horrible dispute process and negative feedback for seller not allowed

[snowmud]

Seller didn't ship the item.  They left a tracking number that was invalid and marked shipped.  I went through the dispute process via eBay and Paypal...which is a whole other story of frustration.  Long story short, I missed the time to escalate the dispute to a claim as I was asked to respectfully wait for the seller to respond.  And eBay doesn't let me do anything since the dispute was opened via PayPal.  So the least I thought I could do is to leave a negative feedback to warn other users.  But somehow the item was marked as updated (same item #) and when trying to leave feedback, eBay says item not found.  Great.  An eBay seller with 98% positive rating, and I wonder how many people like myself have no way of warning other potential buyers since the item is not recognized...the item was purchased only 2 months ago.  I'm losing trust in what eBay and Paypal is promoting about this buyer protection.  No proper after purchase protection with conflicting rules and unclear info spread out on different places.  And no way of leaving negative feedbacks.  In the past I could at least leave a feedback from the feedback the seller gave me.  Not an option either.  Nicely done.

[femmefan1946]

An eBay seller with 98% positive rating,

98% is not particularly good. Anything below 95% is absolutely horrible.

Of course, you have to allow for the number of FB left too.

A seller with 10 FB and one negative has a very poor reputation.

A seller with 1000 FB and one negative is doing a good job.

If you were unable to complete your Paypal dispute, because you were expecting eBay to notify you, go instead to the credit card you really paid with.
PP is just a useful mediator.

Phone the card's 1-800 number and ask about a chargeback. The customer service clerk will need all the transaction numbers, payment amount, currency, tracking numbers, dates etc. Have them handy for her to handle your refund.

Cards do have deadlines too, so don't wait to do this.

If you don't back your PP account with a credit card, this will not work.