Accidental negative

[trikiliki]

Hi,

I just received what appears to be an accidental negative. The comment is "fast delivery and good quality". The buyer does not seem to have left any negatives or neutrals for anyone else throughout their buying history and their usual feedback comments are either  "good quality" or "fast delivery", so I am of the impression mine was meant to be doubly positive in perspective 😉 

I have sent a message to the buyer indicating that it seems they have accidentally left me a negative feedback and if it was in fact a mistake, would they please consider contacting Ebay to have it changed, as it will have a negative impact on my selling account.

That being said, in the event the person is not inclined to go through the hassle of contacting Ebay and/or does not respond to my message, what should I do?

I don't want to be a pest by messaging them again to see if they will accept a feedback revision request from me now that I have already messaged asking them to contact Ebay. I didn't initially ask if they would accept a feedback revision request because I was hesitant to waste one of the precious few I have on an accidental feedback, instead prefering to save it in the event I encounter a disgruntled buyer at any point down the road.

(I won't begin to rant about not having a fair opportunity to resolve issues with any/all sales transactions we are involved in. In my humble opinion, we should be able to request a feedback revision at any given time if the situation arises and be able to come to a mutually satisfying outcome for both parties).

Anyhow, If the buyer does not go ahead and take care of it or even respond to me, would calling Ebay myself be a waste of time in trying to get this removed? What about the report buyer button?

Obvious accidental feedback really sucks and there should be some sort of protection in place. It happened to me once before with a buyer doing their feedback on a mobile device and somehow not even realizing they had done it, but they were more than willing to help me get it reversed.

If a buyer receives a false positve, Ebay will remove it no questions asked. So I think it would only be fair that if a seller receives a false negative, accidental or not it should also be removed.

So, is there anything I can or should do here?

[pjcdn2005]

Have you gotten one reversed before without using the revision request?  As far as I know,  ebay always suggets that  the buyer is sent a revision request. I don't know your situation or if you have to use a lot of revision requests but I would have first contacted the buyer to ask if it was a mistake and if I could sent them the request.

I probably would not ask a buyer to spend the time to contact ebay to change something that would benefit just me, even if the mistake wasn't made by he buyer.

As far as what to do now...wait to hear back from the buyer and if they haven't already contacted ebay and if they are willing to change the feedback, send them a revision request.

[pierrelebel]

"So, is there anything I can or should do here?"

There are two possibilities:

1) the buyer made a mistake

2) the buyer meant to leave negative feedback (for whatever reason) but without the negative comment.

I suggest you give the buyer at least a week to reply to your message.

If no reply is received a week from now - or a positive reply is received in the meantime - I suggest you send the buyer a Request for Feeedback Revision:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/feedback/revision-request.html 

Good Luck.

[trikiliki]

Yes, after I sent my message to them, I was thinking I probably should have just asked to send them a revision request instead of asking them to contact Ebay. It probably would be less of an inconvenience and quicker that way.

And typically, no I have not had to use a lot of revision requests.. we don't get a lot of them to use in the first place. I usually have the opportunity to solve an issue before it gets to the feedback point. I have never received a negative from someone that has contacted me first about a problem, but have had to use a revision request on a couple of rare occasions when I have not heard from a buyer first. I just feel uncomfortable with the idea of having a hasty, unhappy buyer leave me a negative without even contacting me first and not being able to do anything about it if I haven't got any available feedback requests left. I hoard them like I do my vacation days so I can use them for something really good  😛

I guess I was also hesitant to use one in a situation where I didn't actually earn myself the negative.  

If I seem a bit paranoid, let me better explain my concerns. I sell clothing, more specifically bikinis. Not a complaint, just being factual, but my main buyer demographic (while I rely on and appreciate thier business) is relatively young, and sometimes tends to be impulsive, quick to pull the trigger on an item without reading the specs, quick to lay blame when an item doesn't fit right, impatient, and not very understanding of international shipping timeframes or customs delays.  I don't like being at the mercy of all that without knowing I have a means of coming out unscathed after appeasing my customer.  

On top of that, due to the intimate nature of what I sell I indicate no returns (yes, I know there is no such thing and have accepted returns, but I try to discourage it as an option) as I certainly can not re-sell a tried on/worn item, neither am I wishing to handle the item after it has been used, as with any brick and mortar store. So it puts me a little more at risk of getting a negative from someone that sees "no returns" and thinks there is no point in communicating with me, (in spite of including a section in every listing urging them to do so in the event of a problem).  

[trikiliki]

I had one instance where a buyer sent me and 5 other sellers the same negative feedback "shorts were ripped, horrible seller". I did not sell this person shorts. Some of the feedback was spread out over several months, 1 other seller received theirs on the same day I did.

I contacted the buyer asking what was the reason they left this feedback for me and so many other people but got no response. I contacted the other sellers and told them that a bunch of us had received the same malicious feedback and that we need to all report it to get it removed. I had very positive responses from all of them, thanking me and vowing to contact Ebay. I called Ebay myself and  explained the problem. The customer service rep was sympathetic, but said they couldn't do anything unless they had more complaints filed. I had updates from the other sellers that they also reported it and eventually about a week later, all the feedback this person left was removed. None of us had to send a revision request.

After all was said and done, I received a reply from the buyer to say that they had left the feedback on their mobile device and didnt realize it had duplicated an earlier negative feedback left for the person they had actually bought shorts from, and that they were sorry.

[pocomocomputing]

trikiliki, Congratulations on reaching the 1,000 feedback mark today. A lot of hard work to get there.

PS Hopefully the recent neg is revised to positive soon.

[trikiliki]

Awww Thank you!!

[trikiliki]

I took the advice given here and sent the buyer one short sweet note on the 12th asking if it would be ok if I sent them a feedback revision request. They had not replied to the first message I sent. Today, I got a message back saying "yes, no probleme".

So I sent the request and will cross my fingers that they change it.