ‎07-08-2020

Agreed with pjcdn. You as the seller is the one who made an error by listing an item that is unavailable. Let's say you're the buyer, you ordered something from online retailer A. You ordered and then paid, just to be told 2 days later that your order is being cancelled and you will receive a refund. Would you be happy about that? If the online retailer A has the option to leave feedback, would you also want to leave a negative feedback? Perhaps you could've bought it from online retailer B for $5 more but you picked online retailer A since it was cheaper, and now B is sold out too...

So yes, I think it's reasonable for buyers to leave a negative feedback for an order cancelled for out-of-stock.

snoopwiz · ‎07-08-2020

From my experiences, I have found how you handle the out of stock situation with your buyer, how you word your message(s), how/if you show empathy, how you do or don't offer alternatives, how you make or don't make an effort to source another one for then, even if you end up out of pocket will have a direct effect on any feedback left or not left.

zee-chan · ‎07-08-2020

@snoopwiz wrote:
From my experiences, I have found how you handle the out of stock situation with your buyer, how you word your message(s), how/if you show empathy, how you do or don't offer alternatives, how you make or don't make an effort to source another one for then, even if you end up out of pocket will have a direct effect on any feedback left or not left.

Agreed. I have had to cancel a few sales over the years for out-of-stock too (sold elsewhere, forgot to update eBay listings, relisted in error etc), and I always offer to the buyer alternatives to make it up for my error (ex. they bought something for $20, I offer to let them pick anything available that's $25 or under as replacement) or a full refund. I think half of them picked the replacement and half picked full refund, and they either didn't leave feedback or still left me a 5 stars positive feedback. It really depends on your communication and customer service skills. A couple of them bought from me again afterwards. I definitely wouldn't call my buyers idiots.

valuestore · ‎07-18-2020

I think it should depend on the reason for cancel, there are several scenarios besides 'out of stock' .. not sure they can post nfb for those other reason, least it hasn't happened to me yet.. knock on wood.

1) buyer provides an unprintable mailing address (this does happen fair amount especially with new buyers)

2) address has an unsafe history, repeat inr cases..

2) buyer requested cancel, they changed their mind or 100 other possible reasons, maybe they decided they would rather buy a starbucks frapachino .

Non of those should be nfb for the seller, your right..

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-18-2020

The problem is that the seller can use any of those reasons whether or not they are true. Generally if a buyer has asked to cancel a transaction through no fault of the seller, they aren't going to leave negative feedback anyway.

needsmorerobots · ‎07-20-2020

Everyone else has covered this topic quite nicely.

Customer is always number one.

I look at a seller's rating before I buy but I look at their negatives first. Negative reviews can be a good indicator at times of what service I may receive. But do you know what can be relied upon more than a negative, it's the seller's responses to these negative reviews. Consider that in future.