WHERE DOES IT END??? WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?

[gifts_of_elegance]

I sold a Signed Burberrys of London necklace. Purchaser posted negative feedback without warning, saying: "Beware signed by burberrys of London it's not Burberry".

Of course its not signed by Burberry, I am selling Burberrys. I asked him to withdraw his negative feedback. He comes back telling me to admit its not a registered trademark. When I assure him it is, he demands address of manufacturer and copy of registration. Then I get another email saying the chain broke when his wife was cutting the tag off with scissors. Now he is threatening to update his already negative feedback. Next he'll probably ask for a refund.

Where does it end? When is enough enough?

[westernstargifts]

It sounds as though the buyer is uneducated in this regard. Some of them seem to EXPECT that they will be scammed and think that they have been even when they get the real thing. Unfortunately it is the sellers who pay the price for their ignorance.

So sorry this happened to you.

[gifts_of_elegance]

Thank You! I know this happens over and over to other sellers too. Its because the way the feedback system is set up. With all the changes eBay has made, would it not be time that they look at this problem a bit more closely and make changes or at least stop "punishing" sellers for negatives and low ratings?

[ricarmic]

It is VERY hard not to let this kind of stuff get to you. When one sells stuff to 100s of people there are going to be some problem folks, nothing you can do to avoid it. The hardest part when they raise whatever issues it is they do, is not to take it personally, especially when the emails tend to be personally worded/related.

It seems to me that people have been more grumpy than usual in the last month or so, at least in my experience compared to other years.

What I try to do is go and do other things and come back later and write a professional response email advising what I can do to them if a response is needed and in the case of feedbacks I try to be as positive as I can.

Having said all this one of them got to me yesterday, and I didn't follow my advice above, which I should have.....as I said it is VERY hard not to let it get to you!

It is interesting how much we (at least me) focus on the ONE bad one that comes along from time to time, we forget the other 99 or 199 good ones that came around it!

This stuff has been talked about in other threads but I consider the "costs" to deal with the problem folks just a cost of doing business and you should figure on a (small) percentage toward it. In fact when I'm through a forced "smile" giving partial refunds, I just keep reminding myself of that, it's "just a cost of doing business"....

Anyway I'm procrastinating from some stuff I should be working on so hang in there, re-read the happy camper feedbacks you got before and after them and hope you've heard the last from this one (I'm assuming they're blocked already)

[axe_n_gear_music]

I know how ya feel, I had a guy leave a neg because the neck on this handmade mandolin was .1mm narrower than advertised.
5 million emails back and forth, plus I even had the actual distributor email him, and he still wont admit that he's wrong. He can barely put a sentence together, let alone even stand the thought that he is completely wrong.

Now, he has left one feedback in almost two years on eBay..... A neg.....For me..... Niiicccce..... And not a darn thing I can do about it. X-(

I wish all sales were website sales. Less headaches, NO dsrs, NO feedback BS, and WAY more profit.

AXE

[gifts_of_elegance]

I try not to let it get to me but it still does. I don't take it as a personal insult, its a matter of business. I sell a lot of Swarovski crystal and jewelry. There are thousands and thousands of listings under Swarovski (90% don't have anything to do with Swarovski except they sparkle) and the Top Sellers' items are displayed first, leaving my stuff at the end where nobody sees it. Not unusual to see only 3-8 hits a whole month. I had a 3 day sale on Swarovski with 10% off twice in the past two weeks and not one item sold. I need to make Top Seller just to increase the visibility but I can't with these negatives. I offer a money back guarantee, I write and ask they let me know if there is a problem so we can work it out, etc.etc....nothing helps.

[westernstargifts]

I understand how you feel. I try not to let things get to me too but they do. Even as a TRS it is difficult to compete with thousands of listings under copper that don't contain copper or have any copper colour in them.

What I can't figure out, though, is why listings appear in a search for something copper when they don't have that word in either the title or description. I have seen that happen a few times.

[axe_n_gear_music]

Looking at your feedback, though, you are moving alot of product, which is good. Keep your chin up, you are obviously doing something right.
The one thing that we have no control over is who buys our items. We all take great pride in what we do, and these idiot buyers use feedback like it means nothing. And ebay does not reward us for the thousands of great problem free sales that we have demonstrated - instead, they allow jerks with little or no feedback or eBay experience to damage our business reputation with uncalled for bad feedback that stays on our record for ONE FULL YEAR!!??. What a joke.
The feedback system in place SUCKS- we all know it, and hopefully feeBay figures it out before we all leave.
Until then, we just have to work through it, and do the best we can with what we've got.

Cheers,
AXE

[femmefan1946]

gifts_of_elegance

DH who has over 15000 FB and has run a B&M and online auctions since before eBay existed, is down on the idea of Price Reduced sales.

In his opinion, reducing a price is saying that the original price was too high.

Instead he uses trade dollars (Think Canadian Tire Money). Anyone in the shop who spends $100 gets the equivalent to the Ontario HST in trade dollars. After Christmas, he gives all buyers 40% of their purchase back in trade dollars.

The point is to reward existing customers and to encourage new customers to return.

He has a pretty good method of applying this to his website sales, but it doesn't work for eBay and he is not interested in adding yet another system to his sales suite.

You might consider printing up your own trade dollars or discount coupons to tuck into each shipment. Encourage the good customers you already have.

And BTW you picked your name well-- you are now on my Favourite Seller list.

[gifts_of_elegance]

(Blush)
Thank You so much!
Your husband has the right idea. I am going to do some heavy thinking about this.

[purse_of_the_legionary]

@ gift_of_elegance

About your previous negative FB (in spanish), it was a complaint regarding Spain customs fees, which would be removed by ebay if reported. You only have to post the following message in your items description to protect yourself against those abusive negative FB (it's too late for that neg FB, but to prevent future bad comments...) :

Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying. These charges are normally collected by the delivering freight (shipping) company or when you pick the item up - do not confuse them for additional shipping charges. Merchandise values are not marked below value or as gifts - Canadian and International government regulations prohibit such behaviour.

Hope it helps...

[gifts_of_elegance]

Thank You, I had that in my listings for a long time and it was a real turn off for potential purchasers. A lot of purchasers from USA kept asking me how much it would cost them and didn't buy. Eventually I found it better to remove it.

I asked eBay to remove the negative and they refused because I did not post the above in my listing. I also applied for a feedback revision on another item and was told I could no longer ask because I have passed my maximum limit of 3 reversals.

[axe_n_gear_music]

From eBay -
"Sellers can submit a limited number of requests to buyers to revise neutral or negative Feedback. The number of requests is determined by the number of Feedback comments received in the previous year. Five revision requests are allowed for every 1000 Feedback ratings given."

Maybe you do have a couple requests remaining?

Anyway, I know that I have learned never to request feedback revision for a neutral- it does nothing to affect your biz the way a neg does.
And I never submit a feedback revision to a buyer unless I am sure he will revise it after lengthy conversations, etc.
My only neg on my score right now was from some goof that could hardly even write a legible email...he said he might remove the neg if I replaced the item with a slightly wider measurement, which he knew was impossible and absolutely stupid to begin with. I think he was just mad about spending so much money- the item was down right gorgeous, and I'm sure he knows that he had no right to leave a neg.
I told him, remove the neg first, then we will involve the two companies necessary to effect a replacement. No reply.
Thats fine, I will keep his 750 bucks, I blocked him, and moved on, and will save the revision for a more deserving situation.

Still cant believe that negs stay there for one full year even for the best of sellers. What BS. And the idiot buyers are allowed to buy one item like this guy above for example, every couple of years and leave negs for us hardworking sellers that mar our record for 12 months that we strive so hard to maintain. Something wrong with this eBay picture? I think so.