Not sure that I'm really understanding what the issue is but lets have a go.
You are the seller. You file an unpaid item dispute for a non-paying bidder. When enough time has passed you close the dispute to recoup you final value fees (not your insertion fees - those are gone forever although you may be able to relist the item and get the insertion fees credited if it sells the second time around).
Now the non-paying bidder has placed a neg against you (justified or not). If the NPB did not participate in the dispute resolution process, the neg against you will be removed. If the NPB responded to the dispute you are, unfortunately, stuck with the neg.
Or maybe not. I would next pull the NPB's contact info and make certain that he/she has a working telephone number registered with eBay. If not, you can approach eBay to remove the neg because the buyer has inaccurate contact info on file with them. It is one of the legitimate reasons for which eBay will remove feedback.
If his contact info is accurate, all is not lost. From his comment there appear to be some bad feelings but it is still worth a shot to see if he/she will agree to mutual removal of feedback. The neg will be removed from your scorecard but the comment will remain.
Last option is to pony up some cash and see if you can get SquareTrade to resolve the issues between you. Personally, I don't like to see money sent to SquareTrade but, if you want the neg removed bad enough, it may be worth it to you. It assumes that the NPB will also want to work with SquareTrade.
Good luck,
Bill treasure-pot
You are the seller. You file an unpaid item dispute for a non-paying bidder. When enough time has passed you close the dispute to recoup you final value fees (not your insertion fees - those are gone forever although you may be able to relist the item and get the insertion fees credited if it sells the second time around).
Now the non-paying bidder has placed a neg against you (justified or not). If the NPB did not participate in the dispute resolution process, the neg against you will be removed. If the NPB responded to the dispute you are, unfortunately, stuck with the neg.
Or maybe not. I would next pull the NPB's contact info and make certain that he/she has a working telephone number registered with eBay. If not, you can approach eBay to remove the neg because the buyer has inaccurate contact info on file with them. It is one of the legitimate reasons for which eBay will remove feedback.
If his contact info is accurate, all is not lost. From his comment there appear to be some bad feelings but it is still worth a shot to see if he/she will agree to mutual removal of feedback. The neg will be removed from your scorecard but the comment will remain.
Last option is to pony up some cash and see if you can get SquareTrade to resolve the issues between you. Personally, I don't like to see money sent to SquareTrade but, if you want the neg removed bad enough, it may be worth it to you. It assumes that the NPB will also want to work with SquareTrade.
Good luck,
Bill treasure-pot
Bill has all the steps down pat.
JMHO, I tend to leave unwarranted negs on my account and respond to them professionally to explain my side of the situation. While I was definitely upset with my first neg, I now look at them as a little protection against scamming buyers who threaten negs to get a partial refund on perfectly good items. I will do everything reasonable to make my buyers happy, as is evidenced by many positive fb's, but I will not succumb to blackmail to avoid a neg.
Monique
JMHO, I tend to leave unwarranted negs on my account and respond to them professionally to explain my side of the situation. While I was definitely upset with my first neg, I now look at them as a little protection against scamming buyers who threaten negs to get a partial refund on perfectly good items. I will do everything reasonable to make my buyers happy, as is evidenced by many positive fb's, but I will not succumb to blackmail to avoid a neg.
Monique
You got that right Monique.
Most sellers will eventually encounter a buyer who will use negative feedback to get what they want, deserved or not. Sellers who succumb to this form of blackmail become targets for other scammers. Having negs may ward off the scammers by showing them that you are not going to fold to this type of tactic. Those sellers with 5000 feedback and no negs are so protective of their perfect feedback and some unscrupulous buyers will take advantage of that.
I've had my share of negs. My feedback shows that I work hard to please my customers but, like you, I won't cave in to unrealistic expectations or inappropriate demands. That said, I still make an effort to reduce the number of negs against me. This past Christmas selling season I received three negs. Two were from a UK buyer upset that I would not ship an item to them (my listing was for US bidders only). That person then used a falsified ID registered on .com with a UK web-based email addy (similar to Hotmail). She purchased two items than immediately left negs. It wasn't hard to show eBay that the contact info had been falsified and those two negs were removed.
The other was from a buyer who left a neg complaining that I had taken three weeks to ship their purchase. In fact, I had shipped within 24 hours of payment. She didn't understand that the post office takes a little more time to deliver during the holiday season. I attempted to call her to ask if we could agree to have the neg removed and her phone number registered was not in service. I brought this to eBay's attention and again they removed the neg.
I have another customer tonight that is upset that I have not been responding to his emails. In fact I have responded to all of his emails - he just doesn't receive my replies because his eBay registered email address no longer works. It happens more frequently than a lot of people think. It's always worth a shot to check the contact info as there seems to be a lot of people with inaccurate contact info.
Bill treasure-pot
Most sellers will eventually encounter a buyer who will use negative feedback to get what they want, deserved or not. Sellers who succumb to this form of blackmail become targets for other scammers. Having negs may ward off the scammers by showing them that you are not going to fold to this type of tactic. Those sellers with 5000 feedback and no negs are so protective of their perfect feedback and some unscrupulous buyers will take advantage of that.
I've had my share of negs. My feedback shows that I work hard to please my customers but, like you, I won't cave in to unrealistic expectations or inappropriate demands. That said, I still make an effort to reduce the number of negs against me. This past Christmas selling season I received three negs. Two were from a UK buyer upset that I would not ship an item to them (my listing was for US bidders only). That person then used a falsified ID registered on .com with a UK web-based email addy (similar to Hotmail). She purchased two items than immediately left negs. It wasn't hard to show eBay that the contact info had been falsified and those two negs were removed.
The other was from a buyer who left a neg complaining that I had taken three weeks to ship their purchase. In fact, I had shipped within 24 hours of payment. She didn't understand that the post office takes a little more time to deliver during the holiday season. I attempted to call her to ask if we could agree to have the neg removed and her phone number registered was not in service. I brought this to eBay's attention and again they removed the neg.
I have another customer tonight that is upset that I have not been responding to his emails. In fact I have responded to all of his emails - he just doesn't receive my replies because his eBay registered email address no longer works. It happens more frequently than a lot of people think. It's always worth a shot to check the contact info as there seems to be a lot of people with inaccurate contact info.
Bill treasure-pot
