Can Detailed Seller Ratings be changed if buyer makes a mistake?

[katlover1952]

I was looking forward to get my Top Seller Status back in a couple of weeks when one of my defects dropped off. Was checking tonight & noticed I had a new defect for low DSR in shipping & item not as described. Did not make sense at all as buyer had left +FB thanking me for"excellent service". I wrote her very politely asking why she had left these ratings. She emailed me back promptly saying that she was not good with a PC & had not realized she had done this & would correct it immediately. Then of course she emailed me a few minutes later apologizing saying she could not change & what could she do she felt terrible & to show eBay her emails. Has anyone had a similar experience & can DSR be changed in the case of an error like this & if so how.
Everyone makes mistakes & there should be some way to fix. If not am stuck with it for a year.

[femmefan1946]

It's a random thought but if the timing of the error was during yesterday's kerfuffles, you might be able to get a bread based on that.

Fingers and toes crossed.

[maximus7001]

Ebay is pathetic when dealing with this. Your only hope is if the buyer has done this to other sellers as well.

[pjcdn2005]

Phone ebay customer service, explain what happened and ask them to look at the buyers message to you.  I've heard of them removing these type defects although not everyone has success and you might have to phone more than once and talk to more than one cs rep.

Ask the rep to see if the buyer does this regularly. If they do, that might make it easier to get them removed.

[katlover1952]

Well after spending over a 1/2 hour on the phone with eBay and talking to 3 reps I feel the need to rant a little.

Even thought they admitted that it was unfair to me as a seller, that the eBay Guidelines did not allow them to change the DSR despite the fact that I have several eBay messages from the Buyer saying that it was a mistake on her part that she wanted to correct it and that I had given her excellent service. I suggested to eBay that Guidelines were just that - guidelines and that there had to be a way to rectify a mistake but no they simply choose not to do it. At the moment I am so fed up with eBay that if I didn't have so much inventory on hand & unsure of a better venue to sell it, I would walk away in total disgust. I actually am wondering how many small sellers such as myself have already done so.

I am a buyer on eBay as well & collect cat jewelry. I have noticed over the past year that there are not as many unique items in this category as there used to be. Lots of junk from China and Hong Kong but less of the vintage items - oh yes there is still some but nothing like what it used to be. Perhaps other sellers are feeling the frustration I feel at eBay's anti-seller policies and their refusal to do anything to change unfair situations.

Anyway that is my rant for the day - just had to get it out. Am sure there are many others out there who feel similarly.

[pjcdn2005]

I'm sorry to hear that and I'm a little surprised as it seems pretty obvious that the buyer goofed up. I don't know if this will help but if I were you, I would post on the U.S. selling discussion board. There is one poster there who is quite good at helping sellers with defect problems so maybe she can tell you something that I missed telling you. There are other posters there too who are quite good at helping with situations like this but cynthealee2 seems quite knowledgeable and level headed.

[ricarmic]

Hi Katl! I had the exact same situation and they removed the defect for me. (The feedback said great things including 5 star service, yet I got a Make sure to call during the hours that you'll talk to folks here in North America.

[ricarmic]

Arggh somehow I hit a key that posted this early. Anyway because the defects weren't in sync with the feedback they zapped the defect.

Having said this, I wasn't with the first level call takers, I got shunted off to a different department for the original problem I called in for. I only mentioned the feedback/defect discrepancy whilst I had the helpful lady on the phone looking after the other problem, and she looked after the bad defect too....

[katlover1952]

Glad to hear you did OK with this. They were adamant with me that the only way they could change it was if it was a neutral or negative FB that should have been a +. I called about 11:30 am CST. Not sure where I was talking to but they definitely had foreign accents. I am feeling so frustrated I don't know if I want to call back or not - another wasted call might put my Blood pressure right through the roof- LOL! Do you know what time you are likely to talk to NA reps? My poor buyer had told me to let her know how I made out- she really felt bad so when I told her what happened she wondered if she bought something else from me & left FB with a notation about her earlier mistake if it would help! I told her thanks anyway but would not make any difference. This is just so unfair that I really hate to just let it die but on the other hand can't keep banging my head against a brick wall. I hope that the day will come when eBay regrets the way they treat their small sellers. Wish there was another sight that I could switch to. Might try one more time if someone can give me an idea when a call might hit the right people. Thanks!

[ricarmic]

Hi Kat, if your buyer is this much on your side, see if she will call in to fix it. I bet if she calls them, they'll look after it......that's what I would try first...

[katlover1952]

She really does feel badly about it. The thing is that she is actually returning the bracelet to me - not because it was not as described or anything like that - but she had bought it for a friend but misjudged the size and it did not fit (measurement was correct in listing). Even though I don't normally take returns when she wrote & asked me if she could return it and told me the story I said she could and I would return the purchase price less any shipping. She was really happy with that. It was not till after all this had taken place that I realized I had a defect. As I had only positive FB I hadn't looked at it for a couple of weeks.

She is a pretty new eBayer so not sure if she would phone although I think she might because she is definitely feeling very bad (I think especially as I agreed to the return) but if she gets the first line of call takers she may not get anywhere either. I know she will not likely have called before as she is pretty new - only around 30 some FB's. Still think this a better bet for me???

[ricarmic]

It is probably still worth a try, in the worst case she will say no....

It is good that the refund is not for the full amount because if it was that would be a defect anyway.....

[katlover1952]

Yes that is what I understand & isn't that insane in itself. Why would you get a defect for going the extra mile & keeping a customer happy by doing a refund (keeping in mind it is not a INAD just merely a customer changing their mind). This whole defect system that eBay has come up with is itself defective. Too many things out of the seller's control can cause defects ie parcels lost in mail. I also have 2 defects due to low DSR because the buyer thought the item looked " a little different in person than in the picture". One person thought an antiqued bronze brooch looked green in the picture & was disappointed & left low DSR. I have often noticed that gold items sometimes look silver on my monitor. I use a photo tent for pics but colors can certainly look different on different monitors. Didn't have any success getting these removed either although I was told some sellers did have luck. There was a time on eBay when I first started that the sellers had all the power. In an attempt to correct that (which I agree was necessary) eBay went too far the other way & now the buyers hold all the power.

[pjcdn2005]

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@ricarmic wrote:
It is probably still worth a try, in the worst case she will say no....

It is good that the refund is not for the full amount because if it was that would be a defect anyway.....

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If a return request is because an item doesn't fit, there is no defect. It is considered a buyers remorse return.

[katlover1952]

Thanks for the clarification on that PJ.