eBay

zetorg · ‎02-28-2013

Hi,

I just received a negative feedback + a few neutral. From a buyer who won multiple auctions. He claims condition of comics he bought is lower than advertised.

Looks like he received it, wasn't happy so left negative feedback. Felt happy again.

How should I deal with this?

I'm a small seller. Just selling my comics because I don't have room to keep them in my apartment. This screwed my rating a lot.

I try to be very professional with everything, from grading, through answering questions, making and sending additional photos, secure packaging, shipping, to customer service. I thought I rated all my comics lower than their real condition (to avoid this kind of situations). Other buyers seem to be pretty happy with what they get from me.

This buyer never contacted me. Never gave me a chance to make it right.

What should I do? Message him? Refund? If I refund I want my books back. I'm not sure what to do. Can I somehow get this negative feedback changed?

PS. I posted this on Sellers Central Board but I meant to post it here. So I'm re-posting. Hopefully someone can give me some tips. Thanks.

pierrelebel · ‎02-28-2013

"Can I somehow get this negative feedback changed? "

Looking at the feedback left by the buyer, there is no obvious violation of policy that would allow eBay to remove the comment. So the only way to have the negative feedback removed is to have the buyer agree to have it removed.

First, you should communicate with the buyer and inquire why negative feedback was left (I suggest you ignore the neutral for now). The buyer has a long history at eBay and always leaves positive feedback. Something must have triggered that reaction.

Do not offer a refund but ask the buyer if there is anything you can do to make him happy.

See how it goes from there.

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

Good Luck

ricarmic · ‎02-28-2013

Unfortunately in any "grading" kind of world, different people have different definitions....so situations like this will happen. I am in a different type of collectible (Stamps, same one as Pierre) and as he says this fellow hasn't given negatives before so it isn't a habit. I sell "dangerous" material too and fortunately while it happens relatively rarely, I do have similar problems. I have some canned responses that I use to try to convert the negative/neutral to a positive. Here is the text of one. Feel free to use whatever works for you....

Hi! I see from the neutral feedback you left me that you were not happy with the Latin American stamps. I am sorry to hear that they were disappointing. You do have options to resolve this, if you return them intact you can receive a full refund, or a partial refund is another option as well. If you would prefer to go the partial refund route, I would look for your help to identify the appropriate refund amount given the issues you've identified. It is unfortunate that the first news I have of any problems is a neutral rating, which is damaging to my reputation, before I've had a chance to know about it or to try to work with you to resolve it! I hope that once this is resolved you will consider revising your rating. Let me know how you would like to approach resolving this and have a great weekend!!

I have used this or a similar style response to both reduce the frustration level of the buyer and sometimes can get them to revise the feedback.

Depending on the buyers response (including how fair I thought their version of refund amount was), I may block them from future purchases after the feedback is (not)revised. Normally I do block anyone who neutrals or negs, but the odd time they do come around, I do have some longstanding customers that were "converted".

Good luck with the conversion attempt, if it doesn't work, don't sweat it - make sure you respond in a professional way to the neutrals and negative feedbacks (ie reply to them once you are not upset anymore) and move on - lots of buyers read almost nothing of the listing or feedback etc......

zetorg · ‎02-28-2013

Thanks. I sent a short message informing the buyer that I was sorry for his disappointment and that I'd like to make it right. Waiting for response.

zetorg · ‎03-08-2013

Hi again.

The seller never replied to my apologies and promise that I'd try to make him happy.

I don't agree with his opinion about condition of comics he got from me. I definitely want to make a comment on negative feedback he left for me. Should I also leave a negative feedback for him? It's not that I want to retaliate but his behaviour feels wrong. What would you do?

zetorg · ‎03-08-2013

Sorry. The buyer.

westernstargifts · ‎03-08-2013

This sometimes happens with buyers. Even though you try to make things right they will not always cooperate with you. You just have to move on.

Sellers cannot leave negative feedback for buyers. eBay stopped allowing us to do so several years ago. If you leave a comment wait until you are calm and leave something to the effect that you tried to work things out with the buyer but he did not respond.

Keep it professional as other buyers can see the feedback you leave for others and will judge what kind of seller you are by your comments.

rcrawford34 · ‎03-08-2013

You can leave a response to his neg and neutral feedback under his comments but you cannot leave a negative or neutral for a buyer. Sellers cannot leave them for buyers. If you don't feel you can leave a Positive for ratings then it's best to leave it alone You have done what you can and if they are not willing to continue there is no way to go except block them from further purchases.

Some sellers will give a positive with negative comments but that's a No No here. It's known as a False Positive. This can be removed by ebay and the seller can receive a strike against them that will stay on their selling record

weavers

snoopwiz · ‎03-09-2013

You should consider calling up their contact info and phoning. It certainly can't make the situation any worse than it is. A buyer might be more apt to listen to reason and consider revising the Feedback when he/she speaks to a human voice over the phone as opposed to a short email apologizing. Be calm, professional, apologetic, non argumentative. Give it a go, eat a little crow.

snoopwiz · ‎03-11-2013

Any updates?

lady.stark · ‎03-12-2013

"Some sellers will give a positive with negative comments but that's a No No here"

I agree, that is a no-no. But I have a question... can something like this work:

"Tried to work with buyer. Got no answer."

Or would it be removed? I mean, there is no negative comments here. Just the facts. But would it be considered a false positive?

rose-dee · ‎03-14-2013

In response to "lady.stark"'s question: Personally, as a seller, I'd stay away from trying to "write between the lines" in FB to hint at a negative. It isn't so much the removal of your comments that's the concern, as the consequences to you if eBay marks a strike against your seller's record. It just isn't worth it in my view. I know some sellers attempt to "warn" other sellers by marking a blank space in FB between quotes, but I think eBay will eventually notice this sort of ruse and crack down on it too.

However, I completely agree with "snoopwiz" about trying to work the problem out by phone with your buyer. Psyche yourself up to be friendly, upbeat, diplomatic, and above all, eager to oblige, even if you don't feel that way. Put on your best phone voice -- as if you were calling your oldest friend ;-). There really isn't anything to lose from your end now, and who knows - you might get the FB revised and make a permanent customer if it plays out really well.

I see your buyer is in Canada, so you at least have that in common -- AND you both must love comics, so use that as a starting point. Don't allow yourself to be drawn into bickering or disagreeing with him on his opinion of the condition of the goods. Keep your focus on making him happy enough to revise the FB. Rather than a full refund, as you mentioned, ask him what he would feel a fair value would be for what he bought and give him a partial refund in return for revising his FB. Then you can decide whether or not to block him for the future...

Let us know the outcome -- and good luck!

ricarmic · ‎03-16-2013

My opinion is that you can only do so much, some people will react to attempts to resolve, some will not. I do suggest that you reply to the comments in a professional way, (wait until you have calmed down before you write anything). This way any other buyers who look at your feedback and see a negative or neutral will know that you react in a positive and professional way to it. I always check the negatives and neutral responses of sellers I am buying from to see how they handle problems.

Here are a couple of my canned feedback responses I use when it comes up....these are the "reply to feedbacks" text strings that I put in...sometimes I leave neutrals alone, sometimes I use these, I almost always put something for negatives.....

Buyers first contact regarding any issues. Will contact them to try to rectify.

Unaware of any issue before receiving this,will contact buyer to try to rectify.

rose-dee · ‎03-16-2013

Here are a couple of my canned feedback responses I use when it comes up....these are the "reply to feedbacks" text strings that I put in...sometimes I leave neutrals alone, sometimes I use these, I almost always put something for negatives.....

Buyers first contact regarding any issues. Will contact them to try to rectify.

Unaware of any issue before receiving this,will contact buyer to try to rectify.

These are outstanding -- mind if I use them?:|? I haven't yet had a negative, thank goodness, but I've pondered what to say that would be "CYA" without being a useless comment.